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Game from the NH team highschool championship

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:47 pm
by beezaman
this is a game i played last year in the NH Team HS Championships...thanx for looking and commenting :D

White: Justin Elkherj (1182)
Black: Steven Abrahams (1177)
Final Round of NH High School Team Championships New Hampton, 17.04.2004.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 d6 5.0–0 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.c3 Nf6 8.b4 Bb6 9.a4 a5 10.b5 Ne7 11.g4 Nxg4 12.hxg4 Bxg4 13.Bxf7+ Kf8 14.Bd5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Qf6 16.Nbd2 Qg6 17.Nh4 Qh5 18.Ndf3 h6 19.Kg2 g5 20.Rh1 gxh4 21.Rxh4 Bxf3+? 22.Qxf3+ Qxf3+ 23.Kxf3 Ke7 24.Rxh6 Rhf8+ 25.Kg2 Rxf2+ 26.Kg3 Rg8+ 27.Kh3 Rg1 28.Rh7+ Kf6 29.Rh6+ Kg7 30.d4 Rxc1 31.Rxc1 Kxh6 32.Rg1 exd4 33.cxd4 Bxd4–+ 0–1.

tell me what you think, Steve

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:49 am
by gmiller
The biggest thing I would have changed if I were white would be to play 17.Kg2 which gives white at least a couple of moves to defend any attacks. In general I think white's problem was attacking after black's knight sack, when he should have been protecting his king. White also could have played 5.Ng5, or 5.h3 rather than castling into an unsafe position, and he should have never played 11.g4 as dealing with the weakened kingside is worse than dealing with the pin. Bxf7 really just opened up a line for black's rooks which could have been usful had he survived the kingside attack longer. And 24.Bxh6 is (obviously) much better than 24.Rxh6 which would have prevented the problems white later experienced. 25.Kg2 just allowed black to gain a tempo, had he played 25.Kg3 he'd be in the same position but with his turn to move. From here black clearly has the advantage, but the final mistake was the rook checks which only helped black's position, but there's little white could have done anyway.

I think black's only problems were not preventing (the unplayed) 5.Ng5 [fried liver attack]. To prevent/defend against it black should have played 4...Nf6 rather than d6. And the knight sack was just a gamble that happened to pay off because white decided to attack rather than defend. 21.Qg6 (followed by h5 at some point) was probably better than trading all of the kingside pieces off. Black had an attack going but just threw it all away.