Last night, I played my penultimate game in this season’s club championship. I was up against Phil Stimpson with the black pieces. The game ended up as a draw, following some adventures.
The game started with an offbeat queen’s pawn opening. In the early middle game, I made a tactical miscalculation, but my opponent did not respond in the best way, allowing me to reach a winning endgame. Rather than face a bad position a pawn down, my opponent decided to sacrifice a piece, in order to leave himself with two pawns for it and make his position hard to break down. I missed some chances in the resultant endgame, and my attempt to gain some chances by returning the piece did not yield more than a drawn rook and pawn endgame.
I give the game below with some notes.