Live From The Field - Hickman-Staddon

At first sight, there wasn’t much to say about the game that Nigel and I had in Division II. Black got a difficult opening and lost material, White won, apparently without too much fuss. But it turns out there were lessons for both players…

 [Event "Div II"] [Site "?"] [Date "2016.01.21"] [Round "?"] [White "Hickman, N."] [Black "Staddon, J N."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B13"] [Annotator "Hickman,Neil"] [PlyCount "53"]  1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Qb3 Qb6 7. Nc3 Qxb3 8. axb3 e6 9. Nb5 Kd7 10. Ne5+ Kc8 11. Nxa7+ Rxa7 12. Rxa7 Bb4+ 13. Bd2 Bxd2+ 14. Kxd2 Ne4+ 15. Ke3 f6 16. Nf3 Kc7 17. Ra8 Rd8 18. c5 Nc6 19. Rxd8 Kxd8 20. Nh4 Bg6 21. Nxg6 hxg6 22. h4 $6 ({Lesson for White. While White has more material, it isn't doing anything. So simply} 22. Bd3 f5 {(forced otherwise the g-pawn falls)} 23. Bxe4 dxe4 24. Ra1 {and the rook, now in the game at last, can make its way over to g8 and start munching Black's king side. I was distracted by the fact that the knight was rather short of squares, and got greedy.}) 22... Nb4 23. f3 $4 (23. Rh3 Nc2+ 24. Kd3 $1 Nxf2+ 25. Kxc2 Nxh3 26. gxh3 {and White has rather messily emerged into a won ending.}) 23... Nc2+ 24. Kf4 Nf2 $2 ({Lesson for Black - a game isn't lost till it's won! White's king is short of squares, Black's knights are very actively placed, and White's king-side bits are still asleep. And it turns out that Black has a way to take advantage of all of this.} 24... g5+ $1 25. hxg5 e5+ $3 {The crucial point, difficult to see but making perfect sense once you have seen it. White's king needs to be denied the e5 square, and his own pawn can be forced to do the job.} 26. dxe5 fxg5+ 27. Kf5 {And now the only squares available to the king are ones which allow the fork} Ng3+ 28. Ke6 Nxh1 {and Black has slightly the better ending.}) 25. Rg1 Nd1 26. Bd3 Nxd4 27. Rxd1 {Lucky.} 1-0