19 May 2016

Chess960 SP410

Chess960 SP410

This game was played at lichess.org on May 15th, 2016. This was a 10 minute rated game. I think the first move that made me think a bit more about the position on the board was 3...a5. I guess the idea behind 3...a5 was to push the pawn to a4 and kick my knight. I decided to stop that idea and replied by playing a4 myself. I think it was better than to allow my opponent to kick the knight away from b3. Then again the pawn might get overextended and weak, had I allowed that to happen. My opponent, ottoneerminio, continued with b6, which enabled later on to place the knight from d8 to b7. Otherwise it seems like a waste of a move to me, at least for the moment. I would have probably played Ne6 instead of b6. I decided to play 5.d4 in response to b6 with the idea of attacking e5 and if my opponent takes on d4, then I can take back with my knight, improving its location on the board. Ottoneerminio wisely decided not to take on d4 and just defended the pawn on e5 with f6. I continued with development and played my bishop to d3. Ottoneermnio replied with c6, which is a move that seems a bit odd to me. Maybe it was played in order to get the square d5 better under control, but that move would not really stop me from playing d5 if I wanted to play that move that is. I did end up playing d5 on move 8, due to the threat Bxb3, winning the pawn on d4. I did consider 8.dxe5, but decided that 8.d5 was the better option.

Then after 9.O-O, ottoneerminio played c5. Had it been me controlling the black pieces, I would have most likely played cxd5 instead and tried to pressure the pawn on d5 after the reply exd5. 9...c5 threatened c4, which would have forked my knight and my bishop, so I moved my bishop to e2. My opponent continued with c4 anyway, forcing my knight to go back to c1. At this point in the game I was not so happy about my position. On move 14 I decided to get some play by playing b4. I think I also considered 14.b3, but thought that 14.b4 is a stronger move. The first critical position of the game can be seen below. Ottoneerminio played 16...Rb8 and the game that had gone rather uneventfully up to that point changed from drawish to being clearly favored for me, had I played a good move in reply that is.

I made a huge blunder 17.Nb4. I should have played 17.Nb5 or perhaps 17.Kh1 instead. It could have been the losing move, but luckily ottoneerminio did not reply with the move Qc5+. This was the only chance for my opponent to get the win in this game. I did get my chance to get the win after my opponent blundered with 19...Nxb5 in the position below. However, the path towards a loss had started a move earlier when my opponent played 18...b5, which would have allowed me to seize the clear advantage with the move 19.Nxb5.

Unlike ottoneerminio, I was able to take advantage of the mistake that my opponent made and I was able to eventually win the game.

Game number two. This game followed the first game I played against ottoneerminio up to the move 1...e5. When I was controlling the white pieces, I played 2.Nb3. In this game when I was moving the black pieces, ottoneerminio played 2.c3. The game started to go downhill for my opponent, when ottoneerminio played 8.d3, but the position was only slightly preferable for me. I replied with 8...f6 and then my opponent made a second bad move in a row in the position below and played 9.g3.

Had I played 9...Bh5, I might have had a clear advantage, but only with really precise play. Instead I played 9...Bg6 and let go some of my advantage. A few moves later my opponent played 13.h4 in the position below. It was a part of the advantage gained that contributed to my clear advantage a move later when ottoneerminio played 14.f4 in reply to 13...Kb8. That being said, I replied to 14.f4 with the move 14...exf4, which threw away the advantage I would have had, had I played 14...dxe4 instead.

It did not take very long for ottoneerminio to make another mistake, but unlike the previous mistakes, the move 17.N4d3 was a huge blunder that cost my opponent the game. The position in which the move 17.N4d3 was played can be seen below. Ottoneerminio's best chance was 17.hxg5.

During the rest of the game I had a winning advantage, but the game was played quite a long time after ottoneerminio's 17th move. The game was resigned by my opponent after the move 48...Rf4.

No comments:

Post a Comment