I have lately changed the way I play against 1.d4 in order to find something that suits me better than what I have previously played against it. I need a change from time to time to keep the game a bit more fresh if that is even possible anymore since I have played so many games of chess. All the chess variants seem to me much more interesting than chess at the moment and partly for that reason I have not started anymore correspondence chess games. Actually I am more determined than ever to take a break from correspondence games and play more games in one sitting. The nature of the correspondence games is that the games may last for months, sometime years, though the time used to think each move might actually not be that much, especially when one is playing a lot of simultaneous games. It feels a bit more of a mandatory chore to move in my games every day than something I would like to do. When I play rapid games, for example, I enjoy the experience of moving the pieces more than the daily moving of pieces in correspondence games.
The game below was played in the atadros's mini-tournament V at GameKnot. I have finished 17 out of the 20 games that are part of this mini-tournament. I am currently on 10th place and because 11 players have taken part, my results have been quite bad. If I win all my remaining games, I have a chance to be 7th in the final standings. My opponent in this game, towa, has been more successful in his games and towa is currently on 4th place with a chance to be third in the final standings if the remaining games end favorably for him.
Based on the way that the game below went, I do not think I like this opening all that much for Black. Then again more experience in this line might be needed before I completely disregard it. I played quite well the first six moves, but then with my 7th move I started to go for the wrong plan. I wanted to get my knight to c7, bishop to d7 and try to play b5. The problem with that plan is that it took a really long time and when I finally played b5, it put me in a losing position. In that position after 7.d5 I may have considered the correct play, 7...e6, but I was a bit worried about my pawn on d6 as it would become weak after e6. I obviously misjudged the position, but I was not punished for it because towa played the inaccurate 8.Bg5. It was better to play 8.Bd3. I then continued with my plan of trying to play b5 and maybe activate my pieces on the queenside because of it, but it was a mistake to play Bd7 because the bishop is not well placed at d7. My best move would have been e6 once again. This was not the start for my downfall as towa replied with 9.Nd2 instead of the better option 9.Bd3, which would have given my opponent a clear advantage. The move played in the game kept towa slightly favored in the game.
I did get my chance to play b5 on move 11, but for some reason I dismissed my plan and started to do something else instead. I do not remember nor can I now think of a reason why I changed my plan, I know that I wanted to exchange the dark-squared bishops, which seems like a stupid idea as I now look at the position. However, I was able to keep myself relatively well in the game even after 11...Nfe8, at least until I played the horrible blunder 17...Rb8 that is. After that blunder I should be in a losing position with correct play. Towa did not find the strongest continuation and therefore I got a little bit better back into the game. I was clearly worse in the game continuation for awhile, but then I played 19...Qe8 and my position went down the drain again. After quite a lot of bad moves from both sides, I was able to climb from the losing position to a more evenly fought game after a bad move, 23.Rdg1, from my opponent. I was not able to maintain the even position and for one move I went towards a loss once again. The move 26...Qxe4 was a very risky choice from me that could have meant the final downhill for me in this game. However, towa played 27.hxg6, giving me another chance to hold on. At first I was able to navigate my way through the problematic situations, but then on move 29 I made my final mistake and the game ended quite quickly after that for towa's victory. I have added one mate in one, one mate in three, one mate in four and two mate in five puzzles today.
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