[Event "McGuire Open"]
[Site "Arcadia, CA"]
[Date "2012.06.18"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Craig Faber"]
[Black "Michael Cooper"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2211"]
[BlackElo "2040"]
[Opening "King's Indian: London system"]
[ECO "A48"]
[NIC "QP.03"]
[Time "19:43:06"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bf4 Bg7 4. e3 d6 5. Be2 {French grandmaster and London specialist Éric Prié considers this to be superior to the more common 5. h3.} Nh5 {It is significant that despite the prevalence of an early h2-h3, in practice, Black rarely chases the bishop like this so early. Players of both sides ought to realize the inconsistency here: either White is wrong to play h2-h3 immediately, or Black is wrong never to chase the bishop early.} 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Nfd2 gxh4 {Prié - Jean, Pierrevert 2007, continued 8... Nf4 9. exf4 gxh4 10. c3 c5 11. dxc5! (one of the latent strengths of the London is that in special circumstances, White can benefit from this surprise exchange, but one of the weaknesses of many London practitioners is that they tend to avoid deviating from their formula, sometimes missing opportunities to think outside the box, e.g. they tend to politely wait for Black to exchange on d4 - very British of them, perhaps; it is the "London" after all!) 11... dxc5 12. Na3 and White found good play against Black's scattered pawns.} 9. Bxh5 e5 {This was played by Gufeld in 1976, although it has failed to garner serious theoretical attention.} 10. c3 {10. dxe5 Nc6.} Qg5 {A TN, although it seems natural to put the queen on this active square with a gain of time. My plan is to castle and push the f-pawn (and the forward h-pawn too!). In the game, White did not castle kingside for a long time, but Stockfish thinks that castling at some point would have been fine. Granted, computers are not generally the best at sensing danger.} 11. Bf3 O-O 12. Qb3 {I think this is questionable. 12... c6 is an easy response, and also 12... Nd7 would defend the pawn, as 13. Bxb7 Rb8 wins a piece.} a5 {Speculative, but posing interesting problems, potentially opening the a-file for the Black rook and/or gaining time on the white queen.} 13. Na3 {13. Bxb7? a4! 14. Qd5 (or 14. Qb5 c6! 15. Qb6 Qxg2 16. Rf1 Nd7 17. Qc7 Bxb7 18. Qxb7 Nf6 and Black's compensation is obvious) 14... c6! 15. Bxc6 Be6! 16. Qxd6 Nxc6 17. Qxc6 exd4 leads to wonderful complications which favor Black. After 13. Na3, it may be natural to follow through and push the a-pawn again, but I saw a concrete way to force a positional concession.} exd4 14. cxd4 {The text allows Black's knight to get to a nice outpost on b4, but 14. exd4 Re8+ is unpleasant.} Nc6 15. Ne4 {After 15. Bxc6?? bxc6 Black's superior development, open lines, and concrete targets far outweigh such trifling considerations as pawn structure. However, in the game White continues to drift, starting a miscalculated forcing sequence.} Qg6 16. Nb5 {16. O-O was probably the last chance to bail out. Now Black's initiative grows quite dangerous.} Bf5 17. Nd2 Nb4 18. e4 {Long think - 14 minutes. I think Faber now saw that after 18. e4 Be6, 19. d5? simply loses to 19... Bxd5, but he decided that an invasion on c2 should still be prevented. We were getting into time pressure here, him with 22 minutes and me with 27 minutes to reach move 40.} Be6 19. Nc4 Bxc4 20. Qxc4 d5 21. Qe2 dxe4 22. Bxe4 f5 23. Qc4+ Kh8 24. Bf3 Rae8+ 25. Kf1 c6 26. Nc7 Re7 27. a3 Rxc7 28. axb4 axb4 29. Qxb4 Rd8 30. Qb6 Rcd7 31. d5 Qf6 {More accurate is 31... Qg5 32. dxc6 bxc6 33. Qxc6 Rd2 and 34... Rxb2, preparing to gang up against f2.} 32. dxc6 bxc6 33. Qxc6 {An outright blunder.} Qxb2 {Despite having four minutes to make eight moves, Black does not have a good excuse for missing 33. Rd1+! winning.} 34. Re1 Rd2 35. Be2 {Black is still winning, but finding the right path takes slightly more vision than previously. 35... Rc2 36. Qb5 Qxb5 37. Bxb5 Rdd2 38. Be2 Bc3! is an elegant quiet move, and there is no adequate defense to the threat of ...Rxe2. With one minute to make time control, I instead hallucinated a mate, missing the king escaping to f3.} Rxe2 36. Rxe2 {Now Black has nothing more than a draw.} Rd1+ 37. Re1 Rxe1+ 38. Kxe1 Bc3+ 39. Kf1 Qc1+ 40. Ke2 Qc2+ 41. Kf3 Qd3+ 42. Kf4 Qd4+ {Whoops! Black thinks for 14 minutes and comes up with a howler! After 43 Kxf5! White has all the chances, for example: 43... Qxf2+ 44. Kg4 Qd4+ 45. Kh3 Qe3+ 46. g3, or 43... Qe5+ 44. Kg4 Qg5+ 45. Kf3 Qf5+ 46. Ke3 Qe5+ 47. Qe4 Bd4+ 48. Kd3. 42... Qd2+ preserves the balance, as after 43. Kxf5 Qg5+ the king is prevented from hiding away on h3.} 43. Kf3 {Perhaps shaken by his ordeal, White doesn't get brave here.} Qd3+ 44. Kf4 {White's post mortem in full: "That was an exciting game. All my other games are usually boring!"} 1/2-1/2
