Nick Noden (174) - Jovanka Houska (224) [B12]
Metropolitan Open 2002
1. e4 c6 Great. I'm playing someone who outgrades me by 50 BCF points, I'm still hungover, and she's gone and played my second least favourite opening, for which I have only the most tenuous grasp of the theory. I considered wimping out with 2.d3, but decided that I would play more adventurously and go down in a blaze of glory. (For the defects of this approach, see Crouch-Noden elsewhere on the site.)
2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 h6 7. h4 Nd7 8. Be3 Bb4?! I don't rate this. It seems to me that one of the main points of ...Bb4 in these lines is to extricate the other bishop by ... Be4, in which case Black's earlier ...h6 was a waste of time. Plus when Black later plays ...c4, the bishop on b4 gets in the way of Black's most dangerous plan of ...Qb6-a6 and then ...b5-b4. Perhaps my opponent was trying to get me "out of the book", little knowing that I can't remember the main line beyond about move ten (which is about the point where the position starts to get fiendishly complicated...).
9. Qd2?! Sadly, my reply isn't much cop either, as it makes it extremely difficult to unpin the c3 knight. Moreover, the queen is better off on d1 where it can support the g4 pawn if Black tries to break up the White kingside with ...h5. Better was simply 9. f4.
9... c5 10. f4 Be4 11. Rh3 c4? This is downright bad. Any potential queenside pawn advance has been blocked by the bishop on b4 (see the note to Black's eighth), so all that this achieves is to block up the centre and give White free reign on the kingside. Instead, Black should have taken advantage of my weak ninth move with 11. ...h5, breaking up White's pawn structure. In the game, Black looks almost lost after my next three natural moves.
12. Ng3 Bh7 13. f5 Ne7? Black should have played 13. ... Qb6 14. Nh5 Bf8, although this is pretty unappealing for her.
14. Nh5 Qb6 There is no way to defend the kingside e.g.
14... Rg8 15. f6 gxf6 16. exf6 Nc6 17. Ng7+ Kf8 18. Bxh6+-
15. Nxg7+ Kd8 16. Bxh6? Probably good enough, but not the best.
After 16. fxe6 fxe6 17.
Game(s) in PGN