Chess960 SP400

This game was played on the same day as the game I shared yesterday. This game started relatively soon after the previous game, so the unfortunate finish that the previous game had was still clearly on my mind. My opponent, nookie10, started the game with 1.b4. It opened up the long diagonal for the bishop on a1. Due to that last game being so blunder filled and the annoyance I had from it, I thought that I would play this game in a more relaxed manner, so I played the silly 1...c5. It is not a good move because nookie10 just takes on c5 and in order to keep the material balance, I need to take on c5 with my rook. The rook becomes easily attackable on c5 and I lose time when I need to move it again. Despite of the silly start, I was only slightly worse after I had to play my rook back to c8 on move 4. The game continued with normal looking developing moves and on move 6, I played Qc7 in order to prevent my opponent from castling. Nookie10 replied with the surprising 7.Nf5 that did threaten Nxe7+, but as it was easily dealt with 7...Ng6, I am not sure how beneficial my opponent's move was. Next nookie10 played c5, which does threaten to take on b6, so I had to move my queen to b7 and threaten mate. Nookie10 continued with 9.Ne3, making the moving the knight to f5 a waste of time because I continued with moves that I would have done anyway. After 9.Ne3 I increased the pressure with 9...Ng4, the idea behind it is of course to remove the defender of g2. I was slightly better after 9...Ng4. Nookie10 replied with Qf1, which might be the best try to hold on. Qf1 also freed the knight a bit, so that the knight on e3 would be able to capture my knight from g4. Therefore I thought that I should take on e3 myself, in order to double my opponent's pawns. Before I took on e3, I had also planned my next move, 11...Qe4, keeping the initiative. Nookie10 made next a huge blunder that lost the game. 12.Ne5 would be a good move if not the reply I played in the game 12...Qxe3+. 12.Ne5 does threaten the queen and mate on f7, but unfortunately for my opponent, I can win a pawn and a rook first and then trade queens and have an easily winning endgame. I have added two mate in two, one mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

The live commentary I did for this game can be viewed in the video below.