Chess960 SP468

I have adopted a certain way of playing these chess960 starting positions, I try to make the development of the bishops as easy as possible without making too many positional weaknesses first and then develop my other pieces. Well, obviously I look what my opponent does and whether or not that interferes with the way I want to develop my pieces. On move six, I had already developed my both bishops and both knights. While I did this, Emulatore had moved three of his or her pawns, compared to the two pawn moves that I had done and unlike me, he or she had also moved his or her knight twice. I castled long on my 7th move and at this point in time I was very pleased of how things were going and I thought that I had a clear advantage. Especially because I was planning to play g4 next move and continue to push the pawn to maybe g5. Basically I wanted the g-file open for my rook. Oh yes, it might be also important to note that my bishop on f4 makes it difficult for my opponent to develop his or her bishop on b8. This is because I am attacking the pawn on c7 and the pawn can't move at the moment because the knight on c6 is on the way. I think Emulatore wanted to move the bishop to a7 and sacrifice the pawn on c7 when he or she played 7...a6. The problem is, this plan is way too slow. I am already ready to launch the attack with g4. Therefore 7...g5 would have been necessary to play instead of a6. After 8.g4 Nfe7, I did not play g5 because I thought that Emulatore would reply with h5 and the file might not open up. Because of this, I played h5 instead.

I think the next questionable move comes when Emulatore plays h5. I think it just plays in my hand because I want to get my g-pawn out of the way of the rook. I was not sure that I can win, but I thought that at least I should have good chances for it. When I played 12.Qh2, I knew that I can win a pawn and maybe invade with my queen after I have taken the pawn. Emulatore did not want to trade the bishops, but instead wanted to play it to a7, sacrificing the pawn without getting anything in return. My dark-squared bishop might be crusial attacking force, so I may have tried something else if I had been in the same situation as my opponent. If my opponent had not been in a totally losing position before, after 14...Bd7, the game is quite hopelessly lost for Emulatore. During the last moves of the game, I get to play one of the nicest king hunts that I have ever been able to play. I have added one analysed game to the following posts of mine: C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation #2, C50 Italian Game: Italian Variation, C45 Scotch Game: Classical Variation and Chess960 SP33. I have also added three mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

Game number two. This game was a rematch offered by Emulatore. The thinking times were the sames obviously in both games, 10 minutes with a 10 second increment. I think this second game started a lot better for my opponent and I had to be more careful of what I played. Initially I thought that I would use the same plan for development as in our first encounter, but when Emulatore played 8.b4, I understood that I can't really follow my dream and castle on queenside. It would most likely be suicidal to castle there after b4, so I played 8...Rc8 instead, in order to protect the pawn on c7, so that when my bishop needs to move, I will not lose a pawn. My opponent took the iniative quite nicely this time. I just tried to survive and waited a mistake from Emulatore that I could take advantage of and take the advantage. When my opponent played 12.c4, I noticed that I can at least win a pawn. I was indeed able to get that pawn, but I also ended up in a position where I have doubled pawns on the b-file, so that compensates the material difference a bit. Also the fact that my opponent was able to deny me from castling, made me think that I might lose this game. I was just trying to get something done and played 18...Qf6, so that I would threaten 19...g5 and maybe get some more material to help me in my defence. I was really surprised to see that my opponent allowed me to play 19...g5. The game started to tip in my favor, but on move 23 I made the blunder that should have lost the game. I was sure after my move that I will now lose the rook on g8 and with that the game. Had my opponent taken that rook on g8, I would have likely resigned. For some reason that did not happen and Emulatore took the pawn on b7 instead. Now I was more confident about my winning chances again. The final game losing move turned out to be that 25.Qxb7, after this I did not give my advantage away again.