Chess960 SP250

The last post of the week has a game played at lichess.org on May 15th, 2016. This game started like the C01 French Defense: Exchange Variation, but obviously it can't be categorised that due to the starting position. The game went on what I thought was a very drawish way at least up to the queen trade. I was actually a bit surprised that my stronger opponent played 8...Qxe2, but then again there probably is not anything better to suggest. Because I needed to take back with the bishop, the trade of queens meant that my light-squared bishop ended up in a worse square than it was before the trade and I would say that the pieces my opponent had developed were on slightly better squares than mine. The almost symmetrical position was disturbed when I played 11.Ne5. This did not change the fact that the game remained quite evenly fought until I blundered with 16.Rfe1. It is a silly move that loses a pawn. The position already was a bit annoying for me and I felt that I am somewhat worse because my opponent has a rook on the open file and the knight on c4 tied both my knight on b3 and the rook on b1. If either piece had moved, I would have lost material. Mapownik first replied well to my blunder 16.Rfe1 by taking the rook with its counterpart. However, after I took back the rook with my other rook, Mapownik played for some reason Kf8, which would have allowed me to get into an even position once again. Unfortunately I did not take my chance, but instead played Kf1, which was my second blunder of the game. I did not get another chance to get back into the game after this, but instead my position went more downhill as moves were played and resigned after 27...Na3 in a hopelessly lost position. I have added three mate in one, one mate in three and one mate in four puzzle today. Until Monday, my fellow chess960 and chess enthusiasts!