FEINSTEIN vs LEADER by Joel Feinstein

Here is the British Championships Final Game from 1993.

Moves 1 to 14 follow the usual Rose opening. Move 15.b3 begins the line called the `rotating Rose' which I have played with some success recently, but has now lost its surprise value. This opening is similar in nature to the rotating flat, but note that Black tries to gain one extra tempo with move 19.h4. In this opening, Black always takes a lot of edges, and White ends up with a big wall to the South. As in the rotating flat, if Black is forced to break this wall it often disappears very quickly indeed, giving White an easy victory.

In the game, 22.e2 is not good (22.f1 is most common here). However 24.c2 might be better than 24.c1. As the game went, Imre gave me the North edge, and we arrived at a typical position for this opening: if Black does not run White out of moves soon, he will be in big trouble.

After 29.b6 a6 a5 it is clear that White is going to be sacrificing the h1 corner very soon. Imre chose 32.h2, since 32.g2 would eventually be swindled (with Black playing both h1 and g1 in one order or another).

Move 33.c7 takes advantage of White's flipping of the Black piece at g3. White can now try 34.d7, but then 35.d8 is very frightening, so Imre played 34.c8 for safety. I now continued my search for a real kill, and failed to find one. By move 38 white is one move from disaster, but where is the finish? Move 39 leads to all of Black's endgame problems: once Black takes the h1 corner, White will have the terrible threat of playing b2 followed by a1. However, after 40.a7, 41.g6 is quiet, and White is cut off from an odd region in the South-West. Note that Black dare not play the sequence 43.h1 g1 h3 because of 46.b2! as mentioned above. However, it was suggested after the game that 43.h3 might be possible, since if White plays 44.h1 he will have no access to g1 afterwards, and will have thus lost access to another odd region. Of course, White need not take the corner.

We are well into computer territory now. My move 45 to g7, which was intended to defuse the swindle threat in the North-West, did not really help. (45.d7 is the best move). I was still winning, though until I grabbed the corner with 47.h1 (47.g8 leads to a 37-27 win). After this I was fortunate to escape with a draw.

Play from move 48 on is perfect, with me just avoiding all the swindles. Note how close to disaster I am at move 53. After 53.d8, 54.b2 strikes again! If I can not find a way on to stay on the a1-h8 diagonal, I will have to play b2, which is hopeless. Fortunately 53.g8 h7 e8 works because I avoid flipping e5.

So, for the first time ever, a play-off game to decide the British Championships ended in a draw. Fortunately I had won the Swiss section of the tournament, and so I was awarded the title.