Chess960 SP333

For a change I share a chess960 game that was played at lichess.org. The time control for this game was 10+10, ten minutes as the basic time and 10 seconds were added to the clock with each move. This game starts with a shameful blunder from me and it was only due to me going for a desperate attack that ended up saving me from a really short loss. Had I looked the starting position more carefully, I might have started the game with 1.f4. The reason for choosing f4 over e4 is quite simple, with 1.f4 I would have opened up the diagonal for my bishop on g1, which would have also targeted the unprotected pawn on a7. Still, playing 1.e4 is not that bad, it does open the d1-h5 diagonal for my other bishop. Even after my opponent played 1...f5 I did not see the threat to the a-pawn, so I foolishly played 2.exf5. This has not been the only chess960 starting position where I have not only missed similar threat to the a-pawn but also been forced to give up the exchange as well. Despite those really bad starts, I did not lose either game. The first game where this happened ended up being a draw.

After I lost the exchange, I tried to develop my pieces as fast and efficiently as possible and maybe generate some attack while I am doing that. It was quite clear from the early moves that ephome would need to castle queenside as the kingside had been ripped to shreds. In case my opponent went to the queenside, the fact that the a-file is open and my bishop at h2 can actively eye on the queenside after the knight moves out of the way, gave me some play for the exchange. My compensation was quite good, but not enough and with correct play ephome should have won this game or at the very least drawn the game. There was also one akward thing in ephome's position, the knight on h8 could not come to the game so easily as long as my queen eyed on g6, or this was my assumption during the game anyway. It might have been too risky to take that pawn and open up another line of attack for my opponent. Luckily I did not face the choice between taking and not taking because I might have taken it just to balance the material a bit. It is interesting to me that Stockfish thinks that I have full compensation for the exchange by move 12. The problem piece for my opponent, the knight on h8 never moved from its initial square, which probably contributed to my compensation and for the fact that I won the game.

It was the moving of the other knight from b6 to c4 that cost ephome the game. The knight does not seem to be doing anything useful on c4, so I really do not understand that move. Maybe it wanted to continue to e5, but it was needed in the defense of the king. After my reply 14.Ra1, the game was pretty much over. There are two points in the remainder of the game that I want to point at. I was really happy to be able to make a move like 17.Nxb7 and realising that even though I am down the exchange, I can still seemingly offer more material for my opponent. Of course ephome could not take the knight or it would have been curtains at once with Qxa6+, Kb8 and Qa8#. It was better to take the a-pawn with the knight though, but my move is good enough. The other thing I wanted to point out from remainder of this game was the last move of the game. I do not remember anymore if I saw the possible reply Qb7+, but I should have won the game with relative ease even if the game had continued like that. I have added one analysed game to the following posts: D11 Slav Defense: Modern, C01 French Defense: Exchange Variation. Svenonius Variation, B59 Sicilian Defense: Boleslavsky Variation and B00 Owen Defense: General. I have also added one mate in two, three mate in three and one mate in four puzzle today.