Hero H-Pawn: Analyzing My Highest Rated Tournament Win
I played the Marshall March Premier FIDE U2400 tournament and achieved my highest rated win so far, against a USCF expert.
The March Premier FIDE U2400 tournament is a dual USCF and FIDE rated tournament at the Marshall Chess Club. This was the final round 5 of the tournament. Eventually all the other boards would finish, leaving us the only players in the room.
Sveshnikov Transposition
The game started out as an Open French Sicilian turned into a Classical Sveshnikov.
Note that Black spent two moves on 7...e6-e5, and White in turn spent two tempi on 8.Bf4-Bg5. Hence, two moves were created magically out of thin air!
I opted for the 12. c4 line, and I used a Nepo - Magnus model game as my gameplan.
Nepo - Magnus
28. h5!? is the most critical position in the game. It attempts to sneak a pawn onto h6. However, I completely overlooked the opponent's tactical resource with 28...Bxc4!! The next section explores this complicated position in depth.
The Critical Position That Did Not Arise
Immediately after I played my move, I realized that the opponent might have the nasty tactic 28...Bxc4. The main point is that 28...Bxc4 29. bxc4 Nxc4 is a fork, leaving Black with two pawns and a rook for their bishop and knight.
The only candidate I considered here was 30. Qg5, in hopes of mating their king. I would need two moves (h6 and Qf6) to mate their king, and even then, Kf8 and there is no mate. Meanwhile, Black will push b3 as soon as possible, while White's knight attempts to sprint to the d5 outpost.
As it often occurs in chess, sometimes the most interesting lines are only in one's fantasies, when one or both players decide there is something too risky or wrong with it (and both players may avoid the line for entirely different reasons). The opponent played 28...Qe7, and the game continued.
Back To Game
After 29...Qe7, I decided I definitely needed to protect against Bxc4. I have to allow 29...gxh5, but luckily this is the pawn I can most afford to lose, as Black's resulting pawn structure would be damaged. Ironically, after 29...Qc7 30. h6, the h-pawn becomes a Hero Pawn that eventually wins the game.
Endgame: Hero H-Pawn
Can you see the winning tactic from here? Hint: It's not Rxf6+, which is both flashy and bad.
The rest of the game is trivial.