Bob Kratzat overcame top seed Adolfo Prieto’s pressure attack on his King position after his opponents poor choice at move 21. Mr. Prieto’s choice of 21. Bc1 lead to a series of moves through 27. C5? that left his rooks disconnected, his Bishop still on c1 and a Black Knight invading his position with 27…Nd4 and 28…. Ne2+, which won a pawn and forced White to place his Queen on a white diagonal. Mr. Kratzat then created a queen pin with his own Bishop enabling him to win the Bishop –Rook exchange with 32…Bxb1. The loss of material and the significant change in board position allowed Mr. Kratzat to invade along the ‘e’ file with his doubled Rook. The game ended quickly when Black forced a queen- bishop fork with 37… Re3. Mr. Kratzat, the #2 seed draws first blood in this four game championship match.
[pgn][Event “WCC 2016 Championship Match”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2016.11.22”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Prieto, Adolfo”]
[Black “Kratzat, Robert”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E41”]
[WhiteElo “1906”]
[BlackElo “1710”]
[PlyCount “74”]
[EventDate “2016.11.22”]
[EventType “match”]
[EventRounds “4”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 c5 6. Nge2 Nc6 7. O-O d5 8. cxd5
Nxd5 9. a3 Bxc3 10. bxc3 cxd4 11. c4 $2 {overlooking 11….Nc3 and allowing an
isolani at c4} (11. cxd4 f5 12. f3 Qd6 13. Bd2) 11… Nc3 12. Nxc3 dxc3 13. Qc2
h6 (13… Qf6 14. Bxh7+ Kh8 15. Be4 Bd7) 14. Qxc3 Qc7 15. Bb2 e5 16. Be4 Re8
17. f4 f6 18. Bd5+ Kh8 19. Qd3 (19. f5 {or}) (19. Rab1 {either seems better!})
19… Qb6 (19… exf4 20. Rxf4 Ne5) 20. Rab1 exf4 21. Bc1 $4 {Diagram [#] What
a poor location for this Bishop.} (21. Bd4 Qd8 22. Rxf4) 21… Qc7 22. Qg6 ({
either} 22. exf4 {or}) (22. Rxf4 {…keeps the position balanced.}) 22… Be6
23. Be4 Bg8 24. exf4 Ne7 {forcing the menacing Queen away, but…} (24… Re6
25. Re1 Rae8 26. Bd2) 25. Qh5 Nc6 $1 {now we see the power behind 24… Ne7}
26. Bg6 (26. Bd5 {…seems to be the best White can offer.}) 26… Re7 27. c5
$2 {Diagram [#]} ({Moving the c1 Bishop to b2 prevents 27… Nd4.} 27. Bb2)
27… Nd4 28. Bb2 Ne2+ 29. Kh1 Nxf4 30. Qg4 $2 {White has less than 3 minutes
left.} Nxg6 31. Qxg6 Bh7 32. Qh5 Bxb1 33. Rxb1 Rae8 34. Bc3 Qc6 35. Rf1 Re2 36.
Qg6 Qe4 {…forcing the queen trade.} 37. Qg3 {White has just 2 minutes left
for the game against Black’s 23 minutes.} Re3 {and White resigns. Mr. Kratzat,
the #2 seed, draws first blood in this four game match.} 0-1
[/pgn]
Watertown Chess ClubAdmin