A Special Game with a story

The game I'm showcasing here was played by me (with white) a long time ago. I didn't have access to modern engines at the time. The closest thing I had to a modern engine was the chess program that the following game was played against.

It was a little chess program that came with a preloaded Sega Genesis that a friend of mine loaned me at the time. It wasn't AlphaZero or Deep Blue or anything, but it was still a computer (and thus very annoying). The rare times I actually managed to beat the computer, I recorded the games by hand in a little notebook. The following is one of those games:

1.e4 c5; 2.Nf3 d6; 3.d4

I'm not a fan of the Moscow variation, from either side of the board.

3...cxd4; 4.Nxd4 Nf6; 5.Nc3 a6; 6.Bg5

My preferred line against the Najdorf.

6...e6; 7.f4 Qb6; 8.Qd2

Yes, I really am crazy enough to play a Najdorf Poisoned Pawn against a computer (from either side of the board). The safe 8.Nb3 just doesn't appeal to me.

8...Qxb2; 9.Rb1 Qa3; 10.f5 Nc6; 11. fxe6 fxe6; 12.Nxc6 bxc6; 13.e5 Nd5;

This old line has been almost entirely replaced with 13...dxe5, but a few people play it every once and a while for surprise value.

14.Nxd5 cxd5; 15.Be2 dxe5; 16. O-O Ra7; 17.c4 Bc5+?;

Up until this move by Black, the game has been all opening theory. The only theory I had access to on this position at the time was the analysis that was published (mentioned would be a better term) by Eric Schiller in his book "Standard Chess Openings, 2nd Ed." That analysis ran 17...Qc5+; 18.Kh1 d4; 19.Bh5+ g6; 20.Bd1 Be7; 21.Ba4+ etc. (he mentioned this while annotating Fishcer - Geller, Monte Carlo, 1967).

I had to look at the position very carefully. Aside from the queen appearing to be loose, Black's king was also looking to be very vulnerable (it's stranded in the center and his defenders are either undeveloped or far away towards the queenside).

My nerves started kicking in, and I decided to try to exploit Black's loose queen in order to coordinate an attack on the king.

18.Kh1 d4; 19.Rf3 Qa4; 20.Rbf1?

I was literally seeing blood at this point. Between bloodlust for the enemy king and my nerves being shot, I missed the obvious 20.Bd1! Qxc4; 21.Qa5! and Black will not be able to save the game.

20...e4; 21.Rf4 e3;

I was kicking myself here. I thought I was dead lost after having built a decent advantage, because computers (even weaker ones) are notorious for winning positions exactly like the one Black has here, and I had been on the receiving end of those beatings more than once.

So I decided to make one final thrust.

22.Bh5+ g6;

Well, it was now or never

23.Rxd4 Bd6??

The computer cracked here, apparently shocked by White's 23rd move. I later found out, through a modern engine, that I could've played Rxd4 one move earlier.

24.Rxd6 Qd7;

I have no idea what the computer was thinking here. Mate is forced, beginning with 25.Rxe6+.

25.Rxd7?

I wasn't in any shape to try to calculate a mate. I was happy to simply take the queen and grind out a technical win. The rest of the game I provide without comment. By the way, due to a curious programming fault, the computer was not capable of resignation.

25...Rxd7; 26.Qxe3 Rf7; 27. Rxf7 Kxf7; 28.Qf4+ Ke8; 29.Qf6 Kd7; 30.Bf3 Re8; 31.Qd4+ Kc7; 32.Qc5+ Kb8; 33.Qb6+ Bb7; 34.Qxb7#

I was so proud of this game for the longest time. And then Stockfish got ahold of it... *sigh*....

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it!