My Best Games #10: Surviving the Canal Attack | Halting An Attack and Counterattacking

This is going to be my last post of this blog series! The games I've presented in this series are not my all-time best games, but I chose them for themes that they illustrate so that we can all improve our game. Today's post will be the last one where I give a game with full analysis. After this one I will make a bonus post, sort of a summary, where I'll also insert many more of my "best" or interesting games. Unfortunately when I do that I will not be able to analyze all of them, but I will pick a few to analyze, the ones that I think are the most interesting and educational.

In the future I will not adhere to a certain series or theme, but will write about a lot of different topics, not just focusing on one. I recently got a great idea from one of my faithful (maybe too much so... if I don't post for a few days) readers, @OneTrueBapee. Shoutout to him for consistently reading my posts and for the great feedback! So anyway, he invited me to chat and asked me a question. I'll put a portion of the chat below:

• Please, try not to submit games that show one person winning because the other person made a gross blunder of material that was unforced. That isn't the kind of game that we want to see.

• Don't submit games that show one player falling for a very, very cheap trick, for example the Scholar's Mate. I won't set a limit for how "cheap" the trap or tactic is, and you can be the judge of that yourself, but as a general guideline, don't submit something that would be obvious to anyone who's just taken a few lessons and played a couple of games. This goes with the first condition.

• Don't send me more than one game every few, let's say three days. I'm usually online at least once a day, but if I'm offline for a while, perhaps going on vacation, it wouldn't be a great "welcome back" to see a pile of links. Also I won't have time to analyze them all.

• Pick the games carefully. It's unlikely that if you send me multiple games I will post them all, for the sake of variety, but I will always post the games that are instructive, thematic, or well-played by both sides. All of the readers want to see good games.

• All types of games are welcome (as long as they meet the criteria listed above)! Dazzling attacking games, long, hard-fought positional games, perfectly played endgames, and whatever else. Keep in mind that sacrificial attacks aren't the only reader-friendly games... 

That's it!

Anyone can submit games, and if they meet the conditions (I'll use them loosely so don't be too worried) they will be analyzed and likely posted!

Since OneTrueBapee submitted a game already, that game will be featured before any others in an upcoming post, although that will probably be a few posts away. I want to finish this series before I start something new.

Ok, enough about that. Let's get to today's game! 

Relatively recently I started experimenting with different Sicilian systems, and this is one of those games. I had to weather an attack, but after I beat it back I was left with an edge in material and strong counterattack. The computer says that black was winning after white sacrificed he exchange and claimed it unsound, but in practical play and a 10 minute game, it's the kind of move I also would have played. It makes the opponent uncomfortable and more prone to mistakes, which is a huge factor in blitz/rapid games. I don't really know whether 10|0 should be considered blitz or rapid. Previously chess.com placed a blitz sign next to it, but it changed to rapid. What do you think?

Anyway, the opening in this game started as a 

Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack (1. e5 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5) but after I played 3... d6 it transposed to the Canal Attack, which is usually reached by the move order 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nc6, although on move three instead of Nc6 3... Bd7 and 3... Nd7 are both more common.

This game was played a few months ago, when my rating had dipped down quite a bit. My opponent was @anotherchessplayer45, whose rating at the time was 1911. My own rating was, sad to say, 1911. That was during the period after I had just gained 2000 rating and then lost 12 games in a row. ＞﹏＜

anotherchessplayer45 is now rated 2006, literally one rating point higher than me (at the time of this writing) and had a peak rating of 2094.

On to the game!

And that is the last game of the series! Not really, don't get too sad, remember that I'll post a lot more of my games in the next post that you can play through.

No puzzles today, but I'll make sure to have a few whole posts devoted to fun and interesting puzzles!

Wooo, I'm a printing press!

Thanks for hanging with me for this whole series, everyone! This isn't goodbye. Not even close! Just because the series is over (I'm not counting the summery as a part) doesn't mean I'm going to stop blogging! There's so many different things that I can write about... as always, feedback is welcome, submit some of your best games, follow me, hope you liked it, and I will see you all next time!