My opponent was a boy I played with many times. So I got White and played my favorite Rossolimo variation. I gave up some space in the opening, but then he chose not the best move with 16… f5. I considered Ng5 of course, but didn’t like f4, not seeing that I can play Qh5. Still he could defend with h6 and I am just a 0.3 better. My move exf5 was not worse than Ng5 and I saw that I can put a rook on e4. Then I considered Nh4 a few times, but didn’t like e4 after exchange, though Fritz thinks I would have advantage after e4.
After his expected Nf4 I planned to exchange rooks and thought that the arising endgame should be good for me. I consider his g5 a mistake, though computer doesn’t think so. The problem is, he usually plays very aggressively, but this is not a position for that. Qg6 was a mistake, he had to exchange light pieces, N vs. B endgame is a draw. Interesting that I thought that I could win it because of his bad bishop, but actually it is bad only on a queenside, as most of the shootouts end in a draw.
His Qf7 and Kg6 were mistakes too, I think he underestimated my chances. After 34. Nf3 I expected Qf6 and was very surprised when he quickly played Qf5 and went away. I checked everything and played Nh4+. When he came back he realized that he blundered and resigned.
January 31, 2015 at 6:10 am
Your choice of close Magnus-like position was an admirable one! hehe. 🙂
10.Ne2 This is an interesting move. You also could have played 10.Na4 Qa5, 11.b3 or 10.Bd2 or 10.Bc1. I wouldn’t have wanted to play 10.Ne2, but I liked your strategy up to this point, and you still hold a slight advantage in any case, and in general the closed position was the winning strategy against him. 😉
10…e5?! I would play 10…c4! here now that your night is not on c3, so if 11.dxc4 dxe4 (or recapture on c4).
11…d4?! I still like 11…c4!
12…Be6. I would sac the pawn with 12…c4 versus what happened in the game. Need I say I like this move? hehe.
13…Qd7 Oh wait, I need to show my further appreciation for c4. 13…dxc, 14.Bxc3 c4, 15.Nxe NxN, 16.BxN cxd. 😀
Yeah, he started totally going wrong with trading the wrong pieces and not the right ones. …f6 wasn’t the right plan, tempting as it may have been, traded his light bishop and gave backward pawn.
23…Nf4? Strategic blunder, should be trying to trade his dark-squared bishop.
My instincts told me that he should trade queens even if this ending is losing, but we don’t always chose to follow our instincts, and hopefully this was his excuse as well (!?)
I saw your knight fork right away at the end as well, as I hadn’t seen his Qf5 move possibility, which really isn’t one. He had quite a few moves to figure out that …Qf6 was going to need to be played at some point, and then he could launch his pawns toward your king if your queen tries gobbling pawns (at least you had chances there to go wrong there still until the fork sealed it).
This is one of those matchups where your style is anti his style, which is to say you are his problem opponent. Nice technique once again, quite impressive! 🙂
February 1, 2015 at 11:46 am
Thank you!
c4 instead of e5 looks interesting, computer even doesn’t recommend dxc4 because of dxe4 and Black is 0.5 better.
13…dxc3 14. bxc3 c4 doesn’t work because of 15. d4 exd4 16. Nxd4.
I think the position where he had to play Qf6 instead of Qf5 was already lost. I just needed to find Qd7 and then Nf3-Nd2-Ne4 maneuver.
Even I wouldn’t find it, I knew that my knight complements my queen than his bishop his, so I would play for a win.
February 3, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Sorry to hear about your loss on Monday, I forgot you were playing and should have replied to this comment earlier (thought I posted two comments originally, but hadn’t). I replied to your comment on my blog.
February 5, 2015 at 11:48 pm
I won today, played with the same guy I had a combination 4 months ago. This time it was the same Queen’s pawn, but he was holding up well and exchanging piece after piece.
Eventually we got into a bit better for me rook ending, probably still a draw.
Then I lulled him into a pawn endgame that was lost for him. 🙂
February 6, 2015 at 2:53 am
Nice going, good job! My game tonight was worth a lot less rating points, but it was quite amusing all the same.
February 10, 2015 at 2:24 pm
I played yesterday with an expert. I got Ruy Lopez with White and it was a completely closed position with only light pieces remaining.
Then I missed his bishop sacrifice and my position was blown up, he got 4 pawns for the piece.
The position was Philidor-like, with him having 4 connected passed pawns.
I resisted 86 moves, but of course lost.
February 10, 2015 at 6:28 pm
Oh my goodness, 86 moves, wow!
A piece-sac for four pawns would probably surprise me too if it weren’t related to a king attack. But, I can tell you that this the bread-and-butter type of sacrifice from an Expert that Class players miss, a piece sac to promote a pawn in the endgame.
It sounds like a miracle of science that your game lasted 86 moves, let alone 56 moves, so is publish-worthy! 🙂 Only way I could think to explain this in my mind is that you were White and tons of space or initiative built-up by the time he broke through, which might have caused him to look for the sac all the more, just to have his own attack going on. 😉
Not a game one could play at G/30 like I have tonight. hehe.
Still, I mean it sounds as if he had a tough fight on his hands and that you were together in the thick of the battle through crucial stages of the game. I can’t think of many games going that long.
You could feel worse if you were Wesley So who lost this 111 move game the other week after not losing for 56 games, and being in the #1 spot in the tournament with a long win-streak. I saw this video annotated by Jan Gustaffson. Giri misses quick win by trading rooks on move 35, then allows 71…h3, and finally So is still drawing this with the move 93….Qe6+, but blunders with 93…Kg5?? Talk about blundering late!
February 10, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Here’s a sac you don’t exactly think of everyday and rather mind-blowing to see it at first. Carlsen sacs a piece for a pawn on move 5, and it’s actually a line.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1325087
However, the refutation of this line is to sac the piece back at move 7…Bg7, where Black has equalized with a comfortable game. If you play this line as White, you are basically playing it for the “sucker” value, IMHO. But you know it’s probably going to work. haha.
February 10, 2015 at 6:50 pm
To me, I’ve always sort of seen Giri as this player who doesn’t exactly play “2800 level chess” IMHO FWIW – which is why we shouldn’t always pay attention to chess ratings – but has apparently gotten there one reason being that he can blitz his opponents into oblivion, and it is very appropos on this occasion that he won this way against the lower-rated player. I haven’t seen many of Giri’s games, he has just given me that vibe whenever I’ve seen one of his games before, so I could still easily be wrong about this.
I see a lot of these young super-GM’s though that basically just blitz their @ss off, to me, even though it’s a Standard rated game.
February 11, 2015 at 9:02 pm
I posted one of my two games from Tuesday night, lost them both, but only lost 1 rating point for the tournament.
February 11, 2015 at 11:02 pm
I did not have tons of space or initiative by the time of sacrifice, rather opposite, less space. He was very slow and careful while realizing his advantage. I just resisted hoping I’ll get a chance and I didn’t.
Funny Carlsen’s game, I know this opening, but never played it.
February 14, 2015 at 1:51 am
I posted my Wednesday’s game. Would have posted it last night, but got talked into going to the bar instead.