Chess960 SP520

This short chess960 game was played at ChessRex between February 1st and February 7th this year. Both players had four days to use for each of their moves. I think both players start the game with logical moves. 1.e4 might not have been the move I would have chosen to play with the white pieces because I would prefer to make sure that my bishops have good squares to go to as they often seem to me the most problematic pieces to develop in a chess960 game. Therefore I might have opened up with 1.d4 or 1.c4 instead. I replied 1.e4 with d5 because I thought to go for aggressive play as soon as possible. Not only does it attack the e-pawn immediately, but it also opens the e8-a4 diagonal for my bishop and I thought I might get to develop it with a check. After two moves one might think that we are playing a variation of the Scandinavian Defense if one would only see the moves and not the arrangement of the pieces on the back rank. On move three both players continue naturally by developing their knights. 4.d4 might not seem that bad of a move, but when you think that I could have replied with c5, it does seem to me at least that Black has the initiave.

I did not play c5, but instead developed my bishop because I like to be ahead on development if possible. I did consider the fact that the bishop might be a bit awkwardly placed on b5, because in some positions I might have to be careful not to allow c4 forking the queen and the bishop. The threat of that did not seem likely to occur all that soon, so I landed my bishop on b5. My opponent replied to the check with Kg1, but Nd3 seems to better alternative because that does not lose the right to castle. I finally play c5, but a move earlier it might have been stronger. Vladirmilanovic replies with 6.c3 which is maybe a bit too passive move and a4 would have been a better move. Playing a4 does not only attack the bishop on b5, but also may have the idea of developing the bishop to a2. Then again the bishop might be better placed on the b1-h7 diagonal. The game starts to go further down the drain for my opponent after that mistake 6.a3 and on move 9 comes a terrible blunder, which basically secures my win. Giving me a free piece without any counterplay is not really a good idea... The game finishes shortly after this as my opponent self-destructs. I have added two analysed games to my post E38 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Classical Variation. Berlin Variation and one analysed game to these two posts B15 Caro-Kann Defense: Gurgenidze System and C52 Italian Game: Evans Gambit. Slow Variation. I have also added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in five puzzle today.