My Best Games #5: Nimzo-Kinghunt | Dubious Pawn "Sacrifice" leads to king hunt

My first week of blogging is complete! Yay.

In the past 4 games we saw lots of attacking games, and today's main game will be no different, however I will also post a game that was already posted in the SPL forums with analysis, but I will post it here too for others to see. That game was much more positional, although from the opening my intent was to play an attacking game but the variation my opponent played just declined my offer to play sharply. All of the info about the game will be in the analysis.

In any case, back to the main game. Today's game will feature a king-hunt! Always nice to see a naked king waddle around the board helplessly while the whole opposing army homes in on it, am I right?

About the two players in this game. Me playing white, obviously, since this series is about my best games. My opponent is a much lower rated player, rated 1813 at that time to my 1937; this game was a long time ago so by now the ratings have changed a lot. Now my opponent, @sorin0304, is rated 1858 as of the time of this writing, and their peak was 2055 three months ago, a couple of weeks after this game was played.

In this game I faced the very rare and offbeat Nimzowitsch Defense (characterized by 1. e4 Nc6), ECO classification: B00, which I like playing the Advance against because of my space advantage and strong center (pawns on d4 and e5). 

I'm going to be honest. My ninth move wasn't intended to be a pawn sacrifice. It was, put simply, a pawn blunder. I just didn't see that the b2 pawn was hanging, and he took it. But who of us chess players hasn't "blundered" material, went on to win the game, and called it a "sacrifice?" I'm guessing that most of us have. If black played had just played with a bit more accuracy than he did in the game, he should have converted the pawn, but my kingside attack proved to strong for his feeble defense.

I can't think of a word to describe the final position.

Whoo!

Okay, now for the next game!

Poll: Which kind of games do you like seeing more? Attacking games and king hunts or subtle positional defeats? Post your preference in the comments below!

I'm guessing that most of you will say attacking games and king hunts. :I 

That's it for this time!

Thanks as always for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate all the support everyone's been giving me!

I'll see you next time!