Chess960 SP600

The last post of the week and it is time to take a look at a chess960 game that I played yesterday at lichess.org. The time control for the game was 10 minutes without increment. The appearance of the game replayer is a bit different than previously because I finally figured out how to publish games with the new game editor at Chess.com... I updated some of my older chess960 posts using the new look. The posts that did not have Chess.com's game replayer previously that is. I had to figure out how to publish games with the new editor because the old one had problems with the PGN I pasted to it. It kept telling me that it was an improper PGN file. Luckily most of the games have not been problematic and I have been able to make the reposts in a decent pace after I solved the more problematic cases.

Before I get more sidetracked, I should get back to the game below. My opponent started the game with a wierd move in my opinion as klefuchs played 1.a4. The move did not make much sense to me, except that it may prepare the development of the bishop to a2. I think a much better alternative would have been 1.c4, opening the b2-h7 diagonal for the bishop. The bishop would also immediately threaten to take on h7, so klefuchs would also get some initiave. I replied with 1...d5, but now I think that I should have played 1...c5 for the same kind of reason why my opponent could have played 1.c4. Klefuchs continued with 2.d4, which I think is a good reply to d5 and it discourages me from playing 2...c5. I could probably still play c5, but it requires more consideration in my opinion. I replied with 2...a6, because I wanted to get my bishop to a7 for some reason. I should have probably just played 2...c5 as it seems like the more active move. After 3.Bb4 one might think that 1.a4 was designed against Bb5 later on as my opponent seems to think that it would be a good square for the bishop. However, I still think that 1.a4 was a mistake. 3.Bb4 also did lose time because I was able to answer with Nc6, forcing the bishop to retreat. The bishop retreated to a3, which allowed me to grab a pawn from d4. Taking the pawn was bit risky because klefuchs did get some initiave as a compensation for the pawn. I usually take those free pawns if I do not see any serious downside in doing so.

Klefuchs was able to get ahead in development, but because I thought I could defend all the important squares, I was not all that worried about it. After 7.Qg5 I thought for a moment and initially thought that I can't defend my pawn on d5, but then I realised that I can just push it forward. I thought that I should keep my extra material because otherwise I would be on the worse side of things. My opponent tried to get something done on e7, the focal point of klefuchs pieces and had I not been careful, I could have faced some serious trouble in that square. Klefuchs was able to keep the initiave and after 12.b4 I needed to properly think my options because I thought that I could lose if I do not find good reply to that move. I played 12...Bxa2 and thought that klefuchs would take back with the rook, so that I could continue with 13...Qe6. That would have given me some play, but my opponent decided not to allow that and played 13.b5 instead. I was facing yet another important decision. I decided to play 13...axb5 and after 14.axb5 to play Qe6. I could not move the knight because of Qxe7#. On move 15, klefuchs played bxc6 and I was only up a pawn once again. 15.bxc6 also threatened 16.Rxa2, because I still could not take back due to Qxe7#. Therefore I played 15...Bd5. The idea behind 15...Bd5 was to protect the b7 pawn. However, I missed the reply 16.Bxe7+, which equalized the material. I did not want to trade the bishops, so I played 16...Ke8 instead of 16...Qxe7 17.Qxd5. I did not like my position after 18.Bb4, but I thought that I should be at least get a draw out of this. I then decided to activate my badly placed rook on g8 by playing it to h8. That rook became the star player of the game. It first attacked the pawn on h2, to which my opponent reacted by playing 19.h3. Then I performed a rook lift to h5, which attacked the queen on g5, so with every move of that rook, I attacked something. At this point klefuchs made the game losing blunder and played 20.Qb5+. I was a bit shocked by this move and even considered playing Bc6 in response for a moment before I realised that I can just take the queen with my rook... I have added one mate in two, two mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in five puzzle today. Until Monday, my fellow chess960 enthusiasts!