Game 6/10
[Event "TheKing V Evo Maia L9 Master Book"]
[Round "6"]
[White "MaiaL9"]
[Black "TheKing 30s/move"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
1.g3 e5 2.Bg2 Nf6 $5 ( {Theory prefers} 2...d5 $1 ) 3.d4 $6 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -0.42/21} ( {Theoretical move is} 3.c4 $1 ) ( 3.c4 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: +0.10/21} 3...c5 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.d3 Be7 6.Nf3 d6 7.O-O O-O 8.a3 Bd7 9.Be3 h6 10.b4 cxb4 11.axb4 Nxb4 12.d4 exd4 13.Nxd4 Qc8 14.Qb3 Nc6 ) 3...exd4 4.Qxd4 d5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Qa4 $6 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -0.76/22} ( 6.Qd2 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -0.23/23} 6...Be6 7.Nf3 Bc5 8.O-O O-O 9.Qd3 h6 10.a3 Qd7 11.Rd1 Rad8 12.b4 Bf5 13.Qd2 Bb6 14.Bb2 a6 15.e3 d4 16.exd4 Bxd4 17.Nxd4 ) 6...Bb4 7.Bd2 $6 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -1.07/20} ( 7.Bf4 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -0.64/22} 7...O-O 8.Rd1 a6 9.Nf3 Ne4 10.Qb3 d4 11.Nxd4 Nxd4 12.Bxe4 Nxb3 13.Rxd8 Rxd8 14.axb3 c6 15.O-O Bg4 16.Bd3 g6 17.Be3 Rac8 18.Ne4 Kg7 19.Nc5 Bxc5 20.Bxc5 Kf6 ) 7...Bd7 8.a3 $4 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -5.21/24} ( 8.Qb5 {Deep HIARCS 15.3: -0.35/20} 8...O-O 9.O-O-O a6 10.Qd3 Be6 11.Nf3 d4 12.Ne4 Bf5 13.Nxf6+ Qxf6 14.Qb3 Be6 15.Qd3 Bxd2+ 16.Qxd2 Rad8 17.Kb1 Rfe8 18.Rhe1 Bd5 19.b3 Be4 20.Rg1 Bf5 21.Rge1 Bg4 ) 8...Nd4 9.Qxb4 Nxc2+ 10.Kd1 Nxb4 11.axb4 O-O 12.Nf3 Qe7 13.Nd4 Qxb4 14.Nc2 Qb6 $1 15.Be3 Qd6 16.b4 Ne4 $1 17.Nxe4 dxe4+ 18.Ke1 Rfe8 19.Rd1 Qc6 20.Nd4 Qc3+ 21.Kf1 Rad8 $1 22.b5 Bxb5 23.Bh3 Bxe2+ $1 24.Kxe2 c5 25.Nf5 Qc4+ 26.Ke1 Rxd1+ 27.Kxd1 Rd8+ 28.Ke1 Qd3 29.Bg4 Qb1+ 30.Ke2 Qxh1 31.Ne7+ Kf8 32.Bxc5 Qd1+ 33.Ke3 Qc1+ 34.Kxe4 Qxc5 35.Nf5 g5 $1 {M8 White loses 0.33 pawn per move (1 blunder, 3 inaccuracies), Black loses 0.01 pawn per move (no errors).} 0-1
In one of the shorter games of the match Maia as White started with an unusual opening and also made a huge blunder! TheKing did not make any bad or dubious moves and seized the opportunity. The blunder came very early on at move 7. Here is the position after TheKing had just moved 7.Bd7 Concealed attack on the enemy Queen.
Maia was unhappy with Black’s Bishop on b4 especially as it had previously moved 7…Bd2. To support it’s dislike of Black’s Bishop Maia played the fateful 8.a3?? 6 ply search is just enough to see that White’s Queen will be lost starting with Black’s reply of 8…Nd4 and now the Bishop is attacking the Queen and Black’s Knight on d4 has its eye on the c2 pawn! 9.Qxb4 If axB4 then Whites Queen is lost to the Bishop on d7! 8…Nxc2+ and White loses its Queen!
At move 35 TheKing announced mate in 8.
The score now 5 ½ - ½ is there any point carrying on? Well it’s obvious TheKing is not going to lose, but this match is more about how well or badly Maia plays. It’s unfortunate, but just prior to the last Evo software update adding the book openings, I had played a game with it against TheKing and it achieved an impressive win with a King-side attack TheKing was totally defenceless against! I don’t know if adding the book openings has weakened it’s play? Maybe I just need to play more games between them to witness a similar result. Suffice to say you will not be seeing a game like that in this match. It’s unfortunate that I did not record Maia’s win against TheKing. Note to self, record every game!