2020-04-14 - Williams, Stephen 1-0 Rossiter, Alex

Game of the Month April 2020

[Event "Rated Classical game"] [Site "https://lichess.org/cUUUDLoH"] [Date "2020.04.14"] [Round "-"] [White "Williams, Stephen"] [Black "Rossiter, Alex"] [Result "1-0"] [UTCDate "2020.04.14"] [UTCTime "18:28:22"] [WhiteElo "2056"] [BlackElo "2014"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+6"] [BlackRatingDiff "-46"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "2700+15"] [ECO "A81"] [Opening "Dutch Defense: Semi-Leningrad Variation"] [Termination "Normal"] [Annotator "lichess.org"] 1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. Nh3!? {An interesting sideline.} Bg7 5. Nf4 Nc6 6. c3 O-O 7. Nd2 e5 8. dxe5 Nxe5 9. Qb3+ (9. Bxb7!? {Is one tactical continuation.} Bxb7 10. Qb3+ d5 11. Qxb7 {White gains a pawn but loses some of the initiative.}) Kh8 10. Nf3 Nxf3+ 11. Bxf3 c6 12. Be3 d5 13. O-O-O Qe7 14. h4! {White starts a straightforward hack that will be hard to counter. g6 is very weak.} a5 15. a4 Ne4 16. Bxe4 Qxe4 17. h5 g5 18. h6 gxf4? {The material may look equal but the black king is in trouble.} (18... Bf6! {Black is worse, but not losing immediately.} 19. Bc5 Rf7 {Black has to be careful to remain only slightly worse.}(19... Re8?? 20. f3! {Embarrassing.}) 20. f3 Qe8 21. Nh5) 19. hxg7+ Kxg7 20. Bd4+! {The attack is more important than the material.} Kg8 21. gxf4 Rf7 22. Rdg1+ Kf8 23. Bc5+ Ke8 24. Rg8+ Kd7 25. Rhg1 {It's hard to criticise this attack because everything wins for white, but more aggression could have been called for.} (25. Rh6! Qxf4+ 26. Be3 Qc7 27. Bg5!) Qxf4+ 26. Be3 Qd6 27. Qb6 Qc7 28. Qd4 {Every white piece is attack, while the c8 bishop and a8 rook sit idle.} Ke6 29. Re8+ (29. Re8+ Kd7 30. Rgg8 b5 31. Bf4 {The queen drops off or the king is mated.}) 1-0

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