Day three at TATA steel chess - BISHOPS RULE

Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the analysis of my games every day. So sit back, relax and enjoy the content!

Make sure to follow me on my twitch channel where I will live stream the analysis of my games and tell you all the on site chess gossips! https://www.twitch.tv/bikfoot

• Part one: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-one-at-tata-steel-chess-not-off-to-a-great-start
• Part two: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-two-at-tata-steel-chess-the-best-defense-is-good-offense
• Part four: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-four-at-tata-steel-chess-why-didnt-i-just-take-the-draw-offer
• Part five: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-five-at-tata-steel-chess-my-opponent-played-what
• Part six: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-six-at-tata-steel-chess-i-had-to-fight-really-hard-to-draw-this
• Part seven: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-seven-at-tata-steel-chess-twenty-minutes-too-late
• Part eight: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-eight-at-tata-steel-chess-facing-the-the-undefeated-tournament-leader
• Final part: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/final-day-at-tata-steel-chess-i-won-my-tournament

So my sleeping schedule is a bit messed up, since I woke up at 05:00 am and I couldn't fall asleep anymore. That's why I wrote blog 2 during that time - got breakfast - showered and went back to sleep, only to wake up 10 minutes before my game started, oops! Oh well, a few minutes too late I arrived at the board where my opponent already sat down and the clock was already ticking. Time to get into the game! As usual, I only pick out some key and interesting positions to analyze, let the games begin!

The game

Playing with black, i decided to play and try out the Kings Indian Defense, since those usually spark interesting games. A few moves in the following position arose. I decided to play a5 in this position, however, white decided to exchange all the pieces making this a very dull game... I didn't want that, so I had to come up with a clever plan!

Position after 8. e4

As I mentioned earlier, my opponent traded off all the pieces bringing the game to a very "dull" position with tension in either the center nor the king- or queen side. At this moment I decided to make some interesting moves sacrificing my rook for a bishop to bring the spice back into the game. Was it the best move? Absolutely not, engines hate it. But... it did bring me joy!

18... Bb4! and the rook is traded off for the bishop.

Again kids, don't do this at home. This is objectively a blunder according to the engine, however, the dark square bishop is an absolute monster in these positions, so I wasn't too worried! A few moves later we reached the following position and I was actually quite happy about how things turned out. Black is ready to destroy the a file and put pressure on f2, while white doesn't really have a way in.

Position after 23. Rcd2, black is ready to pounce with 23... a4!

In the below puzzle I played Bd4, making sure the dark square bishop absolutely dominates the board and I'm ready to play the pawn to c5! afterwards, making sure I have a connected passed pawn if he captures it. However... if white captures the Bishop right now it would be a huge blunder! Can you find black's correct response?

After my move 26. Bd4 my opponent grabbed his rook, put it on f1 and offered a draw. Now this told me that he was really uncomfortable and thought that this was his only way out. I literally noticed the draw offer as a weakness and started to play sharper, a few moves later the following position arose:

Position after 31. Kh2

Now, there are two pawns that I can grab. The pawn on f2 and the pawn on b3. Do you know which one I took? Neither! Because white is completely locked down, I decided to play the pawn to g5 first to make sure white had zero counterplay. A few moves later my opponent resigned, here are the last few moves of the game:

Overall I'm very glad it turned out to be an exciting game instead of a dull one, even though I took more risk than I should! At the moment I'm in shared first place and I'm playing with white. I'm really excited to see if I can win and reinforce my number one place!

As usual, the full game is below, enjoy!

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