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Game vs. IM

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skilledwolf

This game was played against IM Daniel Rensch on his Big Show. I lost but I think I played well. Comments and tips for improvement are welcome!

The_zugzwanger

14. Be4 is a tad overly aggressive too early. Perhaps Nb3 would have been smart or else centralizing your rooks on the open files. After losing the central pawn to an IM in the middle game, the rest was just pushing his passed pawn.

skilledwolf

Thanks zugzwanger. Do you have any ideas on my opening? I don't know the Najdorf real well so I might have made some mistakes in my development.

ItsEoin

Am I missing something? Likely. Because it looks like you could've taken his queen with 17. Bxd8. No?

theREALpro
ItsEoin wrote:

Am I missing something? Likely. Because it looks like you could've taken his queen with 17. Bxd8. No?

Black bishop can take own queen?

-waller-

^ 17.Nxd8 isn't any good after 17...Nxd2 18.Rfd1 Nxf3+ 19.gxf3 Raxd8, after which Black nets a whole piece on top of the pawn won by the game continuation.

The_zugzwanger

bwolf93, the najdorf is usually a tactically heavy option for black from the sicilian options. I usually play Bg5 (as white) and the variations off of that. So I'm not much help with Be3, which looks a bit more like a yugoslav attack sort of thing for the dragon. Perhaps pushing one of your queenside pawns a 1 or two spots up would have been good to grab some space on that side of the board, considering it was dominated by him.

chapablanca2000

Thanks for sharing. Just a comment about the opposite colored B's : unfortunately, with the rooks still on the board, the stronger side has better winning chances compared to positions with just opposite-colored bishops alone. It's not just a mindless draw. 

TonyH

a tough opening to play against an IM who knows a ton of theory. He can probably rattle off 20+ moves o ftheory in many lines with out much effort.

your downfall was in f3. this sort of passive play doesnt do well agianst the aggressive system like this. like it or not you gotta go for the kingside with f4 etc in some sort of plan.

Daeru

If you want to play f3 - g4 - 0-0-0 then you don't have to play Be2, it is already developed in f1. Keep it in mind, you might win a tempo someday or need to play the bishop to g2 or h3.