This was played at Red Hot Pawn in Clans Challenge. The clans that took part in this challenge were Wycombe Wanderers - The Chairboys and The White Hats. It was played on 3 boards and I played on board 1 for The White Hats. I drew both my games and they were the only two draws in this Clans Challenge. On board two our player was able to win one and lose one. Only on board three one of the players was able to win both games and unfortunately it was the player who played for Wycombe Wanderers - The Chairboys that was able to be the winner in both games, which meant that we lost the challenge 3 - 1.
After the move 5...g6 I have played the move 6.Bc4 previously and in this game I chose to play 6.Bg5. I have also been the one moving the black pieces and in the game my opponent played 6.Bd3 has been seen on this blog before. The game where I played 6.Bc4 can also be found in this blog. All moves should be good enough for a repeat performance, but who knows what else I come up with in my next game in this line. If there is a next game in this opening variation that is. The first huge blunder of the game was played by me in the diagram position below. For some reason I have the idea stuck in my brain that against the Dragon I should castle long, but it was a horrible idea in this position. What I did not think about when I castled was that after 9...Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Ng4, there is no safe way for me to guard f2... Therefore I was in a losing position after 9 moves. These kind of ideas I should see, but I was too careless and paid the price for it.
Somehow I was able to crawl out of the mess I put myself in a few moves later when Smiffy blundered with 12...Bf6 in the position that can be seen in the next diagram. The move was so bad in fact that Smiffy went from a winning position to being clearly worse or at least into a position that should favor me. My best reply to 12...Bf6 was 13.Bxf6, but I chose to capture the bishop with my knight instead and that was only good enough for an even position. Taking with the bishop is better because the knight and the queen work better together than the bishop and the queen.
The game was not played on an equal footing for very long, my 15th move Bh6 that was played in a situation viewable on the next diagram, was again a step into wrong direction. The problem with the move 15.Bh6 is that it only improved the position of my opponent's rook. At f8 the rook is passive, at e8 it generates more pressure to the pawn on e4. In the game Smiffy replied with the move 15...Re8 and then the game continued with the moves 16.Rf1 Nxe4. Then I blundered again with the move 17.Rd4 and I was in a lost position once again. My only reasonable move was 17.Rdd1, but even then I would have been in trouble.
Smiffy then played the sloppy 17...Bf5 and I was not in a losing position anymore. 17...Qxh2 might have ended my resistance quite quickly. The next diagram shows the situation on the board after 19.Bd3. My opponent played his or her biggest mistake of the game in reply to my 19th move. Smiffy played 19...Qc6?? It would have allowed me to win material, but I completely missed the idea starting with 20.g4. The idea behind the move 20.g4 is to divert the bishop from the defense of the knight. No matter how my opponent would have replied, I would have won the piece from e4. For the piece my opponent would have been able to get a pawn. Since I was already a pawn down, I would have had a piece for two pawns.
I played 20.Re1 with the idea of adding more pressure to the knight on e4. Instead of taking the winning advantage, I ended up being slightly worse. Smiffy continued the game with 20...Rac8, to which I answered with the move c3 and I started to get in serious trouble. I was in a lost position when we reached the next diagram position. It is taken after my 31st move Qc7. Smiffy played the awful move 31...Re6, which would have allowed me to force a draw. Had I replied with 32.Qb8+ and continued with 33.Rd8, my opponent has nothing better than take the perpetual check because all other lines would win for me, due to the unfortunate location of Smiffy's king and queen.
I missed my possibility to take the draw, but luckily my opponent did not see the win and took a draw instead a few moves later.
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