Rolling Pawns

It is not about the money, it’s about one move in a second round game in the Thursday’s club.  My opponent was a boy, I drew him with White 7 months ago in the same opening, Sicilian, Moscow variation.

I had some pressure after the opening and after exchanges on e5 thought I can get an attack on the kingside. A crucial moment came after his 28… Re8.  I played an obvious 29. Rg5+ and after Kh8 suddenly realized that it is me who is now under pressure. Instead of 29. Rg5 I had to play 29. Ref1, then to 29… Re6 I could reply Rf7 and have about +1 advantage.

So, I had to make a few balancing moves and after he forced queens exchange I accepted his draw offer.

It was a first round of a new tournament in Monday’s club. My opponent was an old guy, he told me he didn’t play in 25 years. Yes, he looked rusty sometimes, nevertheless played pretty well.

So, I had Black and played Queen’s Indian Accelerated.  His 31. Qg2 was not the best move and then 32. bxc5 increased my advantage. So, I won a pawn and tried to get a breakthrough in the center. 36. Re4 was better than Red7.

In the end I got under 10 minutes and he was under 20. I started to feel exhausted and not seeing a way to win, decided to offer a draw. He accepted.

It was a last round in the Thursday’s tournament, I got White and my opponent was a young guy rated 1870, never played him before. So, he played Caro-Kann and I chose a most popular line. After 11 moves we had a theoretical position (I didn’t know about that) and c3 is considered a move preventing White to castle queenside, which would be not a bad idea considering what happened in the game.

After he played 17… g6 the best would be 18. Qf3. Then 19. Ng5 was also not a very good move, I wanted him to put a rook in a passive position defending f7 and forgot about Ne5. So, after 20 moves a had a feeling of some instability in my position. Then I just missed his 21… Nxf2.

Interesting that my 23. Nxh5 took him by surprise, he looked confused. Maybe it explains his 23… Nxh5, which was a mistake. But I already had a premove 24. Nxg4, played it quickly and didn’t notice the obvious Rxf7. But then he made another mistake playing 24…Qg3. As soon as he played it he offered a draw.

I agreed without thinking, knowing that I am worse. He even asked me: “Are you sure?”, I said: “Yes”. Actually he had only ~0.25 advantage after queens exchange, so it was not an error in judgement from his side, error was playing Qg3 instead of Ng3 which was keeping his advantage.

It was a 6th round at the Thursday’s club, my opponent was a boy, never played him before. I had White and we got Sicilian, Kan variation. I didn’t play the exact book moves, but got myself a playable position.

Then after exchange on a4 I got optimistic, thinking that I had an advantage. Actually, I did not. 22. b5 was better than 22. bxa5, I just thought that it would be difficult to defend that pawn.

23. e5 was a serious mistake, I had to switch to defense after that. 29. f5 was another error in judgement, I thought that I have some chances on the kingside, but I had none. Eventually having 6 minutes vs. his 25 I blundered a rook and mate in 1. Anyway my position was -9 at that moment.