May 18, 1999
Game Three
White: David Hemstreet
Black: Ty Davison
Opening: Caro-Kann, Gurgenidze System
E-mail, Game 3, 1999
1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 g6
4. e5 Bg7
5. f4 Nh6
Ty: We were on book for the Caro-Kann until my 5. ... Nh6. The book continuation is 5. ... h6.
6. Be3
Ty: I think the move to exploit Black's jumping out of book was 6. Be2.
Dave: I agree. Another sound move would have been Nf3. My intention here was to set things up for putting my Queen on d2, for an attack on h6. It would have been better to prevent the Black's bishop from posting in my territory with either of the two moves mentioned above. I also considered moving my pawn to h3 to keep the bishop out of there.
6. ... Bg4
7. Qd2
Dave: Here I am stacking the diagonal, hoping for an attack on h6. I had pretty much decided to castle long at this point, and this move also clears the way for that.
7. ... Nf5
8. Be2 Nxe3
Ty: Generally speaking, I much prefer Bishops to Knights and try for this type of exchange. Here, it's of less value since the position is clearly a closed one. I'm trusting that the game will open up down the road giving my dark-squared Bishop the advantage. (In hindsight, I think this reasoning is probably wrong. It was just too difficult for Black to muddle through the closed middle game with a Bishop.)
9. Qxe3 Bxe2
Dave: It looked to me that the game was shaping up to be closed, so gladly exchanged the long range Bishop for the more mobile Knight. I also felt that Black had used up more moves than White for the exchange, and this loss of time for Black was a slight consolation for losing my good Bishop.
10. Ngxe2
Ty: It was tempting here to pull back and try to maintain my Bishop pair. Still, I thought that exchanging my bad Bishop for White's good one was worthwhile.
10. ... e6
11. g4 Qh4+
Ty: Black finds himself in something of a predicament here since White's clearly launching a pawn storm kingside. The solution is somewhat extreme but probably necessary: Trade queens. White must now either do so or allow Black to gobble up the g-pawn. As a small bonus, the Queen exchange will throw one of White's pieces a little out of position.
12. Qg3 Qxg3+
13. Nxg3 Nd7
14. 0-0-0 b5
15. Nce2 b4
Dave: There is some danger here with Black's advancing pawns. If they advance too far, I will be forced to open a file, which does me no good considering the placement of my King and Black's Rook. Instead of dealing with these pawns, however, I presume that Black will be to busy dealing with my kingside pawnstorm to make much out of his pawn advancement.
16. h4 a5
17. h5 c5
Ty: I pondered this for a long time. There's a need on my part to open up the game so my Bishop can work his magic. At the same time, the more I can impede White's Knights, the better. There are a lot of unfavorable lines for Black here.
18. f5 cxd4
19. Nxd4 O-O
Ty: No dice on 19. ... Bxe5 (because 20. hxg6 fxg6 21. fxg6 leaves Black in trouble).
20. hxg6 Bxe5
Ty: Is hanging that h-pawn as dangerous as it looks for Black? Uh huh. One screw up here and I'm toast.
21. Rxh7 Bxg3
Ty: Looks like a gimme for Black, but it's an illusion. Black's Knight is already dead. (This little combo by White gets my vote for best move of the game.)
22. Nc6 Bd6
Ty: Protecting against 23. Ne7++.
23. fxe6 fxe6
24. Rxd7 Bf4+
25. Kb1 Ra6
26. Ne7+ Kg7
27. Rh1 Bh2
Ty: A nifty block since 28. Rxh2 28. ... Rf1++.
28. g5 Raa8
29. Kc1 Rf2
Draw agreed.
Ty: Well, hardly the most inspired game in the world, though perhaps one of the longest in terms of time. (This email game took place over the course of almost six months!) My trade of Knight for Bishop early on in a closed game was a mistake which I'll have to avoid in the future. In the end, White's got a one pawn advantage, but with the doubled pawns on the g-file it's really about all even. Barring blunder, I think everything here would've played out to a draw anyway.
Dave: A pretty conservative game, played carefully by both players. It seemed as though there were some good attacking possibilities for White, but Black proved that there was always an escape route or trick to get out of it. Trying to set up an attack on h6 with the Queen move to d2 early in the game instead of developing the King Bishop or Knight was a mistake. This move resulted in allowing Black to advance his Bishop, and ultimately resulted in the exchange of queens, which, I believe, was beneficial to Black.
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