This time I came too early into the new club. So I went to the store, then it was lecture for about 45 minutes that’s probably why I felt tired when the game started. My opponent was 1800+, from the old club, never played with him. Here is the game.
I had Black, we played some Queen’s pawn line, I played fast for some reason and pretty early I got under pressure. After 17. … Rb8 I suddenly noticed that besides the standard combination 18. Nxd5 Qxd2 19. Ne7+ giving nothing to White which I checked a few times before, there is also Nf6+ that looks pretty bad for Black. I tried to keep a poker face and he didn’t see it. Fritz says I was simply losing the game after 18. Nxd5. It didn’t get much easier, I was under attack. I saw 22. e6 coming and thought that the game will be probably lost. Strange, but he missed this and other possibilities too and did a regrouping.
Then he made a crucial mistake from my point of view by playing 32. g5 (though Fritz only rates it as -1). I got the initiative and started to play well. I didn’t take right away the exchange he offered, because I saw that it will leave him with 2 bishops, my threats will evaporate, and I wanted to attack, not grind. After Qa3 I saw that Rxb2+ wins on the spot, Fritz later said that there was even a mate in the end. As Russian expression says: “Everything is good that ends good”.
January 11, 2011 at 5:25 pm
I noticed that 18.Nxd5 tactic before he played Kb1 to set it up. I also figured he needed to play f5 and e6 to detract from your growing initiative.
At one point, I think his game just collapses. He doesn’t trade queens, losing a tempo there, plays Rd3, then plays g5 allowing ..Bf5.
I really liked your …b3 move, that was a stunner. Then he plays another awful defensive move, Bd1 instead of Rc3,Re2 or axb. …Rxb2 was another stunner, but by then he was set up for it.
“All’s well that ends well” is very much the case, but I thought you played a good game other than missing that one tactic. If you’d seen a lot of Open Sicilians, then you’d know that that tactic is a bread and butter one for White (a lot of times that is all White has to stop Black).
This game seemed like a mismatch. Yes, White got some decent positions but when isn’t that the case? The important thing is when it came down to the gun-slinging at the end, you played it like a champ. 😉
January 11, 2011 at 6:05 pm
linuxguy – thanks! You noticed right about collapse, it explains better what happened, it wasn’t just one g5 move.
b3 is a positional sacrifice with castling opposite sides, learned in the very remote past.
Sometimes another pawn is on a5, so b3, axb3/cxb3, then a4 – opening the lines.
Here it was rather tactical than positional because of the bishop on f5.
Yes, I saw it in Sicilian – Nd5, then Nxe7 winning a pawn, but my vision was too peripheral.
Mismatch – maybe, at least I wouldn’t let him get away if I would have such an attack on the kingside, he had to finish me off and he didn’t.
January 11, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Ah, so that was the tactic, a3 lever push.
Actually, I thought that was a great game on your part. 🙂 I think our styles may have merged a bit, or similar sensibilities.
After looking at that opening position for Black for quite a while, I wonder if instead of ..Nh5 you couldn’t have also tried ..e6, looking to follow it up with ..NxN, ..Nd7, ..c5.
You played a nice opening, as Black rarely gets a chance at gaining experience vs. the Veresov Attack, so White players have that psychological advantage. I like that set-up that you chose, though.
January 11, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that play on FICS is just not the same. OTB, I have time to avoid a lot of tactical pitfalls that simply take me too long to spot in an online game. Even the Rxb2 at the end is an example of too difficult to find online a lot of times, but OTB one would sort of expect to find (outside of really poor time-management). 😉
January 12, 2011 at 1:43 am
Seems to me that your opponent isn’t really of the attacking type of player. With other words he isn’t really schooled in tactics.
You on the other hand did really well in tactics and that is what won you the game. Congrats.
January 12, 2011 at 4:43 pm
linuxguy – definitely Nh5 wasn’t the best move, e6, NxN, Nd7 … c5 would make it French-like, meaning I would feel essentially more comfortable there. I feel I need to spend some time investigating this setup, as you said you don’t get it often and it would be good to know some ideas here.
Fritz, for example, says that I needed to play Ne4 after 7. Qd2 and then after forced NxN exchange another knight has to go to back to g1.
Yeah, usually you see only very simple tactics online.
chesstiger – thanks! Yeah, tactics and a few attacking ( and missed attacking ) moves was what decided this game.
Also it was a lesson for me to extend my vision and to be more careful if I see something similar to the standard combination.
January 13, 2011 at 1:51 am
I played tonight. 🙂 It wasn’t a houdini act by any stretch, but then again neither was I playing a Class A player. 😉 He always puts up a tough fight, though.