Nova Daily - 20 February 2025
Hi!
You spotted that correctly: I have new thumbnails! Got the recommendation to do something about it because the knight was perpetually beheaded, and I decided to put it to practice. I'm not 100% happy about the black borders on the left and right side, but at least it looks better than the previous one. And for the intended purposes of my blog it doesn't matter that much to me. For the foreseeable future I'm not planning on entering any writing competitions, and if I would I'd do almost everything differently.
The game
Today's game was intense. At the start of this Caro-Kann Exchange I retreated my bishop from g4 to d7 rather than h5, a decision that I came to regret rather often as the game progressed. For some reason it did end up working out as I was able to snatch a pawn on a4. I had to leave my king in the middle for a long time, but got the bishop pair and an open g-file against white's king. I may have overestimated my attacking chances when I tossed in an Exchange sacrifice, as there were probably easier ways to deal with the complications. However, I got what I wanted: an exposed enemy king, and a queen + knight combo that was able to inflict so much damage that I ended up winning the house.
My thoughts:
Model games:
Looking at this game in the databases, it's no surprise that the line after 6.Nf3 scores like a monster for black. This is precisely the point of the setup: to disrupt white's kingside development to some extent. Even less surprising is that 7...Bd7 doesn't make an appearance in the database. I might effectively be the first idiot in history to play this move. However, after today it has a 100% score for black, and that's more than anything else. I do hope that they're not going to name this move after me, because it's an inferior move.
Here's how to do it the right way: https://www.chess.com/games/view/17496491
The analysis:
Ultimately I didn't play such a great game. It was very complex, which gives me an excuse to not have found everything. However, I have to be honest: at times my assessments were very far off. All in all an instructive and very incorrect fighting game with lots of things to learn from.
What can I take away from this game?
- In this line, when white plays 6.Nf3, we get an Exchange QGD with reversed colours. This shouldn't surprise: the pawn structure is a Carlsbad structure. Both sides should follow the strategies that this system demands.
- The bishop only goes to d7 in the line where white has played f2-f3, which wasn't the case here. A passive bishop will not do, and this makes me give my opening play a Fail grade. The bishop had to remain on the kingside with 7...Bh5, after which black should play e6, Bd6, Nge7, and slowly prepare to carry out the typical e6-e5 break with moves such as f7-f6.
This is all known stuff, but it's worth realising that it applies here. - White should have obstructed the e5-square in the opening. I'd have been condemned to complete passivity if white had found and played 10.Ne5. This is always a thing to keep in mind, especially in the Exchange variation: there are times that the knight doesn't belong on f6, and this is the reason.
- Tying into the reversed Exchange QGD strategies: white's break with c3-c4 is always in the air. There are many instances in which it would have been white's best move.
- Going further on c3-c4, white could try to push c4-c5 and set his queenside pawn majority in motion. If I have no counterplay anywhere else on the board, I'm heading for a rough game.
- The middlegame was highly complex, with a lot of practical issues to solve. Taking on c4? Sacrificing the rook? Where to put the king? I'm glad that I got to deal with these issues in this game: such games are good for training calculation.
- My rook sacrifice in a better position was unnecessarily reckless, and white could have kept the draw there. It accomplished its goal, however: it gave white a hard position to defend, and I was ultimately able to use white's exposed king to reel in the full point.
