Nova Daily - 31 March 2025
Hi!
When I decided to increase the hours I'd spend on chess study to take my level of play and my work ethic to the next level, I had to ask myself if what I want out of it is worth the sacrifices I've been making. In some cases the answer is an easy yes: I can bear missing out on most parties and some outdoor activities. Fun is what you make it: I experience the most fun in mastering my crafts (plural), and I don't need adrenaline shots or booze to feel alive.
My reason for playing and analysing games is to get better at my game and learn from my mistakes. An important part of this is doing my homework properly. I'm not doing my work to just get it over with and provide consistency in uploading a blog a day. I genuinely really want to master this, learn from the mistakes I made, and be better prepared so that I can avoid making the same mistakes again.
And today was a perfect opportunity for this.
The game
In preparation for this game I made myself a cup of tea and did my daily session of puzzle solving. I won my Puzzle Battle, got 56 on Survival with the first 52 puzzles solved correctly, and I managed to achieve a new personal peak in rated puzzles of 3640. Things are looking well in this regard.
I recognised the name of today's opponent right away. I had played this person before, at the beginning of the month. We both had gained significant rating in the last four weeks, which meant that we were able to play again today.
Despite not having done the full analysis on the previous game, I had learned from my main mistake. The first part of the game did feel like deja-vu, but I was careful not to make the same mistake again. I did have the feeling that my opponent might not have done his homework on our previous game. At the very least I was able to obtain a good position that promised at least equality and possibly more.
Unfortunately for my opponent, he once again fell victim to a simple tactic that involved the queens standing opposite one another.
My thoughts:
My opponent offered me a rematch, which I don't do.
Model games:
As @KevinSmithIdiot indicated in the reactions (Thanks!!), l'Ami prefers to play 7...a6 over the otherwise ubiquitous 7...Bg7. The small a-pawn push has been played much less so it has the value of a surprise move. There's one small trap in that 8.d3 would be ill advised. If Stockfish thinks the lines of equal merit, then there's a good case to be made for playing 7...Bg7 against most opponents and 7...a6 against, say, anyone below 2100. That way it retains the value of surprise and could well serve as a test to see whether the aspiring player did their homework properly. My opponent appears to have been facing this move only sporadically, obtaining a win over an opponent who after 8.d3?! failed to play 8...Rb8 (instead going for the immediate 8...b5? which just loses a pawn).
The better statistics for white against 7...a6 can be explained by the low number of games, the quicker time-controls, and the superiority in rating that white sometimes has. Objectively white is worse in these lines. The first model game is a rapid game between two 2500 rated players; black botched the initiative and let white off the hook.
This Accelerated Panov line has been played in online chess by Oleksandr Bortnyk a lot of times, and with very good results indeed: wins against Nihal, Pragg, Kamsky, Gukesh, Firouzja, Carlsen, twice against Anton Guijarro and twice against Grischuk. Unlike my opponent, Bortnyk played 11.Qb3, which I agree is a much better move than 11.0-0.
In his course, l'Ami proposes 10...b6 instead of the moves that I played in my two games against iliatar. He covers 10...Rb8 11.Bf4 as inferior for black, but I already knew that. In this line, there are a few fun points to make, and I'll address these in the Analysis section.
The analysis:
The game was ended by a blunder, but overall I played very well. Nevertheless, there is something to be gained from every game, and this one is no exception.
What can I take away from this game?
- There is an important 7th move alternative for black in 7...a6. It has the added benefit that it could set a trap for white to fall into, and when the trap works it grants black an immediate advantage, as given in the Model Games and Analysis sections. I'd love for this trap to remain somewhat obscure, though, so I might keep on playing 7...Bg7 as the main move in my own games.
- 10...Nb6 isn't that bad, though it should be answered by 11.Qb3. This is a thing that my opponent would do well to remember. Black has a nice alternative in 10...b6, as proposed by l'Ami, and I think I'll choose this in the future.
- A good case can be made to leave the d3-pawn alive for the time being, as the pawn is more in the way for white's rooks than it is an annoying fighting unit that must be dealt with straight away.
- Taking the opponent's rating into account is usually a bad thing.
