On Razor’s Edge in the London System | Road to GM, Game 31

R. Portada (1680 ELO) vs S. Tomic (1866 ELO), London System
5th Croatian Chess League, Rd. 7, 10/07/18

I played a proper gentleman in round 7 of the league. It was a real pleasure (after having faced numerous players who shouldn’t even be allowed to sit at a chess board). We entered a theoretical London System and I went badly wrong out of the opening.

In a position in which white could either castle or strike on the kingside with g4 (attacking black’s castled king), my opponent went for the latter.

I panicked, and made room for my bishop with h6 before that (and calculated what I though were all the critical lines). This gave Mr. Portada a clear path to crashing through to my king. It was unclear whether my defense was viable or not, but I managed to defend successfully after all. He made two slow moves and lost the initiative.

We ended up entering a middlegame much more favorable for me that I could have imagined after the opening. He had a dead bishop stuck behind his pawns and a worse pawn structure. Along with that, there was no longer a way for him to break through to my king. Everything was blocked, my king was safe, and I got a chance to create threats myself. I ended up winning with a tactical d4, expliting his undefended pieces and weak back rank. A super interesting game (which I should’ve lost)!

Game moves:

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 Bf5 4. e3 e6
5. Nbd2 Bd6 6. Ne5 O-O 7. Be2 h6 8. g4 Bh7
9. h4 Bxe5 10. dxe5 Nfd7 11. g5 hxg5 12. hxg5 Nc6
13. Bd3 Bg6 14. Nf3 Nc5 15. Bxg6 fxg6 16. Nh4 Ne7
17. Qg4 Kf7 18. O-O-O Qd7 19. Bg3 Rad8 20. Rd4 Rh8
21. Rh2 Qc6 22. Kb1 a5 23. Ng2 Rxh2 24. Bxh2 Rh8
25. Nh4 Nf5 26. Rf4 d4 27. e4 Nxe4 28. Nf3 Nxf2

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