[Event "World Open U2200"]
[Site "Philadelphia"]
[Date "2001.07.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Schneider, Igor"]
[Black "Hartwig, Thomas"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Hartwig,Th"]
[ECO "B76"]
[PlyCount "55"]

{ After not playing too many tournaments in a while, I spent last week playing in the World Open U2200 Section in Philadelphia.  My result, 4.5/9, was disappointing given that last year I scored 6.5/9 in the same section, but the games were very interesting and will give me a lot to think about.  I will start analysing the fun games next week, but first I want to get the following debacle off my chest.  It is dedicated to all interesting players who have given in to playing "boring" openings, therefore sparing themselves from such a game.  After losing this game I definitely felt like I should be an 1.e4 c6 man. } 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O d5 $5 { What to say?  Nine moves of "book" so far, and we ain't even got started yet.  I don't know if anybody still bothers to think about these things conceptually, but it has always helped me to remind myself at this point why I am sacking a pawn.  Right, it clears the 'b' and 'c' files and the h8-a1, h7-b1 diagonals, all of which lead to white's king.  Sounds good... } 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. exd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 cxd5 13. Qxd5 Qc7 14. Qc5 Qb7 $5 { 14...Qb8 is also interesting.  14...Qb7 had been scoring badly at the top level recently, but that kind of cutting-edge theory rarely filters down to affect my games.  Basically I had played this for a long time, and I had never gotten burnt, so I didn't see any reason to fix it.  For all I know however, this is the losing blunder according to Deeper Blue. } 15. Qa3 ( 15. Bd4 { is a much happier memory, and led to some good 9...d5 propoganda: } 15... Bf5 16. Bc3 $5 ( 16. Qc3 { looks best, and actually might be an interesting line to confuse a booked up Dragonophile on the black side, if 15.Qa3 weren't looking so good. } 16... Rfc8 ( 16... Bh6+ 17. Kb1 Rfc8 18. Bc4 Be6 19. Qb3 $1 ) 17. Bxg7 Rxc3 18. Bxc3 { Unclear. } ) 16... Rfc8 17. Qb5 Rxc3 $3 18. Qxb7 $4 { This leads to the finale that seemed so spectacular at the time: } ( 18. bxc3 Bh6+ 19. Kb1 Qxb5+ ( 19... Qc7 20. Qc4 Rb8+ 21. Ka1 Qb6 22. Qb3 Qc7 23. Qc4 { draw. } ) 20. Bxb5 Rb8 21. a4 a6 22. c4 axb5 23. cxb5 Rc8 24. Ka2 Rxc2+ 25. Kb3 { is still unclear. } ) 18... Rxc2+ 19. Kb1 Rxb2+ { 0-1 Perez-Hartwig, World Open U2000, 1996. } ) 15... Bf5 ( 15... a5 $5 { seems to be less heavily explored, but I'm not sure there's real compensation in this line. } ) 16. Bd3 ( 16. Ba6 Qc7 17. Qc5 Qb6 18. Qxb6 axb6 19. Bd3 { used to be the main line.  By tacit agreement and by knowing mounds of theory, both sides co-operated to reach a dull endgame with even material, after which they could call it a good fight and go home. } ) 16... Rab8 17. b3 Rfc8 $2 { So far we had both used something like a minute, but I am almost sure that after this move black has inadequate compensation.  Sloppy preparation and sloppy form at the board (I should have slowed down and at least considered 17...Bxd3 at this point) cost me the game. } ( 17... Bxd3 18. Rxd3 Rfc8 19. Rhd1 ( 19. Bd4 $2 e5 20. Bb2 e4 $1 21. fxe4 Qxe4 { is good for black. } ) 19... Qc7 20. c4 Qxh2 21. Qxe7 Qxg2 22. Rd8+ Rxd8 23. Rxd8+ Rxd8 24. Qxd8+ Bf8 25. Bc5 { looks very good for white. } ) 18. Bxf5 $1 ( 18. Qxa7 Bxd3 $1 19. Rxd3 Qc6 { was the prepared "point", but even this looks good for white after } 20. c4 ) 18... gxf5 19. Bd4 e5 $2 { Here I rushed past another critical point.  It seemed to me that I had to force c2-c4 to have a chance attacking white's king, so I assumed that 19...Qc6 20.Qb2 was good for white. } ( 19... Qc6 20. c4 ( 20. Qb2 $2 { My move is bad. } 20... e5 21. Bxa7 Ra8 22. Be3 Bf8 23. Kb1 Ba3 24. Qxe5 Qxc2+ 25. Ka1 Ra6 26. Qg3+ Rg6 27. Qe5 Rxg2 28. Bd2 Rd8 { wins, courtesy of Fritz. } ) 20... Bxd4 $5 21. Rxd4 Qh6+ 22. Kb1 Qe3 23. Rhd1 { also seems good for white anyway.  This line is in trouble. } ) 20. Bb2 Qc6 21. c4 { So I had forced c2-c4, developed my pieces, now what to do?  If things went ideally, now I would buckle down and find the winning combination.  Instead my 30 minute think produced nothing at all.  This is the most depressing kind of loss, when you don't even get a chance to play. } 21... a5 22. Qxa5 $1 { Believe it or not, I had focused so much energy on 22.Qd6 that I completely forgot about this move.  Now I realized 22...Ra8 23.Qd5 was not promising so I completely fell apart. } ( 22. Qd6 Qa8 23. Bxe5 Bxe5 24. Qxe5 a4 25. Rd3 axb3 26. axb3 Qa2 27. Qc3 Rxc4 { had been the product of my half-hour think, although even here the position is not resolved.  Fritz will show you a few problems with this line, but in this case, since they aren't too relevant to the objective point that 22.Qxa5 is much better, I think I don't want to input all of these moves and cloud the point that this is what I actually saw at the board, and why I thought 21...a5 was OK. } ) 22... Rb5 $4 { Desparation, but black was losing anyway. } 23. Rd8+ Rxd8 24. Qxd8+ Bf8 25. Ba3 Rc5 26. Bxc5 Qxc5 27. Qg5+ Bg7 28. Rd1 1-0