Chess960 SP847

This is my latest game from lichess.org and my third consecutive game against capajan. After this game my chess960 rating hit its current peak of 1898. Both players had similar ideas on how to best open diagonals for the bishops and how to occupy the center with the d-pawn. Similarities stopped when I played 4...Nd6. I wanted more centralised location for my knight than my opponent. Capajan replied with 5.Ne3, which immediately targeted the now slightly less defended pawn on d5 as the knight blocked the rook's path when it jumped to d6. I thought about different options here, I think 5...Ne4 was one of the options I considered, but I played 5...e6 mostly just to defend d5 with a pawn and maybe get my pieces that were protecting it activated as they no longer needed to defend d5. However, I should have played 5...Ne4 because it would have left the square e6 free for my knight to jump to and it would not have been as passive of a move. The game continuation did allow me to reply to the move 6.Qb4 with Qb5. My decision to offer the trade of queens was not the best and it would have been better for me to play 6...b6.

The game continued rather evenly until my opponent made the move 11.Ka2. It was the worst move of the game up to that point, but because I did not react accurately, the game became balanced once again. The position became immediately favorable for me again after the blunder 12.Kb3. After that the advantage shifted from one side to the other with every move until there was a briefly even position during the moves 14...O-O 15.Nxc4. With my 15th move I made probably my worst move of the game that I had made up to that point. I thought that I had to take on c4 with the pawn because had I taken with the knight, then capajan could have won a pawn on b7. I did notice quite quickly on how much trouble I actually was after taking on c4 with the d-pawn. Capajan was clearly better after that. On my 18th move I made a horrible mistake and I can't really say why I played 18...Ne4+, it just seems so awful move when I look at it now.

I was in huge trouble for quite a long time, but I tried my best to hang on. I was completely lost after 33...Ra6, but for some reason capajan played 34.Rb6 instead of Rb7, which would have been a much better move and a move that I expected. The move that capajan played, Rb6, allowed me to get better back into the game, but even after that I was on the worse side of things. Then after 39.Rb2, the game became evenly fought again. On move 40 I threw the game away and I was in a lost position once again. Both players kept making horrible moves, but it was me again who blundered quite badly and started to be in a lost position after 44...Kd7. It could have been the game losing move, but I fought until the end and won the game on time. I guess I played my king to d7 because I saw that 44...Kf7 would be only good enough for a draw. I have added two mate in one and three mate in four puzzles today.

The live commentary for this game, done by me, can be viewed in the video below.