[Event "BCC Championship"] [Site "BCC"] [Date "2016.05.12"] [Round "6"] [White "Jeremy Lim"] [Black "Robert Bailey"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1520"] [BlackElo "1569"] [ECO "C00"] [Opening "French: Franco-Benoni"] 1.e4 e6 {I was expecting and hoping for an English as Jeremy had played this against Rod, but was pleasantly surprised by e4. So I settled upon trying for an unusual transposition which can reach a number of different openings (Franco-Benoni, French, Sicilian) depending mainly on the white player's taste. (Annotations RB)} 2.d4 c5 3.Nf3 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.a3 {Slightly unusual; but neatly avoiding lines involving Bb4.} Nf6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Be2 Qc7 9.Qd2 b5 10.O-O Bb7 11.f4 {A quick check of several online databases reveals that we are still deep in theory here. Jeremy builds up the classical structure against the Sicilian with this thematic push.} d6 {Here I considered trying an idea as seen in some of Nakamura's recent games: h5?! Eventually decided to remain in territory I was more familiar with.} 12.Bf3 {I'm quite fond of this move - I remember Karpov played it against Kasparov in one of their classic world championship sicilian stoushes.} Rc8 13.Rad1 O-O 14.Rfe1 {Maybe f5 could be considered; although white's rooks do look logically placed.} Rfd8 15.g4! {Strong attacking intentions shown here by Jeremy: the cut and thrust nature of the middle-game here on end made it quite exciting to play.} Nxd4 {Perhaps d5 is a better plan;seeking to open play up on the white queen. Yes, Deep Shredder and Stockfish 7 give d5! here, with an advantage of .5 to Black. (RJ)} 16.Bxd4 e5 {Stockfish 7 likes Nd7 here, with a view to a subsequent Bf6. (RJ)} 17.Be3 Qc4? {I'm not happy with this move as its idea is too primitive, i.e a possible assault on the e4 pawn. Whilst the plan isn't bad in and of itself, it just isn't very ambitious and furthermore I eventually place my lady on a near fatally bad square. Maybe Nd7, heading for e5 is better. Yes, the engines like Nd7 (RJ)} 18.g5! {White pushes onward! Black has to regroup} Nd7 {Stockfish 7 gives White only a small edge after ef. (RJ)} 19.Qg2 {f5 looks strong and thematic as well, with black's kingside in semi-lockdown.} exf4 {Aiming to install a knight outpost on e5; a plan which I fixate upon too much at the peril of my queen!} 20.Be2 Qe6 21.Bg4 {Engines may say otherwise, but I think this is a nice move by Jeremy which pushed my queen to a bad square. I also overlooked the unpleasantness of the pin to the rook, negating my plan to go Ne5..} Qg6?? {This is a very bad positional mistake. Black needed to ignore his knight's plea for the e5 square to be left vacant and instead protect the f4 pawn with his queen. Bd4 can be soundly met by Qxg5.Yes, Black is winning after Qe5. (RJ)} 22.Bxf4 {Here I spent some 20 unnerving minutes on a reply; realising that I was now clearly worse. I was very worried about the h4 plan with the idea of turning my queen into a claustrophobe!} Rc5 {Interestingly. the engines give as best here 22....Rxc3! (RJ)} 23.Nd5 {h4! looks very tempting which we discussed after the game. Black's best response appears to be h5, The engines agree. (RJ)} (23.h4 h5 24.Bf5 Qxf5 25.exf5 Bxg2 26.Kxg2 Ne5) 23...Bxd5 24.Bf5? {Arguably the losing move which was unfortunate for Jeremy who had played logically and forthrightly up to this point. Recapturing and exchanging a set of rooks seems to give white an edge. In fact Stockfish 7 calls it dead even after 24. Rxd5 (RJ).} (24.Rxd5 Rxd5 25.exd5 Ne5) 24...Qxf5! {A clever zwischenzug by Rob. (RJ)} 25.exf5 Bxg2 26.Rxe7 Rxc2 27.Rxd6 Bc6 28.Be5 Kf8 29.f6 gxf6 {Some resolute defending was needed at the end of a roller-coaster sicilian struggle! It was great to finally play Jeremy, whose logical style will definitely cause players problems. I look forward to completing the trilogy of matches against new players by playing Michael next week.} {#R} 0-1