Chess960 SP528

While I played the game below, I also tried to do some live commentary on it. I think I should keep on exercising that so that maybe some day I would be prepared to share those videos... Who knows if those ever see the light of day, but it is not impossible. One of the reasons why I would like to do them, is that it would be a welcomed change to the things I do. I was able to make quite decent moves despite trying to verbalize my thoughts at the same time. I think the first time I did not agree with the moves of my opponent was when he played 4.Be4. It does pin my knight on c6 and prevents me from playing 4...e5, which I wanted to play next. It prevents it because in case I play 4...e5, I will lose a pawn due to the fact that my opponent would answer by 5.Bxc6 and then take on e5 with his knight. Having seen that continuation, I decided to play 4...Nf6 which threatens the bishop on e4. I did expect the reply my opponent played, but I was not all that worried about my doubled pawns. I took back on f6 with the e-pawn because I think it leads to a better pawn structure and because now I can get my queen to e7 and castle on the next move.

I was surprised to see my opponent play 7.d3 as a reply to 6...Qe7. I thought that the best reply would have been 7.Nc3. The problem with the game continuation was that the bishop on e4 gets almost trapped. The bishop was never really trapped, but the threat of it was in the air for awhile. I do not think that either player did huge mistakes until my opponent played 11.Ng4??, which does have an interesting idea behind it. Had I played 11...f5 and forked the knight and bishop with my pawn, I would have lost, because my opponent would have replied with 12.Qh6+ and it does not matter if I go to h8 or g8 with my king, my opponent would have replied both moves with 13.Ng5 which threatens both my queen and mate on h7. Had that happened, I would have resigned. The problem with the move 11.Ng4 comes apparent in the game continuation, the knight can't move so that the knight would defend the otherwise undefended queen on h3. The game did continue, but it was clearly over after that blunder. I have added three mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.