Ballantyne, Steve – Scarpa, Mario

Ballantyne, Steve (1364)
Scarpa, Mario (1382)
Result: 0-1

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Date: 17 February 2026
Location: Crewe Chess Club
Tournament: 2025/26 Club Championship Div 3
Round: 13.1.2
Opening: A45 Queen's Pawn Game Trompowski
Submitted by:
Published on: 4 March 2026
Categories: game

[Event "2025/26 Club Championship Div 3"]
[Site "Crewe Chess Club"]
[Date "2026.02.17"]
[Round "13.1.2"]
[White "Ballantyne, Steve"]
[Black "Scarpa, Mario"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "1382"]
[BlackTeam " "]
[ECO "A45"]
[EventDate "2026.02.17"]
[WhiteElo "1364"]
[WhiteTeam " "]

1.d4 Nf6 2.e3 c5 3.c3 b6 4.Nd2 Ba6 {White freed all light squares diagonals, likely to make way to Queen and Bishop to operate flexibly. Black sees the danger and forces the exchange of Bishops, leaving White's dark squares Bishop swamped in its own pawn structure.}5.Bxa6 Nxa6 6.f4 cxd4 7.cxd4 Nb4 8.Qb3 e6 9.a3 Nbd5 10.h3 Nh5 {Black's idea is to threaten the Rook to prevent White from castling}11.Ngf3 Ng3 12.Rh2 Be7 13.h4 Qc7 {Black wants to destroy the pawn structure at the cost of sacrificing material. For example Nxf4 exf4 Qxf4. Potentially leaving e2 at the mercy of Knight and Queen.}14.Rh3 Nf5 {But then something else came to mind: if e4 forks the two Knights, then Ne3 one Knight is taken by the pawn and then Nc2+ capturing the Rook after the check. Black spent a very long time thinking which Knight should do in e3, thus putting himself in a time pressure frame of mind from the next move onward.}15.Nf1 {White sees the threat and ruins Black's plan...}15...O-O 16.g3 Nf6 17.Bd2 a5 18.Ke2 Qb7 19.Qd3 Ne4 20.g4 Nxd2 21.N1xd2 {Time is running out for Black... Losing Knight and Bishop would free Black's Queen's diagonal but also puts h7 under crossed fire from White's Queen and Rook. Check timing is all}21...Nxh4 22.Nxh4 Bxh4 23.Rxh4 Qg2+ 24.Kd1 f5 {This temporarily blocks the Queens diagonal and sets the Rook free to go in the 6-rank}25.Qf1 Qg3 26.Qh3 {Exchanging Queens is definitely not ideal for Black, but at least it will defuse the threat on h7}26...Qxh3 27.Rxh3 fxg4 28.Rh4 Rf5 29.Rxg4 h5 30.Rg5 Rxg5 31.fxg5 g6 32.Nf3 Rf8 33.Ke2 d6 34.Rc1 Kg7 35.Rc6 Rf5 36.Rxd6 h4 {If Nxh4, then Rxg5}37.Rxb6 h3 {Knight didn't take, Black might as well push that pawn}38.Rxe6 Rxg5 {If Nxg5 then the pawn promotion is inevitable}39.Kf2 Rg2+ 40.Kf1 Rxb2 41.Ra6 h2 {By forcing White to sacrifice the Knight, Black becomes nearly equal in material (but the positional disadvantage remains).}42.Nxh2 Rxh2 43.Rxa5 Rh1+ 44.Ke2 Rh2+ 45.Kd3 Kf6 46.Re5 g5 47.a4 Ra2 48.a5 g4 {If the white pawn in the a-file moves again, the Rook can take it. Meanwhile if the black pawn in the g-file makes it to the 2-rank, the King cannot take it anymore. There is still hope for Black... a blunder from White is all it takes...}49.e4 g3 50.Rf5+ Kg6 51.Ke3 g2 52.Kf4 Rf2+ 53.Kg3 g1=Q+ 54.Kh4 Rh2# 0-1