This week's GOTW was played two days ago at the Père-Noël (Santa Claus) tournament in Montreal, organized by the Montreal chess club (associated with CMA).
This game features aggressive play from both players and although both made quite a lot of mistakes, which is understandable in such complex positions, there is a lot to learn from the game. White quickly got an edge and could have used it to slowly squeeze its opponent, but unfortunately missed a few good opportunities.
[Event "Pere Noel"]
[Site "Montreal CAN"]
[Date "2014.12.26"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Simard, Francois"]
[Black "Clyde, Jordan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A41"]
[WhiteElo "1872"]
[BlackElo "2130"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2014.12.26"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
1. d4 d6 {A flexible move that can lead to many well-known variations. However,
Black must be ready to face 2.e4, leading to a Pirc Defense.} 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bg5
Bg7 4. Qd2 {It seems like White hopes to launch a quick attack, as we often
see in similar setups. It is frequent to see such a move in a blitz game, where
White will play Bg5, Qd2 and then h4, h5. While this may work in blitz games,
it is often a big loss of time with a regular time control against a strong
expert.} (4. e4 {could have lead to a Sicilian defense} c5 5. Nc3 cxd4 6. Nxd4)
4... c5 {Black starts contesting the center, leaving no time to White to
launch an attack.} 5. c3 Qb6 6. e4 Nc6 $6 ({Perhaps better was to play Nf6
first, in order to force White to play Bd3.} 6... Nf6 7. Bd3 (7. dxc5 Qxc5)
7... Nc6 8. d5 Na5 {And now Black may play c4 in a near future, hence
justyfing moving the knight to a5 instead of d8.}) 7. d5 Nd8 $2 {Surely this
cannot have been what Black was hoping for.} ({Better would have been} 7... Na5
8. Na3 Bd7 9. Bd3 Qc7) 8. Na3 a6 {White now has a very strong position. It can
develop his pieces or even chase the Black queen away.} 9. h3 $6 {It was
definitely not the good time for a prophylactic move...} (9. Nc4 Qc7 10. a4 Nf6
11. Bd3 {And White is dominating}) 9... Qc7 10. Bd3 b5 11. Rc1 $2 {It may seem
like a logical move to place the rook on the queen's file, but it's hard to
see a sequence of moves where this would actualy prove to be useful. Black
will not play b4, as this would free the c4 square for White.} (11. O-O Nf6 12.
c4 b4 13. Nc2 {And White has a very promising position. Black has very little
play on the queen's side, and White has all its pieces positionned towards the
king's side.}) 11... Rb8 $2 {Missing a good opportunity} (11... c4 {Would have
won Black some space and ensured some long-term possibilities on the queen's
side, avoiding the scenario described above where White plays c4 and locks the
queen's side.}) 12. O-O e5 {Not much is accomplished by this move, besides
creating more weaknesses in Black's position. It will not prevent White from
attacking Black's king, nor would it prevent White from playing c4 or f4.} 13.
Nh4 {White's plan is simple. He wants to play f4. But was it really necessary
at this point? Locking up the queen's side by playing c4 would have been much
more useful first.} h6 14. Be3 Qe7 {Again, Black should have played c4.} 15.
Nf3 f5 {It may seem to some readers that Black is now doing good, as Black's
pawn are indeed very threatening. However, if we try to analyze Black's
position more deeply, we realize that it has a lot of weaknesses. Among them,
his king might be stuck in the middle for a long time, and his pieces are not
really doing much at this point. Although this is typical for a position
similar to those arising from the King's Indian, Black has not castled yet.}
16. Qe2 $2 (16. exf5 $1 gxf5 (16... Bxf5 17. Bxf5 gxf5 18. Rfe1 Nf6 19. Nh4)
17. Rfe1 Nf6 18. Nh4 {And in both cases, White is clearly better}) 16... f4 {
A very logical move... But Black can in fact do much better!} (16... Nf6 $1 {
As if White now takes in f5,} 17. exf5 e4) 17. Bd2 Nf7 18. Kh2 Nf6 19. b4 {
Wrong pawn, wrong time. Someone should have played c4 in the past 9 moves.} c4
{And now White probably realizes how playing didn't help his position in any
way.} 20. Bc2 g5 {A few moves ago, White was dominating on both sides of the
board. It now seems to be the opposite, as Black can now launch an attack and
White has very little to do.} 21. Nb1 {This move doesn't really help White,
but what else? White could try to defend the position, but it is going to be
extremely delicate :} (21. Kg1 h5 22. Rfe1 g4 23. Nh4 Qb7) 21... h5 22. a4 h4
$5 {An extremely interesting move. Most players would have probably not even
hesitated to play g4. After all, it attacks both the knight and the h3 pawn.
However, Black realized that it doesn't need the h pawn to support the g4 push.
} 23. Ng1 g4 24. f3 (24. axb5 axb5 25. Na3 Ng5 {And White won't be able to
defend his king.}) 24... gxh3 25. Nxh3 Nh5 26. Qf2 Ng3 27. Rfe1 Ng5 {So far
all logical and accurate moves.} 28. Nxg5 Qxg5 29. Qa7 {Hoping for a huge
mistake from Black.} h3 $1 30. Qxb8 Nf1+ 0-1
