Winning Without Castling

Last updated 2 May 2002

Gurtovoi,N - Oleksenko,V [A02]
17th Latvian CC Championship SF, 1991
[Notes by Nickolai Gurtovoi]

1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nf3 g5 5.g3 g4 6.Nh4 Ne7 7.e4! Ng6 [Here we see most clearly the advantage of 7.e4 compared with the theoretical 7.d4]

8.Nf5! Bxf5 9.exf5 Qe7+ 10.Qe2 [In one of my more recent games against Logvinyuk (1993), I played 10.Kf2!? Qf6 11.Qxg4 Bc5+ (or 11... Ne5 12.Qe4!) 12.d4! +-]

10...Ne5 11.Nc3!? c6? [11... Nbc6 was better.]

12.Bg2 Nbd7 13.d4 Nc4 [If 13... Nf3+ 14.Bxf3 gxf3 15.Qxe7+ Kxe7 16.Kf2 and 17.Kxf3]

14.Ne4! [Threatening 15.Qxc4. After 14... Ndb6 or 14... b5, 15.b3. If the N on c4 moves, White wins the B on d6, so...] 1-0