Mike Munhall

[ZaBlanc, you know I had to write about this…]

If there is anything I am learning by playing chess with ZaBlanc, it’s simply how to survive a game getting completely destroyed. And a few other things of course.

ZaBlanc and I drew another game. This one not quite as interesting as the other, but it still had its interesting moments, nonetheless.

The battle really happened in the middle game where ZaBlanc was up a pawn, but had doubled up pawns on on the C file. We were both working hard to find an advantage, but it never happened for either of us. So, for the most part, the game was even right up to the end game, where I sacrificed a pawn in hopes of a better chance at a draw.

With this draw I earned 10 points in my RedHotPawn.com rating because ZaBlanc’s rating is so much higher than mine. I’m 10 points away from breaking 1300, although I’m not too worried about ratings at this point. I’m still learning (I’ll always be learning). I think I’m going to shoot for 1400 by the end of the year.

Here’s the PGN for this game:

[Event “Challenge”]
[Site “http://www.redhotpawn.com”]
[Date “2006.06.03″]
[Round “?”]
[White “BuckyKatt”]
[Black “ZaBlanc”]
[Result “1/2-1/2″]
[GameId “2137652″]

1. e4 d5 2. d4 dxe4 3. Nb1c3 Ng8f6 4. f3 exf3 5. Ng1xf3 Bc8g4 6. Bc1e3 e6
7. Bf1d3 Nb8c6 8. O-O Bg4xf3 9. Qd1xf3 Bf8e7 10. Nc3e4 O-O 11. c3 Nf6xe4 12. Bd3xe4 Ra8b8 13. Be4xc6 bxc6 14. b3 Qd8d5 15. Be3f4 Qd5xf3 16. Rf1xf3 Be7d6 17. Ra1e1 a5 18. Bf4e5 Rf8e8 19. Rf3g3 Bd6xe5 20. Re1xe5 Rb8b5 21. Rg3e3 Re8b8 22. c4 Rb5xe5 23. Re3xe5 a4 24. Re5c5 axb3 25. axb3 Rb8b6 26. Kg1f2 Kg8f8 27. d5 exd5 28. cxd5 cxd5 29. Rc5xc7 Rb6xb3 30. Rc7d7 Rb3b5 31. Kf2e3 Kf8e8 32. Rd7c7 Rb5b2 33. Ke3f3 d4 34. Rc7c1 Ke8d7 35. Rc1d1 Rb2b4 36. Kf3e4 Kd7e6 37. Rd1xd4 Rb4xd4 38. Ke4xd4 Ke6f5 39. Kd4e3 g5 40. h3 h5 41. Ke3f3 g4 42. hxg4 hxg4 43. Kf3g3 Kf5g5 44. Kg3f2 f5 45. g3 Kg5f6 46. Kf2e3 Kf6e5 47. Ke3d3 f4 48. Kd3e2 f3 49. Ke2e3 Ke5d5 50. Ke3f2 Kd5d4 51. Kf2f1 Kd4d3 52. Kf1f2 Kd3d2 53. Kf2f1 Kd2e3 54. Kf1e1 1/2-1/2

I was really hoping my first post related to a chess game against ZaBlanc would be glorifying a fantastic win, something I have never done against him. Instead, it's a post glorifying a fantastic game that resulted in a draw. Regardless of the players, this game was absolutely fascinating. Every position was agonizing to analyze and play and any bad move would have given the initiative to the other player. Neither player had an advantage materially throughout the game, and neither player had much positional advantage, either.

I was playing white, ZaBlanc black. The game ended in the position in the diagram above. At this point, with white to move, king would move to f8 then black's queen to c8+. White's king would move out of check back to f7 and the position in the diagram would be repeated with Qe6+.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the game was the fact that all the major and minor pieces on the board were captured leaving a only pawns — nearly all of them — on the board in nearly indentical structures. With one excpetion… the white pieces are slightly more advanced down the board than black's, and the opportunity for promotion is far greater.

As white, I had the initiative because of the slightly better pawn structure and I should have won the game. In fact, the analysis from ChessMaster 9000 showed that I blew a won game twice, the second one after ZaBlanc unknowingly gave me a second chance with a bad move. I promoted first and ZaBlanc promoted on the very next move. To keep the initiative in the game I needed to keep black's king in check, but I saw an opportunity to promote another pawn and left the king out of check, knowing that the initiative would shift (I thought only temporarily) to black. I never regained the initiative and black worked out a draw.

Nevertheless, neither white nor black can complain about the draw. The game was a blast and should probably be annotated and reviewed again later.

Here's the PGN:

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2006.05.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "BuckyKatt"]
[Black "ZaBlanc"]
[TimeControl "-"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Bd3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Nf3 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Bg5 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 Qxd4 11.c3 Qe5+ 12.Qe3 Qxe3+ 13.Bxe3 Nd5 14.Bd4 Nf4 15.Be4 e6 16.Be5 Nd5 17.c4 Bb4+ 18.Ke2 Nb6 19.b3 0-0 20.Rhd1 Rad8 21.Rd3 Rxd3 22.Bxd3 f6 23.a3 Be7 24.Bc7 Nd7 25.b4 Bd8 26.Bxd8 Rxd8 27.Rd1 g6 28.f4 c5 29.Be4 Kf7 30.Bxb7 Ke7 31.Bc6 e5 32.g3 f5 33.b5 Nb6 34.Rxd8 Kxd8 35.Bd5 Nxd5 36.cxd5 e4 37.a4 Kd7 38.g4 c4 39.a5 fxg4 40.hxg4 h5 41.f5 gxf5 42.gxh5 f4 43.h6 f3+ 44.Kf2 c3 45.h7 c2 46.h8Q e3+47.Kxf3 c1Q 48.Qg7+ Kd6 49.b6 Qf1+ 50.Kxe3 Qe1+ 51.Kf4 Qf2+ 52.Kg5 Qg3+ 53.Kf6 Qe5+ 54.Kg6 Qe4+ 55.Kf6 Qe5+ 56.Kg6 Qe4+ 57.Kg5 Qxd5+ 58.Kg6 Qe4+ 59.Kf7 Qe6+ 60.Kf8 Qc8+ 61.Kf7 Qe6+ 1/2-1/2