Rolling Pawns

It is about two games on consecutive Thursdays. They were somewhat similar in the sense that tactical strike decided the game. Unfortunately only one of them was mine.

October 2. I was paired with a master, but I didn’t see him coming. As I knew that he usually comes early, I asked TD almost right after the start and he said: “Oh, I forgot, he took a bye”. So, he quickly re-paired me with a guy that got a 1-point bye.

I got Black and we played Queen’s Pawn defense. Before the start I played 4 blitz games with some schmuck that wanted to play only with 2-3 minutes control, lost all of them. Maybe that, as well as distraction because of re-pairing caused me to blunder on move 6, automatically playing e6 and not seeing Qb5+. For some reason Fritz gives it only +0.5 and shootouts end in a draw. Anyway, he didn’t see it and castled.

Then we got into some positional maneuvering until he played 22. Bh2. I saw Nxc3 right away and calculated it, seeing also his hanging knight on d2. Then I found another good move – 24… Nd1 and the game was over. It took him some time to realize that.

 October 9.  I was paired with the guy I never played before. I guessed him playing me before the game and knew he can play Sicilian Nc6. I played my favorite Rossolimo attack, but his Qc7 was a surprise, I wasn’t ready for that and spend too much time in the opening.  The best was not to play Nc3 and d4, but to castle and play Re1, not letting his knight on f6.

So, it was equal and then he played this bad move b5. I saw e5 and played it, but after Qxf3 “automatically” took by rook. I consider it now one of the worst moves in my chess life, because it decided the game.  I would get at least a draw after gxf3, not letting his knight on g4. As soon as played 18. h3 I saw his Rxd4. He thought for a while and played it. 20. Rg3 was another very bad move instead of 20. Rff4. After 20… Bc5 I could just play Kf1.

My position became very bad and Ne6 was a final blunder, I thought so much about Rxg7+ that I was sure that Ne6 was a check. That loss, third out of four games and with White to 200 lower rated player (though he is in the top with +3 right now), also quick, really upset me.

I decided to put two my Monday’s games in one post.

September 29.  My opponent was a boy, my score with him I think is =2, -1 . Recently his rating from expert’s jumped to 2000. So, I had Black and for the first time in my life ( OTB ) played Hungarian Defense. Fritz thinks it was equal until I played 11… f5, he had to play exf5.

Then I had to play c5 one move earlier, instead of Qe8. The line 12… c5 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14. exf5 was giving me advantage and 12… c5 13. Be3 c4 was even worse for White. Instead of it I got under pressure.

But then I managed to get into a rook ending where my king and rook were very active and despite being two pawns down I was feeling OK. Fritz thinks that 62… Kd3 was keeping it equal. Then I missed another chance after he made a mistake playing 66. Kg6. Instead of queening I had to play Rb6+, Rb7+, Rb3 and then Rg3 checking White king. After he gave up his rook the resulting R vs. 2P endgame was lost for me.

October 6. My opponent was a man, score – =1, -1.  I had White, played Ruy Lopez and he played 7… O-O. I didn’t want to play against Marshall attack (even I actually have one win with White) and decided to play Anti-Marshall a4. It wasn’t a good idea, as I got an unfamiliar position.

On move 17 I decided to play g4, usually I don’t like making moves like this, but I just didn’t like what I would get if I wouldn’t do it. By the way computer thinks I am fine after 19.Qe2 giving +0.32 evaluation. Anyway it is equal until I, not knowing what to do, played 25. Bd3.  It was still more or less OK, but by playing 37. Ne2 I completely missed f5. It was really sudden and I overestimated the danger of this move. 38. exf5 was really bad and my position started to deteriorate. Eventually I got under a straight attack, had to give up an exchange and lost the ensuing endgame.