David Griffin (1685) - Michael Curcuru (1789)
Wendy's III

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O ECO cites Radkevic-Sumilin USSR 1937 5 c4!? Bc5 6 Nc3 0-0 7 0-0 d6 8 Bc6 bc 9 d4 ed 10 Nd4 Bd7 with an edge for Black. I castled to see if he would play the book 5...Be7 and he did 5...Be7 6.c4 !? d6 7.Nc3 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Re1 O-O Now that he castled Kingside, I can break the pin with "g4" and gain some play in the center with "d4" 10.g4 Bg6 The Knight sac at "g4" might have been too speculative though it would have opened up White's King poisiton! 11.d4 exd4 12.Nxd4 Nxd4 13.Qxd4 Nd7 14.f4 ! Does a lot of good things here; keeps the Knight from "e5", the Bishop from "f6" and threatens "f5" winning the Bishop 14...Nc5 ? 14...h6 is probably better 15.f5 Bh4 16.Bf4 I have always felt more comfortable in endings with two minor pieces against rook and pawn, and besides, the Rook at "a1" was not doing anything anyway!?? 16...h5 17.Re2 Bh7 18.gxh5 Bg5 19.Bxg5 Qxg5 20.Rg2 Qh6 21.Rf1 f6 22.Bd1 Kh8 23.Rf3 a5 maybe a wasted move as I would not play "b4" and run the Knight over to the defense of the King 24.Rfg3 Rf7 25.Kh1 Qf4 26.Rg4 Qe5 27.Qg1 Loading the cannon! Don't exchange Queens when attacking! Also, note that Black's Queen is not defending the King while on "e5" 27...Nd3 !? Sneaky little move; don't play Rg7??? 28.Qe3 ? I think here 28...Bf5 29 Qd3 Bg4 and White's attack fizzles out 28...Nc5 29.h6 Rg8 30.Qg1 Reloading 30...Nd3 Now, with the Pawn on "h6", Rg7 is OK 31.Rxg7 Rgf8 32.Rxf7 Rxf7 33.Bh5 Bringing another piece into play if needed 33...Rd7 34.Rg7 Qf4 35.Rxd7 Nf2 36.Kg2 Notes by Griffin 1-0