Sunday 25 October 2009

3 queens in 5 moves

Even though Street Chess is a serious tournament (with prizes and rating points at stake), I still like play in the 'coffee house' style, especially just after I've lost a game. For those unfamiliar with the term 'coffee house', it is a style of chess based on speculative attacks, sacrificing material, and trying to win by bluffing your opponent that your attack is much stronger than it really is.
Yesterday I played a good example of all of the above, with the added bonus that the banter between myself and my opponent attracted the interest of a large number of spectators. I was black and my opponent opened with an interesting variant of the Colle, in which he develops his knight to g3, in part to support the thematic e4 break. I decided to go after this knight with my h pawn. By move 10 he had committed the cardinal error of moving some pieces twice in the opening, while others he hadn't moved at all. With my lead in development it was a question of where I was going to crash through, which he then answered for me by castling. I picked up a couple of central pawns while he decided to commit further sins by sending off his queen on a pawn hunting mission. I offered a piece soon after, which he declined, so I sacrificed it 2 moves later. In true coffee house style my 19th move (Qg5) looked quite strong, but actually wasn't. He firstly played a diversionary capture with 20.Nxc5 and after I replied 20. ... Bxg3 he thought for a while and then loudly exclaimed "But it's check!" 21.Qxd7+ Kf8 was quickly played, and then with a flourish he blocked any discovered attacks with 22.Qg4 This turned out to be a losing move as I now recycled my queen, not once but twice, all in the space of 5 moves. When the smoke had cleared I had a forced mate, and he was congratulating me on my 'lucky' win!

1.d4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Bd3 e6 4.Ne2 c5 5.Ng3 Nc6 6.c3 h5 7.f3 h4 8.Ne2 Bd6 9.Nd2 Qe7 10.Bb5 e5 11.Bxc6+ bxc6 12.Qa4 Bd7 13.0-0 exd4 14.Nb3 dxe3 15.Qa6 h3 16.g3 Ne4 17.Qb7 Rb8 18.Qxa7 Nxg3 19.Nxg3 Qg5 20.Nxc5 Bxg3 21.Qxd7+ Kf8 22.Qg4 Qxg4 23.fxg4 e2 24.hxg3 h2+ 25.Kg2 exf1Q+ 26.Kxf1 h1Q+ 27.Kf2 Rh2+ 28.Ke3 Re8+ 29.Kf4 Rf2+ 30.Kg5 Qh6#

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