Round 5: Riordan-Slive 1-0

The players follow 13 moves of theory which, unfortunately for Alex, lead to a position which is much better for White. In a difficult position, he misses a Zwischenzug and rapidly goes down to defeat.

[Event "BCC Championship"]
[Site "Somerville, MA USA"]
[Date "2004.10.06"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Riordan, Charles"]
[Black "Slive, Alex”]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteUSCF "2258"]
[BlackUSCF "2039"]
[ECO "D34"]
[Opening "Queen’s Gambit Declined"]
[Variation "Tarrasch"]
[Sub-Variation "6 g3 Nf6 7 Bg2 Be7 (by transposition)"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c5 4.0-0 Nc6 5.d4 e6 6.c4 Be7 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Nc3 0-0 9.Bg5 Be6 10.Rc1 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Qb6

[11...Nxd4 12.Qxd4 h6 or 11...h6 may be better options for black]

12.Nxe6 fxe6 13.Bh3

[The ChessBase on-line database includes 6 games which reached this position. White scored 5.5 out of 6 in these encounters]

13...Ne5

[Four of the six games continued with 13...Nd8 ]

14.Qb3

[One game did include 13...Ne5 continuing 14.Be3 Qa6 (14...Qc6 +/= Fritz) 15.Bd4 Szekley-Negm, Cairo 2002 1-0 (35)]

14...Qxb3?

[The psychology behind this mistake is understandable. Black realizes that he is going to have to play Kf7 and wants to make sure queens are off the board before he exposes his king. Based on his facial expression during the game, Alex realized that the e6-pawn was coming off with check just after he captured white's queen. Interestingly, Fritz considers 14...Kf7!? roughly equal]

15.Bxe6+

[Zwischenzug]

15...Kh8 16.axb3 d4 17.Nb5 d3 18.Bc4 dxe2 19.Bxe2 h6 20.Bf4 Ng6 21.Be3 a6 22.Nc7 Rac8 23.Bd3 Ne5 24.Bf5 Nfd7 25.Bh3 Bd6 26.Ne6 Rxc1 27.Rxc1 Re8 28.Rd1 Bb8?

[Hastening the inevitable]

29.f4 Nf3+ 30.Kg2 1-0