Consultation Game Begins

Position after 9.g4!?N

I have annotated the first 30 moves of the 3rd Annual Consultation Game at the Kenilworth Chess Club, which began May 15 and will conclude May 22. The opening was the Milner-Barry Attack in the Zurich Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bd2 O-O 8. O-O-O Qe7) which is rather familiar territory for several members of the club -- especially John Moldovan, who has had the opening position several times before. Our novelty with 9.g4!? led to some interesting play and very good attacking chances for White.

In the end, White won the Exchange for two pawns and had the advantage of an outside passed pawn. It will be interesting to see whether we can make any progress, however, after either 31...Rh6 or 31...Ng4, blockading the h-pawn.

You can see The Chess Coroner's notes from the Black perspective at his blog.

Adjourned Position