An emphatic win with a breathtaking rook sac!

My favourite game of late is between an old chess colleague of mine, Steve Milford and a player from his local league who is at least 10 or 15 BCF grading points above him. The opening is E60 — King's Indian: 3.g3. This is a very emphatic win for Steve with a breath-taking Rook sac on move 29! He kindly agreed to annotate this game for us ... Enjoy!

As usual, any comments welcome ...

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nf3 d6 ( 5... d5 Would be the Grunfeld defence -fianchetto variation. 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Nc3 Nb6 8. Bf4 for example. ) 6. O-O c5 This took me by surprise a little to be honest. Its a perfectly good move but I had only considered ...Nbd7 and ...Nc6 7. Nc3 7. d5 is also fine here but I wanted to keep a little tension in the position. 7...  a6 Again I had been looking at ...Nc6 which might lead to a line like.... ( 7... Nc6 8. d5 Na5 9. Nd2 e5 10. e4 = This is probably about equal: I have more space in the centre but my pieces are a little cramped and black has the option to play on the kingside with an eventual ...f5 or on the queenside with. ..a6 ...Rb8 and ...b5 etc. ) 8. Bg5!? The usual move as Fritz tells me is 8.dxc5. For example... ( 8. dxc5 dxc5 9. Be3 Qxd1 10. Rfxd1 b6 11. Ne5 +/- and white is doing well here. My Bg5 move was simply aimed at getting another piece out and hopefully making my opponent think about a plan with Qd2 and Bh6. ) 8...  Nbd7 9. Rc1 Rb8 10. Qd2 Qa5?! Black continues to play on the queenside but this move is a slight mistake. The queen is now a little exposed and allows a theme which is common in other openings such as the Sicilian Dragon. 11. Nd5! This hits the queen and the e7 pawn and forces the queen to return to d8. White has effectively been allowed to play Nd5 for free. 11...  Qd8 ( 11... Qxd2? 12. Nxe7+ Kh8 13. Nxd2 cxd4 14. Bf4 Ne5 15. c5 With a big advantage to white. ) 12. dxc5 Nxd5 13. cxd5 Nxc5 14. Nd4!? Fritz doesnt agree but I like this move as the knight stops any ...b5 ideas and takes up a good position in the centre of the board. ( 14. Be3 Ne4 15. Qb4 Is still good for White ) 14...  Qb6 15. Rfd1 15. b4! is stronger but my move is still ok. ( 15. b4 Nd7 16. Be3 Qd8 17. Rfd1 +/- ) 15...  Re8 16. Be3 a5 17. Nb3 Qb4? At the time I thought Id just be winning a pawn....but there would still be a lot of work to do...and plenty of chances for me to almost blow it! 17...Nxb3 was a move I looked at for Black but I liked my chances after... ( 17... Nxb3 18. Bxb6 Nxd2 19. Rxd2 ) 18. Nxa5? The wrong pawn! The way to play was... ( 18. Nxc5 dxc5 19. Rxc5 Qxb2 20. Qxb2 Bxb2 21. Rxa5 +- ) 18...  Qb5? Im let off the hook but... ( 18... Qxb2! 19. Bxc5 Qxd2 20. Rxd2 dxc5 21. Rxc5 Bf5 22. Nb3 still looks better for White ) 19. Bxc5 dxc5 20. Nc4 Qa6 Hitting the a2 pawn and potentially the e2 pawn about which I totally forgot 21. b3 Ra8 22. d6!? I thought I had an advantage in terms of my active pieces so I wanted to open up the position before my opponent could get fully developed and utilise his 2 bishops. 22...  exd6 23. Nxd6 Rxe2 This would not have been possible without the Queen on a6 as mentioned earlier. Question is: would I have gone in for this plan with d6 had I remembered about the e2 pawn? Im honestly not sure.....it suddenly looks a little scary for White with a rook on the 2nd. 24. Qf4 Be6? This looks like a perfectly logical move - it develops a piece and defends f7. But is also has a major drawback.... 25. Bxb7 The b7 pawn is no longer protected. 25...  Qxa2 26. Bxa8 Qxa8 27. Rxc5 Bh3 I was suddenly a bit worried here as my light sqaures look very weak and the Rook is still on e2 gazing menacingly at my king position. Whilst it may be pretty comforting to see in the post-mortem that Fritz gives this position as over +4 for White Fritz is never there when you need it most......!! 28. Qxf7+ Kh8 I took about 20 mins over my next move. 29. Qd5 would keep a huge advange stop the mate on g2 and defend all the weak squares in my camp....but I had a rush of blood to the head and saw something rather pretty! 29. Rc8+!? A blockading sacrifice with the idea of opening up the 8th rank to my pieces. 29...  Bxc8 Id totally missed this!! A couple of minutes after I saw that... ( 29... Qxc8 30. Nxc8 Bxc8 31. Rd8+ Wins ) 30. Ne8 Threatening mate on g7. 30...  Bh6? This loses quickly but I almost had a panic attack when I saw that Black could in fact play... ( 30... Qb7 Id totally missed this!! A couple of minutes after I saw that... 31. Nc7 Is still winning due to the threat of Rd8. More by luck that judgement Im afraid - so I cant feel too smug about my Rc8 idea. Lets hope that fortune continues to favour the brave (or reckless!) ) ( 30... Bc3 31. Qf8# ) 31. Nf6! This was the whole idea of the rook sacrifice so Im glad to have been able to play this. There is no defence to both the mate threats (Qxh7# and Qg8#) 1-0

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