[Event "Hamilton Russell"] [Site "The Reform"] [Date "2018.02.06"] [White "Evans, Peter"] [Black "Eckersley-Waites, Tom"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C55"] [Opening "Two Knights: 4.d3 Be7"] {In the annotations that follow PE = Peter Evans and TEW = Tom Eckersley-Waites} 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5.O-O O-O 6.Nc3 d6 7.h3 Na5 8.Bb3 Re8 9.Be3 Nxb3 {(TEW) I wasn't sure if this ...Nxb3 and ...d5 idea worked, but it looked interesting. Possibly better is to play 9...Bf8 and keep the central break in reserve. White can then try either 10.d4 or perhaps even 10.Ba4 with the idea 10...c6 11.b4 b5 12.Nxb5 (12.bxa5 bxa4 is good for black) cxb5 13.Bxb5 Nb7 14.Bxe8 Qxe8 which looks pretty unclear.} 10.axb3 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Nxd5 {(PE) I didn’t like the look of Ne5 potentially having to face two bishops for two knights in an open position but it may well be good (TEW) I agree with Peter here - 12.Nxe5 is clearly critical, and it's not clear that I can do better than 12...Bf6 which looks like it's going to end in a drawish position after 13.d4.} Qxd5 13.Nd2 a5 {(TEW) I'm not completely convinced by this idea and it may not be accurate. When discussing the game afterwards, I said that I liked my bishops but needed to get them developed - and 13...a5 doesn't do enough in that direction. Perhaps 13...Be6 is better.} 14.Qf3 Qb5 15.Nc4 Ra6 16.Ra4 {(TEW) 16.Bd2! looks more accurate. Black is most likely forced to play 16...b6 which clearly does not fit well with the previous couple of moves. 16...Rf6 just doesn't work - white has 17.Rxa5 Qxa5 18.Qxf6!, which looks virtually winning - I had underestimated this when playing 13...a5. I also had thought I could play 16...Bb4 17.Bxb4 Rf6 18.Rxa5 Qxb4 with the plan of playing ...b5 next move, but white has 19.Qd5 c6 20.Qc5!} Bb4 17.c3 {(PE) Bd2 looks obvious but I quite liked my Bishop and Knight where they were. I'm not sure if this is terminally weakening.} Rf6 18.Qe2 Rg6 19.Kh2 {(PE) White always has to be wary of the black queen moving to control the white squares followed by b5 .} Qd5 {(TEW) I couldn't decide between 19...Qd5, 19...Qc6, and 19...Qd7 here. The latter is by far the most committal as it involves a pretty substantial investment of material. My instinct was that this didn't work and - whilst after the game we weren't sure - the computer backs this up. The key line is 19...Qd7 20.cxb4 b5 21.Rxa5 Rxg2+ 22.Kxg2 Qxh3+ 23.Kg1 Re6 and now white has the key moves 24.Bg5! Rg6 25.Qe3! (not 25.Qxe5? h6! which is very unclear) winning.} 20.f3 Bd6 21.Nxd6 {(PE) Ra5 was probably better but the discovered check followed by the pawn breaking through looked unpleasant. (TEW) Again, I agree - I barely considered Ra5 in the game as it looks very dangerous for white. 21…Qd6 might be stronger for black but I should be a little better here come what may.} Rxd6 22.Rd1 {(PE) Amusingly the battle has moved from the queenside to the kingside and now the centre.} b6 23.c4 Qc6 24.Raa1 Red8 25.Rd2 Bf5 {(TEW) This is poor. I should play 25...Qd7 26.Rad1 c5!, after which white's pawns are all targets and I can probe at his position at my leisure.} 26.Rad1 Qd7 27.d4 Qe8 28.dxe5 Qxe5+ 29.f4 Qe6 30.Rxd6 Rxd6 31.Rxd6 Qxd6 {#d} 1/2-1/2