Chessnut GO at Rising Sun Workshop | Franco-Sicilian Battle! 🍜🏍️♟️😁
#chessnutgo #francosicilian #mobilechess
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Earlier this week, I published my review of the soon to be released Chessnut GO, a rather excellent ultraportable electronic chess board. This portability permits something that I’ve always wanted to do, but hitherto it has not been practical; to carry an e-board while out on a ride (motorcycling) and stopping somewhere to play a game!
News since the review video:
I’ve received correspondence back from Chessnut which answered some of the questions asked by viewers of my channel and blog:
- Chessnut GO is planned to go on sale on 29th May 2024.
- RRP will be USD$200, but a promotional launch discount is likely!
- There will be a variant with orange buttons (as seen in the review units) and a variant with grey buttons for those who prefer a more muted aesthetic.
- The battery has a capacity of 900 mAh with an expected play time of 9 hours.
The Rising Sun Workshop (https://www.risingsunworkshop.com/) in Sydney is one of my favourite places to chill out. It’s the brilliant combination of a DIY motorcycle workshop, ramen café during the day, and fine dining at night. If you ever visit Sydney, you must check it out!
After a latte and a bowl of my favourite ramen on the menu known as The Darkness, I settled down to play a couple of games of 15+10 rapid on the Chessnut GO, with a glass of the guest tap, a lovely dark beer, in hand! Counter-thematically, I received the white pieces, and my opponent @Ace_the_Archer from India, led with the Sicilian Defense to which, I played my usual Smith-Morra Gambit (1. e4 c5 2. d4). Black immediately surprised me with (2… e6), transposing the game into the French Defense: Franco-Sicilian Defense [+0.7].
I have faced the Franco-Sicilian Defense rarely (ten times ever, according to OpeningTree.com) but I had previously analysed it before two years ago. Although defending the d-pawn with (3. Nf3) is natural looking, this plays into the Sicilian player’s comfort zone and Black tends to do well. My goal with the Smith-Morra Gambit was to avoid Sicilian-ish lines. I remembered that (3. d5) was the best move, entering a Benoni structure, but that was pretty much where my theoretical knowledge ended. At the beginner-intermediate level, it is unlikely that my opponent will be familiar with the Benoni either.
On analysis, I realised that I should have played (5. dxe6) to open the centre. There was nothing technically wrong with what I played (5. Nf3), except that this moved the game down a closed French Defense-ish position, which is not my jam… 😂
On move 6, I played what I thought was a sneaky move (6. Bf4) with the goal of getting a potential long term tactical advantage. I did not think that me playing (dxe6) at this point was likely to be good, but at the same time, I didn’t want Black to play (exd5). As I had more space, thought that keeping the centre closed would cramp Black’s development. Moreover, if Black moved their e-pawn to e5, then Black would have a backward d-pawn that would be a relative weakness for Black and a potential target.
With my bishop on the f4-square, I predicted that Black would play e5 to try to attack it, and they did just that a couple of moves later! Looking at the analyses, I suspected that Black preferred tactical rather than positional games as well. They seemed impatient and chafed at their lack of space a few times in the match, lashing out with bold forward moves that were sometimes unwise.
The first time this happened, Black played (9… b5) and hung their b-pawn. The second time they played (12… Nb4), which was a mistake as Black’s knight had no viable attack while unsupported by their other pieces. Soon, the knight was kicked back to the edge of the board (15. a3 Na6) after almost being trapped.
By turn 19, we had repeated moves once and I didn’t want to draw as I thought that I had the better position. I didn’t see the best tactical idea for an attack, which was to rotate my f3-knight (by playing Nd2 and then Nc4) to form an attack on Black’s backward d6-pawn. Instead, I decided to play an aggressive forward move (19. Nb5) that I suspected was suboptimal (it was), but not a mistake per se. This worked immediately with Black challenging my forward light square bishop with (19… Bd7!?) which was an inaccuracy. Their move was sound if I captured their bishop, but I was under no obligation to do so!
On move 22, I played another speculative, aggressive, forward move of my knight (Na7!?) that was again suboptimal but not a mistake. With this knight move, I revealed an attack on Black’s a6-knight by my queen along the light square diagonal – the same light square diagonal to which they hung their b-pawn. Will they see it? Black’s vulnerability regarding their diagonal vision struck again, this time, hanging the knight (22… Qc7?? 23. Qxa6)! Yes!
My approach was now clear. As I was ahead in material by a pawn and a piece, I wanted to trade down material into a winning endgame. At this point, I had seven minutes on the clock to Black’s twelve – a disadvantage but still plenty of time!
Black suddenly switched gears and played very aggressively, rapidly throwing their pawns down the kingside (26… f5) and then (27… g5). This was a very reasonable tactic as it forced me to carefully consider the position to avoid making a mistake, eating up valuable time. I opted to keep the centre closed to limit the tactical opportunities that Black had to mobilise their pieces to join the attack. And in doing so, I was baiting Black to attack with their kingside pawns, something that is dangerous for them. Opening the kingside files also gives my pieces an inroad path to attack their king!
And indeed, after (28… g4 29. hxg4 fxg4 30. Nh2 h5), Stockfish reckons that White’s best move was to sacrifice their knight with (Nxg4) for Black’s last couple of pawns on the kingside and expose Black’s king to a devastating attack! I seriously considered this in the game. My subscribers will know that I love sacrificing pieces! However, as I was recording this game for the channel as a demonstration of the Chessnut GO, I chickened out! I was worried that it was actually a dumb move and that I would waste the last 30 minutes of footage… 🤣
I found the next best idea, a rook lift (31. Ra3), which was still completely winning, but with less romantic flair. The rook lift brought another piece into the attack on the kingside. At this point, I was convinced that I was winning, which is perhaps entering the danger zone as I stopped being as careful!
After Black played (34… h4), I was suffering from tunnel vision. I became enamoured with the tactical idea of putting my queen on the f-file, forming a battery with the f3-rook, and then hitting Black with (Rf7+), a royal fork winning Black’s queen! It was only after I played (35. Qf2??) that I realised that I had blundered! Simply, Black could capture my rook with (35… fxg3) and the pawn then chains a fork of my queen and knight! Although I could win Black’s queen, they would reciprocate. At the end of the sequence, I would have lost a rook for no gain. In fact, I had given up my completely winning advantage and moved the game back to equality [0.00]!
Luckily for me, Black shared the same “tunnel”, as they responded in two seconds with a blunder of their own (35… Raf8??), which sought to add a second defender of the f7-square, to prevent the royal fork. I was relieved to have dodged a bullet! With only a couple of minutes left on the clock, this “close call” pulled me out of my complacency, and I very calculated, very carefully, before committing to the next move.
And I saw that I was fine! With 1 min 38 seconds left, I played (36. Rxg8). Black was out of options. I was in the position to force Black to trade away their final pieces to avoid checkmate – their rook and queen for my rook and queen. At the end of the trade sequence, I would enter a completely winning endgame with an extra knight. Importantly, this endgame was simple to play where I could make each move in seconds. With the 15 second time increment, I would gain time with each move meaning that there was no time pressure.
The approach? By advancing my king, it formed an impenetrable forcefield across the board with my remaining pawns. Black’s king was could not move forward to support their last hope, the outside h4-pawn. As the remaining survivor of the pieces, my knight lorded over Black’s helpless pawns, first slaying the advanced h-pawn, then the backward d-pawn, and finally their a-pawn. A king lacks the mobility to stop advancing pawns on two sides, let alone three (kingside, queenside, and centre). Move 55: my a-pawn promotes to queen. Move 58: checkmate! GG!
