Blitz Chess 5+5 | 5 x FUN games! 🤪👍

#blitz #romanticstyle #fun 

Since the beginning of May, I’ve been exclusively playing 5+5 blitz and have been really enjoying it! Prior to this month, I hadn’t played blitz for around four years. For me, I don’t think that blitz is good for improving, but it has been scratching that itch of quick Romantic chess that rapid just sometimes doesn’t reach! In fact, in the past three weeks, I’ve played almost 30 games, which has been a lot more than usual since the second half of 2024, where I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out with chess.

So, here are a handful of games from the beginning of my blitz journey! I try to play Romantic chess; I lead with an opening gambit, and then in most of these games, I later play a deliberately unsound, provocative, pirate move, often to good effect. Let’s go! 🦜🤪👍

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Game 1: Almost beautiful! Vienna Gambit Accepted

This was the very first game of blitz that I played (since 2021), and as if to set the vibe, I had White and got the Vienna Gambit Accepted (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 exf4?!). Oh yeah! 🤩

It went down one of the best lines for White where Black attempts to (incorrectly) pin my e-pawn with their queen (4… Qe7?), which then allows for the killer blow (7. Nd5!).

This exact line is showcased in one of the chapters in my book, Become a Chess Assassin!

The devious, beautiful, pirate move is (8. Nxc7+!?), as if Black naturally captures with (8… Qxc7), then the follow up (9. exd6+) double-check forcibly wins Black’s queen!

In this game, Black opted to not capture the knight and stepped their king forward which is a wrong approach as it allows me to easily weave a mating net. The engine rated (11. Nd4+) a mistake, preferring (11. Bb5+), but that is only if Black opts to trade their queen for the knight with (11… Qxd4). Instead, after the natural (11… Kb6?!), I had an extremely lovely checkmate with (12. Nxa8#).

Or I would, if I played it! Instead, I played (12. Nd5+) which was still pretty good as it forces Black to trade their queen for the knight to avoid checkmate (which my opponent found). In the match, I saw the beautiful mate almost immediately after my move and kicked myself for quite a while; my opponent spent over a minute thinking about their next move!

Ultimately, I was still completely winning, but the following moves to clean up and head towards an endgame was perhaps a bit pedestrian in the light of the potential glory of (12. Nxa8#). On turn 28, Black finally resigned down 15 points of material. Good game, GG!

Game 2: Tricky counterattacks with Black in the Vienna Game Main Line

A curious phenomenon that I’ve encountered with blitz is that more opponents seem to know and play the Vienna Game, including how to enter the Main Line. However, the Main Line is potentially the Achilles’ heel of the Vienna Gambit player, as Black has significant tactical opportunities, and it can be tricky for White to navigate. I had Black in this game, and I love baiting the Vienna Gambit player into the Main Line and then using the Bardeleben Variation (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. Fxe5 Nxe4 5. Qf3 f5).

The reason? Beginners who have studied the Main Line will probably know that (6. d3) is the most accurate move, but not necessarily know what to do after that. For Black, there is a simple continuation with (6… Nxc3), which forces White to recapture with their b-pawn (7. bxc3), damaging their pawn structure. The next necessary and critical move to know for Black is (7… d4!), which jams the centre and prevents White from playing d4 themselves (which would create a massive defensive centre of pawns).

Against this, White played a thematic and “correct” move with (8. Qg3), but this has a danger. Having lost their f-pawn in the opening gambit, White’s queen and king are on the same dark square diagonal. As my opponent was rated in the 700s, I took a psychological leap of faith that they had exhausted their opening knowledge and decided to play the pirate move (8… Be7!?). 🦜🤪👍

Simply, I knew that they would see that I had just hung my g-pawn, but as I had played all moves thus far quite quickly (I still had OVER 5 minutes on the clock), they would also know that I was familiar with the Main Line. White would be asking themselves, is the hanging g-pawn a trap? The truth? It isn’t! It’s just hanging and White should capture with Qxg7!

My hunch was that they would overthink the issue of this “gambit” pawn and convince themselves that they would need to support the queen’s attack into my territory with a second piece. After thinking for almost a minute, that’s exactly what they did by playing (9. Be2??), a massive blunder, missing that what I was aiming for was (9… Bh4!), pinning White’s queen to their king! Emotional damage, good game, GG!

Game 3: Fishing in the Ponziani

Another observation that I’ve had playing blitz is that I seem to encounter opponents playing less common openings. For instance, I had Black in this game and my opponent led with the tricky Ponziani Opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3). Against the Ponziani, my usual approach is to immediately challenge the centre (3… d5) and if White exchanges (4. exd5 Qxd5), then I get the opportunity of smashing open the centre, the sort of Romantic opening positions that I like! In this game, we had a fully open e-file by turn 4! Curiously, it seems that Stockfish liked this as well, and indeed on turn 7, rather than my (7… Bb4), it thought that it was more accurate to play (7… Bxf3), which would then result in a mutually assured destruction with the queens coming off the board (8. Nxd5 Bxd1)!

As we moved into the middlegame, White attempted to kick my g4-bishop (11. h3) and I knew that the accurate move was probably to pull back with (11… Bh5). However, I considered the position for about 30 seconds, and then opted to play my pirate move with (11… h5!?), an obviously unsound fishing hook tactic. However, knowing that the gambit piece should be captured from the perspective of accuracy, doesn’t stop it from being poisoned! Creating a permanent weakness with an opened h-file can be dangerous. At the same time, should it not be taken, White would be permitting Black’s bishop to squat in a powerful square.

In the game, White captured, but misplaces their knight (12. hxg4 hxg4 13. Nh2??). However, in my haste, I bodge my attack! I had to find a brilliant rook sacrifice (13… Rxh2!!) which would lead down a line where White must choose between checkmate, or trading their queen for a knight!

As it turned out, White managed to defend against my rook-queen battery down the h-file by forcing a queen trade. However, could they defend against a rook-rook battery? White under-calculated my knight manoeuvres: e7 ➡️ d5 ➡️ c3 ➡️ e4 with the goal of removing White’s defender of their h2-knight. On turn 26, White blundered by refusing to trade away my knight with their rook, and with (26… Nxg3!), the game was lost as the h-file was now undefended! A permanent weakness can come back to bite, and this concept is what makes even “bad” fishing hook attacks dangerous for your opponent!

Game 4: Misdirection in the Englund Complex attack!

Those who follow my channel will know that my favoured approach against the Queen’s Pawn Opening is the Englund Gambit! It’s technically bad, but White doesn’t have many good options other than playing into the Englund Complex (1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Bf4 Qb4+). Now, many beginner-intermediate players will either know, or can find, the three critical moves to refute the attack:

• 5. Bd2! – the backwards bishop move to attack Black’s queen
• 6. Nc3! – developing the knight, which reveals the queen’s defence of the rook, and sets up a counterattack on Black’s queen
• 7. Rb1! – counterattack Black’s overextended queen and now capturing the initiative!

HOWEVER, this presumes that Black follows through with the moves of the famous Englund Complex checkmate attack with (5… Qxb2) and then (6… Bb4). Normally, I will play down this line and if White finds the refutation, I’d play the Hambleton Variation with a queen sacrifice (7. Rb1! Qxc3 8. Bxc3 Bxc3+) and go on from there.

However, as this was blitz and I just had a hunch that my opponent wasn’t especially confident against the Englund Complex, I decided to play a high-risk variant against opponents who find the first two moves of the refutation. Rather than (6… Bb4), I played the pirate move (6… Nb4!?). 🦜🤪👍

The logic? Should White simply “know” the refutation and play the third move (7. Rb1??) without due care, rather than foiling the Englund Complex, White now loses their queen! I played the follow up (7… Nxc2+). With White’s king smothered, the only legal move is that White must trade their queen for my upstart knight (8. Qxc2 Qxc2). Emotional damage, White resigns, good game, GG!

Game 5: Beautiful game of the Reversed French, in the Englund Gambit Declined!

As noted above, White only gets the advantage against the Englund Gambit by accepting it. Where they decline, as my opponent did in this game entering the Reversed French variation (1. d4 e5 2. e3?!), the evaluation returns essentially to equality [0.00], but Black gains the opportunity to “smash things up” and steer the game down a tactical rather than positional path. This occurred in this game after (2… exd4 3. exd4) — chomp, chomp, and somehow, we have a fully opened e-file on turn 3 rather than a civilised game of the Queen’s Pawn Opening!

Tactical ideas in the opening: poke and prod and make things difficult. So, (4… Nd5) forcing White to move their bishop a second time. Then (5… Bb4+) to provoke (6. c3), which interferes with White’s development of their queen’s knight.

Despite all this, White plays well and we entered a middlegame where they had a small advantage. Once there, it wasn’t so obvious how White should proceed and in fact, the engine suggests slow waiting moves, such as flank pawn moves, as the most accurate.

White attempted to push forward a knight — very reasonable — but this didn’t work with their knight pushed backwards and eventually to the edge of the board (19. Nh3), the wrong side of the action as we’d both castled queenside. It was then on turn 19 that I decided to play another provocative move (19… Re3!?) attacking White’s queen. Stockfish didn’t like it, but White had to find the single good response of (20. Qb5), a move that was not at all obvious and seemed to place the queen at risk of being trapped. White played the reasonable looking (20. Qc2?!).

At this point, the engine finds an absolutely stupendous line with two brilliant sacrifices starting with (20… Ncb4!!). Check it out in the video and the PGN below, but it’s sublime. If White plays perfectly, Black is only slightly ahead at [-1] but regardless, it would be a Romantic triumph!

Needless to say, I didn’t see this in the game (🤣) and played a more mundane idea with (20… Re7), vacating the e7 square for a fork of White’s rook and queen with my knight. Mundane, but nonetheless successful! This allowed me to win one of White’s rooks. White attempted to reciprocate with a very similar attack with their knight, and I managed to see a very sneaky counter on turn 27 after (27… Re2!). In this game, I had a strong sense that White would have tunnel vision with their own attack and indeed, they played (28. Nf6??), a seeming fork of my queen and rook. It LOOKS like a great attack that wins tempo! However, the engine on post-game analysis evaluates it as a blunder [-M7]! Where White was chasing material, I’d managed to get a rook onto the second rank, and with (28… Qb5!), was threatening checkmate!

I’ve spoken in previous articles that people don’t just “calculate” but are constructing stories in their mind. In essence, they create a narrative to explain why their opponent has made a particular move, and if they are satisfied with their meanings, they often won’t calculate further. For traps and misdirection to work, one needs to play psychologically; having enough empathy to see one’s opponent’s point of view and then having the imagination to exploit it!

Qb5 seems to “make sense” for White as they “forced it” with their knight and they would expect that I would move it to accept the loss of the e8-rook. If they were in a “tunnel”, then most likely they’d already “decided” that I would recapture their knight after (29. Nxe8) with either my e2-rook or queen. However, White should have been looking at their own king, rather than mine! Rather than the symmetrical tactic they were hoping for, Nxe8 was a blunder as (29… Qxb2#) was checkmate on the second rank! Good game, GG!

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For inspiration on great opening attacks to play in blitz chess, check out my new book, “Become a Chess Assassin! Learn to play the best chess opening attacks”.