Nova Daily - 2 January 2025

Hi!

For today's game I decided to take a longer time control so that I'd have more time for my calculation. 15+10 is much slower than 10+0. This means that I have more time to calculate Or that should have been the case.

Before going over this, I checked some lines in the Advance Caro. And then I was given the white pieces in today's game.

My Post-Mortem:

It felt like a one-sided game because of the blunder on move 10.

My Aftermath Analysis:

What can I take away from this game:

1. When black is playing in Grand Prix-style against the English, with pawns on e5 and f5, pushing h2-h3 is not to be recommended if black can answer with f5-f4. It generates a lot of vulnerable squares around the king.

2. Black's f5-f4 is generally a strong device that white should always be delicate about.

3. When black captures on d5 in the Botvinnik system and white has a choice, I have come to believe because of my analysis on this game that cxd5 is generally the preferred recapture. The semi-open c-file can then become the focal point of white's play, and the central pawns can keep black's knights at bay. Recapturing with the e-pawn may be good in some instances, but it has to have a clear and immediate reason why it should be picked over its alternative; I believe that it should only work if the breakthrough with c4-c5 is guaranteed, or if the opening of the e-file or the vacancy of the e4-square is useful.