Chess960 SP182

The game below was played at lichess.org on April 10th, 2016. This is my latest win I have been able to get there and the last game that was part of my winning streak there. That streak lasted for 12 games, which is also the longest winning streak I have had there. I have now played 46 games at lichess and all of them are chess960 games. I might start to play other chess variants there too, but I do not think that it will happen any time soon. The game below had a basic time of 10 minutes and with each move 10 seconds were added to the clock. This game had a peculiar start. My move 1.d4 is still a normal looking move, but my opponent's reply 1...h5 is not. I am not sure what the point of the move is. It may later on help to develop the queen, but other than that I think it is a bad move. I replied with 2.g3 in order to open the long diagonal for my queen. Considering what my opponent played on move two, I might have been better off had I played 2.e4 instead. Lucianolop played 2...g5 and if I had played 2.e4, I could now play 3.Be3. Then again, I could have played 3.Nb3 in the game continuation and leave the e-pawn free to go to e4 next turn. That might have been better than playing 3.e3, because the pawn now restricts the scope of the bishop a bit. Lucianolop continued making moves that I would probably never play in these kind of positions, 3...g4 and 4...Bh6.

I think the way I developed my pieces is a more natural one than the way my opponent did things. That being said, I think 7.Bg2 was not a good idea from me and maybe I should have played my bishop to d3 instead. Also castling long was certainly a good option on move 7. One reason why 7.Bg2 might be bad is because it allows 7...Bf5. Had I played 7.Bd3, then 7...Bf5 would not have been an option. I think I continued a bit too much on the trade pieces line, because around move 20 I felt that I have simplified the position a bit too much to have good winning chances. The position looked quite drawish already. On lucianolop's 21st move something strange happened that reenabled my winning chances, lucianolop played 21...d5 and did not even try to take that pawn back. I was now up a pawn and it seemed to me that I can hold on to that extra pawn and make something good of that pawn. The move 21...d5 was the starting point for my opponent's downhill in this game. While the way I handled the game on the remaining moves was not ideal, I was able to play accurately enough to ensure my victory. I have added one analysed game to the following posts: C88 Spanish Game: Closed, B83 Sicilian Defense: Scheveningen Variation, Modern Variation #3, C50 Italian Game: Italian Variation and Chess960 SP33. I have also added one mate in one, one mate in three and three mate in four puzzles today.