S Carter - K Owen [A94]
[FNS]

This is a gorgeous game by white ... and could go into a text-book as a model of how to play this variation. Black transposes into an old-fashioned line but runs into an opponent who knows the way to expose some of the inadequacies of black's set-up

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 f5 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.0-0 Bd6 6.c4 c6 7.b3 0-0 The modern way of playing is to hold up white's plan of exchanging bishops by 7 -Qe7. This possibility ... not available in the older Dutch system with -Be7 ... led to a resurgance in the popularity of the Stonewall twenty years ago. Nigel Short was one of the top GMs who took it up

8.Ba3! Bxa3 9.Nxa3 White has a subtle idea in mind for this seemingly wayward knight

9...Qe7 10.Nc2 I have had this position as black in the past and was successful with the plan of -Bd7/-Be8/-Bh5/-g5/-f4. I get the feeling that it might not have worked against this particular white!

10...Nbd7 11.Nce1! Ne4 12.Nd3 Now that his dark-squared bishop has gone, black's control of e5 (and, later on, c5) has been drastically weakened

12...Qf6 13.Nfe5 g5 This might look premature but it's hard to suggest any other active way of playing for black ... and there are plenty of games on record where whites have not been able to cope with this thematic black attack

14.f3 Nd6 15.e3 Nf7 16.Nxd7 Bxd7 17.Nc5 Bc8 18.e4 Great play by white who has achieved his main strategic objective

18...dxe4 19.fxe4 f4 20.e5 Qe7 Black slips, but it's not easy to be accurate when you are subjected to such pressure ... necessary was -Qg7 although the same plan of Ne4/Nf6 is available to white

21.gxf4 gxf4 22.Qg4+ Kh8 23.Qxf4 White adds a pawn to his positional assets and the game is virtually over

23...b6 24.Bxc6 Rb8 25.Ne4 Ba6 26.Qf6+ Neatly getting rid of the queens

26...Qxf6 27.Nxf6 Rbd8 28.Rf4 Ng5 29.Kf1 Rf7 A slip, robbing black's knight of its only flight-square, but white had the straightforward plan of Ke2/Rg1 anyway

30.h4 Rxf6 31.Rxf6 Nh3 32.Kg2 1-0