Chess960 SP935

Yesterday I played five chess960 games at lichess.org again and I was able to win all of them. That being said, the last game especially was a tough one and I only won that due to the fact that my opponent run out of time. This very good streak of games meant that my rating went up nicely and actually my chess960 rating there is now at its peak at 1898. The game below was my first game of the day and it had the longest time controls I have played with at lichess. The basic time was 30 minutes and there was a 3 second increment. During the game I thought that I played much more blunder free game than if this had been played with 10 minute time controls, for example. It may also be interesting to note that the rating that my opponent had in this game is not an established rating yet, meaning that my opponent had not played enough chess960 games to get an established rating before this game was played.

I started this game with the same move that I usually start the game these days, no matter if the game is chess or chess960. In retrospect, I may actually prefer 1.d4 to 1.e4 in this starting position and I am not sure what posessed me to play 1.e4. Maybe old habits die hard or something. 1.d4 seems to be a better alternative to me now due to the fact that it helps in the development of the bishop on c1 and it does not go in the way of the light squared bishop when the g-pawn is moved and the long diagonal is opened up for it. I think shannanou answered a bit poorly to my first move by playing 1...Nef6. First of all, it does not seem right to me to play the e-knight to f6, I think moving the g-knight to f6 is more natural and second it provokes the move 2.e5, which drives the knight away. Maybe shannanou wanted to accomplish similar things as in the Alekhine Defense (1.e4 Nf6), where the White pawns might get overextended and weak. It might not have been a good idea in this starting position because after 2...Nd5, I was able to reply with 3.g3, attacking the knight on d5 with my light-squared bishop. My opponent answered by playing 3...e6, which both defends the knight and opens a diagonal for the queen on f8. I then considered briefly on taking on d5 with my bishop, but rejected the idea quite soon, because I did not think that giving up the bishop pair for creating doubled pawns for my opponent was a good enough result for that exchange. Therefore I played 4.d4 in order to open a diagonal for my dark-squared bishop and after that I may get my knight to d3.

Shannanou's 4th move required me to be alert, because otherwise this game might have had an embarassingly short end. The move 4...Qb4 threatens a mate in one that I was able to see before I made my move. I thought about different ways to prevent Nc3# and ended up playing Bxd5 because I thought that it was the simplest way to end the threat of mate. It was not, however, the strongest reply as you may see in the notation. 5.Qd3 was a stronger alternative, but I did not really like to play that move because I wanted to get my e-knight to d3 and the queen on d3 would just be in the way for some period of time. I had a plan and I followed it, after 5...exd5, I thought that I had to play 6.Ngf3 in order to protect the d4-pawn, so that I could finally play my other knight to d3. Shannanou thought about the move 6...h6 for some time and when I saw it, it seemed a bit odd to me, maybe even a waste of time. Shannanou's move was designed to stop Ng5, but at that moment I had no desire to play that move anyway, I was more concerned with the development of my pieces. Admittedly had I been able to play Ng5, it might have been a bit annoying move for my opponent, but I doubt that it would have done all that much good for me. Finally on my 7th move I was able to play Nd3 without a drawback and drive the queen away from b4. The queen then retreated to b6, which gave me an idea to play a4 in response and lift my rook to a3 and follow it up with Nc5 and Rb3.

Shannanou decided to play 8...d6, both preventing Nc5 and opening up a diagonal for the bishop. During the game I thought that the move 8...d6 might be the most problematic for me to face. I was mainly looking at Bg4 possibilities and the fact that the knight on f3 and the rook on d1 would be awkwardly placed on the same diagonal. I then took on d6, but afterwards I briefly thought that it helped my opponent, because shannanou would be able to develop the knight now to f6, where it would be better placed than on e7. I anticipated that my opponent would take on d6 with the rook, but instead shannanou took back with the queen and I thought that it was a mistake, especially due to my next move 10.Bf4. At that moment I was really happy of the way that things had gone. My grin widened after I saw my opponent's reply 10...Qc6, because it seemed like the worst possible square to put the queen. Moving the queen to c6 on move 10 was actually so bad that it was almost the same as clicking the resign button. The idea Ra3 to c3 and going for the c7 weakness is just too strong. Shannanou thought to protect c7 with the rook, but it had the downside of allowing Nfe5, winning the exchange. It was a much better idea to play 11...g5, but even then I should have had a clearly winning position. I have added one mate in one, three mate in two and one mate in four puzzle today.

I have done also a live commentary for this game and the video for it can be viewed below.