Carlson - Hayes Match - Game 1 Report

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12/15/2011

The match between Mike Carlson (2091) and Matthew Hayes (2017) got underway last night at a top secret location known only to a select few individuals (actually, it was Mike's house). Carlson had previously won the coin toss and opted to have the white pieces in the first game (and all subsequent odd numbered games).

The game is given below without annotations. Both players will annotate the games at the end of the match. In the first game, Carlson built up a solid advantage after Hayes misplayed the opening. Hayes was able to erect a wall of pawns that looked like they would be tough to crack, although white would later have ideas of playing c3 and then d4 to undermine black's pawns. It seemed white would slowly grind black down and would play a decisive pawn thrust when the moment was right. The turning point came when Carlson played 23. e5?, a move he admitted to spending little time analysing. The move would be crushing if black couldn't simply capture with the knight and, from this point on, the game completely turned around because white was left with no good pawn breaks and black was able to dominate the center.

The rest of the game "played itself", as Carlson rightly noted, and black's moves weren't too difficult to find. 33. ... Rxh3! was a nice shot that won immediately, although white already had a difficult (probably losing) position by that stage.

The match will continue Wednesday, December 21.

White:
Black:

Date:
Event:
Location:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
Mike Carlson (2091)	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Matthew Hayes (2017)	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1