Lawyer Times Is the New BCC Champion

Our new BCC Champion Lawyer Times agreed to share with us one of his championship games and his comments. Without further ado, here is his welcome contribution:


I'm choosing my last game of the tournament, played against Jonathan Yedidia. There are two particular reasons I am choosing this game:

1. It was the game that clinched the championship for me.
2. It has distinctive moves that separate it from any other game I've ever played.

Of course there are many other reasons I really love this game like the quality and character of my opponent on and off the chessboard but I will spare you the details. So on with the game.

NM Lawyer Times - IM Jonathan Yedidia
Dutch Defense
5 November 2012

1 d4 f5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 g3 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0

6 c3 A move seen not so much, but not without its bite.

6...e6 Jonathan must have prepared this move, for we had a recent game where he responded to c3 with ...a5, but perhaps he did not like how that opening turned out even though he did win that game.

7 c4 However, now this even more peculiar move of the same pawn. I do not think he prepared for it. Now he goes into a longer think. And c4 is the best move in this position because now Black is sort of mixing Dutch systems, the Leningrad with an apparent Stonewall Dutch.

7...d6 8 Nc3 Qe7 9 Qb3 Ne4 10 Rd1 Nc6 11 Be3 Nxc3 12 bxc3

12...Kh8 An unnecessary move, and actually a more dangerous square as we shall see later, but who wouldn't move their king out of an apparent upcoming pin.

13 Qa3 This move starts a pin on Black's queen that is long term.

13...Nd8 14 Rab1 Nf7 15 Ne5!

This is the star move. It's a move I'm really proud of. My Deep Rybka 4 does not even see this move for a long while; then when I put it in, it considers it the best move. It took me a while to find it over the board. The way I arrived at it was I looked at each piece of mine and compared it to its counterpart. I realized that every piece of White's was better than Black's. Also, I noticed that I was already in the middle game, rooks connected, and he could not similarly connect his own rooks for at least a few moves without loss of material. So I knew that the season for tactics was ripe. Jonathan admitted that he did not see this move coming and he responded:

15...Bxe5 If 15...Nxe5 then 16 dxe5 Bxe5. Then 17 Bxb7 and the a-pawn will likely fall soon or an infiltration on the rear ranks of Black.

16 dxe5 Nxe5 17 Bd4 c5

Jonathan offers a draw here. A draw would win him the championship and secure me second place. He was expecting 18 Bxe5 dxe5 19. Rb5 and that is what I planned going into this. But that line is in fact a bit drawish. So I looked for better and found:

18 f4! Another blow he did not see.

18...cxd4 19 fxe5 and the pin on the Black queen continues.

19....dxc3 20 exd6 Qg7

21 Rbc1 21 d7 also wins and may be even prettier, but why risk things, the championship is on the line. 21 Rbc1 is not only safer but better.

21...e5 22 Qxc3 Be6 Finally Black has connected his rooks and reached the middle game. But not so fast:

23 Bxb7 Qxb7 24 Qxe5+ Qg7 25 Qxe6 Rae8 26 Qd5 Rxe2 27 d7 Rd8 28 c5 Qh6 29 Qd4+ Kg8 30 Qc4+ 1-0

And there you have it, my first BCC Championship. I want to say that in the post game thoughts that Jonathan Yedidia was so gracious. What a true champion he is.

So as I like to say at the beginning of all my games, Good game to you. Good games to one and all in 2013.