Shortly Thereafter

Uroš Petakov – Sergio Mariotti
16th European Senior Team Chess Championship; Novi Sad, June 25, 2017
Queen’s Pawn Game D02

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bd3 Bxf4 6. exf4 Qd6 7. Qd2 c5 8. dxc5 Qxc5 9. 0-0 0-0. An older try is 9. ... Nc6 10. c3 (Emanuel Lasker recommended instead 10. Nc3 followed by the deployment of the Rooks) 10. ... 0-0 11. b4 Qb6 12. a4 a6 13. a5 Qc7 14. Re1 Rb8 15. Ne5 b6 16. axb6 Rxb6 17. Qe2 d4 18. b5 axb5 19. Bxb5 Nxe5 20. fxe5 Nd5 21. cxd4? (it could have been a fatal step. As Lasker pointed out, after 21. c4 the Black d-Pawn would have been doomed anyway, sooner or later, with no risk for White) 21. ... Nf4 22. Qe4 Nh3+ 23. gxh3 Rxb5 24. Na3 Rb3 25. Rac1 (Tartakower – Spielmann, Saint Petersburg 1909) and now, according to analysis by Erich Cohn and Spielmann himself, 25. ... Qe7 should have won for Black. 10. Rc1 Nc6 11. a3 Rd8 12. Nc3

12. ... Ne4? In spite of time passed, Mariotti keeps playing gamble, like in his youth blitz games, which very often took him all night long. The text offers a Pawn sacrifice for nothing but trouble, but, from a psychological viewpoint, it will work perfectly. Objectively speaking, Black should have played soundly something like 12. ... Bd7, followed by ... Ra8-c8 and eventually ... Bd7-e8. 13. Qe3? There’s no reason why White refuses to accept the Pawn, except for ghosts. So now Black cannot but equalise with the certainty of an inevitable draw in sight. 13. ... Qxe3 14. fxe3 Nxc3 15. bxc3 Na5 16. Nd2 b6 17. Nb3 Nxb3 18. cxb3 Bb7 19. Kf2 Kf8 20. Ke2 g6 21. g4 ½ : ½.