Williamson Shield (6) |
Williamson Shield (6) |
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. d4 Be7 5. Bg2
An inaccuracy. White should first play 7.
8. Bd2 would have prevented Black's plan of utilising a pin on the c3-Knight.
8... Bb4 9. Qc2 Qa5 10. Rc1 Qxa2 11.
Annesley is a pawn up, but he had already used 53 of his 90 minutes for the game, while Scannell had only taken 23 minutes to this point. Here Scannell thought 15... f6 planning e5 was best.
16. Ne5 Nd7 17. Nd3 f6 18. f4 f5?!
Allowing the position to be come blocked. White now has compensation for the pawn minus.
19. Ra1 Nf6 20. b4 a6 21. Bf3 Bd7 22. Ne5 Be8 23. Kf1
The beginning of a daring King march.
23... Ne4 24. Bxe4 fxe4 25. Ke1 Rf6 26. Kd2 Rc8 27. Kc2 g5 28. e3 Rc7 29. Kb3 Rg7 30. Ka4 Kf8 31. Ka5 gxf4 32. exf4 Ke7 33. Kb6 Kd8 34. b5 cxb5
34... axb5 35. Ra8+ Ke7 36. Kxb7 with roughly equal chances.
Scannell still had 20 minutes left, while Annesley was down to his last 6.
36. Nxc6+ bxc6 37. Rxc6 Ke8 38. Rxa6 Re7 39. Kxb5 Kf7 40. Kc5 Rh6 41. f5 Rf6 42. g4 e3 43. fxe6+ Rfxe6 44. Rxe6 Rxe6 45. Ra1 Re4
45... e2 forcing 46. Re1 was possibly better.
46. Kxd5 Rxg4 47. Rf1+ Kg6 48. Re1 Rg2 49. Rxe3 Rxh2 50. Ke6 Rd2
Annesley was now down to his final minute while Scannell still had 5 minutes left. The position is also now almost certainly winning for White.
51. d5 Ra2 52. Rg3+ Kh5 53. d6 Re2+ 54. Kf6 Rd2 55. Ke7 Re2+ 56. Kd8 Kh4 57. Rd3 Kg4 58. d7 h5 59. Kc7 Rc2+ 60. Kb6
Although this does lead to victory, the killer move here was 60. Kd6!
61... Rc2+ 62. Kb4 Rb2+ 63. Kc3 Rb8 64. d8=Q Rxd8 65. Rxd8 would lead to a similar finish to the one that occurred in the game.
Unfortunately for Black, this pawn needed to be one rank nearer to promoting to save the game.
63... h4 64. Kd4 h3 65. Ke3 Kg3 66. Rg8+ Kh2 67. Kf2 Kh1 68. Kg3 h2 69. Rh8
Winning the pawn and the game, but in fact there was a mate in two with 69. Ra8 Kg1 70. Ra1#
1-0
Stephen Scannell
Game(s) in PGN