Mysterious Rook Moves

Maybe this weekend I’ll post the game for round 4 of Back to School Swiss. I lost, but I had a win and didn’t find it. For now, though, my second effort vs. Mr Dan Callahan. The last time we played, about a year ago, we were both rated in the 1100’s and have each come a long way since then.

Blunderprone, you said you’d give me some suggestions vs the London…

Dan Callahan (1339)    —    Steve Wollkind (1533)
MCC Trick or Treat Swiss (2008)  (1)   Natick, MA
2007.10.02     0-1     D02m

My second time facing the London, but apparently I didn’t learn anything after the first one (played roughly 6 weeks prior to this game). How to Beat 1. d4 by James Rizzitano suggests that black play c5 here. I thought about it, but prefered to get the light bishop outside the pawn chain and solidify with e6.

( 3…c5 )

Exactly the kind of move I can never resist. It’s the f pawn with white and the c pawn with black, and I love to push it to the 5th (4th) rank if I can restrict a bishop by doing so. Perhaps it creates too static a formation, but I like having the space.

Questionable, in my mind. Giving up a developed bishop to kill my knight in its bed doesn’t make sense to me. Additionaly, this brings my rook to the B file, which helps prepare to push the b pawn to make a break.

I sensed that this move might be premature, but didn’t have a great way to combat it. At the same time, I felt that it wasn’t doing much for white. I think I was wrong. It brings a second attack on my c pawn and pins the b pawn down to the defense of the forking square c6.

A move I should have seen coming a mile away. By my count white can now win a pawn by force, with other dangerous moves in the air. With the c-pawn advanced, the Queen’s knight gone and the light squared bishop locked outside the pawn chain, checks on the a4-e8 diagonal are problematic. Even worse, the knight on e5 is now a serious problem since black can’t play Qd7 to block a check either. I considered just giving up a pawn to castle immediately, but decided against.

A mistake. Luckily, white decided to save his knight, but if he had exchanged everything off black would have had some serious problems.

( 12.fxe4 fxe5 And things get ugly. Qh5 is probably quite strong here. )

Spending another move to prevent the loss of the knight, and finally there is time to protect the c pawn and end the threats of Qa4+.

Finally whisking the king to safety. Someday I’ll learn to do that before sending my pawns rushing up the board.

White obviously worried about later threats on the h pawn, but this move seems both premature (there is no tangible threat yet) and weakening.

Looking ahead to needing some defense on h2 with the option to put double the rook with the queen on the d file.

Completing the maneuver. The threat is not subtle, but I felt that white might have trouble getting his pieces out of one another’s way to defend it. During the game I wondered if my advantage was actually on the queenside, and whether I should have been pushing the a pawn at some point.

My plan was to try and get at white’s king. The computer hates it and wants me to rip up the center.

A bad mistake, giving me exactly what I wanted: an attack on h2. White had many better defensive options including dxe5.

Now the mate threat must be addressed.

The mate threat returns. The knight has to get out of the way and the c and d pawns are going to become a serious problem for white.

Black resigned here, expecting Qxh2 and some ugliness to follow.

( 27…Qxh2+ 28.Kf1 And I am forced to admit that I don’t see the obvious winning plan here. Black must be winning, but it’s the sort of position where I would make it more of a grind than it needs to be. I was sort of surprised my opponent resigned after Bg2, but thankful… )

0-1

Diagrams generated using Steve Eddins’ Chess Imagerhttp://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager