Blogs
Hikaru Vs Gothamchess (Looked at by a 900)

Hikaru Vs Gothamchess (Looked at by a 900)

Avatar of knight_scribe
knight_scribe
| 0

I thought this would be a nice time to jump into the chess blogging scene. This game, between Hikaru and Levy, was covered by both gentlemen on their YouTube channels and really piqued my interest. Firstly because both men covered it, so you get an understanding of each other's mindset (links to both videos below); secondly for me is that it was a French game with a line I have not played or ever really considered. Here's the game:

First, I should make mention that I am 900 on a good day and I don't intend to claim any advantage over these gentlemen. (They could probably mate me in three after five moves; that's just reality.)

GMHikaru starts the game with e4, and to give you an idea of the kind of player I am, I really should learn an e4 opening because I don't know why everyone at my level makes this move. A personal weakness in my game. GothamChess plays e6 which is my bread 'n' butter; I even really like e6 after c4, but alas I don't see much of the English. White then plays d3, which very much got my attention again because no one plays that at my level (and that's the last time I will refer to that fact). 

Knights come out and the bishops get fianchettoed. I have never considered fianchettoing my bishop king-side before in the French; this blew my mind. I didn't know that was a line which is why they are titled players and I am not. At this point, I like the safety and potential long-term pressure that I don't usually get this early in my games from the dark bishop. And a few moves later Black gets everything I would want in this position.

It is a close-to-equal position according to the computer, so the two players have to play chess. For me, I would be looking for a way to blow up the center and trade as many pieces as possible. Black goes about it this way:

I like c4 in this position rather than b4, which would just kill the position for Black since White would be able to lock the position. I am just more used to playing aggressive players who take everything you give them. And to be fair to me, it actually does work if White takes on b4, however, Hikaru is more than three times my rating so that makes my point less than moot. 

Interestingly, a few moves later is the best time to start trading pieces as long as you're not the computer. Because computers take the fun out of trading pieces.

Here I would be trading, because my brother is super aggressive so the best way to win is to kill every piece that could quickly join an attack. And a lot of material can be taken off the board from here.

Now in this position, I would give myself a fifty-fifty chance of winning this against my brother or other players of my level. However, both players missed that sequence of moves, and I would have lost on time or scrambled my pieces in an attempt not to. But I love how incredibly defensive this setup is all because the bishop had been put on g7 to defend against being overwhelmed on the dark squares.
The game continues and I would direct you to watch their videos for the conclusion of the game. My takeaway was how I might play the French in another way that I hadn't considered. I even played it in a rare game I had against the English and was happy with the result.