Nothing Happened

In my second post-break game, pretty much nothing happened. My opponent decided to take the game into a pawn-down Queenless middle game where, presumably, he thought he would be okay. I decided to take the game into a pawn-up endgame, where I thought I would be okay...

perrypawnpusher - Edvardinho
blitz, FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

Standard Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5

Now 7...d6 would be Blackburne's Defense, and 7...Qe2 would be Whistler's Defense.

7...Bxf2+

There are 55 examples of this "calming variation" in the New Year's Database, with White scoring 71%. See "Jerome Gambit Strikes in Denmark!"

8.Kxf2 Qf6+ 9.Qxf6+ Nxf6

10.Nc3 Rf8 11.Rf1 Kg7 12.Kg1 d6 13.d3

13...Bg4 14.Bg5 Nd7 15.Rxf8 Rxf8 16.Rf1 Rxf1+ 17.Kxf1

17...Ne5 18.Kf2 Be6 19.h3 h6 20.Be3 c5 21.b3 a6 22.a4 g5

The pawn formations suggest that this will not be a prosaic Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame.

23.Nd5 Bxd5 24.exd5 Kf6 25.d4 Nd7 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Bxc5 dxc5 28.c4 Ke5

It's only one extra pawn, but it will be enough.

29.Ke3 b5 30.axb5 axb5 31.g3 bxc4 32.bxc4 h5 33.g4 h4

34.Kd3 Kd6 35.Ke4 Kc7 36.Kf5 Kd6 37.Kxg5 Ke5 38.Kxh4 Kd4

39.d6 Kxc4 40.d7 Kc3 41.d8Q c4 42.Qd1 Black resigned

It is hard to tell from this game if I have made any progress. The danger is that in such situations I tend to allow the game to "play itself" and that leads to overlooking important tactics for both players.

grapic by Jeff Bucchino, the Wizard of Draws