Following the beaten track

It was a 4th round in the Mondays club. I got a young man, never played him before. He had White and transposed into Giuoco Pianissimo, Italian four knight variation. On move 10 he deviated from the book by castling kingside. The position became very familiar to me, I played a lot of online games of that type.

My plan was to put my knight on f4 and my heavy pieces on “f” vertical. Already on move 14 I could sacrifice the rook on f3, I didn’t see it. The key move here would be Nd4, attacking/distracting the knight on e2 controlling the crucial square f4. So 14… Rxf3 15. gxf3 Qh4 16. Kg2 Nd4! and after 17. Nxd4 Nf4 White has to give up the queen to avoid the mate.

Instead I put my knight on f4 and to my surprise he played 15. b4 letting me to sacrifice the knight on h3. Then also unexpectedly he played 16. b5 instead of Nh2 or Qe3. At that moment I remembered the game I played with one 2100+ rated woman exactly 15 years ago. After sacrificing the knight on h3 she sacrificed the rook for the knight on f3 and eventually won.

So I started to look at it, but didn’t see how I can win. But after 16… Rxf3 17. gxf3 Qh4 Black was winning exactly the same way as described above by playing Nd4. The moves 17. gxh3 or 17. bxc6 were losing as well. Anyway I played 16… Na5 which I regretted later from the pure positional point of view as the knight has no moves there. Computer is less critical thinking that Na7 was almost the same.

After exchanging the knights I continued my attack, his 22. Rg1 was a mistake. Then he suddenly played 23. g4. I saw his idea, exchange the pawns and the rooks on g5 and g6 and pin my queen. Still I believed that his knight sacrifice wasn’t sound and decided to play a safe 24… Rg6, 24… Rxf3 was somewhat better.

After a few moves his position became very difficult. I decided not to give him any chances, not to take on h6 and use that pawn as a cover for my king. On move 32 he took his queen, then put it back showing me that he knows he has to move it. Then after a short thinking he resigned.

 

Blind spot

It was a last round in the Mondays club. My opponent didn’t come, I told TD about that and he quickly paired me with the same boy I played with on last Wednesday, it looks like it was his first day in the club. He had White and we played Giuoco Pianissimo. On move 11 he played a novelty Qd2 (according to 365chess.com).

After his 15. Na4 I didn’t know how to react to Nxb6 with the following Qc3 attacking e5 and c6 pawns, so played no so good looking 15… c5 (computer says it’s OK). There was a bit better 15… Qd7 followed by Qc7. Then something strange happened. He played 16. Qe3 and I decided that he blundered. After quick thinking I played 16… c4. Suddenly he took my bishop on b6 with his knight. Then even more strange thing happened.

I looked at the position and decided that it is better to take the bishop and after knight goes to the only good square a4 take on c2. I took the bishop and to my horror his hand went out of my sight and extracted my rook on a8. A definition in Collins dictionary tells it all: “A blind spot is an area in your range of vision that you cannot see properly but which you really should be able to see.”

After I found myself down an exchange and a pawn I decided that my only chance is a kingside attack. So I played f4 on move 22 and lifted my rook. After 29… Rg5 I saw that in some lines I can play Bh3. As soon as he played 30. Qa6 I saw Qf2 idea and 30… c6 was an attempt to make it possible. Suddenly he played 30. Qxa5, I replied Qf2 almost right away. He made a few desperate checks and after 35. Qa6 it was a mate.