Chess960 SP565

Today I am sharing a game that I played at ChessRex.com. The game below started on May 2nd, 2016 and finished on May 22nd, 2016. This is one of the two games I have played against Rawalpindi and both I have won due to a timeout. Unlike the game I shared on Friday last week, this game ended in a position that was winning for me. The game I shared Friday ended in a position that was equal. Both players pushed their d-pawns two squares forward in their first moves in order to open a diagonal for the bishop and take some presence in the center. Rawalpindi then played 2.g4, which opens up the long diagonal for the queen and may give the opportunity for a rook lift later on. At this point I had the awkward task of protecting the pawn on d5. I thought that both 2...e6 and 2...c6 restrict the way I can develop my pieces, but because the third option 2...Be6 seemed even worse, I had to decide between the two pawn moves. I played 2...e6, because I considered it to be a bit more flexible than 2...c6. Rawalpindi continued with 3.c3, protecting the pawn on d4 ahead of time in anticipation of the g-pawn advance I played next.

After the first 7 moves, I had develop both of my bishops, one of my knights and I had castled while my opponent had moved both knights and some pawns. I did have the lead in development, but despite of that the position was close to even. With the move 8.Bb3, Rawalpindi made the worst move of the game up to that point. I had the chance to reply with 8...h5 and maybe get a clear advantage, but instead I went for the less accurate move 8...exd4, which did give me a small advantage. Rawalpindi was trying to increase my advantage by playing 10.Be3, though not intentionally. Unfortunately I did not see the very interesting idea of replying with 10...f5, but instead messed up and played 10...Qh7, which brought the game back into balance once again. Equality did not last long as my opponent played the inaccurate 12.Nc5, which handed over the advantage back to me. Then on move 14 Rawalpindi made a huge blunder that lost the game. I have added one mate in two, two mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.