4NCL: Jonathan Rogers Annotates...

Whilst at the 4NCL in Daventry on Monday, I bumped into FM Jonathan Rogers of Barbican (see photo). Jonathan recommended to me his ninth round win against Mark Ruston which featured an attractive queen for two pieces sacrifice.

Jonathan followed up the sacrifice with a less spectacular but highly potent move which he tells me a number of GMs failed to find when he challenged them. He has very kindly let me have an annotation of the game to feature here.

(Unfortunately, Jonathan's annotation is too long to fit in a pgn4web window, so I have simply appended the PGN code which you will need to copy and paste into the chess software of your choice - JS)

[Event "4NCL 2008/9"]

[Site "Hinckley Island"]

[Date "2009.05.02"]

[Round "9.1"]

[White "Ruston, Mark"]

[Black "Rogers, Jonathan"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "B23"]

[WhiteElo "2092"]

[BlackElo "2337"]

[Annotator "Rogers, Jonathan"]

[PlyCount "44"]

[EventDate "2008.10.04"]

[EventType "team-tourn"]

[EventRounds "11"]

[EventCountry "ENG"]

[SourceTitle "EXT 2010"]

[Source "ChessBase"]

[SourceDate "2009.11.30"]

[SourceVersion "1"]

[SourceVersionDate "2009.11.30"]

[SourceQuality "1"]

[WhiteTeam "Sambuca Sharks"]

[BlackTeam "Barbican II"]

[WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"]

[BlackTeamCountry "ENG"]

1. e4 c5 {For the first time in 22 years and the second time in my life. I was

inspired by the assurance that these days, no one under 2500 dares to play 2

Nf3 and 3 d4.} 2. Nc3 {I hadn't actually looked up my opponent on any database,

so apparently this observation is right.} e6 3. g3 a6 4. a4 d5 5. exd5 exd5 6.

Bg2 Nf6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 Nc6 9. Qd1 Bb4 ({White's opening has been dubious,

especially the insertion of 4 a4. Black should perhaps have taken better

advantage of this by playing} 9... Nb4 {, threatening 10...Bf5, with good

development after} 10. Nge2 Bc5 {. But it turns out that Black will not regret

putting his bishop on b4; it never moves again...}) 10. Nge2 O-O 11. O-O Re8

12. Bg5 Bg4 13. f3 ({Instead} 13. h3 Bxc3 14. hxg4 {would have been quite

reasonable for White. The text is weakening, but White clearly wanted to put

his knight on f4.}) 13... Bf5 14. Nf4 d4 $1 {I had decided now to sacrifice

the queen!} 15. Ncd5 Nxd5 $1 16. Bxd8 Ne3 17. Qc1 Raxd8 ({I did not consider

releasing the pressure with} 17... Nxf1 {- Black does not want to give White

time to consolidate with} 18. Bxf1 {and 19 Bd3.}) 18. Rf2 {My next move is

very difficult. I had not seen it in advance, and none of the IM or GMs to

whom I showed this position afterwards found it either, even though they knew

that something was there to be found. It seems that one needs to be at the

board, discarding the more obvious alternatives first ...} Na5 $3 ({I had

wanted to play} 18... Nxc2 19. Rxc2 Re1+ 20. Qxe1 Bxe1 {but then realised that

here White can play} 21. Rxc6 {. But this line did give me a clue - that this

knight on c6 should be moved; and I had also seen that I should want to

discourage White from freeing himself with c2-c3. So now I gave serious

consideration to what is a most unusual attacking manoeuvre!}) {Here it is.

Now the threat is 19...Nxc2 followed by Nb3, and Black will pick up both White

rooks! It is astonishing to see how helpless White is against the oncoming ...

Nb3. Later we thought that White needed to respond to this with 19 Ra3 and

were not sure whether Black should simply capture it, or increase the pressure

further with 19...Rc8 (but then how to respond to 20 Rd3? However a computer

provided a further surprise by preferring Black in this position, and gave the

continuation 19 Ra3 Rc8 20 Rd3 Bxd3 21 Nxd3 Nb3! 22 Qb1 Nd2 23 Qa2 Rxc2. Here,

having crashed through on c2, Black is doing very well because the White queen

cannot move (save from a2 to a1!) and the bishop on b4 is immune on account of

...Rc1+. He can consolidate his grip with ...a5 and double the rooks on the

c-file at his leisure. The idea of the knight hopping from a5 to d2 in order

to interfere with White's protection on c2 is most artistic. My opponent had

little time left and understandably collapsed: his next move was designed to

prevent the knight on e3 from moving on account of Qg5.} 19. Nh5 d3 $1 {

Instantly decisive. This would also have been the response to 19 Bh3 Bxh3 20

Nxh3.} 20. cxd3 Nb3 21. Qb1 Nxa1 22. Qxa1 Rxd3 {And now there is no good

defence to ...Rd1+.} 0-1