Day 35: Ups and Downs... and Ups!
Just played one of those games where you go through all of the emotions!
I had the White pieces and it started out as a fairly standard London. My opponent was definitely trying to be aggressive and played an invasive Knight move for us to land in this position.
I knew that the move Ne4 here was not the right move, but wasn't sure how to best refute it. Apparently, the right play is to exchange Knights on e4 and then when they recapture and threaten the pinned Knight on f3, you play g4. This basically forces the exchange of their best 2 minor pieces and puts White in a very comfortable position. (That is one I will definitely have to remember).
Instead, I played a more passive move, Qc2. This meant that Black could force doubling of my pawns on the f-file, which is what happened. The resulting position is still quite favorable for White, but permits more counterplay due to the semi-open g-file.
My opponent then decided to aggressively open the center, which was fine by me, as I had more piece activity and our Kings were equally exposed. A couple of pawn trades later, I castled long. Then we entered this sequence, where I failed to ideally exploit there exposed King, but ultimately did find a way to force trading their Queen for a Bishop and a Rook.
Apparently this wasn't the best play in the position, but in any case, I was very ahead. That is, I was ahead, until I blundered my bishop, after getting into the following position forgetting that the rook exchange happens with a check.
So, now we are in an endgame where my opponent has 3 pieces for the Queen. I have a couple more pawns and the engine has this as a draw. I decided that my best bet was to try and run my h-pawn up and try to force Black to respond to the threat.
My opponent made the mistake of not keeping their pieces coordinated and ultimately, this led to this position, where I can force a second Queen and a trade of their rook.
This happened and then my opponent fell totally apart and gave up the rest of their pieces. It was a fun game with lots of ups and downs. It was also a great learning experience!
