Daniel Fernandez wins Marple Club Blitz with a 9-0 shutout - by Junior Tay

Back in his homebase of Manchester, IM Daniel Fenandez took part in a 9 round all play all FIDE rated blitz event at the Marple Chess Club and won all 9 games. This meant that his FIDE Blitz rating will definitely be in excess of his current FIDE rating of 2370.

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 Hasta La Blitz-ta, baby...

 Daniel sent readers the following game against 2nd seeded Alexander Longson which he described as "spectacular but completely unsound". We thought it would be good practice for readers to find not only the refutation, but also the mate in 5 which Daniel realised he missed only after the game.

 In NM Olimpiu Urcan's "A Killer Application", he wrote "...being creative involves a certain amount of courage. Experimenting. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy the games of Daniel Fernandez, the young Singaporean International Master. He’s a player who’s willing to experiment, to conduct advanced research on his own terms and come up with innovative ideas. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But that creativity vault only gets stronger". I think from the game, you can see Daniel's creativity at work....

White: IM Daniel H Fernandez (2370) Black: Alexander Longson (2283)
Marple Club Blitz (Fide Rated)
27 September 2012

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. a3

If Magnus Carlsen can play 1.a4 in tournament blitz and win , Daniel's 3.a3 isn't all that far fetched. Probably earned him a few seconds here. As to whether there's a practical point to this move, apart from Daniel, you can ask GM Artashes Minashin who has also employed it in tournament play. Anyway, Daniel has already punted this a few times in FIDE rated games on the English tourney circuit already.

3...Nf6

The one advantage that he can claim here is that he isn't forced to back off from the a2-g8 diagonal or to play the complicated sacrifice after 3... Na5 4. Bxf7+ (4. Ba2 +=) 4... Kxf7 5. Qh5+ Ke6 6. Qf5+ Kd6 7. d4 Kc6 8. Qxe5 Kb6 which can arise after 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.Na4 Bxf2

4. d3 Bc5 5. h3 O-O 6. Nf3 d6 7. c3 a6 8. Nbd2 Ba7 9. Qe2 Qe7 10. Bb3 Be6 11. Bc2 d5 12. Ng5 Bd7 13. Nf1 dxe4! 14. dxe4

It seems pretty unfair that White can just chuck a move like a3 into a standard Giuoco Pianissimo line and remain ok without completing development while Black does everything right and yet has to watch out for White's Kingside buildup (which he has potentially saved a move by moving Nf1-g3 without castling).
  
14...Ne8 

The catch is. Black has to repel the White pieces by14... h6! 15. Nf3 (15. h4 The best thing to do is to ignore the Knight and try to exploit White's slow buildup. Na5 ! 16. Ne3 Bxe3 17. Bxe3 Bb5 18. Qf3 Rfd8 =+) 15... Nh5! 16. g3 (16. g4 Nf4 17. Bxf4 exf4 18. O-O-O and Black is OK.) 16... Na5! 17. Ne3 Bxe3! 18. Bxe3 Bb5 19. Bd3 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 Rad8 21. Qe2 Qe6 with good control of the light squares for Black.)

15. Ng3 Nd6 16. Nf5 Bxf5 17. exf5 h6 18. Nh7? 

Daniel's imagination moves into overdrive as he works up a huge Kingside attack
18. Ne4 Nxf5 19. Qg4 Nd6 20. Nxd6 Qxd6 21. O-O with strong compensation for the pawn sacrifice.

18... Rfe8 19. f6 Qe6

So far, so good for Black. He calmly steps his pieces out of harm's way and is poised to cut communication lines for White after e5-e4. Daniel ups the ante with...

20. Bxh6?

The whole continuation is unsound. We invite readers to find the refutation to this sacrifice. (The answer is at the end of this game)

 20...gxf6??  

After the game, Daniel realised he missed a forced mating attack here. Can you find it? Answer is at the end of the game.


21. Qf3?! Kh8 

Satisfied with a clear edge, White goes for the ending

22. Qxf6+ 

22. Nxf6 e4 23. Qh5 Qxf6 24. Bg5+ Kg7 25. Bxf6+ Kxf6 26. O-O +-

22... Qxf6 23. Nxf6 Re6 24. Bg5 e4 25. O-O-O 

25. Nd5 Rc8 26. O-O +-

25... Kg7 26. Nd5 Rc8 27. Bf4 Bxf2 28. Nxc7 Rxc7 29. Rxd6 Rxd6 30. Bxd6 Rd7 31. Bf4 f5 

31... e3 32. Bd1 +=

32. g4 fxg4? 

Black's last chance is to play} 32... e3

33. Bxe4 

After this, White's double Bishops call the shots as he can liquidate into a clean won ending.

33...g3 34. Bxg3! Bxg3 35. Rg1 Kf6 36. Rxg3 Ke5 37. Bxc6 bxc6 38. h4 1-0 



a) Answer: Refutation after move 20.Bxh6??

20...gxh6 21.Qh5  e4 22. Qxh6 Bxf2! (Black needed this tempo to get the Queen to scurry back to the Kingside) Kxf2 23. Qf5+ followed by Qxh7.

If 23. Kf1 Qc4+ followed by Qf5+ and Qxh7 wins again.

If 23. Kd1 Nf5 stops the mate.


b) Answer: Forced mating contination

The forced mate is 21.Qg4+!! (trade Queens!) Qxg4 22.Nf6+ Kh8 23.hxg4 and Bf8 mate cannot be prevented.