Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 04:16:08 05/25/99
Rebel vs GM Rohde through the eyes of the grandmaster This is what I received from GM Michael Rhode. I think I have been a bit too negative about the performance of Rebel in this game. A copy is available on the Rebel pages. Happy reading. Ed Schroder ---------------------------------------------- I do not think that 26 Bg2 would have been that great a defense, and I agree that Rebel had a promising situation in the early middlegame. 24 Rxe8+ was not the cause of the problems; the whole idea with 21 Ra5 was reasonable but just did not work out. After 11 Ne1, 11 ... e5 may have been a shade too ambitious, and possibly the correct reaction to the diagonal-opening but time-wasting 11 Ne1 was 11 ... d5. 17 e3 is given a question mark in the Rebel post-mortem. This is too harsh. It is true that 17 Qd3 is a sharper move but I thought I was holding equality; by the way, had I not played 16 ... Qb6, Black would definitely have been worse. 19 Qa1 was natural but committed White to its course of action, the way to back off would have been with 21 Rd3, but then Black would be better after 21 ... e4. 26 Bg2 did not seem like a good enough defence to me because of 26 ... Qd2! 27 Qf1 Re8 and Black will win the queen for rook and bishop although it is possible that White can survive in this endgame. 27 ... Re8 was a good move, not using up the queen's power with 27 ... Qxd4+ as this can be picked up later and White has nothing better than 28 Kh1. Move 28 was critical, 28 ... Qc2?! may not have been best. 28 ... Qxd4 would not have been that strong because of 29 Rxb4! h6 (29 ... Qf2 30 Qg1) 30 Ra4! But probably the right idea on move 28 is 28 ... Bg4! forgetting the back-rank theme and moving to a direct attack; then 29 Rxb4 Bd1! wins; I saw 28 ... Bg4 but for some reason could not work out the forced win and I did not want to let the White king out of the box. In time pressure my play was not that accurate (for example, 32 ... Qc2 [32 ... Qc3!] or 34 ... Qc3?! [34 ... b3!] but it seems that I was able to hold on to the winning formation; I have not yet reviewed this part of the game carefully. At the end, 39 Qd1 of course loses, but I do not think there are any moves there, for example, 39 c6 Qd3.
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