This was my third game of the Michigan Open against Bill Hazzard (rated 1589 at the time). I was playing black and tried the Pirc defense again. Not surprisingly, I got into the same trouble that I got into in the first game of the tournament. Since then I have figured out the error in my variation, but it sure gave me trouble during the tournament.

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.Bc4 O-O. I have played this position many times before, however, during the tournament, my opponents were more willing to play e5 sooner than in my previous games using this opening. I have started to look at the Pirc variation 6. … c6 followed by 7. … b5. I think this is a better line for black when white plays 5. Bc4.

6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.Qd3 c5 8.e5 dxe5 9.dxe5 Ng4 10.e6 Nde5 11.exf7+ Nxf7 12.Qxd8 Rxd8. My experience from my first game helped me avoid some consternation in this position. I was sure I was going to go down a pawn here, so I was really surprised by my opponent’s next move.

13.O-O b6. Here CMX recommends taking the bishop at e3, which I did not even consider at the time because of how it would open up a file for his rook on f1. In retrospect, I should have noticed how the board position was so open, and a trade of the bishop for my knight would have been very good for me. My end game really suffered because of this miss on my part.

14.Ng5 Ne5 15.Nxf7 Nxf7 16.Nd5. I am not really sure why Bill let me have this pawn. Maybe a miscalculation thinking we would just trade pawns and his knight would be in a strong position. I think this gave me enough material to fight for the draw at the end, even when his two bishops were suffocating.

16. … Bxb2 17.Rad1 Kf8 18.Nc7 Rb8 19.Ne6+ Bxe6. Now I wished I had traded my knight for that bishop back on move 13.

20.Bxe6 Rxd1 21.Rxd1 Nd6. This is the type of position where I need to improve my strategic thinking. I have to confess that I did not even think about the overall position at this point; I was still focused on tactics. I was thinking of blocking his rook from coming down to d7. I also knew I had the move Bd4, but I figured that was weaker if Bill finds a way to play c3. What I should have been thinking was taking over the open d-file. White’s rook is unprotected, and a rook trade would be in my favor now that I am a pawn up. Can you believe that I am actually ahead in material in this game? At this point, CMX has me pretty even with white at –0.18.

22.Bf4 Rd8 23.Kf1 Bd4. See how my position is bottled up right now? My knight was pinned and the bishop on e6 has my king under control. I was very concerned that he would get his king into the action while my king was kept on the eighth rank.

24.Rd3 Kg7 25.c3 Bf6 26.f3. I think Bill was trying to prevent Ne4, which I can’t really play because of my hanging rook. I think he lost a tempo here.

26...Nb7 27.Ke2 Rxd3 28.Kxd3 Nd8. I finally decide to trade the rooks, but Bill played it very well here, getting his King to the center in the exchange.

29.Bc4 g5. In my opinion a very weak play on my part after Bill blockaded my connected-passed pawn with his light-square bishop. This is a good example of how you really need to re-assess the position of the board every move, and start all your tactics from a strategic foundation. For example, what am I trying to accomplish here? My biggest priority should be to trade down. That gives me a much better chance to win. Granted, I did have one positional goal in mind, keeping the white king from getting to my queen-side pawns. This move is out of sequence in that advancing against the white king-side majority doesn’t really help me much right now. Also, I have not really given much thought on how I would defend my a-pawn now that the bishop on c4 is controlling a6.

30.Bc7 Nc6 31.Bb5 Ne5+. Going back to my previous point, if I had been thinking about how to trade down, I would have seen that I had a chance to force a trade with Be5. If he takes my bishop on e5, I take back with the knight with check. If he takes b6, I can win back the pawn after he takes me knight by playing Bxh2. But truth is I wasn’t thinking about trading down in this position.

32. Ke4 Ng6. I played Ng6 with the thought of playing Nh6, but this was a miscalculation on my part since this typical fork pattern doesn’t work with the king protecting the f-pawn. The move g3, which would usually hang the f-pawn, takes away any threat.

33.Bb8. A little out of sequence, I think. Why not play c4, and then Bb8? Maybe my Ng6 move made Bill worry about his g-pawn enough to trade here instead of winning a pawn up.

33...Bxc3 34.Bxa7 Ba5 35.g3 e6. Again, I am really concerned about his king making it to the c6-square possibly winning my b-pawn. I was very happy with this move, and was hoping, as you will see by my next two moves, that I could make this pawn a passed-pawn.

36.Bb8 Kf6 (controlling the e5-square so that my knight can jump into action.)

37.f4 gxf4 38.gxf4 Bd2 39.Bc7 Ba5. This was a really difficult decision for me. If I had left my bishop on d2 and moved say Nf7, after 40.Bxb6 Bxf4 41.Bxc5 (can’t take my bishop because of the fork) Bxh2 42.a4, leaving me with two passed pawns to white’s one. What gave me pause was that he could control all of the queening squares with his light-square bishop, and his king was already blockading my second passed pawn. I would have liked to have my c-pawn and h-pawn to be the two passed pawns because that would be far away enough to cause his king some real problems. Notice how my knight is my only piece that can help promote the passed c-pawn since his light-square bishop has it blockaded.

40.a4 h5 41.Bd8+ Kf7 42.Bc4 Ke8 43.Bg5 Kd7 44.Bb5+ Kd6 45.f5 exf5+. I think Bill got impatient here. He had a better move in Be8, but maybe he was too worried about giving me a chance to advance my c-pawn. Either way, I don’t think he had a need to push the issue and trade this pawn.

46.Kxf5 Ne7+ 47.Ke4 Nd5 48.Kd3 Ke5. I finally started to feel like I was going to be able to advance my passed pawn, and then white’s bishops started to reassert themselves.

49.Be8 Kf5 50.h4 Nf4+ 51.Kc4 Kg4 52.Kb5 Ng2. My idea was to win the pawn on h4, and create a second threat for white to deal with. What I missed, and I think Bill did too, was that if white got a passed pawn on the queen-side he could just take the h5 pawn and my king and knight would probably not be able to get back to stop the a-pawn from queening. But this probably would need to involve a dark-square bishop trade.

53.Bd8 Nf4 54.Bxb6 Bxb6 (here is that trade I just mentioned) 55.Kxb6 c4 56.a5 c3. Now it looks like a race, but there’s a little twist in the middle.

57.Ba4 Nd5+ 58.Kc5 Nc7 59.Kc4 Kxh4 60.Kxc3 Kg5. Look at where I ended up once white got his king into the queen-side. I lost my pawn advantage in the bishop trade, which was probably Bill’s plan all along, and now with my knight against the bishop I am playing for a draw. So it becomes a race of a different kind: a king race.

61.Kc4 Kf6 62.Kc5 Ke7 63.Kc6 Kd8. We both understood the situation perfectly. If I got to the a-file and somehow blockaded the pawn on say b7, it would be a draw. White couldn’t let me do that. In reality, I was just hoping to get down there fast enough to protect my knight, who was keeping the a-pawn from advancing. I also knew that as long as my h-pawn was on a dark square, it would be safe from his bishop. For a draw, I didn't need to queen my h-pawn, I only needed to take the a-pawn, even if I lost my knight in the process.

64.Kb7 h4 65.Bc6 h3 66.Bh1 Kd7 67.Bf3 h2 (avoiding the fork Bg4).

68.Bh1 Kd6 69.Bg2 Ne6 1/2-1/2. White couldn’t advance his a-pawn even in this position because of the forking move Nc5, winning the pawn and eliminating white’s chances of winning.

I realize that I could have won this game, but after losing my first two games on that first day, I was happy to drive home with a draw. It was a good turn-around game for me since I was able to score in every round after that game.