Koltanowski-Keres Exhibition Correspondence Game

See related blog post.

[Event "Exhibition Correspondence Game"] [Site "?"] [Date "1963.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "George Koltanowski"] [Black "Paul Keres"] [Result "*"] [ECO "D72"] [Annotator "Owner"] [PlyCount "82"] [EventDate "1963.??.??"] {Gruenfeld Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 {[%cal Bg8f6,Bf6d5,Bd5b4][%mdl 32]} 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nb4 7. d5 c6 8. Ne2 cxd5 9. a3 Qa5 (9... N4c6 10. exd5 Ne5 11. O-O O-O {Ilincic,Z (2540)-Ruck,R (2535) Hungary 2005}) 10. O-O d4 {[%mdl 8192] A poor move which white fails to take advantage of.} ( 10... dxe4 11. Bd2 N8a6 12. Qe1 Bg4 {Better than capturing the b-Pawn.} 13. Nf4 g5 14. Nc3 gxf4 15. axb4 Qxb4 {White is slightly bette. Ilincic,Z (2536) -Brinck Claussen,B (2359) Budapest 2006}) 11. Nxd4 {A surprisingly bad move.} ( 11. Bd2 N8c6 12. Nf4 O-O 13. Nd5 Bd7 14. Bxb4 Nxb4 15. Nxb4 {White has won a piece!}) 11... N4c6 12. Nxc6 Nxc6 13. Bd2 Qd8 {[%mdl 2048]} 14. Nc3 O-O { [%cal Oc8g4]} 15. Be3 Be6 {Somewhat better was 15...Bxc3} 16. f4 {Too risky. After this black should have been slightly better.} (16. Nd5 Bxb2 17. Rb1 Bxa3 18. Rxb7 Bd6 19. Qa1 {followed by 20.Rc1 with equal play.}) 16... Bc4 {Again, capturing on c3 was best.} 17. Rf2 {Better was trading Qs. Now black gets the upper hand.} Bxc3 18. bxc3 Qa5 19. e5 Rfd8 20. Qe1 Bd5 21. Bf1 Qa4 22. Rb2 b6 23. Bf2 Bb3 {Better was 23...Rac8} 24. Bg2 {White fails to take advantage of black's last move.} (24. Rab1 Bd5 25. Bb5 Qe4 26. Qxe4 Bxe4 27. Re1 {is equal.} ) 24... Rac8 25. Bxc6 Rxc6 26. Bd4 Bd5 {Keres misses the better 26...Be6} ( 26... Be6 27. Qe2 Bg4 28. Qf1 (28. Qxg4 Rxd4 29. cxd4 Qxd4+ 30. Rf2 Qxa1+ 31. Kg2 Qxa3 {wins}) 28... Rc7 29. Rd2 Qd7 30. Be3 Qc8 31. Rxd8+ Qxd8 {Black has the better ending.}) 27. Qd1 Qa6 {A nice maneuver switching the Q over to the K-side.} 28. Rd2 Qc8 29. Qf1 Rc4 30. h3 h5 31. f5 Qxf5 32. Qxf5 gxf5 33. Kf2 Bb7 34. Rb2 e6 {Even better was 34...Ra4} 35. Rb4 Rdxd4 {Fancy, but the prosaic 36...Ba6 was equally good.} 36. cxd4 {[%mdl 4096]} Rc2+ 37. Ke3 Rc3+ 38. Kf4 Kg7 $1 39. Kg5 Rxg3+ 40. Kxh5 Rxh3+ 41. Kg5 Rg3+ {The game ended here, being adjudicated by Keres as a win for himself! Although Koltanowski agreed with the decision, he felt that his position merited playing on. It would seem that Koltanowski was correct because in Shootouts using Stockfish 14.1 white scored +0 -1 =4.} *