Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.WHEN JULIAN Hodgson met David Gluckman in the first round of the Lloyds Bank Masters tournament, it began in the manner of a mildly deranged video game but turned into an impressive piece of positional constriction. On the way, the game also probably set a new record with 11 consecutive Black knight moves in the opening, and 16 knight moves out of the first 20.
After 4 . . . Nxe4, White's bishop and Black's knight chomp their respective ways through the opposing armies like starved Pac-men. Out of all this, Black emerged a pawn ahead, but with severe cramp and little development. While White's queen's bishop radiated power, Black's version of the same piece was behaving like Lot's wife on a bad day.
White always had enough for the pawn, but Black's ineffective knight manoeuvres made it look as though White was making all the moves. After 23. Bc7] Black remarkably had no defence to the threat of Bxb6. He obtained some freedom after losing the piece, but Hodgson's 29. h4] began a decisive nibble to his king.
With all the Black knight moves, the game is more likely to be preserved as a curiosity than an example of particularly fine play, but for all that it is a good lesson in the exploitation of tanglement.
White: J Hodgson
Black: D Gluckman
1 d4 Nf6 18 Rb5 Nd8 2 Bg5 e6 19 Ra5 h5 3 e4 Be7 20 Rg1 Nc6 4 Nc3 Nxe4 21 Ra3 hxg4 5 Bxe7 Nxc3 22 Rxg4 Kf7 6 Bxd8 Nxd1 23 Bc7 Nxc4+ 7 Bxc7 Nxb2 24 Bxc4 d5 8 Bd6 Na4 25 Bb3 b5 9 c4 Nc6 26 Rg1 a5 10 Nf3 Ne7 27 Bc2 g5 11 Bd3 Nb2 28 Bd6 Bd7 12 Be2 Nf5 29 h4 b4 13 Ba3 Na4 30 Re3 a4 14 Kd2 Nb6 31 hxg5 Na5 15 Rb1 f6 32 Bd3 b3 16 g4 Ne7 33 gxf6 1-0 17 Bd6 Nc6
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