Chess960 SP843

The game below was an open challenge that I issued at ChessRex. The thinking time in this game was 4 days per move. The game was created on April 9th, 2016 and it finished on May 2nd, 2016. My new rating after this win was 1762, which is also my current rating at ChessRex. It slowly keeps getting higher, I have still won all but one game at the site and not sure when that second loss is going to find me, but I have no doubt that it will come sooner or later. When I first went to check out ChessRex, I was not sure what to expect. It was just a place that I read about in a blog where the place was recommended, so I was intrigued by the place and gave it a try. I am really glad that I did go there and activeley kept games in progress there. Had I not done that I would not have been selected as a winner to get 2 hours of chess training from IM / WGM Yelena Dembo.

Apart from my days at high school over ten years ago, when I was in a language chess club and one chess camp I took part in, I have not been taught chess by a teacher, so this was interesting opportunity for me. I do not think that a similar opportunity would have come to me on any other site, so that really made me appreciate the site a lot more and now it is definetely one of my favourite sites. I actually scheduled some further chess training with Yelena as I think it might help me to get stronger at chess. I have also tried to get myself to the next level as a chess player by getting more learning material that I have gone through a bit now, but still have a lot to go through. Of course there are still some chess books that have gathered dust somewhere that I should go through at some point, but at the moment I think that I do not have enough time for them. Maybe some time later this year I have enough time to go through all of the chess books and videos that I have.

I should probably go to the game below now, before I type more about stuff that is not really related to this game. Perhaps the first time that I needed to really consider what to move was when SRIKANTH played 2...Bb5. The move itself is not that dangerous, but I did have to consider what happens in case my opponent goes for 3...Bxd3, do I want to lose the opportunity to castle kingside and take back with the rook or should I play e3, for instance and allow the possibility of Qxd3 if SRIKANTH would have decided to take on d3. I ended up playing 3.Bb4, so that my opponent can't easily move the e-pawn, due to the pin. Instead of a passive move, I went for a more active one. Active play is usually much better than passive play, but I usually tend to play a bit too passively. SRIKANTH replied with 3...a5, which caused a potential problem for me. The bishop did not have all that many good squares to which it could go, actually the only decent square for it was a3 in my opinion, so I moved the bishop there. Then my opponent continued with 4...Nb6, with the idea of 5...Nc4 and ruining my pawn structure on the queenside with 6...Nxa3. Seeing that as a possibility, I played 5.b3 in order to prevent 5...Nc4 and it also gave the bishop two more squares to which it can go. However, it does weaken the c3 square, which became a problem for me later on in the game. I still think that b3 was necessary and since I was able to handle the c3 problem, it was not a huge problem.

After 5.b3 SRIKANTH played 5...Nf6 intending to go to e4 later on and eye on the c3 square. I was not all that worried about Ne4 just yet as I thought that I can easily cover the c3 square after Ne4, so I continued developing my pieces with 6.Nf3. SRIKANTH's reply was the surprising 6...h6, which I think is an unnecessary move because I have no desire to play Ng5 anyway. However, it does prepare g5, which SRIKANTH played on move 9. Before that though my opponent wastes a bit of time in my opinion by playing 7...Ng4 and after I played 8.Ne5, SRIKANTH just played the knight back to f6. While I wanted to improve the location of my pieces and avoid unnecessary pawn moves, my opponent did the opposite in my opinion. That being said, I was in some difficulties after 10...Ne4 11.Bb2 f6 12.Nd3 e5 or at least in a slightly uncomfortable position. Then again, the move 12...e5 was the starting point for my material gain. I thought about taking on e5 for a longish time because I had to make sure that the opening of the long diagonal will not be bebeficial for my opponent. I thought about all sorts of possibilities for SRIKANTH to play the queen on the long diagonal and make a battery with the bishop. Also I had to consider the advancement of the a-pawn and the possible invasions to the c3 square with the knight on some positions. I decided after some time that I should take on e5 first with the pawn and then with the d-knight. I think that taking with the d-knight was better than taking with the other knight or taking with the bishop. I think the final mistake was when my opponent played 14...a4 allowing 15.Ng6 that I did not see at first, but luckily used enough time and I was able to find that move. I was quite sure after I played 15.Ng6 that I am going to win this game. However, it turns out that with accurate defense SRIKANTH could have stayed in the game. I of course did not even the think of the possibility that is shown in the notation 15...Qe8 16.Nxh8 Bxe2 and I would have been only slightly better. After the game continuation 15...Qg8 I am clearly better and I was able to increase my advantage during the remainder of the game. I have added four mate in two and one mate in three puzzle today.