Never give up (1)

This was played the day after my previous game, and was the first game I played for Athenaeum in London.  My opponent was Stephen Ledger, who is currently graded 188 ECF (2100 FIDE) but has been higher in the past.  

He played very well for the first part of the game and I was hanging on by my fingertips after playing what seems like a dubious opening line.

But as Tartakower said, you never win a game by resigning, and my position had a few plus points so I carried on. I managed to keep the Bishop pair and an active Rook to compensate slightly for being down a couple of pawns.  And in the end, I didn't lose...

White - Stephen Ledger
Black  - Matthew Fletcher 
8 October 2013
30 moves in 75 minutes plus 20 minutes quickplay finish

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 
This is the Trompowsky.  Not a good start as it's not an opening I know well at all.

2. ... Ne4  3. Bf4 d5 4. e3 c5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Bxe4 dxe4 7. d5 

I thought for a while here and couldn't find anything better than:

7. ... Nb4?!
I looked this line up at home as I assumed this was about where I'd gone wrong.  But according to my database, my move is the most common in this position, having been played 25 times at all levels from Grandmaster down.  Unfortunately, the score in those games is 24½  - ½ in favour of White... Not a good sign when you're playing Black.

The computer gives 7. ... e5!? as a better move - I looked at this during the game but was worried about the passed d-pawn.  It also gives 7. ... g5!!? which didn't even cross my mind but might be worth looking at for a future game.

8.Nc3 Bf5 9. a3 Na6 10. Nge2

Somewhat bizarrely, all of this has been played before by as strong a player as GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov who played 10 ... g6 against Hikaru Nakamura in the 2010 blitz world championship.  But to be honest it looks rubbish (as proved by Mamedyarov who proceeded to get beaten in 26 moves).  Black is behind in development, his pieces struggle to find squares and the e4-pawn is very weak.  I felt like I'd been thoroughly outplayed up to this point.

10. ... Qb6 11. O-O Rd8 (11. ... Qxb2 fails to 12. Qd2 Qb6 13. Rab1 Qg6
14. Rxb7 - I can never realistically take the b-pawn) 12. Ng3 e6 13. Qe2 

White is just playing simple moves and improving his position.  I spent a long time here trying to think how to make my position work but failed, ending up with some serious time trouble and the uninspiring:

13. ... Bg6?! 14. dxe6 Qxe6 15. Qb5+ Qc6 16. Rad1 Be7 17. Rxd8+ Bxd8 18. Qxc6+ bxc6 19. Ncxe4 (there goes a pawn) O-O 20. Bd6 Re8 21. Nxc5 (and another one - but at least my pieces are starting to come to sensible squares) Nxc5 22. Bxc5 Bf6 23. c3 Rb8 24. Bxa7? (24. f4 is maybe more to the point, looking to hit the Bishop on g6 - or b4 which drops the c3 pawn but at least leaves the White Queenside connected) 24... Rxb2 

I was pretty happy with how the game had progressed in the last few moves (although by this stage I had very little time to appreciate it fully).  Although I'm still two pawns down, his Knight has few squares and I've got very active pieces.  If I could win another pawn on the Queenside I'd have every chance of getting a favourable result.

25. Bd4 Be7 26. f4 f6 giving the white-squared Bishop a bit of room and setting a little trap:

27. a4??  (27. c4 looks the best move, but Black's doing OK after 27. ... Ra2 which will pick up the a-pawn) 27... c5! White's Bishop has no moves! 28. f5 Bf7 29. e4 cxd4 30. cxd4 Ra2 31. e5 Rxa4 32. Rd1 

Having just about reached the time control at move 30, here I managed to spot a neat little tactic to finish White's resistance:
32. ... Rxd4! 33. Rxd4 Bc5  34. e6 (Ne2 defending the Rook is simply met by fxe5 attacking it again) Bxd4+ 

The rest is relatively straightforward - I felt that the easiest way was to make sure he couldn't get a Pawn chain from h3 to e6, then swap off one of the Bishops, round up e6 and win with the extra piece. 
 
35. Kf1 Be8 36. Ne2 Bb5 37.Ke1 Be5 38. h3 g6 39. fxg6 hxg6 40. Kf2 Bxe2 41. Kxe2 Kf8 42. Kf3 Ke7 43. h4 Kxe6 44. g4 Bb2 45. Ke4 Bc1 46. Kf3 Ke5 47. Kg3 Ke4 0-1 

Not the best game ever played, but I've taken a few things from it.  Firstly, I've found a possible new line to look at against the Trompowsky (7. ... g5)  -  not sure whether it's in Richard Pert's new book? 

Secondly, it shows how important it is in chess to keep trying to make good moves in poor positions - although my opponent played very well to build up a substantial advantage going into the endgame, he failed to completely break my resistance and made a couple of small inaccuracies which gave me some chance to defend.  I think even without the blunder my position improved quite a lot in the first part of the endgame.