Chess.com 2024, 2nd round, E05 - Collecting points

22^nd of March 2024

7-00: Early in the day, I deliver the mate to Vedant (finally).

After doing a later analysis, I don’t find major lessons from this game. I picked up all the presents given to me, but otherwise there wasn’t much to do.

Oioki got another point through a timeout:

And I got an extra bishop from Georgeyost:

In the oioki black game, he pulled another unexpected move:

I start feeling like the game is out of my control. It’s not like I’m lost, but that’s two moves in a row I didn’t even consider. The two candidates are Kh8 and Kf8. The latter seems more promising, as it protects the knight and gives me Qd4 options.

This is a common effect – when an opponent sends one surprise your way, you’re just making a natural move (Ne7 here) and don’t calculate much what happens next. I didn’t look at Rh1, but I also did not look at other options. The net result is that white is getting a decent attack.

After some very light calculations, I feel like Kf8 is the move, but based on my performance in the game so far, I’d rather slow things down and check again later in the day. This time I want to consider all the legal moves!

I explored all the wrong moves here despite the intent to be thorough. f4-f5 is losing for white, since black has e6-e5. I was mostly concerned of white going after the king, while the main problem here is the e6 pawn.

At least there were no surprises in my other game with him:

Ba6 was on my radar yesterday, with Ra3 penciled in as the response. A few calculations later, I still feel good about this move:

The engine calmly suggests to just play Bc3, and let black go Be2 and take on f3, since the bishop will be trapped after Re3. I didn’t see this during the game, but even if I did, not sure I’d go for it – complications in a game like this are unnecessary.

Last game for now is the Vedant black one, where I’m up a pawn:

e4 seems like the natural move here, consistent with my plan of keeping the e-d pawn power tandem force moving.

I was planning on Bc3 yesterday, as the f3 pawn should be safe. Let’s recheck.

Still seems sound:

Going back to the black oioki game, I want to triple check for any surprising white moves before playing Kf8:

I’m probably missing something again (so much for self-confidence!), but can’t see any big problems with Kf8. So be it…

Moving to the jonix white game:

This is a dream position for white, however I need to watch for the natural bias of trying to finish black immediately and overstretching. It’s true that black gave up a ton of tempos and has one of the most unnatural positions known to mankind, but it doesn’t mean that I have to charge in like a bull in a china shop.

Black wants to play Nf5 or d6. The question is how I can make both moves difficult for him. Bd3 and g4 are the two options, with g4 being exactly the sort of move I cautioned myself about in the previous paragraph.

The comp agrees on Bd3, and natural development in general.

16-45: The white oioki game moved extremely fast along one of the previously calculated lines, and now I have a knight for a pawn. This seems very close to a win now…

The eval is +3 at this point. It’s always nice when a calculated line plays out exactly; in this case, I don’t know if my opponent went here intentionally, or just missed the discovered attack with Bxf6.

Going back to the black oioki game – he finally played a move I expected, Re1:

My line above has a massive hole in it after f5, since Nxf5 loses immediately – as can be seen in future comments.

In the georgeyost white game, I’m up a pawn. He wisely played Bg7 – I think that was the only move to avoid an early demise.

I could take on e6, though I don’t have to – at least not until he castles. However, after a bit of think I see all kinds of tempting lines that he could fall for if I take immediate action.

Many mistakes in the lines above; I probably already considered the game in the bag, and did not focus much on specifics.

In the black game against the same player, I am up a bishop for a pawn:

Normally, I would put such a game on autopilot and move on, but in this case, I have a choice to make: get greedy and take on b2, or turn away and gradually convert with the material I’ve got?

I deliberate a bit, but really can’t see any massive damage he can do. White does get initiative for the tempos I spend on that extra pawn, but can’t see any forcing lines.

I’ll take it.

No disagreement from Stockfish, though he gives -4 even if the pawn remains on the board after Be7. If I were in a blitz situation, I’d have played that.

Last game for now – Vedant black:

My plan remains simple – push the e- and d-pawns. So, the natural move is d5-d4, but at some point I also need to get Ra8 into the game. Also, he might go for some counterplay with Qh5. I’ll go for Ba6. This secures the f-file, including f6 for the queen, develops, blocks the a-pawn for white and helps the pawns advance. What’s not to like!

And again, Stockfish agrees – this is its leading option. Multi-purpose moves like that rarely disappoint.

21-20: Still have to make my move against Tautzies. BTW, this guy looks quite worrying – the way he plays the other games, and started the ones against me, he seems at least 2000+, if not much more than that.

We’re not out of the opening book yet, but there are already reasons to think. From further away, I was planning Nc3, but now it does not seem like such a great idea.

I don’t mind the IQP (isolated queen pawn), as it’s often popping up in the Alapin Sicilian, but I don’t see it faring well in this specific setup with Bg7, and Rf8 coming soon to d8. Bg4 is also an annoying option on the previous move.

Absolutely correct, this line gets evaluated at -1.

So, looks like Be3 is a goner. Nc7 is a bit tempting, but black is getting strong compensation for the material.

Black’s bishop pair and extra pawn are more than enough to compensate the exchange. The fact that the one predecessor game had a 2700+ player as black is enough to turn me away as well.

Stockfish disagrees and shows up lines that have white happily keeping up the material advantage. However, such decisions require either massive confidence, engine support, or 2400+ rating, and I had neither.

So, Qd2 or Qe2? I just looked up predecessor games on Qd2, and it’s amazing – all white games have 2500+ players. Qb3 also seems like a decent option. At this point, I struggle to choose between Qd2, Qe2 and Qb3. All have decent past games, and the subtleties are hard to grasp on a Friday evening. I’ll go for Qd2. Hope this move is not going to derail my tournament.

The difference is extremely subtle, and it didn’t matter anyway, since we ended up exchanging on e3.

23^rd of March 2024

Another morning, another point. Now jonix started timing out:

10 games left.

He just played f5, which is the move I kept on calculating before. Time to calculate again.

Here I am for a nasty shock. My calculations of f4-f5 had many holes in them. The biggest one was missing Re1-e6 from white, which is the big dagger in this assassination. Most lines are even losing, though I manage to find something where a semblance of a game is remaining. This might be what finishes my tournament:

The engine shows better defenses in some of the lines I evaluated as losing, with the overall conclusion that black has enough options to hold a draw in most variations. It is, however, clear that the only one who could lose here was me. White did a very good job in demonstrating his compensation for a pawn.

Moving to the white game with him as a consolation:

Here things look brighter. The rules are simple – I want to keep as many of my pawns on the board as possible and avoid an opposite colour bishop ending. The first obvious move is Bg7 to nab another pawn, but there are question marks. Let’s calculate: ideally better than in the other game yesterday.

Quick analysis shows that it’s a bad idea:

Stockfish thinks this is the top line for both sides.

A more patient option is to keep Bc3 where he is and re-route the rook to a more active position. Maybe also push the a4 pawn a bit to distract black’s bishop or king.

However, the naïve Ra1 also has issues:

Next option is to activate Ra3 via Bd2, but then black can just go Rb8. Things certainly look much more difficult than I thought initially.

Long story short, I see no better option than coming back to Bg7. I’m probably missing something, but all other options give black a draw. The problem is that oioki is dead lost in his games against Tautzies, which means that him drawing against me may well throw me out of the tournament early on. I’ll slow down my games against him just to restore mental balance.

My eval was way too pessimistic, maybe as a result of the other game. White has an extra minor piece, after all. However, the good news is that I landed on the top move via the process of elimination.

Going to the black Vedant game. White just played Ne2 as expected. I was planning on Qb6, but now see an interesting line:

In the end, I decide for d5-d4.

In the georgeyost white game, he played Bxe6, as expected. Yesterday I was thinking of sacrificing the pawn back with d5, but on reflection, it’s not such a great idea. However, Bg5 is much stronger:

Stockfish sees an even better option with Ng5, followed by Rxe6. d4-d5 was a decent option too; I was looking for more forcing power there than it had, but strategically, it was better than Bg5.

In the white oioki game, he just played Rb8 which I did not expect, though it seems a downgrade to Re7 which I was more concerned about.

Can’t I just push the a-pawn?

Don’t see a win just yet, but I think it’s better than I was staring at before. Perhaps reroute the knight to f4, keep the rook or the bishop worried about the a-pawn and attack on two fronts? However, maybe I should play Ne2 first, while I have the chance? It allows black to play Nb4 and h5, so I’ll need to calculate both options. I’ll come back to it later – too much chess for one morning.

10-45: Coming back to this game after a bit of sports, I’m having second thoughts. I focus too much on calculations rather than coming up with a decent plan. The problem is that I can’t think of one. There’s no clear way to force an exchange of either the black rook or bishop. The knight is doing a decent job limiting black’s options, and I’m not even 100% sure it will be better on f4. It is of course blocking the f-file potentially, but it can be easily dislodged with g6-g5 at the worst moment.

Let’s take it the other way: assuming I just push the a-pawn, what counterplay can black come up with? I presume at some point Bd5 has to give way to the d-pawn., which is another reason why Ng3 should continue making it difficult. This means that either Bd5 would have to move from the big diagonal, or black will have to go Kd7, or Kb7. Which all brings me back to the a4-a5 lines.

Once I play that, black can either:

• Send the king to deal with the pawn
• Send the king kingside, and blockade with Ba8

Blockading with the rook can only be good for white, considering the knight can start going wild.

Option (i) cannot be done immediately, since the h6 pawn will be taken, though I should double check.

Yep, looks good for White. This means black needs to play something like Rb4 first. Maybe that’s why he played Rb8 in the first place… This however means that the pawn will get to a7. There is a lot of calculating, but I see decent chances throughout:

Self-congratulations are in order, since I arrived to the top computer line by looking at strategic options and not just moving pieces around.

So, what about plan (ii)? I think the same idea with Ng3-e2-c1-d3 and Ra4 as the defensive stand works. There’s all kind of options for black of course – he may play h5 at some point, or wait with d5-d4. I don’t have many alternatives though.

12-45: In the black game, he just played Qe2, which I already saw as leading to a draw should I play Nxf5:

Qd8 seems the only option to play for a win; I looked at it earlier today.

13-40: A short, aborted trip to the basketball court later (due to rain), I’m staring at the white game, where black went for path (iii) which I did not explore at all:

So, he clearly wants to play d5-d4 ASAP, doesn’t want his bishop in a blocking role, and doesn’t mind the a-pawn making a run at it. Wouldn’t that give me a chance to grab the h6 pawn?

I don’t think black had chosen the path of best resistance here. White has an easier job in the B+N vs. B ending as compared to whenever rooks were on the board.

This brings me to a B+N versus B ending, which I should be able to convert. There is a small chance that I might have to give a B+N mate for the first time in my chess practice. That would be something to look forward to (not).

16-40: The game advanced a bit:

I really like how Bg7 and Nf6 complement each other, and also put red carpet for the h-pawn. However, I noticed that black has Bc4-a6 only after playing the last move. I still feel like white wins here, but it’s not as obvious as with the Rxa7 lines.

I can’t see a defense for black here. While he gets to keep the rook, the bishop is pinned, and all his pieces are too far away from the h-pawn. A quick peek at the Tautzies<->oioki games shows that the latter is lost in both, so he’s not doing me any favours there. I have to continue pressing for a win in the black game.

The comp gives a stamp of approval to all the calculations above.

In the black game, I calculate a bit more, but still can’t see anything better than Qd8, and all the roads there lead to a loss, a perpetual check, or a drawish rook ending.

The lines are flawed in places, but the upshot is that black is the one trying to make a draw here, which should be done with extreme care. For example, the Qb6 idea had a hole in it, as white can go Rc1 after a couple of moves and invade on the 8^th rank. Thankfully, I made a better choice later on.

Can’t bring myself to play the move but will have to do it eventually tonight.

19-30: I’m back to look at some non-oioki games. Starting with the white jonix game:

Bf4 seems like a natural move, as it develops with a tempo (not sure why I was considering Be3 yesterday).

However, after a bit of calculations, Na3 seems much sneakier.

I missed e5 when looking at black’s responses. Nc3 or 0-0 were far better options.

The last game for now is the white Tautzies game:

The question is whether to take with the pawn or the queen. The queen option has one predecessor game, where a 2100 player took care of a 2400+, but one predecessor does not a decision make.

There are imbalances in this position. Black has two bishops. White has better development. Black has fewer pawn islands. White has control over the center. I still think white’s a bit better.

Either way, taking with the pawn does not appeal to me. Black’s queen seems more powerful than mine, so I’d rather take them both off the board.

The engine mildly disagrees. I’m under-qualified to say why, but my guess is that white’s weaknesses matter less when there is more action and tactics on the board.

Continued here: https://www.chess.com/blog/romank66/chess-com-2024-2nd-round-e06-the-first-draw