[Event "Arcadia Winter Open"]
[Site "Arcadia, CA"]
[Date "2010.02.08"]
[Round "6"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Matthew James Hayes"]
[Black "David Argall"]
[WhiteElo "1967"]
[BlackElo "2048"]
[PlyCount "43"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. Bd2 Ne7 {I'm sure this has a more "official" name but I know it as the Keres version of the Winawer, simply because Keres was known to employ it from time to time. I'd never played this Bd2 line before but had studied it, so was reasonably confident} 6. Nb5 Bxd2 7. Qxd2 0-0 8. f4 cxd4 9. Nf3 Nbc6 10. Bd3 a6 11. Nd6 f6 {A typical tabia in the French. As we'll see, black has a specific idea to take control of the center with an exchange sacrifice.} 12. 0-0 fxe5 13. fxe5 Rxf3 14. Rxf3 Nxe5 {This line used to be considered good for black because it was assumed white had no good options in this position. However, white gives back the exchange and reaches a position where black, despite being up two pawns, is very uncomfortable.} 15. Qf4 Nxf3 {Of course, not 15. ... Qxd6?? 16. Qf8 mate.} 16. gxf3 Nf5 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Re1 Bd7 19. Qe5 Qf6 {Black is up two pawns but they are irrelevant for now. White can win back a pawn immediately and black must find a way to protect f7. Qf6 does this but it also creates its own problems, as we'll see. It's hard to see many other good moves for black at this stage, though.} 20. Qxd5 Kf8 21. Qxb7 Rd8 22. Qxd7 {My opponent resigned immediately and said he completely missed Qxd7. What is more of a blow, however, is that he also completely missed 22. ... Qg6+ 23. Kh1 and the queen now covers the mating square on e8. Oops!
So, I got to expert on the back of an outrageous blunder that basically frightened my opponent into resigning. It just goes to show that you should never resign too quickly (and in this game, David resigned within seconds of me playing Qxd7)... there might always be a resource in the position!
I was a bit annoyed, because I felt I'd played the game well up until that last move. I should have taken the time to play Kh1 earlier and it's likely that black still would have faced serious difficulties in his position. It's a bit ironic that I should get to expert on the back of such a horrendous blunder!} 1-0
