It was a strange game. I got White, with a boy I played 4 times before, =3, -1.
I knew he would play Petroff, so I decided to try a new line I looked at some time ago, here is the game. I didn’t expect f5, then thought I’ll try to get two bishops. Then for some reason I decided to exchange the queens.
We played with a 30 seconds increment, nevertheless I played unusually fast, spending 22 minutes on 28 moves. First it costed me a win, when I automatically played prepared move 22. Rxa7 missing that I can win a knight. Then it almost costed me a game. Instead of attacking with a 26. Rc8 (not sure that I would find all other moves like g4, that Houdini suggested) I got that bad idea about exchanging the rooks, thinking that I will have a better B vs. N endgame.
It was a mistake, I lost a pawn and realized that I have to fight hard for a draw.
My strange, don’t care mood that evening helped me at this moment, I switched to the defending mode without delay.
After my 36th move objectively it was lost, though a win required exact play from him. But he made a mistake, which I didn’t use playing 41. Bf6. He had a win in his hands, but lost a crucial tempo with 42… b3. I played exactly from this moment, bringing my king to the queenside.
It was a funny position after move 48, when he couldn’t take my bishop on a1. Since then it was a draw, he tried to do something, I just tried to play carefully and watched for 3-fold repetition, still missed one – after White moves 62, 64 and 72. Anyway, eventually he realized that it’s a draw and basically forced it.
February 8, 2012 at 1:02 am
It is a strange game. You like to keep queens on, and 13.Qa4 instead of 13.Qb3? looks very strong to me, like +-. 14.Bf4 is coming, and even if 14..Kh8, Bc4 is still a threat against the queen after something like ..Bd7? and otherwise a Re1 and Rd1 or Rc1 look strong.
10..f5 is one of those wasted moves that I use to get the jump on an opponent. Now Black is no longer threatening ..Bg4, only some cumbersome ..Rf8-f6-g6/h6 could possibly be the point of that move, and White’s attack is usually coming first, with no wasted tempos yet.
21.Rxa7 is one of those obvious quick moves. I wouldn’t have seen 21.Ra3 either, if I weren’t looking for a better move, but that is what is required. As soon as I saw your ? next to move 21, and your mention about winning a piece, I went straight to the move Ra3, but that is a move you will see anyway if you bother to look for a better move. It is easy to look for a better move when you know you have a good move already; i.e. Rxa7, so always look for an alternative, better move, whenever you see an obvious good move.
He blew through the ending crassly with no finesse and then tried to win on time (gee, I wonder when the last game was where this didn’t happen). It’s funny that someone is trying to blitz you, since your game is already all about the blitz. It’s like “dumb and dumber” that they try to win against you that way.
I wouldn’t even dream of beating you at blitz chess.
Take your time in the late opening, they will almost always scr8w themselves right away at <2,000 rating.
February 9, 2012 at 12:32 am
I like Qa4 and right, I could use my two bishops in this open position and my rooks occupy open lines faster.
This is a second game he makes a blunder and I don’t use it, too bad.
Yeah, he could do better in the endgame.
He didn’t try to win on time, I had more than enough of it with the increment, but maybe he hoped that I will make a mistake.