Chess.com 2024, 3rd round, E04 - My second win
11th of June
The day starts with a bunch of new results in the tournament:
First game to analyze is the furiously-fast (like the nick) white:
As I suspected, he is trying to hold the symmetry with Qe6+. If there was ever a need for proof that he’s playing for a draw, it’s this one. I need to find a way to create some imbalances. There was just once serious predecessor game at the top level where white played Be2. My guess is that both opponents aimed for it, as they re-established symmetry quickly after Nc6 Qe3 Be7.
The bishop would be placed passively on e2, so maybe I should rather play Be3 with the ambition of castling long?
Be3 gives some initiative, but I don’t see it being sustained if black plays a couple of accurate moves (and I’m sure he will). I decide on Qe3 as it avoids putting bishop in a passive spot.
The next game is:
I didn’t even consider this move, though the idea is clear: he wants to exchange on c6 and then grab the pawn on d4.
From my side, Bd7 seems like a waste of time, since I’d rather take on c6 with the pawn. e5 is also premature, since I don’t know if he wants to go Nf3 or Nb3 after the exchange.
Quick analysis shows that I probably won’t get to keep my extra pawn, but I’ll be able to get decent activity:
Another option is Ke7 to get the king into the breach, but I think it’s too optimistic – I likely won’t keep the pawn anyway, while neglecting the development of the main artillery. 0-0 it is.
Rf8 with the same idea was a tad more precise. Also, I again missed a logical move for white in the lines above – 16. Nf3. The eval at this point is very close to equal.
Next game is getting very sharp:
I expected Ne3 yesterday, earmarking Na3. There’s also b4 and Nd4, but the former looks too dangerous to my liking. I’ll still do a quick sanity check on it, just in case I’m missing some brilliant win. I quickly find a line which loses for white, so that idea is removed.
a4 was also an option. I probably discarded that because of Na5, but that’s easily negated by b2-b4.
Nd4 also just loses a pawn after Nxd4, so back to Na3. That move leads to an unclear position or slight disadvantage:
I don’t see a better option, so Na3 it is. I get the feeling that it’s one of those moves I’m going to regret, but that’s the price for playing 18 complicated games in parallel while balancing non-chess life.
This turned out to be a good decision, though partially by luck since I did not see black’s best response – Nb4.
Now, I’m moving to the more difficult game where I’m getting into a very dangerous situation:
Last white’s move, c4, puts a difficult question across. I obviously don’t want to allow cxd5 cxd5 Qb5 from white, so my options are limited. In fact, Ne7 seems like the only move:
I found the only move in this position, and the lines are broadly correct. The engine reports +0.6 which is how I’ve mentally evaluated it at the time. Black is fighting for a draw.
The knight on e8 is a particularly sorry beast. I must say that my opponent is a changed man compared to the white game which quite frankly was a walk in the park. Here, I’m getting that hard end of the bargain.
By the way, I’m already a week into the 3rd round, and it is much heavier affair than any other offline tournament I played so far.
Starting the evening session with the andyh black game:
Yesterday, I very incorrectly mentioned that Ne5 gets Rd2, but I should have looked one move beyond as white will just play Qe4. Bb7 is the natural move here.
He can go active with Qh5 which I think is his best chance:
The Qh5 line above had a hole in it, as I missed 21. Qe7. However, the decision was still correct. I still have the occasional tendency to calculate too deeply, although it was a bit better this round.
The next game is black against someone with a very cautious nick of Trustcarefully:
White’s last move is a bit slow and offers me the chance of g5-g4. However, after a bit of a think, I don’t feel like he should be taken up on that. It opens the game up too much for my liking and also requires the kind of creativity I won’t have the bandwidth for. I’ll play it safe with Bd7.
Funnily enough, the engine has exactly the same dilemma. First, it proposes g5, and then, after a while, substitutes that with Bd7. I’m in a good company!
Last game for this session is the quest for symmetry:
Nb5 looks tempting here, though it likely doesn’t work. Let’s try it anyway.
Yep, doesn’t work. Bb4+ gets in the way.
What about Bc4, to break the symmetry and gain a tempo? That looks a tad more promising.
I, semi-accidentally, played the top move, though the eval is still very tiny plus.
We get another result in the group in the meantime. Furiously fast justifies his name and gets a timeout. BTW, his opponent almost timed out against me today, but considering I’m a piece up in the black game, his timeout will be a moot point. The white game is much more open; I wouldn’t mind getting a present there.
Just before the day is out, I get one of the weirder moves in the tournament with my opponent just calmly bringing me his rook on a plate:
Merci beaucoup, monsieur!
12th of June
No new results since last night. The first game of the day is also the most worrying one:
Nb4 is a strong move which I simply didn’t see. The knight obviously can’t be taken, and the threat is Nxd3+, followed by Nxg2+, Nxf4. The immediate move that jumps to mind is g2-g3. Ke2 is another option, though it looks quite risky.
The lines are mind-boggling, definitely above my pay grade. That being said, I see g3 as the only move with a fighting chance.
Actually, I stand corrected – g3 is losing on the top line here:
Maybe I should just go Bxe3?
That also seems to lead to a loss:
I think it’s back to Ke2 now. I’ll need to go back to this game with a fresher mind. After the longest calculation in the tournament so far, I decide to go for Ke2. Looks like my first loss of this tourney is coming up.
All things considering, I didn’t do too badly. While Ke2 is not the best move here, it’s one of the very few options that doesn’t lose outright and I arrived at it in the right manner.
The engine suggests Bb1 or Bf1 – neither were on my radar. I can’t even call this chess blindness, since these moves are counter-intuitive to a human; especially the former one. Of course, once I see them suggested by the comp, they make sense, as the bishop simply gets out of the way – but the position looks awkward, especially with Ra1/Bb1 huddling uselessly in their corner.
The next game is this one:
The b7 pawn is under attack, and I have two options: Qd7 and b6. The former is more natural, but then I don’t see how I can get Ne8 into the game, while white can go Nf3-d2-e4-c5, or Nd2-c4.
I’ll go with b6 as my working assumption. The downside is that the pawn ends up on the wrong colour of the bishop, and the pawn on c6 becomes a weakness. The upside is that the queen remains active, and I have a semblance of counterplay.
Quick calculation, as I’m still half brain-fried after the previous game:
That was the right decision. White gave away his advantage with 26. cxd5, so now the position is dead equal.
In the meantime, there were a couple more timeouts, this time by a Potter fanatic called Dumblecore:
He has woken up since, but I’ll speed up against him just in case.
The next game is the symmetry in design:
It’s not as symmetrical anymore, but still looks dead equal. I have a very slight advantage in development but can’t see how I can get any initiative from there.
- I can castle long to occupy the d-file and have opposite side castling.
- Nd4 to “threaten” impacting the pawn structure.
I don’t feel too thrilled about the 0-0-0 option. The king’s position will be precarious, Bf5 will be an option for black, and the c-file may be as important as the d-file. Considering my brain is still a bit fried, I’ll just castle short for now, and look for imbalance opportunities later.
A correct practical choice. Thumbs up from both the engine and my future self.
I’m getting the overdue resignation from Eyeblinks as andyh is supplying another timeout.
I wasn’t tested too much in that game, so not much to comment on:
17 games left. In the white game against the same player, he played Nc4, which is the best option in my opinion:
I was originally planning b3, but now I see that Qd7 is going to be a strong refutation (I only explored a7-a6 for black before):
So, what alternatives do I have? Nf5 is an interesting option that leads straight to an endgame where R+N are fighting a bishop pair:
This will be tough to convert. What if I just play Nf3 and threaten b3 again? That doesn’t look great, but Be3 seems promising. For a long while, I can’t see what to do after Qd7, but a2-a4 seems like a promising option. Perhaps also Rxc4.
Time for a break from chess. Too many (waaay too many) calculations today.
Perhaps this was just me being tired, but the calculations above are quite poor. I missed a mate in 1 at some point for black, and missed a7-a6 option for black which would have stopped the attack in its tracks. Mental note: don’t try to calculate when tired – limit to only one deep calculation per session.
Otherwise, Nf5 _was_ the best option here which would’ve led to a draw. I simply overestimated my attack here and assumed there were better options (and there weren’t).
A few hours later, staring at the black draqlek game where things are also not going too greatly:
Again, a lot of calculations, and again, I’m fairly sure he sees things I don’t:
The main ideas are: if white goes Nb3, play Rb8 and counterattack the b2 pawn. If white goes Nf3, play c5. Try to get the bishop into the a6-f1 diagonal, especially if white goes f2-f4, and counterattack the pawn with g5.
Mavs lose another one. I guess all good things come to an end. As a very, extremely, minor compensation I get another timeout – courtesy of andyh. 16 games left.
The game was as placid as they come, but I like the comment on the top. “Mouse speed won me the game!”. I never knew chess.com was strong on sarcasm.
In the Artem black game, he made an unexpected move:
This looks active, but it didn’t strike fear into my heart at the first glance. Perhaps his plan is to go Bb8-a7 and go after the pawn on b6? Another possible plan for white is Kh2, Nd2, Nc4 with the same trophy of b6 pawn.
Maybe Nd6 is one way to counteract both plans? Seems to work…
I seem to get better at endgames; the analysis above nails all the main ideas and is top engine line throughout. The eval is now steady at 0.00.
Continued here: https://www.chess.com/blog/RomanKleiner/chess-com-2024-3rd-round-e05-draw-your-weapons