A Tense Finish

The final game at LACC was gonna be the hardest in terms of my condition. I lost to a 1350 in round 1 and I struggled to cleanly beat an 800 in round 2. Going into this game, I was frustrated and didn't want to play chess anymore. I was paired against a 1550, but I really didn't care about who I was against and I just wanted the day to be over. 

Armand Borden (~1550) - Caleb Wan

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nxe4

This is my favorite way to deal with this move order by white. It disrupts white's center and black is comfortable.

5. Qe2?! Nxc3 6. dxc3?

I thought the plan of 5. Qe2 surely had to be 6. bxc3 and prepare d4. Now, black can hang onto the pawn.

6... d6 7. Ng5 d5 8. Qf3 Be6 9. Nxe6 fxe6

The simple fact that white played forcing moves does not mean his moves were good. Matters have simplified and the extra pawn is even better.

10. Bb3 Qf6 11. Qe3 Bd6 12. Bd2 O-O 13. h4 Na5 14. Ba4 Nc4 15. Qe2 Bc5 16. f3 c6?!

So far, I have actually been outplaying my opponent quite badly. Instead of 16... c6 however, the most accurate way to punish white is to play the somewhat counterintuitive 16... Nxb2!. After 17. Bb3 e4 18. Rb1, we continue protecting the knight with 18... Ba3! noting that Bc1 always is met by Qxc3+. With this, we destroy white's ability to castle queenside and force his king to either remain in the center or go kingside, both of which do not look attractive.

17. Bg5 Qf5 18. O-O-O h6 19. Bd2 b5 20. Bb3 a5 21. Bxc4 bxc4 22. Rh3 a4 23. g4 Qf7 24. h5 Rfb8!?

A risky decision. I was getting worried about white's kingside attack and decided that the best course of action was to be a little creative. However, patience was the best answer: after the simple 24... Bd6, black remains much better and white's attack is not that bad. However, impatience set in. It is absolutely mandatory that before playing 24... Rfb8 that we plan to meet

25. Qxe5

with 

25... Rxb2!

This move is not a sacrifice, as it technically doesn't give up anything. Though the evaluation of the position depends on tempi very heavily, I correctly judged that after

26. Kxb2 Qb7+ 27. Ka1 Rb8 28. Qxb8+ Qxb8

white's weak king and weirdly placed rooks were enough to give black a solid advantage. 

29. f4 a3 30. Rb1 Qf8 31. Rh2 Bd6 32. Rf2 e5 33. f5 Bc5 34. Rff1 Qf6 35. Rb8+ Kh7 36. Rfb1

Things are looking a little bit close. If white is given 2 moves to double on my back rank, he wins the game. It is clear that the best defense, in this case, is a good offense. 

36... Qh4 37. Re8 Qxg4 38. Rxe5 Qxh5

Due to back rank problems, white cannot proceed his attack and decides to passively defend. This  makes the ending very clear.

39. Rf1 Qh2!

White must decide to give up a rook or get mated. 

40. Kb1 Qxe5 41. Kc1 Be3 42. Kd1 Bxd2 43. Kxd2 h5 44. Rf2 h4 45. Rf1 h3 46. Rf3 h2 0-1

While the game did not feel good to win at all, it was a very good recovery. Even though it didn't feel like it at the time, I played well and did not give my opponent any real chances back into the game. 

Now that the tournament was finally over, it was time to decide what to do about the summer. Things clearly haven't gone well. I started the summer at 2140 and my rating dropped all the way down to around 2090. When against players of my level, it can be easy to ignore problems but this tournament really showed something was wrong.

One decision I made here was to stop playing at LACC. The fast time controls and lack of stronger players made for a bad experience in terms of rating. 

I was not going to give up on my 2200 goal for the summer, but I made the decision to take a break from studying chess. Up until this point, I was studying chess for at least a couple hours a day. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and the game wasn't fun anymore. I needed to want to play chess again, not just feel like I had to.