Game 2 to 2000 blitz
Buenos dias! Good morning! Hope everyone is alright so far today! I'm going to try to post once a day on this blog in the future because my posting has been inconsistent. And I will never be ready for S8 of Blog Champs if I don't post enough and get better at it! I will try to get better at chess game analysis of my own games as well.
When someone reads this, please drop a comment about the small PGN thing. I don't know what I'm doing, but it's not working.
It was a 3 minute blitz game that I played about 20-30 minutes ago. I won against some who I had actually just beat in a 3 minute game and he resigned. So after he resigned, he offered me a rematch and I agreed to it.
The opening was 1. d4 d6. 2. e4 Nf6. Pirc Defense. Then he plays f3, the Lion's Defense: Lion's Jaw, which I've only ever seen twice including this game. I went with a King's Indian like setup so I could just be safe and solid. The game was closed in a matter of moves. And positional chess isn't exactly my thing. So I just played to develop and for a pawn break.
As I was analyzing the game, I learned that for like half of the first 20 moves, he was winning +1 because the computer is brilliant. But we traded knights and bishops and it was knight vs bishop with two rooks and a queen for both sides.
Okay, the middlegame. I made the first major mistake on move 23, which was f5. I played 5 because I was trying to break the pawn chain and I didn't even realize that my opponent's knight guard's the square. So after all trades, I'm losing because I'm down a piece and my kingside is wide open. But my opponent didn't find the exchange idea. Instead of just taking it numerous times, he played Qg5. Now, it’s a draw if I find the correct defense. And I did, which was Qg6. He retreated, playing the best move Qd2.
Next mistake was h5, 5 moves later. That was one of those me not knowing what to do moves. We trade rooks then I go for a mate setup. The engine calls me stupid for not seeing the fact that the queen guards the kill square and I was kind of panicking because I wasn’t winning. So I take a pawn since he’s pinned.
Now here, the odds tipped in my favor. The best move for him is Qb5, because it attacks the knight and makes me lose some tempo. But he played one of the bottom lines which is Bxf5, hanging the bishop in one move. And I took it and I’m winning.
The biggest mistake I made in the game is the one no one wants to make, which was hanging mate in 1. I had gotten the advantage, but I didn’t know how to convert it. Then, he started attacking my knight, and the second time, I defended with my queen. Problem:
It hangs mate in 1. 40. Qxh6# ends the game. I didn’t even see this in the game. And luckily, neither did he. Because he checked me, and from there the game is a draw. The reason is because I have the extra knight and if we play longer, I win on the clock and the board.
So, he starts rapidly checking me to make a draw, but I played a strategic Kg8 to win his queen if he checks wrong. And he played right into my hands and hung the queen. I take and I win on time.
I’ve learned numerous things from this game. I realized I need to learn some positional chess and I need to focus on my opponent. I was so focused on my plan where I hung M1, which is something you never do in chess. I also need to learn an actual opening against d4 because I don’t want to end up in super closed positions that I don’t know the theory of.
This game just makes me think of practice methods that I need to employ and I’ll take this game and run with it. Adios!
