Against The Ropes

My latest daily game was a real test. I got an advantage out of the opening, but then my opponent played an incorrect but tricky move, 13. h4 that threatened to trap my knight. I took Qxh4, which is correct. But after 14. c4, I should have played bxc3. I had considered that line, but had rejected it. Instead I retreated my Queen, which led to all kinds of pressure.

At this point, I was back on my heals. I kept reminding myself of something that Simon Williams says. If your defending, at least try to make it complicated for your opponent. I have also been reading "The Amateur's Mind" by Jeremy Silman. I had recently read the section on initiative, and I kept trying to find moves that would give me some initiative instead of just sitting back and being passive. He states quite clearly that if you go passive on defense, you are going to lose. You need to try and find some active play.

Despite this, my opponent found a very nice move, 25. Rxd7. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out why, but taking the Rook is a sure path to defeat.

Again, knowing that if I played passively I was cooked, I looked for an aggressive move that would at least give me the possibility of some counterplay. I found 25.... c4. This move isn't accurate, but it at least is somewhat tricky. I was going to lose anyway, so why not? Fortunately for me, my opponent played into my hands. He took the pawn, 26. Rxc4. I then swooped in with my Queen and put my opponent in check. Now here, the proper continuation is to block with his Queen. But it is somewhat easy to miss, because it loses some material in the short run. However, if you don't block with the Queen, I get at least perpetual check. The "at least" is important. I had also seen that if my opponent tries to block the checks with Nh3, it leads to checkmate. After repeating the position, he did block. I went for the kill, and his King succumbed.

This game was a great lesson for me. It really drove home the message that both Simon Williams and Jeremy Silman had been preaching. Look for active moves in defense. Don't just passively wait for your opponent to kill you.