It was first round of a new tournament and I got the same young guy I blundered to 3 weeks ago. This time I had White and played Moscow variation of Sicilian.
Soon it started to look like some variation of French defense. On move 14 I thought about playing Rfc1, but then decided that kingside attack was more promising and played Ng5. Still, I think I defended well and eventually we transferred into a rook endgame.
For some reason I decided to play aggressively, 36. g4 was a mistake. I didn’t like passive 41. Rh2, so decided to sacrifice the “h” pawn and activate my rook. I tried to organize some kind of perpetual , but didn’t see the idea of attacking e6 pawn from e7, which would really force a repetition or will give me that pawn. It would eventually lead to a position with him having a passed “f” pawn with pawns on “a”, “b” and “d” which was drawn.
Then suddenly he played 56… Kf7, blundering the “f” pawn. The position became completely equal, but I had to be careful after 63… Kc6, 64. Kc3 was losing.
Rolling Pawns 
September 17, 2017 at 6:39 am
7.d4 I think you are opening up the position before you really want to. I watched a video by NM Chris Peterson recently, and he said he played one of his pawn moves only one square because he didn’t want to open the position too early. 7.0-0 d5?!, 8.e5 Ng8.
9.e5 He is coming close to equality by forcing you to play “consequently”, as Spassky used to say. In hindisght, better appears 9.exd5, and if 9…Bb4+, 10.Nbd2 Nxd5, 11.0-0, and you appear to have more options here.
I’m a little guarded about getting ahead of myself, but if you were a Master here as White, subconsciously you’d probably be looking at playing a 1900 as an automatic win with occasional draw. The only way to really get in trouble, from this perspective, is to keep the game close and forced. But, objectively here, you could be playing the better moves, yes.
14.Ng5 Maybe 14.Qd3 is more accurate, since then he wouldn’t have this …h6 reply after Ng5.
17…Nb8. His idea is to play his knight to c6, but he is also finally giving you a chance to do something active as well. When I first saw this position, my eyes immediately went to 18.Rg3 Kh8, and then you could at least force a draw, if you want with 19.Rb3, pursuing his queen.
When I look at this position a second time, this 18.g4-g5 idea looks _practically_ winning. This is where you sort of want to switch your computer engine off, since you aren’t playing against a 3000 level computer (style/ability) and are playing against another human instead (I’m not looking at a computer or it would possibly ruin the value of my suggestions anyway).
An idea is to play the pawn to g5, and if he plays …h5, Qe2 g6 would create a dark-squared backward f-pawn weakness. Okay, forget that, even better is an f4,g4,f5 idea (no g4, with Re1 instead is another plan), so what you play to play here is 18.Kh1 (Preparing f4) because you want to launch this major attack on his king “on the sly”.
21.h3 A practical, time-pressure style of move. 21.Nf4-e2 is probably good enough for a draw.
22…Qc6 Instead of loading up on the d-pawn, he wants the 7th rank, so he’s still playing for a win.
23.Qe2 Now you sort of say “show me (that you have a win)”, which is the practical choice. An interesting, attractive attacking possibility is 23.Nd3? Nf5, 24.Nc5, but simply …Nxd4, 24.Ne4 dxN, 25.QxNd4 loses a pawn, and even if 24…b6, 25.g4 Nh4! However, 23.g4 right now looks totally playable, safe, strong, and that does set you up for 24.Nd3
26.a3 I don’t like this move, since his queen could then get out on b3, avoiding a trade. 26.Nc3 QxQ (…Qf5, 27.g4 Qg6, 28.Nxa Rc2, 28.Qd3), 27.RxQ a3, 28.Nb5.
30.f4 Since there is no longer a middlegame to play for, I would avoid this and centralize my king instead.
36.g4 might be a mistake, but OTB, and without a second time-control, these sorts of decisions look very practical, not wanting to invest time in a single move while looking for a fortress, which would probably be objectively best. Rarely do players sit tight, OTB.
41.h5 I’m guessing this is the point where you decided to keep your rook active this time, instead of 41.Rh2, which looks like the way to try to hold.
54…f4, throwing away the win. 54…b5,55.axb Rxb, followed by …Rb3-g3, then activating the Black kings, should win. Don’t know if he should play 54…Rg3 right away, though.
Good job not stepping into the “mined-square” at the end! Interesting game! Time pressure makes it tough to find a best plan, OTB, and by time-pressure, I mean these weak time-controls at the start of the game. Tarrasch would not approve. 😉
September 17, 2017 at 7:20 am
I looked at this with Stockfish, and I noticed the errors in my suggestions. For example, h5 was great for you, Rh2 would have been bad or likely losing, and then 43.Kc3 is winning for you, in the game, not sure if you noticed that or not; plug it into a computer, you are down a pawn but winning there!
You play these close games where defense is paramount, which are the type of positions which I am weaker at, objectively. What this really means is that, during a game, you are often getting “into your opponents position” a lot, figuring out their best plans and idea. When I keep initiative, it cuts down a lot on those calculations for me, although I want to build more flexibility into my game, and I can see better now where I can add that, it’s jut not how I learned the game, really, so it may never become as natural for me as it is for most Masters and above (particularly GMs).
I looked at some of the rook endgame continuations. His …f4 was best, and then he needed to play …Re3, instead of blundering his pawn, which as “equal”. That is the thing, these rook endings take GM skill, and one could win it from either side if one were a virtuoso at these endgames. I pretty much suck at them, but the computer is a help for teaching. Some people can practically make a living off of winning equal rook endgames – the Expert I play, Paul Anderson, is one of the best I’ve seen, and I bet he is better than many GMs in that department, but if I play well I can often avoid them, anyway. 😀
September 18, 2017 at 6:51 pm
If you like the positional play style, this is what a 1.d4 game looks like, won completely by positional play, and a willing accomplice. 😉 I take it this was an 1.e4 player thinking “Hey, what happened to all the tactics!?”
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=111290
September 18, 2017 at 7:55 pm
Thanks!
If 9. exd5 then 9… Nxd5 and I was not ready to play with isolated pawn.
After 14.Qd3 he still could play h6, I don’t like the whole idea now, I think better was to play on “c” vertical.
Your idea about g4-g5 on move 18 or later looks interesting, but I am not sure about it against this opponent. He doesn’t play too well in the opening, but his positional play is good, so he could refute that.
September 19, 2017 at 3:36 am
Yeah, you got into this super-positional game where it became all about holding the position. I think you were playing it with the right mindset. Probably it should have been a simpler type of draw at some point.
I looked at some ideas with Houdini, and it seemed nothing had worked. Chess.com was lagging due to ads it tries to display on Chrome but can’t, it kicked me off of some winning games. I just switched over to Lichess (lichess.org), the board and no lag are way better. I think I’m going to ditch the chess.com site.
September 19, 2017 at 3:46 am
I’ve played 3 provisional “Classical” rated games of 5 min + 8 sec on Lichess, and my rating went from 1500 to 1894 after 3 wins. hehe. Chess.com was beginning to make me hate chess, with all their lag and send-offs.
September 19, 2017 at 10:50 am
Exactly, I could get an easier draw.
I agree about chess.com, it is not good sometimes, I will check your site.
I didn’t play yesterday, had to spend time with my mom. My sister will take her back tonight.
I will be out of Toronto for a week starting tomorrow, with probably no access to the internet, already took byes.
September 19, 2017 at 4:54 pm
That’s good you spent some time with your mom! 🙂
I will play one game tonight, then be out of town, too, in California for probably at least a week. Yeah, will probably be off the grid for a little while as well. 😉
September 19, 2017 at 6:32 pm
Here’s a cool attack I just played on Lichess: https://lichess.org/Z9t9wQM9Vww4
September 20, 2017 at 5:34 am
I published my Tuesday night game.
September 28, 2017 at 4:35 am
I posted my game from California last night.