First Published Annotated Game

Here is my first published annotated match, and my first blog post. The annotations are simply what I was thinking during the game, and does not contain in depth analysis of possible variations and what I should or could have done.

The match took place in the fifth round of the DHLC Slow Swiss #8 Tournament with 45/45 time controls. HReedWork played White while I played Black. The game ended 0-1 by Resignation; however, White's resignation was caused by a server error and not by HReedWork.

The first diagram is for moves 1 through 7. The server consistently logged me off during my writing, so I had to write my annotations on several diagrams in order to not loose my annotations.

Here is what I was thinking during ply 7:

If I moved ...c5...

(8) dxc5...dxc5

Alternatively, I could have moved Nxc5, which threatens White's Bishop on d3. During the game I did not think of Nxc5, which looks like a good sequence of moves in hindsight.

I did not choose c5 because I feared d4-d5 by White, which I thought would give White good control of the center. Now in hindsight, with a calm head to analyze the situation, c5 would have been a good move because I could have later moved c4 attacking White's Bishop. Having a pawn on c5 also guards against White's Knights taking the d4 square in the event that White moved d4-d5. I should not have feared d4-d5!

The other option I was thinking of on ply 7 was e5, which may have resulted in the following sequence: (7)...e5 (8) dxe5...dxe5 (9) Nxe5... I did not make this move because of the uncertainty of too many possible variations; for example, what if White's Knight did not take the pawn on e5?

Back to the match on move 7. This diagram is for annotations on moves 7 through 13.

The annotations begin on ply 14 and end on ply 19:

 The annotations begin on ply 20 to the end of the game.

There it is my first blog post and published annotations.