Chess960 SP780

It is time once again to share a chess960 game that was played at lichess.org. My games are going very well there at the moment, I have won ten games in a row. However, it is a bit misleading statistic because two of those games lasted only a move or two. That good winning streak has meant that I have broken my previous rating record there and my current chess960 rating is 1873, which means I am in the 80.1 percentile at the moment. If I compare my statistics from lichess and Chess.com, I notice that a lower rating at Chess.com still means a higher percentile compared to lichess. At Chess.com my Chess 960 rating is 1722 and with that I am on the 97.6 percentile, which is at least interesting to me. One of the problems I face at lichess is that I have not been able to get anyone around my rating to play against recently and very few times I have even faced anyone higher rated than me. I am aware of the fact that my "easier" opponents are mainly due to my rating increase, but if I could get higher rated or similarly rated opponents to play against, I would prefer to do that. That being said, I will only play with certain time controls, so if it means that I have to play against lower rated people, then so be it.

As I get more experience from different starting positions, I tend to try different approaches to the opening phase to see what best suits for the current starting position or similar ones. I used to prefer the idea of making sure the bishops can be easily be developed first and only then focus on other development issues. While I still have that on my priority list, I have gone towards the idea that I should occupy one of the center squares with a pawn on my first move regardless where the bishops are initially. Unlike in chess, in this starting position playing e4 on the first move does not really help with the development of pieces. It does fight for the control of the central squares, which is also very important. Juanignaciov86 replies with c5, which not only fights for the control of important central squares, but also opens up a diagonal for the bishop. We are also in some wierd form of the Sicilian Defense where none of the pieces on the back rank are not where they should be... Anyway, I develop my h-knight next because I know that the best square for it can go from its starting square is g3. I also like to prepare h3, followed up with Bh2. I am of course intending to castle short. This is also one of the chess960 starting positions where you could play 1.O-O-O!! It is probably not a good idea to commit your king to one side of the board so fast, but because the option is there, I might do it someday just because I can. I actually did not realise this opportunity until I saw the Stockfish analysis. I am too trained in the idea of clearing the pieces out of the side where I want to castle before castling that I do not realise that in chess960 you do not need to clear all the pieces away on the side you want to castle, only those that are on the way of the castling.

I follow up my development plan while Juanignaciov86 takes more space and maybe makes my position a bit more uncomfortable. Juanignaciov86 also plays for aggression, while I just focus on development and preventing the threats that my opponent creates, for instance with 4...Nf6 to which I just reply with 5.d3 and my position should be ok. My opponent keeps up the pressure with 5...d5, so I have to play 6.c3 in order to defend e4. I do not like to take on d5 because the queen would likely take back and I would have just helped my opponent to develop a piece. On the next move Juanignaciov86 develops a second piece to the game, but places it on a bad square and I could have already taken advantage of that fact, but instead I just continue with development. Playing 7.Nf5 would have been obviously better. Juanignaciov86 gives me a second chance in a row to play Nf5, but again I just get my king to safety. When Juanignaciov86 still did not prevent Nf5, I finally play that move after missing it on two previous turns. There is no good answer to my threats, Juanignaciov86 does try with Ne8, which I had missed, but then I saw the game continuation 10.Nxd6 Nxd6 11.Nxe5 and I am a pawn up. The reply 11...f6 is as good as clicking the resign button because after 12.Nxg6 the game is over. I have added one analysed game to the following posts: C96 Spanish Game: Closed Variations. Closed Defense, C45 Scotch Game: Classical Variation, A38 English Opening: Symmetrical Variation. Full Symmetry Line and D00 Queen's Pawn Game #3. I have also added one mate in one, one mate in two, two mate in three and one mate in four puzzle today.