Malcolm Pyke Wins MCC

Congratulations to Malcolm Pyke for winning this year's Melbourne Chess Club Championships. He topped the event on 8 points, just ahead of IM Guy West, who finished on 7.5, Carl Gorka on 6 points, as well as a few others who all ended their run with 5 points.

I requested the champ for an annotated game and he gladly agreed. Here is his win over local legend Douglas Hamilton in the penultimate round. I hope you all enjoy this one. Thank you Malcolm!

Annotations by Malcolm Pyke
2008 Melbourne Chess Club Championships
Pyke, Malcolm
Hamilton, Douglas
D48

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 a6 9. O-O c5 10. a4

After 10. a4

10...b4 11. Nb1 Bb7 12. Nbd2 Be7 13. Qe2 O-O 14. Rd1 Qc7 15. Nc4 (15. b3 cxd4 16. Nxd4 Nc5 17. Bc4 Qe5 18. Bb2 Qh5 19. Qxh5 Nxh5 20. f3 Nf6 21. e4 Rfd8 22. Nf1 Nfd7 23. Ne3 Ne5 24. Be2 Nc6 25. Nxc6 Bxc6 26. Bc4 a5 27. Rxd8+ Rxd8 28. Rd1 Rxd1+ 29. Nxd1 Kf8 30. Kf2 f6 31. Ne3 Bd6 32. h3 Ke7 33. Ke2 h5 1/2-1/2 Teichmann,R-Berger,J / Karlsbad 1907/HCL) 15... Rfd8 (15... Be4 16. Bd2 Bxd3 17. Qxd3 cxd4 18. exd4 Nb6 19. Rdc1 Nxc4 20. Rxc4 Qb7 21. Rac1 Nd5 22. b3 Bf6 23. Qe4 Qb6 24. h3 Rfd8 25. Rc5 h6 26. R1c4 Rab8 27. Qg4 Kf8 28. Be3 Qb7 29. Bd2 Qb6 30. Qh5 Kg8 31. h4 Qb7 32. Qg4 Kh8 33. Kh1 Qb6 34. Qh5 Kg8 35. Ne5 Bxe5 36. dxe5 Ne7 37. Be3 Ng6 38. Qg4 Kh8 39. h5 Nf8 40. Rc7 Qa5 41. R4c5 Qb6 {1-0 Pinter,J-Luther,T/Recklinghausen 1998/CBM 067) 16. a5 Qc6 (16... Be4 17. b3 1/2-1/2 Kharitonov,A-Khalifman,A/Moscow 1992/EXT 1997) 17. Bd2 (17. b3 Nd5 18. Bb2 cxd4 19. exd4 Nc3 20. Bxc3 bxc3 21. Rac1 Bb4) 17... Ne4 18. Nce5 (18.Nfe5 Qd5 (18... Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Qc7) 19. Be1 (19. f3 Nxd2 20. Rxd2 cxd4 21. exd4 Qxd4+ 22. Kh1 Qh4) 19... Nc3 20. Qf1 Nxd1) 18... Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Qc7 (19... Qd6) 20. Be1

After 20. Be1

20...f6 This can't be right, and was also the product of about 15+ minutes thought (20... cxd4 21. exd4 Rxd4 22. Nf3) 21. Nf3 Qc6 22. Qf1 Rac8 23. Rdc1 (23. Rac1 Qa4) 23... Qd6 24. Bc4 probably Doug should play king to h8 around here somewhere Qc6 25. Bb3 Qd7 26. Rd1 Bd6 27. Rac1 Doug has now used up most of his time, I have about 30 minutes Qe7 28. Bc4 Ra8 29. dxc5 Bxc5 (29... Nxc5 30. Bxb4 Bxf3 31. gxf3 Qb7 32. Rxd6) 30. Rxd8+ was this cashing in too early? it is hard to say, but it felt good to win that pawn, and to now have a passed pawn 30...Rxd8 31. Bxa6 Ba8 32. Bc4 g5 strongly threatening to embarass my knight and my king 33. Qe2 to enable the move Nd2 33...Kg7 to avoid Bxe6 being check 34. Nd2 all the same, making preparations for the coming attack on g2 Qb7 35. Ba6 a hard move to play because of a bit of nerves about the checkmating ideas, it does however open the Rc1 against the Bc5 though which now requires care in a move or so 35...Qd5 (35... Nc3 36. Qf1 was essential to see, this was not the first time this theme had cropped up. though) 36. Nxe4 Qxe4 37. Qf1 retreating again but still holding nicely..... and the pawn too ! 37...Be7 (37...Bxe3 38. fxe3 Qxe3+ comes unstuck against 39. Bf2 and Black seems to just be a piece down) 38. Be2 to cover d1 and aiming for both Bf3 and Rc4, aiming to get rid of the Ba8 or the b4 pawn 38...g4 this gifts me another pawn 39. Rc4 Qd5 40. Rxg4+ seems ok to take this with check and defend g2 again 40...Kh8 maybe the king would have fared better on f7

After 40...Kh8

41. a6 and this pawn becomes even stronger (41. Bxb4 Bxb4 42. Rxb4 Qxa5 and I am still two pawns up but the a pawn being captured complicates things) 41... Qb3 after my initial nerves about losing the b-pawn and Doug's b-pawn being passed, I realised that there were checkmating ideas around g8, which I now set out to explore 42. Bc4 Qxb2 43. Bxe6 the point was that I had intially been quite concerned about my rubbish bishop on e1 and ideas of say Rd1 and then either pinning it more or shifting back to checkmating ideas on g2 and planning to decoy my queen via Rxe1 43...Qe5 Doug was determined to attack my position throughout the game, and again he comes back for another wave 44. Bb3 blockading the pawn, allowing for Qf1-c4 44...Bd6 threatening mate on h2. g2-g3 to stop it seems rubbish.....I hadn't seen Rh4 to guard for some reason I now find hard to understand, but as letting the pawn go only got Doug a couple of checks and then I was back in the driver's seat well and truly made the decision easy 45. Qc4 Qxh2+ 46. Kf1 Qh1+ 47. Ke2 Qh5 48. f3 All this was seen when I gave up the pawn, and I was pretty sure that it had to be all engines back now for Doug 48...Qe8 49. Bxb4 I was still glad to see that one disappear 49...Be5 (49... Rc8 50. Bxd6 (50. Qxc8 Qxc8 51. Bxd6 Qxa6+ 52. Bc4 is also over) 50... Rxc4 51. Bxc4 is similar to the game) (49... Bd5 50. Qxd5 Bxb4 51. Rxb4 Rxd5 52. Bxd5 and I was pretty sure I was winning) 50. Bc3 Bd5 (50... Rc8 51. Bxe5 fxe5 (51... Rxc4 52. Bxf6#) 52. Qe6 seems clearly winning) 51. Qb4 given that her of us had a lot of time left, the play was quite scrappy over the proceeding moves 51...Rb8

After 51. ...Rb8

52. Bxd5 out of necessity I had to play this but it was all good, as it was the best moves anyway and it also shortened the game, well finished it really Rxb4 53. Bxb4 Bb8 (53... Qb5+ 54. Bc4 Qe8 55. a7 and I win instantly) 54. Rg8+ (54. Bc3 h5 55. Rg8+ Qxg8 56. Bxg8 Kxg8 57. Bxf6 is to all extents and purposes what all endgames will be like from here, but it would have won the pawn sooner, but after a grueling game, it felt good to take the simple path and exchange down to a completely won endgame, without worrying about finesses such as this} 54... Qxg8 55. Bxg8 Kxg8 56. Bc3 the bishop goes to d4, and then a6-a7 wins the Bb8, and there is no chance of a draw with the pawns in any way really. 1-0