A Thought-provoking Purdy Game

     The weather here has been horrible. After a weekend of rather pleasant whether, yesterday started out nice, but it clouded up and then came a fierce storm, most of which missed us, but 20 miles to the south there was a deluge with 1 inch hail, 70 mile per hour wind gusts and a tornado warning. TV stations were warning people to take cover! 

     A tornado watch means the weather conditions are favorable during the next few hours whereas a warning means a tornado has been sighted or is indicated by weather radar. 

     Today is overcast and cold with a dripping fog. A good day to look at some games and while looking through some of C.J.S. Purdy's games I found one from a tournament played in Sydney in 1946 that reached an interesting position. 

     His opponent was Alexander Fryda (aka Frijda) who was of Dutch nationality. Fryda (August 16, 1905 - December 30, 1972, 67 years old) was born in Amsterdam and arrived in Fremantle in February of 1954. Beyond that I could find no other information nor could I locate any information on the tournament in which the game was played. 

     What caught my attention was the position after black's 28th move. At move 24 Purdy wrote that he found the position "intensely difficult," but managed to come up with what appeared to be a winning plan. 

     The question was, what was the correct evaluation of the position at move 24 and could white have won against best play? The answer is, I think, a definite maybe. 

     After white's 24th move Stockfish evaluates the position as equal. But, it was a difficult position for black to play and on move 28 Fryda missed his best defense. Even so, on his next move he could have forced Purdy to play like an engine to score the point!

[Event "Sydney Invitational, Sydney"] [Site "?"] [Date "1946.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "C.J.S. Purdy"] [Black "Alexander Fryda"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A14"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "67"] [SourceVersionDate "2022.05.04"] 1. c4 e6 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 d4 {Purdy thought that it was better to wait until white committed himself to Bb2 before playing this.} 7. d3 c5 8. e4 dxe3 {Purdy makes an instructive comment here that if black does not play this white would not play Bb2, but develop his B on the c1-h6 diagonal in conjunction with a later f4 and a K-side attack.} 9. fxe3 (9. Bxe3 {is playable.} Ng4 10. Bd2 (10. Bc1 Bf6 11. d4 cxd4) 10... Nc6 11. Nc3 Bd7 12. h3 Nf6 13. Bf4 {with an equal position.}) 9... Nc6 10. Bb2 Qc7 11. Nc3 a6 12. Qe2 Bd7 13. Rad1 Rfd8 14. d4 cxd4 15. exd4 Be8 16. Kh1 {White is better here so for better or for worse Fryda sacrifices a P in hopes of getting some play.} b5 17. cxb5 {Purdy made no comment on this move, which allows black full equality, but he missed a chance to obtain a winning position.} (17. d5 { was a tremendous shot.} exd5 {This is the worst possible move.} (17... bxc4 { is actually the lesser evil.} 18. dxc6 Rxd1 19. Rxd1 cxb3 20. Ne5 bxa2 21. Nxa2 Rd8 22. Rxd8 Bxd8 23. Qc4 {followed by Nb4 and white is winning.}) 18. Nxd5 Nxd5 19. cxd5 Nb4 20. Nd4 Nxd5 {Watch for it!} 21. Ne6 fxe6 22. Qxe6+ Kh8 23. Rxd5 Rxd5 24. Bxd5 {Threatening Qg8 mate} Bg6 25. Bxa8 {and wins}) 17... axb5 18. Nxb5 Qb6 19. a4 Rac8 20. Ne5 Nb4 21. Rc1 Nbd5 {Black's P sacrifice has justified itself in that white's Bs have been deprived of most of their strength by the well supported N on d5 and the two Ps, which can be turned into doubled Ps at any moment, are immobile. Purdy therefore hit upon a plan to return the P and obtain an endgame with a mobile passed P.} 22. Rc2 Rxc2 { Or else white doubles his Rs.} 23. Qxc2 Ne3 {Purdy commented that expecting the position to be easy, Fryda got up and walked around, but the position is very deceptive. I am not sure how Purdy knew what Fryda was thinking. Maybe he just wanted to stretch his legs or something.} 24. Nc4 {Equally good were 24... Rc8 or ...Bxb5} Nxc2 25. Nxb6 Bxb5 26. axb5 Nxd4 27. Bxd4 Rxd4 28. Nc4 Nd5 { The purpose of this move was to block the diagonal of white's B, but it's ineffective.} (28... Rd3 {This was the move Purdy expected after which he thought he could probably win by sacrificing the P on b3, but gave no analysis to support his belief.} 29. b6 Rxb3 30. b7 Nd7 31. Na5 Rb5 32. Rd1 Nc5 33. Nc6 Nxb7 34. Nxe7+ Kf8 35. Nc6 {and this position is evaluated as equal by Stockfish. Shootout results from this position resulted in 5 draws.}) (28... Bc5 {This is the best move and should save the game.} 29. b6 Bxb6 30. Nxb6 Rb4 31. Nc4 Rxb3 {with a likely draw.}) (28... Bc5 29. Ra1 {should also result in a draw after} g6 30. b6 Bxb6 31. Nxb6 Rb4) 29. b6 {After this black is technically lost, but he can try to make life difficult for white with 29... Rxc4} Bd8 (29... Rxc4 {was his best chance.} 30. bxc4 Nxb6 31. Rc1 Nd7 { In Shootouts white scored 5 wins, but the ganes went over another 50 moves and at 27 plies the game ended with white have a tablebase forced mate with a R+B vs B...not something that would be so easy for a human.}) 30. b7 Bc7 31. Ra1 g6 32. Ra8+ Kg7 33. Bxd5 exd5 34. Rc8 {Black resigned.} 1-0