Stopp’t-Clock Yard

卢尚磊 (Lú Shànglěi) – 韦奕 (Wéi Yì)
64th Chinese Chess Championship; 兴化 (Xīnghuà), May 29, 2015
Sicilian Defence B30

1. Nc3 c5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Nf3 g6 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. a3 e6 7. h4!? Naïve. The “book” line is 7. 0-0 Nge7 8. Ba2 0-0 9. Be3 Nd4 as in the game Zander – Schlage, 22nd DSB Kongress, Bad Oeynhausen 1922. 7. ... Nf6 8. Ba2 a6 9. Ne2 b5 10. Ng3 h6 11. c3 Bb7 12. d4 Qb6 13. 0-0 0-0-0? 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) imprudently castles on the opposite wing, when Black’s Kingside Pawns are a sitting target as well as His Majesty on the Queenside! It would have been safer to castle on the Kingside: 13. ... 0-0 as 14. h5 g5 15. d5!? leads to interesting complications. 14. a4 d5 15. axb5 axb5 16. e5 Ne4 17. Be3 Nxg3 18. fxg3 c4 19. Qd2 Kc7 20. Nh2 Rd7 21. Rae1 b4 22. Bb1 Kc8 23. Rf3 b3. Black’s King is now quite safe. 卢尚磊 (Lú Shànglěi) thus will break up Black’s Kingside. It should be noted that White’s Bishop pair is immensely stronger than Black’s one. 24. Ref1 Nd8 25. R3f2 Bc6 26. Ng4 h5 27. Bh6! A timely solution! 27. ... Bxh6 28. Nxh6 Rh7 29. Qg5 Ra7

30. g4! hxg4 31. h5! White plays the termination very energetically. 31. ... g3 32. Rf6 Be8 33. hxg6 fxg6 34. Rf8 Qc6 35. Ng8 Rhg7 36. Nf6 Rae7 37. Qh6! 1 : 0. 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) has been literally squeezed up!

卢尚磊 (Lú Shànglěi)
Photo: qipai.org.cn