My first league game

Well, better late than never: this is my first league game from the 2022/2023 season, played three weeks ago. Our opponent was Nagyatád, one of the strongest teams in our division. After signing a couple of new players for this year, they looked rather formidable, so the end result is quite statisfying for us.

I had to prepare for both IM Gáspár Máthé (who is the former coach of Peter Leko, by the way), and FM Matko Ognjen from Croatia, a fresh recruit of Nagyatád. As it happened, I played against the latter. 

Luckily, FM Ognjen also does online coaching, so he has a profile on chess.com with his real name.

Well, that is the drawback of being a coach: you must be visible online, even if it makes you vulnerable for preparation. 

Saying that, my opponent really tries hard not to be vulnerable - i.e. he has an annoyingly wide repertoire. He plays both E4 and D4; against the French he has played the Wing gambit, the Tarrasch, Nc3 main lines, the Advance Variation with both 6. Be2 and 6. a3; and when he plays D4, he goes sometimes for the main lines, but also plays the Jobava-Prie Attack from time to time. For someone as lazy busy as me, this is a lot to prepare for.

And a little surprise: while checking his games online, I realized that we had already played a blitz game against each other.

Now, seriously, what are the chances for that? Even the colours were the same as in our league game... And I won very instructively, flagging my opponent in a lost position. A good omen, for sure. 

Anyhow, here is the game with light analysis. I certainly made some mistakes (was it really me who played 11. ... a6?), but overall I am quite pleased with it. I have also won 12 rating points, so I am a big step closer to the FM title now. 

I hope you enjoyed the post. If you are looking for quality coaching to improve your game, I am currently accepting new students.

If you are interested, feel free to send me a private message here or on hogata11@gmail.com, and we can arrange a free, non-committal video call to discuss your goals and get to know each other.