Informant Annotations

I am working my way through the games in Chess Informant 113, which was published one year ago. Game 113/49 started as a Maróczy Bind against the Accelerated Dragon. White then played an aggressive kingside pawn storm. The game beacame complicated, and I found it intimidating to understand some of the variations. Consequently, I chose to spend more time on the game, working thorough each of the variations.

This position in the diagram below appears to be critical. White had chances for a winning advantage after a minor piece sacrifice but seems to have missed the strongest continuation. White, IM Bryan G. Smith, lost the game and annotated it for Informant. His comments make liberal use of the Informant signs, offering instructive and entertaining examination of what might have happened.

White to move

Smith played 23.Bf3, which he marked as dubious. He suggested Qh4 as a strong move that gave him excellent chances for advantage. Smith's presentation of the lines that might have been played is the sort of feature that makes Chess Informant worthy of its cost.

After the game's continuation: 23...Bxc4 24.Qh4 Nd7 25.b3 Qc5+ 26.Rf2 Be6, we reach a position where Smith marked his move as a blunder.

White to move

Smith played 27.Bg4.

In the annotations, he suggested two alternatives: 27.Bg7, where one line gives him a draw; and 27.f5 leading to clear advantage for White.

After 27...Bxg4 28.Qxg4 e6, Black had a decisive advantage according to Smith.

The game went on to move 44. The heart of the game, however, is found in Smith's annotations of the fifteen moves that follow from his novelty on move 13.