White: David Faldon (170) Black: Peter McGill (152)
(Mick Croft Cup semi-final)
David Faldon writes:
This was an exciting game, full of mistakes. Luckily for me my opponent made the last one. When Peter played 6… e5 I hit on the ridiculous idea of surrounding and trapping a black knight on d4 by playing g4-g5, Be2-c4, a2-a4, Nc3-b1 and c2-c3. Unfortunately Peter gets to play some moves too. After my 12. Nb1 I was completely lost as 12… Nxe4 13. fxe4 Qh4+ 14. Kd2 Qxe4 15. Ne2 Nf3+ is crushing. What Peter chose instead is pretty good too and if he’d found 15… Bh3+ 16. Nxh3 Qxh3+ 17. Kf2 Qxh6 then white is dead as black has the terrible threat of 18… Qxd2. Luckily for me Peter didn’t see how strong 15… Bh3+ was. Instead he went for 15… Nxe4 16. Nxe4 Rxf3+ which looks fantastic. The only problem is that there is no mate. After Peter’s 18… Qg4+ I managed to calculate right to the final position, which is quite impressive considering that I was short of time. Less impressive is the fact that it took me until move 19 before I started playing well.