Taking on the Caro-Kann Fantasy Variation

This is the final game of a recent quad at the ChessIQ club outside Chicago. I went into this final round 1 of 2, having just lost a game to a tricky mate just a few moves after my higher rated opponent offered me a draw. I hate it when that happens!

Lessons Learned

• My opening prep from earlier in the year came back to me for this game even though I haven't reviewed it in quite a while. That felt good. Though I played the first 6 moves by the book, I did spend 6 1/2 minutes on them. I remembered the ideas and I knew there was a white trap with an early ... exd4 that I needed to avoid but I still had to tread carefully.