Mychal Rushwald, Garfield HS (1116) - Matt Schwede, Ferndale HS (1154)
Wa. State H.S. State Team Championship (Edmonds-Woodway HS), 03/01/2003
Round 5 [Notes by Matt Schwede]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3
Nc6 (Footnote by Mr. Kaech: This game was played in the final round of State. So it's for all the marbles! The outcome may determine who goes home with hardware, and who doesn't!) So far, the game is very basic, no twists
or turns.
3.Bb5 d6 I
play d6 so he doesn't win my pawn with his knight after my defender, the knight on c6, is taken by the
bishop.
4.Nc3 A simple development
move.
4...Bd7 Blocks the pin
of my knight to my king.
5.d3 Be7 Looks
fairly lame, but I needed to castle and protect the king's side now that he has that diagonal open to
his c1 bishop.
6.Be3 Nf6
7.Qd2 h6 With
the queen, the bishop, and knight all pointing towards the king's side (specifically g5) I became worried
he had a trick up his sleeve, and h6 seemed like a safe move.
8.
9.Ba4
10...exd4 11.Nxd4
b5 I liked b5 since it prevented him from
attacking my knight with two pieces (resulting in doubled pawns) and it kicked his bishop some more.
12.Bb3
Nxd4 13.Qxd4 ?
It was very foolish of him to take with the queen, not only because you shouldn't place your queen, a
very valuable piece, in the middle of a hairy situation but...
13...c5
14.Qd3 c4 ...by
placing his queen there, I was able to attack it, forcing him to move his queen somewhere, giving me
enough time to trap his bishop!
15.Bxc4 bxc4
16.Qxc4 Be6 17.Nd5 Nd5
is a very poor move, he's putting himself into a pin, I then try to attack his queen further.
17...Rc8
18.Nxf6+ Bxf6 Although
he got out of the pin, this is a beautiful position for myself, because my bishops are right next to
each other aimed towards the king, and my rook is aimed for the king too, and at the same time, my queen
has an abundance of space to move.
19.Qxa6 I
see no problem with losing that pawn, especially with the pressure I'm putting on the king.
19...Qc7
20.Rd2 Ra8 At
first look of this move, it looks good, because it's attacking the queen, but at second glance, it looks
bad because he has a free pawn d6! However, with Rd2, I realize that if I was to somehow place my rook
on a1, it would be checkmate since his rook and pawns block the king's only way out. So, if he goes
Qxd6, then I take a2 with my rook. Now you're screaming, "What are you doing?! You just lost a
queen!" but don't be foolish. As I mentioned earlier rook on a1 mates, right? So, he couldn't
take my queen anyway!
21.Qd3 Rxa2 Notice
that I can still check mate him with Ra1.
22.Rdd1 He
must stop mate, and he chose to with Rd1, a reasonable move.
22...Bxb2+ At
first glance of Bxb2, you think, "No Matt! You're losing your bishop!" but look closer. If
he goes Kb1 (what I hoped) I would check with rook a1. He then must take the bishop and I will check
him with Qb7 and if he would take the rook (otherwise, I skewer his king to his queen with Ra3) I would
whip my lonesome rook on f8 all the way over to a8 for checkmate.
23.Kd2
Bc3+ ?! Unfortunately, he did not move
Kb1. However, I still had hopes, and for some reason I thought that if I moved Bc3, he would be forced
to move Ke2 (???????) in which case I could pin his queen to his king with bishop c4. But of course it
didn't work out that way...
24.Qxc3 This
was a major blunder, but then again, I wasn't about to give up my hard thought attack. Look closely and
find that there are more attacks on the way.
24...Qxc3+
25.Kxc3 Rc8+ My
bishop blunder opened up his king for attack! Although we were even in material, the endgame was near
and looked to be in my favor.
26.Kd2 Rcxc2+ Why
not take with the a2 rook? Because he would've just moved Ke1 avoiding the attack and forcing me to reorganize
my pieces. Also, having "pigs on the seventh" didn't seem like a bad idea.
27.Ke1
Re2+ I wanted to keep the attack going,
so I checked him.
28.Kf1 Bc4 Bc4
in hope he didn't notice the discovered check, which is foolish of me, but it's worth a try!
29.Kg1
Bb3 At this point, I wasn't sure how to
get to his king, so I attacked the rook. Plus, after he moved the rook, I could place my a-rook in front
of his rook that he just moved, attacking it. If he took the rook that was placed in front of his rook
then I could checkmate on Re1!
30.Rb1 Rab2
31.Rxb2 Re1# With
a stroke of luck, he blundered, the plan went perfectly, I was the victor.
0-1