Up material, but on the back heel - why?

An entertaining game in the Slow Swiss #6 tournament, where I managed to convert an early advantage to a win, but only after two sacrifices (one at least a hairy one) to get out of the trouble my opponent put me under.

A few mistakes in this game, but I found it interesting to see how and where I go wrong after being clearly in front after some tactics in the opening.

I am keeping scores now of how Fritz ranks my moves, and this was typical: 70 per cent of the moves among the top two choices, while 16 per cent were not in the top four (I am typically above 20 per cent there, so that was a slight improvement). Four moves were serious errors, four were clear errors and four more were fairly worse than my best move.

Computer analysis doesn't tell you everything, and I try to look at the big picture - but it also tells me that I struggle after the opening. 13 of the 15 first moves was the best variation (the others being 2. c4 which is the way I play the opening, and my blunder with Bb5). Then I made seven mistakes of varying degree over the next nine moves!

Some of this is psychology, I think; I'm ahead, so I'll be ok - and then I start playing Hope Chess. Some is also lack of vision or not taking enough time to analyse the various points of the position. One practical consequence is that I need to make sure I spend more time after the opening; this is a problem not only in this game, but in my overall game.

A very entertaining match, where my opponent showed great vigour exploiting some of my mistakes after I got in front.

The logo at the top is courtesy of the Dan Heisman Learning Centre Bloggers Group. I heartily recommend you joining the DHCL if you want to play some slow chess and become a better player!

(My blogs are basically a way of recording my games, in order to work a little harder towards becoming a better player)