Chess.com 2024, 2nd round, E12 - Turning the ship around

7^th of April 2024

11-15: In the white Tautzies game, I’m coming to terms with the fact that it is going to be a draw. The black game looks winnable, but not sure that will be enough to make it out of the group. So, I’m also reconciling myself with not making it to round 3.

Draw is achievable with Rcg1. If I don’t take it, I’m concerned with moves like Nb5-d4, or f5, where I can even lose. I’d like to do one final check of these two moves, before going Rcg1.

Starting with Nb5, I can negate it with Nb3 (awkward looking) or Ne6. In fact, Ne6 looks really good, so he’s unlikely to play Nb5.

So, how about f5? This was the move I looked at a few days ago, when predicting this entire line.

This also doesn’t look as sad as I thought a few days back. The king gets activated, things get double-edged, but that’s how I like them. Now, what if black just holds and plays something like Kg6? Do I have any way of making progress? I could try exchanging rooks and finally getting my extra pawn/weakness on b2 into the game with Nc4.

So be it, I’ll go Rgc2. I’d rather die standing, than make peace waving a white flag.

Again, the right practical choice (third in a row), which keeps the game alive. My lines are faulty as always; mostly because I default to capturing or re-capturing material when possible, which is a habit that must be changed.

Now, to the white Fabio game, which went down the main line I calculated yesterday:

This shows that both of us are humans, since the engine considers the natural Bxc5 a mistake, and suggests Nd5. The last black’s move, Be4, is also not ideal – Stockfish suggests h5 to rattle white’s cage. In the last few moves, the eval swung from -0.6 to +0.6.

Let’s take stock of the situation:

• White has the bishop pair, protected passer on c5, and potential outpost on d6, which can’t be covered by a black bishop.
• Black has pressure on the a8-h1 diagonal, and a better-protected king.

Exchanges of queens, rooks and the black bishop and knight (especially the bishop) are in my favour.

The candidate moves are Ne5 (leading), Nd4, Qb3 and Ng5.

• Nd4 can be discarded quickly, as the knight only looks nice there, but is not actually doing anything useful. Also, the black bishop goes to d5, which is unpleasant.
• Qb3 looks interesting, as it gives me options to re-route the queen to g3.

However, the line with Bd5 and Ne4 looks very risky for white. So, Ne5 it is, with all the murky lines I was calculating yesterday:

Very happy about this one. It is the top line, and is far from obvious; a difficult move, which was arrived at by correct reasoning. The organized thinking with candidate moves helped.

Tautzies made a couple of moves. In the black game, I was getting positive that the queen endgame is winnable, but this requires a bit more thinking:

I think it’s winnable. I need to prevent him going h5, and then gradually advance the pawn by protecting f7 with the king at the right moment.

While this is the right idea, I didn’t have to rush into it. Black has all the time in the world to play h5, g6, prepare a nice lair for his king, and only then go into the queen ending.

Fabio has really sped up, and made a couple more moves:

Now, Bd5 is not something I looked at. However, it gives a very interesting option of Qd2, with very nice lines.

Qb2 was a stronger idea, which mirrored black’s pressure on the a8-h1 diagonal with a pressure of my own on the a1-h8 diagonal. As Lasker had said, if you found a good move, look for a better one…

Enough chess for now, to be continued…

16-40: Mavs had one of the most spectacular wins of the season. Last second tying 3-pointer, first overtime of the season, and 48 points by Kyrie.

In the Fabio white game, he went Ne4.

I admit I haven’t looked at that move, while it’s a decent option. Black might want to go f6-e5, and Ng5.

Qe3 seems like the only retreat that doesn’t give him an extra tempo. However, the next developments don’t look too promising:

This wasn’t too bad, though Ne4 was indeed black’s best chance, and Qe3 was a no-brainer. The eval is still at +0.7.

Now to the game I’ve been dreading all day:

I’m definitely going down an endgame sans pawn, and it’s going to be tough to hold. I should have followed Glek’s footprints to a draw, but hindsight is always 20/20. Either way, Rg7 is my only chance.

21-00: The last session for today, and it’s all about the long-suffering white Tautzies game. There he went Rb4, another move I didn’t look at. 

He is obviously going for f5. Nd3 seems to be my only option. There’s probably another surprising move hiding in there, but I’ll proceed as planned:

Not much to add here. Both of us keep finding the only moves: me keeping the game alive, and him defending.

8^th of April 2024

Jonix did another sporadic timeout against oioki:

I am tempted to start with the Fabio black game, as it looks like he gave me a small chance for a draw by playing Rh5:

This still keeps winning chances, but indeed, the natural Nh3 was the better option.

I was half-hoping for this, as it gives me a bit more time to regroup with Ke7:

My 27. Rf1 line is the accurate one – at least until move 29.

Stop press! He just played Rah1, which is essentially an exchange sacrifice. Two options: either it’s intentional; in which case, it's extremely intricate, or he just missed Be8, in which case – woohoo!

Looking at the Tautzies white game, where he followed the main line I calculated before:

The draw is looming large on the horizon.

The game is petering out. There is also an interesting option for black with Rxh4 followed by e4+ fork, which neither of us have noticed.

Now, to the Tautzies black game, where we’re at the queen endgame:

My ideal setup is f7-g6-h5 pawns, with the queen on the g8-a2 diagonal, and the pawn reaching a4. I want to prevent white going h5. King on g7 with the queen on the h8-a1 diagonal should also work. My only concern is white doing something with g3-g4 pawn sacrifices and opening the position up.

I just need to be careful, since immediate g6 can have interesting consequences:

h6-h5 looks like the cleanest path forward.

Very happy about this one. h5 was the only move, and a couple of years ago, it wouldn’t have even occurred to me. This is why writing down and re-evaluating your thought patterns works.

Moving to the Fabio white game, where black indeed went f7-f6:

I think Bh2 is necessary here, since I want to go g3, Kg2, h4, Kf2 and g5. A lot of moves of course, but at least I have a semblance of a plan. However, the more I look at it, the less pleasant it seems:

This was an erroneous assumption, since Stockfish prefers Bb2, which is far from obvious. I think this is because the Bh2 lines lead to an imprisoned bishop and other kinds of difficulties due to bishop cramping up the kingside Some of these I picked up in my calculations.

Actually, it looks extremely unpleasant.

Again, it seems like I’m fighting for a draw. I've been doing a poor job with these Fabio games.

This time, the calculations are ok, but the eval is off – despite the optics, it’s white who has the advantage here. However, the position is very sharp, and I understandably was worried. In hindsight, it’s not a bad deal against a 1700+ player, however, with a 2200+ opposition, I’d have chosen a different outline.

Also, on another bit of annoying news, I managed to create a small bump on the driver side of the door of a car I just rented. It has an extremely low posture I wasn’t used to, which created an uneasy relationship with a pillar that the gas station has judiciously put right where the car door would open.

20-20: Last session for today. In the long-suffering white Tautzies game, we continue going down the exchange line I calculated a couple of days back.

In the last move, black had the nice option of Rxh4, and then e4+ which would’ve sealed the draw.

While back then I evaluated it as a dead draw, I see ways of keeping it a bit interesting in the rook ending by cutting off the black king from the d-pawn:

I’m sure there is a draw there, but at least I’ll make him work for it, as compared with Nxe5, which will end the game immediately.

All correct. By the way, black has to find only moves from 48-50 to keep the draw alive. Practically, I made the right choice, even though the eval is still +0.2.

Now, finally going to the white Fabio game, which has a thunderstorm brewing on my position. I calculate a lot, and see a very narrow path to a draw, but I’m sure there’s something amiss. 

Continued here: https://www.chess.com/blog/romank66/chess-com-2024-2nd-round-e13-fortunate-turn-of-events