Chess.com 2024, 2nd round, E14 - Happy endings

11^th of April 2024

Made a couple of easy moves against Fabio early morning; I’ll try playing ASAP against him to get the 1-s in the table and clarify the situation. I’ll slow down the remaining Tautzies game a bit, since I’ve got a guaranteed draw, and don’t have 100% certainty whether I should take it or press for a win.

12-30: Another bit of good, yet expected, news. Fabio and I blitz out a few moves in the black game, and I get my point. I could’ve lost that game earlier on - which the engine quickly points out. Definitely room for retrospection there.

This game has several learning experiences:

• • The McCutcheon set up with Bc6 and Nd7 is dubious at best. Yes, GMs used to play it, but I didn’t have good experience with it on several occasions. The engine doesn’t like it either. I’ll need to see if I should give up on  McCutcheon altogether if there are no good alternatives.
  • Delaying Qe7 in moves 13-15 was another major inaccuracy. One of the first rules is not to neglect development, and that’s exactly what I did.
  • Do not follow predecessor games blindly, even if they are played by specialist GMs. To my defense, I was trying to do load management with the other games, and assumed myself to be in a familiar territory, but these are just excuses. The easy rule is that if there are less than 10 predecessor games in a line, start engaging your own brain.
  • Speaking of calculating, 19…hxg5 and 20…f4 were my biggest mistakes of the tournament, which should have led to a sound defeat. I simply spent too little time on this game, and too much on another one that day.

Of course, I was very lucky to win this. I can safely assume that similar level of play from my side in stage 3 will result in a more just and negative result for me.

Only two games left, and I’m back in the first place:

Switching to the white game, while it’s almost on autopilot, I do want to take a minute to think:

I obviously want to exchange as much as possible, starting with that allmighty bishop on d5. So Rc3 + Bf3 is my goal. I just need to make sure he has no annoying tactics. Also, I suspect he went Kf7 because he wants to open the kingside files.

Quick analysis does not show anything I can’t deal with. Rc3 it is.

15-10: He made an interesting move – Kg6. Very creative, but also dangerous for him. It prevents Bf3 up to a point but gives me chances to go for a mate.

Quick calculation shows that indeed I can finish this game quicker than expected:

Approved by Stockfish, though it gets really simple at this point. The eval is already at +10, even if black did play h6. It almost felt like a cooperative mate.

19-00: I have one of the final important choices to make in the group – press for a win with white against Tautzies or go for a threefold repetition. The game with Fabio is pretty much won, so a draw guarantees getting to the next level. On the other hand, it feels cowardly to wrap up proceedings in a game where I spent so much energy and time.

Ke7 leads to a threefold repetition, while Kf7 keeps things interesting. I have to be careful though, since his e-pawn can make a run for it. Calculations show that he will have to go back Rf5 again; all other creative options are losing for black. So, no risk on my side – I’ll give it a go.

So wrong…Black could have snatched a win here with Kg6, which would have led to a very frustrating way to lose the game and the tournament. Kf7 would have kept things interesting if I played it, though with black finding the only moves, I’m sure we would have arrived to a draw.

Last chess thing for the day – did a few pre-moves against Fabio. Who knows – maybe I’ll wake up to collect another point.

12^th of April 2024

There is a new result in our group, which puts me temporarily in the second place:

I assume it’s very temporary though, since I’d very much like to run the remaining game with Fabio to its conclusion today, and then get my draw with Tautzies. I was still thinking yesterday about pushing for a win there, but after a good night’s sleep, don’t feel it’s required. As soon as I get my point against Fabio, I’ll try and put that game to its well-deserved rest.

I didn’t have long to wait. 20 minutes later, Fabio resigns:

A bit better than the other game.

Much cleaner game than the black one, but far from perfect. I stayed away from d5 on moves 15-16, which lost any pretense of advantage. Again, a side effect of spending too much time on the other games, and too little on this one.

21. Na4 was another inaccuracy, since black could have just taken it, developing strong pressure on the a8-h1 diagonal.

26. Qd2 was a miss, since Qb2 would have created a clearer counterplay than the mass of complications I had to deal with when the queen was on d2.

I got lucky again when my opponent allowed me to trap the knight and promptly gave up on the game. This wouldn’t work with the 2000+ opposition in the next round.

Overall, I need to think if those IQP games suit me. In blitz, they work just fine, but against opposition that follows the top line, I arrive to double edged, complicated situations.

This means making a 3-fold repetition in the Tautzies game.

And 30 minutes later, my work is officially over!

Engine, as always, immediately shows several screw ups from my side – most importantly, that in the last position I was actually losing rather than winning or drawing. Thankfully my opponent didn’t see that as well:

This game was one of the most difficult in my chess practice. It always felt like a win is just around the corner, but black kept defending well, finding the right moves time after time. There were many calculations to be made, sometimes running into 10-20 minutes per move. I spent an inordinate amount of time on it overall, which created collateral impact on some of my other games (see above). On the other hand, drawing it sealed my passage to the next round. So, a very bittersweet taste.

Coming to specifics:

• • • The opening was decent, though I again followed the book a bit too far. Black has equalized well, getting a better pawn structure and bishop pair with slightly delayed development. I wouldn’t go down this line in the future.
    • 20. e4 was the first real inaccuracy from my side. There is a certain art to knowing when to play slow and when to rush. This was a case where I should have played it slow and prepared e4 properly. The input to that was the lack of any forcing options from black.
    • 21…a5 was the first minor gift I received from black as it gave me a5 as a target, though I again rushed after it with 23. Nc4 – which could’ve been delayed.
    • After 25. Nxa5, the extra pawn was compensated by bishop pair, and the weakness of said extra pawn on b2. My eval was overly optimistic.
    • A string of best moves from me removed the bishop pair, and made the extra pawn a bit more noticeable before move 32. That’s when perfection deserted me, and I passed on a chance to play 32. h4.
    • A few more best moves were not enough, as I didn’t give enough credit to 38. b4, which could’ve finally made something of my extra pawn.
    • Lastly, the threefold repetition could have turned into a loss, as both of us didn’t see Kg6 for black on the last two moves.

I had my chances most of the game, but it was never enough to play just good moves, or even perfect ones for a sequence. I had to stay perfect throughout to win a game at this level, and this was simply beyond me, even with all the time sunk into the game. It was a great training ground, so despite not getting the result I wanted, I’m very thankful to my opponent for taking it all the way. He gave a great sample of the opposition I should expect in round 3, and he deserved to be there.

Here is the table with your truly in round 3!

Final thoughts on round 2 are here: https://www.chess.com/blog/RomanKleiner/chess-com-2024-2nd-round-e15-retrospective