Unconventional Castling
In the initial round of the 2024 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship, my most engaging match was against SheldonOfOsaka. This unique format allows one move per day, offering ample time for thorough analysis. The game opened with the Italian line, where white adopted an early Bg5, enabling me to respond with h6-g5, as I hadn't yet castled on the kingside.
At the 12th move, I faced a critical decision: to castle kingside or queenside. Post-game analysis revealed that world champion Ding Liren, who frequently encountered this setup, including twice in the current Wijk An Zee tournament, consistently opted for kingside castling. In his games, white typically castled queenside and launched a kingside assault. However, in our match, I chose queenside castling (0-0-0), anticipating greater safety for my king. White soon followed with a kingside castle (0-0), leading to an unconventional scenario with both kings castled on opposite sides.
Subsequently, white executed a potent pawn sacrifice with b4, prompting me to regret my queenside castling strategy.
After white's move I faced a dilemma. I was afraid of Qc2 putting more pressure on c6. I had missed the opportunity to play Bxf3, giving white a tough choice, either spoiling his kingside with gxf3 or having his king stuck in the center. Actually 15.Rc1 was a mistake for white, because it allows Bxf3. Instead white should have played 15.0-0 and according to computeranalysis if black tries to give white doubled pawn on the kingside with 15.0-0 Bxd2 16.Qxd2 Bxf3. Here computer says that white is winning if he plays 17.a5 with the plan a6 and ignore the bishop on f3. But if white captures the bishop with 17.gxf3 then black is winning because he can play 17. - Qxh3 with the plan Nf6-h5-f4 gxf4 and Rg8 with a winning attack.
To protect the weak c6 knight, I played Ng8 intending to overprotect c6 with Nge7. But computer doesnt like it and says white can get a winning attack with a5 with the plan Qa4. Also just 0-0 is good for white but the move that white played Bxc6 is not good as it let black get free from the annoying pin.
Here white played a nice move d4, I had to play f6 as I didnt want to open the position for white's pieces. My positional idea was to keep the bishop on g3 out of play with my pawnchain. But it still allowed white to gain space in the center with d5, making it hard for me to manouver between the two sides.
After some more moves I got to a new crossroad where I had to choose whether to attack or defend. I realised that white's plan was to play move the knight to attack the bishop via e1. So I had to choose if I should try to defend the bishop with Kb7 Rb8. Or if I should go for a counterattack? I did go for the defensive plan, but looking at it now g4 hxg4 Qxg4 with the plan f5 looks better, as black gets counterplay.
After I few more moves we got to this balanced position where black is defending on the queenside, but cannot get any play of his own. Luckily for me, white played some questionable moves here, starting with Be1 to trade the bishops, but letting me get b-file. Followed up by a blunder ending the game.
