I’ve played some of the best chess of my entire life over the past few months. There were nerve-wrecking wins and heartbreaking losses, but all of them were wonderful opportunities to hone my skills and keep getting better. I chose to analyze and comment on this game because I felt that it is an important instructional moment. My opponent played solid chess until about midway through the game when he made a critical error and allowed me full access to his defenses. I hope you enjoy!
[pgn]
[Event “Let’s Play!”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2022.04.17”]
[Round “-“]
[White “CMDRExorcist”]
[Black “Internet Opponent”]
[Result “1-0”]
[CurrentPosition “6r1/pp6/2nP4/k1P5/4PP2/2bPB3/P6P/1R3R1K b – – 1 28”]
[Timezone “UTC”]
[ECO “C25”]
[ECOUrl “https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game-2…d6”]
[UTCDate “2022.04.17”]
[UTCTime “01:30:28”]
[WhiteElo “1341”]
[BlackElo “1292”]
[TimeControl “1/86400”]
[Termination “CMDRExorcist won by resignation”]
[StartTime “01:30:28”]
[EndDate “2022.04.19”]
[EndTime “01:16:58”]
{I’ve played some of the best chess of my entire life over the past few months.
There were nerve-wrecking wins and heartbreaking losses, but all of them were
wonderful opportunities to hone my skills and keep getting better. I chose to
analyze and comment on this game because I felt that it is an important
instructional moment. My opponent played solid chess until about midway through
the game when he made a critical error and allowed me full access to his
defenses. I hope you enjoy $1
} 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 d6 3. Nf3 Bg4 {Black
neglects his center development in favor of an old trick to make White think his
Queen is in danger. Spoiler alert: she is not.} (3… c5 4. Bc4 Be7 {+0.40} 5.
d3 Nf6 6. h3 Nc6 7. b3 O-O 8. O-O {+0.69}) 4. Bc4 {4.d4 is better here, but it
could force me to bring my Queen out earlier than I wanted.} 4… Nf6 5. d3 Nc6
6. O-O {Stockfish is absolutely determined to get me to play h3 and attack the
Bishop, but I was not interested in destroying my Kingside fortress just yet.}
(6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 Nd4 8. Qd1 c6 9. O-O d5 10. exd5 cxd5 {+0.55}) 6… Nd4 7.
Be3 Bxf3 8. gxf3 {The trade is equal in material but it opens my King up to a
direct assault if Black continued with solid play.} 8… c5 9. Nd5 {This is
purely bait. I wanted Black to take the Knight so that I could free up more room
along the diagonals for my coming Bishop assault.} (9. f4 exf4 {+1.31}) 9…
Nxd5 10. Bxd5 {The Bishop is in a prime location to strike at the heart of the
Rook structure and the Black King himself.} 10… Rb8 (10… Qd7 11. c3 Ne6 12.
Qb3 Rb8 13. a4 Nc7 14. Bc4 {+1.18}) 11. c3 Nc6 {Simply pushing the Knight out of
the way.} 12. Qb3 $1 {Black needs to be very careful here. He is in danger, but
doesn’t seem to realize it.} 12… Qc7 13. f4 Be7 $4 {Black did well by moving to
Qc7 to defend the f7 square, but moving Be7 negates that defense and gave me the
opening I was looking for.} 14. Bxf7+ {Black loses the right to Castle and the
bloodbath begins.} 14… Kd8 15. Bg8 (15. Be6 Rf8 16. f5 Bf6 17. Kh1 b5 18. a3
a5 {+4.61}) 15… Na5 {The most natural reply, but not a threat.} 16. Qf7 Bh4 $6
17. Qf8+ Kd7 18. Qxg7+ Kc6 19. Qxh8 {It’s +7 on the analysis board at this point
and despite my King being 100\% open and vulnerable, Black is desperately on the
retreat.} 19… Kb6 20. b4 {I can’t think of anything else this Knight has done
but run away for the entire game.} 20… Nc6 21. bxc5+ Ka5 {I spent a lot of
time exploring this position because it’s apparent that my Queen is about to
fall. When she does, I needed to ensure that I was left with the best possible
structure I could come up with. In the end, it was better to develop the f pawn
so as to maintain pressure with the c5 pawn.} 22. fxe5 Qd8 $2 {I was surprised
that Black didn’t recapture on e5.} 23. exd6 Bg5 (23… Qxg8+ 24. Qxg8 Rxg8+ 25.
Kh1 b6 26. Rab1 Bd8 27. Rb3 {+9.64}) 24. f4 Bf6 {My Queen prepares to go down in
a blaze of glory $1} 25. Qxh7 Qxg8+ 26. Qxg8 Rxg8+ 27. Kh1 {And my once vulnerable
King will remain safe for the rest of the game.} 27… Bxc3 28. Rab1 {Black
resigned. This was a brutal game that demonstrates the importance of watching
the entire board to prevent your opponent from launching a missile into the
heart of your defenses. According to Stockfish, the game may have continued…}
(28. Rab1 Ka6 29. e5 Nd8 30. Rg1 Rf8 31. Rg7 Rh8 32. Rb3 {+10.6}) 1-0
[/pgn]
Following this victory, my online rating sits at an astounding (for me) 1340!
Game on, campers!
Ex
