31^st of March

Good hockey game yesterday evening – the Sharks won in overtime.

No changes in the table, apart from saveliy timing out in another game. I put my money that he’ll eventually time out against me as well. Either way, I don’t spend much time on him, as there’s a ton of extra material in both games. Will let pre-moves deal with him and focus my energy on more worthwhile tasks.

To the main game:

Black played Rd8 here, which seems inconsistent with Rae8 the move before. The most natural move here is Ke3, with the idea of going to f4. With the king on f4, the plan will be:

• c3-c4 (to take the d5 square from black)
• h4 (to take the g5 square from the rook)
• Bg2-Bh3 at an opportune moment
• Take the pawn on f5.

Of course, a lot of that depends on what black does, but at least he’ll have to work for it. Now, what if he exchanges rooks? Here, it looks more questionable, especially if he plays Ke5:

I don’t have great ideas here.

This line looks interesting, as it threatens g4-g5, but black can just go Kf6. It at least gives some practical options for black to go wrong. Bottom-line, I don’t have too many alternatives, as Rxd8+ looks like a straight draw:

This line was actually not too bad. The rook can use the 4th rank to harass the black pawns, so there were some practical chances. The eval goes up by 0.2 whopping points to +0.6

The ifan game went exactly down the Ke6 line I was exploring yesterday, where I triggered the king escape as soon as the rook moved away from f5.

It’s white’s move now, and I still don’t see how he is going to win. There’s probably a way for white to exchange the h pawn for e4, but that shouldn’t cause me to lose.

Late afternoon, saveliy finally times out in the black game. That game was dead lost for him anyway. 

White went for a very optimistic Bxh7+ sacrifice in the French Exchange. Not the first, and hopefully, not the last time someone does it in my games. There was some persistence in attacking, that required black to defend most of the game, but the result was never in doubt - there was just too much material imbalance. The engine does not like some of my defensive choices, but they are all differences between a safe and slower win to a risky one, so no regrets - apart form the 14...Qb6 miss.

To the ifan game:

White clearly goads me into playing Kg4 or h4. Otherwise, I can just play Kg6 which repeats a previous position. The gotcha here is that a loss is almost the same as a draw for me: I would need to win the pruett game anyway.

Long story short, I decide to play Kg4. I don’t see a loss there, and it’s my only chance to mix things up. White can still make draw in gazillion different ways, but there’s a tiny chance for him to go wrong, unlike with the Kg6 silent draw offer.

Back to the decisive game:

Black just played Re8, which, unlike Ke5, gives me a chance to go Kf4. This is a double-edged sword however, since black can sneak with the rook into the 2^nd or 1^st rank, and make things really interesting.

For example, Bd5 could create all sorts of trouble:

I’ll give it more thought tomorrow morning.

In the Ifan game, he starts repeating moves. No miracle there.

Stop press! After repeating moves for a bit, white played Kc4 in the position below:

We fight on. I calculate a lot, but bottom-line, my only faint chance of getting anything here is just take that pawn on e4.

This was another questionable moment in this long-suffering game. Black did decent defense here for the last 15-odd moves, and draw was within grasp via different means. The problem is that draw was tantamount to a loss, so black started to gamble, and chess does not tolerate gamblers. I should have tried here h4, as it gave a draw, while still giving white faint chances to go wrong.

Continued here: https://www.chess.com/blog/romank66/chess-com-2023-2nd-round-s01e11-the-fools-day