Welcome to my English Opening game 2 (ECO A14) with Chien Ming page!

On this page I have posted one my chess games in which I played the White side of the English Opening . The game includes analysis and diagrams. My opponent plays at ICC with the handle of fhunfi and he lives in Indonesia. This game started off as a Benko's Opening with 1.g3 and transposed into a Réti opening before transposing again into an English opening, Neo-Catalan declined. I lost my previous game to Chien Ming when I played the Black side of an English opening and this time I managed to draw by repetition of position. When the game was over my opponent made a comment about not trading into an endgame because he had hanging pawns. I think that White was slightly better at the point of the draw but I was willing to accept the draw against an opponent who is rated a little more than 500 points above me. This was a non rated practice game.

[Event "ICC 30 30 u"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2007.05.27"]

[Round "-"]

[White "OnGoldenPawn"]

[Black "fhunfi"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ICCResult "Game drawn by repetition"]

[WhiteElo "1518"]

[BlackElo "2037"]

[Opening "English: Neo-Catalan declined"]

[ECO "A14"]

[NIC "RE.09"]

[Time "00:16:31"]

[TimeControl "1800+30"]



1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 b6 7. Bb2 Bb7 8. d4

Nbd7 9. cxd5 exd5 10. Nbd2 Rc8 11. e3 c5 12. Rc1 Re8 13. Re1 Rc7 14. dxc5

bxc5 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Bd6 17. Bxd6 Qxd6 18. Rc2 Qe7 19. Nf3 Ne4 20. Nd2

Nf6 21. Nf3 Ne4 22. Nd2 Nf6 23. Nf3 Ne4 {Game drawn by repetition} 1/2-1/2

Online Chess Game
ICC
Game Played 27 May 2007
White: Mike Serovey (1518) Black: Chien Ming (2037)

1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nf3 Be7

English Opening after 4... Be7.

This game started off as a Benko's Opening with 1.g3 and transposed into a Réti opening which is what we have now. My later d4 on move 8 transposes it again into an English opening, Neo-Catalan declined. Throughout the rest of the game I tried to play this as a Réti opening.

5. O-O O-O 6. b3 b6 7. Bb2 Bb7 8. d4 Nbd7

English Opening after 8... Nbd7.

I'm not sure that d7 is the best square for Black's Queen Knight. The move makes sense if Black is planning to play pawn to c5, which he eventually does. With the double fianchettoed bishops and pawns on c4 and d4 White's most logical course of action is to attack in the Center. At this point I was considering playing an eventual e4, but I never got that move in.

9. cxd5 exd5 10. Nbd2 Rc8 11. e3 c5

English Opening after 11... c5.

If Black captures cxd4 I intended to recapture with the Bishop. That capture would leave Black with an isolated d pawn which I intended to target. I played my Rook to c1 because I didn't want Black to control the c file with his Rook after cxd4. I was also looking at dxc5 and didn't want Black's Rook left on c5 after the recapture.

12. Rc1 Re8 13. Re1 Rc7

English Opening after 13... Rc7.

I played 13. Re1 mainly because I didn't want my Rook on the diagonal after Black played Ba6. Black never played that move because he was more concerned about protecting the pawn at d5. I believe that Black's last move was a preface to doubling up on the c file and then playing c4. I captured on c5 now so that I would give Black 3 pawn islands and would make the pawns at c5 and d5 targets for me to attack. It was about this point in the game that I began to have a problem with getting disconnected from the ICC server. I got disconnected 3 or 4 times and had to reconnect in order to finish my adjourned game. At move 15 my opponent's clock ran down from about 20 minutes left to a negative amount of time left. I couldn't figure out why his clock kept running after reaching 0 time left. I then got disconnected and when I reconnected I got a message about an adjourned game. I clicked to resume the game and to my surprise my opponent had about 16 minutes left on his clock! I don't know what caused his clock to keep running on my user interface when he apparently was no longer connected!

14. dxc5 bxc5 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Bd6

English Opening after 16... Bd6.

Exchanging dark-squared bishops removes a defender from the pawn at c5. Leaving the Black Bishop at e7 and moving the Rook to c6 takes a defender off d5 and moving the Rook to c8 makes doubling on the c file impossible. So, Black's last move may have been best here. After exchanging bishops White wants to double up on the c file and win the c pawn, or at least to keep it from advancing to c4. Black's 18th move forces White to reconsider these plans.

17. Bxd6 Qxd6 18. Rc2 Qe7

English Opening after 18... Qe7.

I saw that if Black played d4 on his next move White cannot capture on d4 because of Qxe1+ winning a Rook. So, I played 19. Nf3 to guard the Rook at e1. I saw that after 19. Nf3 19... Ne4 was possible, and so did Black.

19. Nf3 Ne4 20. Nd2

English Opening after 20. Nd2.

I couldn't find anything better than playing the Knight back to d2 to challenge the Black Knight at e4. Black didn't want me to capture his Knight on e4 as the recapture with the d pawn would leave his c pawn isolated and the pawn at e4 could become a target. Black thought that it would be best to play his Knight back to f6 and threaten d4 again. This starts the repetition of position that lead to the draw. If Black had played 20... Nxd2 then 21. Rxd2 d4 22. Rde2 and now White can capture on d4.

Nf6 21. Nf3 Ne4 22. Nd2 Nf6 23. Nf3 Ne4 1/2-1/2

English Opening after 23... Ne4 (Final position).

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