Active wins! How to quickly "massacre" your opponent?
Hello Hreczecha here, today we will discuss my game from the 2023 Chess.com Daily Chess Tournament. I hope it will be interesting and informative ;)
A quick and stunning victory is every chess player's dream. Every romantic chess player would like to "wipe" his opponent off the board in the most spectacular way possible.
When are we planning?
You can never predict exactly how a game will turn out. It happens that strong combinations and motifs are part of the preparation for a game. Then it's just a matter of whether your opponent will fall into the trap. Most often, the activity of the figures is decisive - quickly moved figures are able to quickly attack the opponent.
In which situations do we have the best chance of finding a forced or rough path to victory?
- in sharp and dynamic positions where every movement can be dangerous;
- in the so-called "hanged man's position" where several figures are "hanging" at once and the position is saturated with motifs;
- in little-known and unconventional positions where the players' creativity is decisive (in such positions, even not entirely correct moves can confuse the opponent).
My game
One of my opponents in the first round of the tournament was @austininkley
I played black. The game started with a calm d4.
I decided on 1...c5. Benoni's defense.
The opponent decided on the controversial
2.Nc3?!
Why is this inaccurate? Well, white blocks the "c" pawn, which almost always takes part in the fight for the center in this "climate",so the knight should be behind the "c" pawn or go through the d2 square. After the move Nc3, white lost the advantage that white usually had at the beginning of the game.
It continued with:
2...cxd4
3.Qd4 3...Nc6
4.Qd1
After this move, White moves from an equal position to a slightly worse position. Black has a chance to take the center after move 4...f5. I decided to move 4...g6 because my plan was to go to the Dragon Variant. The best idea for the opponent would be move 5.e4. White accepts the move to Dragon and gets the very familiar normal position. The opponent played
5.Bf4
and black's position is slightly better after moves Bg7 or e5.
I made move
5...d6
and then it happened
6.e4
6...Bg7
Now the opponent has made a mistake. White played
7.Nd5?
And Black can take a pawn on b2, after which Black's position will be much better.
I don't know why I didn't capture this pawn (I guess I didn't like the fact that White was gaining time to develop) and I went against the local proverb "a pawn is a pawn" 😩
I played
7...Nf6
which led to an equal position after White's only move. Find them!
The opponent did not sense the position and played
8.f3
Black is in a much better position again, which is due to the advantage in development. The white pieces on the king's wing are like cars that haven't left the garage, and the black ones have a simple game.
My next move was castling - it's difficult to start any action with a "naked" king. Even though this move seems natural, it may be considered inaccurate. Better was 8...Nh5 attacking the bishop and revealing an attack on the b2 pawn.
At this point, the opponent made a big mistake:
9.e5?
He wins many moves, but the best continuation is 9...Nxd5 and after 10.Qxd5, Black's pieces develop rapidly. Additionally, there is a pawn on e5.
9...exd5
10.Nxf6+
10...Bxf6
The position can be considered a win for Black - apart from the pawn, I have more developmental advantage, and in White's case, apart from the bishop and queen, there is no playing piece.
The opponent played
11.Bg3?
Another mistake! The bishop on g3 has no prospects to take part in the action and (most importantly) he leaves the e1-a5 diagonal undefended, which gives me the opportunity to gain further momentum.
11...Qa5+
Another piece in action! The best option for White is Qd2 and after the exchange it was necessary to try to lead out the pieces.
The opponent chose the option of covering with a pawn, after which Black quickly gained momentum.
12.c3 12...Re8 13.Qc2 13...Bf5
As you can see, Black has introduced almost all pieces into the action - White only has a passive and constantly pursued queen.
White should play Qc1 as it is the only move to block the crushing Nb4! Instead it went:
14.Qe2
14...Bd3
15.Qf2
15...e4
16.fxe4
After the capture, the black square bishop was exposed and I had a chance to make a move that was considered brilliant :-) Try to find it!
16...Bxc3+!!
As you can see, Black completely destroys White's position. If the opponent captured the bishop, I could achieve a devastating material advantage in the following variant: 17.bxc3 17...Qxc3 18. Qd2 18... Qxa1 19.Kf2 19...Qxf1. White played
17.Kd1
This is an even worse option because I can now count the moves until checkmate
17...Bxf1+
18.Kc2
18...Nd4+
19.Kc1
Another piece in action! The white king must move back to line 1
The king standing on c1 gave me a chance to double hit :)
19...Nb3+
20.Kc2
20...Nxa1
21.Kc1
21...Nb3
White was "turned" and lost his rook. The opponent, wanting to make up for the loss, captured the knight, hastening the agony of the white king.
Now it's your turn! Finish our analysis and checkmate the white king as quickly as possible ;)
This game must have been an unpleasant experience for my opponent. White did not move half of the pieces and made a number of wrong decisions. The example given shows the possibilities of the removed pieces and is a warning on how NOT to play in the initial phase of the game. Remember! Always try to complete development as quickly as possible and do not start the action too early. Thank you very much for your attention! I hope the material was useful and please leave a comment what you think about it. Best regards and good luck to the competitors taking part in the Championships.
Special greetings to my opponent @austininkley 
Goodbye!
Hreczecha
