Petroff - Under-Developed Knight leads to White win

My colleague, Simon recently played against a Petroff in our local chess league. This game demonstrates the use of tactics against an underdeveloped knight and reaffirms the truth in the adage that as a chess player you should always aim to "get the pieces out as early as possible!".  The threat of back rank mate became very difficult to deal with ... In Simon's words:

"The theme of the game was the fact that Black's b8 knight could not get developed and so he did not have sufficient force to defend against the tactics based on the threat of mate on the back rank. The lack of development theme continued right through to the ending, when my 24 Rc8 and 25 Bc6 enabled me to win even more material and finish a rook up".

Simon eventually won on time ...

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1 Bf5 9. Nc3 Nxc3 10. bxc3 Bg6 11. Rb1 b6 12. Bf4 Bd6 13. Bg5 Qd7 14. c4 dxc4 15. Bxc4 Qc6 16. Bd3 Qa4 17. Be7 Re8 18. Bb5 Qxc2 19. Qxc2 Bxc2 20. Bxd6 Re6 21. Rxe6 fxe6 22. Rc1 cxd6 23. Rxc2 Kf7 24. Rc8 h6 25. Bc6 Nxc6 26. Rxa8 a5 27. Rc8 Nb4 28. a3 Nd5 29. Kf1 Ke7 30. g3 g5 31. h3 Kf6 32. Ke2 h5 33. Kd3 g4 34. hxg4 hxg4 35. Nd2 e5 36. dxe5+ Kxe5 37. Nc4+ Ke6 38. Rg8 Nf6 39. Rg5 1-0

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/