A Worthy Draw

Post date: Jun 23, 2010 2:10:58 AM

Jeff Spyrison and I battled to a draw at Barnes & Noble. Jeff is a notable local Scrabble player whose interest in chess has been recently rekindled. Jeff studies "mate in 3" and "mate in 4" puzzles every day, consults opening books, reviews Chessmaster material, and is showing great improvement. If this chess game was a baseball game, it might have been "called or drawn on account of darkness", since we had played for an hour and Jeff had to be somewhere in ten minutes, but the position was generally even. Jeff thought I had an advantage, but Jeff places too much confidence in my ability!

JOHN DEVRIES vs JEFF SPYRISON

Casual Chess Game, 06-21-2010

Waco Tx - Barnes & Noble

WHITE (DeVries) BLACK (Spyrison)

-1- e4 c5

-2- Nf3 g6

Black's second move is a novelty to me.

-3- Bc4 Bg7

-4- c3 d6

-5- h3 Nf6

-6- d3 0 - 0

-7- 0 - 0 Nc6

-8- Bg5 a6

-9- QNd2 b5

-10- Bb3 a5

-11- a4 Ne5

-12- N x N P x N

Black has a mostly open file for its Queen,

but the Bishop on g7 is obstructed.

-13- Qc2 Ba6

-14- Re1 Qb6

-15- P x P B x P

-16- c4 Bc6

-17- Ba4 KRc8

-18- B x B R x B

-19- Nf3 Rd8

-20- N x P R on c6 to d6

-21- QRd1 h6

-22- Bf4 Re6

-23- Nf3 Nh5

-24- Bc1 Qc7

-25- b3 Ra6

-26- Bb2 Nf4

-27- B x B K x B

-28- Qc3 check Kh7

-29- Qe5 Q x Q

-30- N x Q f6

I am happy that we exchanged queens.

-31- Nf3 R x P

-32- R x R N x R

-33- Rd1 Nf4

-34- Rd7 Re6

-35- Nd2 g6

-36- f3 h5

-37- Nf1 Ng6

-38- Ne3 Rb6

-39- Nf5 R x P

-40- N x P Nf4

-41- Nd5 Kg6

Jeff thought White should have moved Nf5 on Move 41.

-42- N x N P x N

-43- Ra7 Rc3

-44- R x P on a5 R x P on c4

-45- h4

**********DRAW***********