My Favorite Rapid Games
Welcome to the second installment of my Hall-of-Fame series dedicated to my most memorable games. In the first edition I shared the top 10 of my (personal) best daily games. This time I'm sharing my top 10 rapid games of what I consider my best games. Given the subjectivity character of this ranking, I've decided that it's more appropriate to call this one 'My Favorite Rapid Games'.
Without further ado...
Top 10 Rapid Games
#1 Quick Keagle Strike (game)
#2 Bunch of b6 blunders (game)
#3 Exchange Entrapment (game)
#4 Ebrahim Endgame (game)
#5 Shredding Saskuo (game)
#6 Never play f6 (game)
#7 Greedy Graeme (game)
#8 Rock and Roll (game)
#9 Yo Check that Fork (game)
#10 TBD
This was one of my most accurate games ever, with an accuracy of 99.2%. This game's opening was absolutely perfect for both players. at least for the first 8 moves. Then my opponent fell for my cheesy tactic and the game was over on move 10. By checkmate. No middle game and no endgame.
Checkmate on move 10 is in my top 10 fastest checkmate wins (#6), as well as my fastest ever checkmate win in a rapid game (#1).
One of my favorite openings is what I call London vs Two Knights, especially the variation I call Bf5-favorite. The position after d4 d5 Bf4 Nf6 e3 Nc6 c4 Bf5 Nc3 e6 c5 is perhaps my favorite position.
There are multiple ways black can go wrong. One way is by playing Nb4 for example like in this game.
Yet the most obvious way to get demolished is by playing b6. All five games I played in this position were an absolute overwhelming victory. This PGN includes the games I played against the players @Gribovo, @Misavv, @mvtiseduvrdo and @joseph16, but the main line follows my game vs @cdiboy101. He has the honor of serving as my example game at the #2 spot in my ranking of my favorite rapid games.
After a high quality opening phase, the game appeared to be equal and balanced. One moment of inattention (13. Be3) suddenly allowed me to trap my opponent’s Bishop, which shifted the odds in my favor. Immediately after I went on the offense and overwhelmed my opponent.
Overall a solid game, with an accuracy of 96%, against a strong opponent.
With a total of 62 moves this is the longest game in this list and the only one that reached an endgame. It was a pretty solid game, with a high accuracy for both players. The position remained about equal in the opening phase. The middle game was a bit of back and forth, but overall I was working my way to a winning position.
We both had two minor pieces and some pawns. After scooping up some pawns, I had a significant material advantage (+ 3) with five versus two pawns. My position was overwhelmingly winning (the evaluation was somewhere between +6 and +8), but not a position to quickly convert.
To make sure I wouldn’t let this victory slip away, I played extra carefully. My opponent must have picked up on that, because let me work for the win until the very end.
The highest rated rapid player I’ve beaten.
The game was tense from the beginning and both players made some opening mistakes. The game suddenly explodes around move 8 or 9 already. What follows is complete destruction as I shred open the entire black position.
The opening of my game vs @brainboy1 followed a fairly standard line for a London game versus a Pirc setup. That’s until my opponent played 8. f6, the move Ben Finegold tells you never to play.
After castling queenside and having played h4 already, I was more than ready for a kingside attack. Black’s position collapsed immediately.
Puzzle
Two of my major pieces were posing a serious threat on the black King, while black had barely any developed pieces at all. The material being equal was inconsequential. My attack was crashing through, fast. After 13 moves the game was over. The final sequence of moves even contained a brilliant Rook sacrifice.
This game is more special to me because it was a game played against a friend of mine as part of small competition we had organized playing rapid 45 | 45 games. The last time I played a game in such a long time format was several decades ago. The stakes were high, at least they felt that way to me. My confidence was high when we began, but that turned into nervousness when I didn’t know what to play as early as move 3.
As it happened, I could start a counter attack on the queenside three moves later. What followed was an exciting game, packed with tactically interesting moves, where I completely turned the tables.
Even though I didn’t find the best response on move 4, the rest of the game was great and I ended with an accuracy score above 96%.
Showing that kingside attacks can be powerful and effective, even when not properly executed, against an opponent that attacks on the queenside with nothing but a Queen.
It's been a long time since I rock and rolled
It's been a long time since I did the stroll
Ooh let me get it back, let me get it back
Let me get it back, baby, where I come from
It's been a long time, been a long time
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Led Zeppelin
The strongest player I’ve beaten in Rapid, though this game doesn’t really count as it was unrated (that’s why this is officially my highest rated win). But the game was pretty good overall and I wanted to include it anyway.
The game was high quality for more than 20 moves, until my opponent made one decisive blunder and resigned immediately after.
Wrap-up
Thanks all for reading!
