Did I sprint a marathon?

I played my first blitz games on Chess.com recently.  As I suspected, I am a horrible player with such time constraints.  When I play a game, I like to take my time, studying moves and positions.  Playing a blitz, especially when there is no increment becomes extremely difficult since the time spent thinking is lost.

I think I have heard on GMHikaru's or GothamChess's Twitch channel that time is a piece and it can be used strategically.  Unfortunately for me, I cannot visualize this piece on the chessboard.  I don't know how it moves, therefore I don't know how to use it to gain an advantage.  In the end, I simply hang it and thus hang the game as well.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to self improve at chess.  I tried to play a few blitz  games in order to practice the same openings.  My goal was to meet a greater variety of lines and to build myself some confidence in the openings.  By doing so, I thought I could play the opening faster in the longer games and save time for the more critical moves.

Ironically, for the game I am about to present you, my opponent and I played quickly, too quickly.  At the end of the game, my opponent had more time on her clock than when she started.  If time is money, then my opponent made a profit out of this defeat.  This is a contrast to the last game I presented.

Self analysis

As I mentioned, I played this game pretty quickly.  At one point, I even had to put the brakes on myself so as not to play too fast with too much confidence.  A blunder that can cost me the game is never far away.  Still, even with the brakes on, I had the impression that my first ideas often remained the good ones or the ones that I ended up playing.

For this game, 1. e4 was played by my opponent and as usual, I responded with the Caro-Kann defense.

Analysis with Stockfish 12 - Depth 18

Although I am starting to feel comfortable with the Caro-Kann defense, my opponent responded with a move that I'm not used to see and that put me in a rather uncomfortable position.  I had the impression that I had to be ultra precise in my moves so as not to lose the game straight in the opening.

Now let's see what Stockfish thinks about my choices.  Did I do well?  Did my opponent had an opportunity to crush me with her unsettling opening?

Tactic(s) / improved position(s)

During the game, it is possible that my opponent or I missed a tactic or move that would have allowed us to improve our position or at least maintained it.

Lesson(s) to remember

For this game, I think I played well.  There were certainly a few unprecise moves, but no monumental blunder.  Although the time was never a problem, I think there is still some lesson to be learned from it.  Both my opponent and I played too quickly.  If we had taken our time a little more for certain moves, we could have been more precise and there would have been fewer errors and inaccuracies, which could have changed the game's result.

Although I was suprised in the opening by the white knight's sacrifice, remaining calm, playing with precision and stabilizing the position were probably key factors for my victory.  Indeed, I was left with a piece advantage after my opponent's attack, an advantage that I was able to keep until the end of the game.

In the next few games, I'll have to be careful not to always react or play instantly.  As I have seen, it is not always necessary to recapture a piece immediately.  Sometimes it is possible to use some tactics to maintain the material balance while improving the position.

Une traduction française de ce billet se trouve ici.