Jerome Gambit: The Return of Cliff Hardy (Part 2)

 

[continued from the previous post]

The main comments are by Cliff, additions in blue are by me - Rick.

Cliff Hardy (2478) - GM Martin Kraemer (2895)

10 0 rapid, Lichess, 2023

14.Nd5+ Kd8

Aww! He saw that 14...Nxd5?? would lose to 15.Qxh5 but I guess that's to be expected with a GM.

15.Qxh5

I thought there was no point in trying to keep the queens on for an attack, since 15.Qg3 Qg4 would make it impossible for me to avoid a queen swap anyway.

15...Nxh5 16.Bg5+ Kd7 17.g4

Since the knight on h5 is lacking an ideal square to go to, I still have some initiative for my sacrificed piece.

17...h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.gxh5 gxh4 

20.c3 c6 21.Nf4 Be3 22.Ng6 Re8 23.Ke2 

Development and King safety here are more important than grabbing an offside pawn with 23...Nxh4.

23...Bg5 24.Raf1 Kc7 25.Rf7+ Kb6 26.Rhf1?!

With the GM down to under a minute left on his clock (52 seconds, in fact), I tried to play a bit too quickly here and missed the possibility of his coming bishop check. 26.Rg1, to prevent 26...Bg4+, was superior.

26...Bg4+ 27.Ke1 Bxh5 28.Rg7 Rg8 29.Rxg8 Rxg8 30.Nf4 Bxf4 31.Rxf4 Rg4 

GM Kraemer smoothly goes about exchanging pieces.-Rick

32.Rf2 h3 33.b4 Rg1+ 34.Kd2 Rg2 35.Ke3 Kb5??

A lesson here. Just before this move, I got a bit depressed because with rooks about to come off the board, I thought the simplified position would make it easy for him to blitz the win out, even though he only has about 26 seconds left on his clock to my 1 minute and 59 seconds left. But when he didn't play 35...Rxf2, I was startled back into action and made sure to move my rook away.

[to be continued]