Superior Offense Vs Higher Rating

Superior Offense Vs Higher Rating

In this game, one of my friends got into a bad situation. This happened because of his opponent's ability to erode a good defense with excellent offensive moves. This happened in a recent game that I observed with Black, played by Flea Bitten, a higher rated player at 1487 versus White, Rook, who was rated at 1434.

In the next section of this blog post the game is paused at the beginning. Move 10 (pawn up to b3) is the critical point where White begins a very careful assault into Black's defenses. That assault lasts until it  erodes the entire left side of the board against Black and then creates a skewer.

The full game is in the Chess.com game archive. Key moves:

• Trade for Black's Knight and only offensive piece at 16. with Nxe4.
• Takes dead Knight's pawn protection and then...
• Pawn trade then Bishop creates a big hole at 19. Bxc4+.
• Skewer at move 26!

Please use the embedded buttons in the game above.

White has four pieces deep in Black's territory by move 26. This results in a nice skewer for White. Black is pushed further and further back and finds his Queen trapped by two bishops and a rook at 29. Black unwisely takes one of the bishops by move 30 with Qxc7 and is basically lost.

Black is forced into resignation just a few exchanges later while giving up on a pawn just two spaces from promotion and a check against an unprotected White King.

For more chess game reviews - please see my blog at Chess.com.