Chessnut Air | BEACHSIDE Holiday at Bundeena | Travel Chess! ♟️🏖️
#carokann #chessnutair #queenblunder #recovery
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One of the things that I really enjoy is to play chess when travelling, especially when on holiday at a picturesque location! Those of you who follow my channel will know that I bring along my Chessnut Air to use as an electronic chess board, either to play against an online opponent, or to record an over-the-board match.
During the Anzac Day long weekend just past, my family and I stayed at an AirBnB in the beachside village of Bundeena, south of Sydney and nestled within the Royal National Park.
And so, on a sunny morning, coffee in hand, I played the following game!
My opponent played an unusual a6-line of the Caro-Kann Defense, which scuttled my approach of the von Hennig Gambit! No matter, I decided to open the centre to steer the game down tactical attacking lines! However, being distracted by the cameras and screen recording (making sure that nothing had glitched) led me to play perhaps with a slight timid temperament – I missed several opportunities that I had created to attack.
Nonetheless, in the early middlegame, I gained a very nice concession from Black, winning their rook and taking away their right to castle. However, I failed to correctly consolidate the gains by not wanting to trade queens.
With (18. Rd1!) and a rook-queen battery down the fully open d-file, I re-established a commanding lead of better than [+4]… only to blunder it [+4 → -4] in the most silly of ways a few moves later with (22. Kd2??), allowing Black to pin my queen to the king! 🫠
I was annoyed at myself, but I wasn’t going to let it get me down! The sun was shining, and the beach was calling! Furthermore, I felt that I still had a chance; Black had their queen, and I had a rook pair. Moreover, Black’s only other remaining piece was their knight on b8, which had yet to develop. As the knight is not a long-range piece, in the immediate term, it’s influence will not be felt.
And I found a way! I allowed/ignored Black’s queen to capture my kingside pawns. This opened the g-file for my rook, and I played a tricky tactic that I am proud of in this game. A thing to note is that a solitary queen cannot checkmate a king by herself. While the queen was capturing my pawns, Black was not developing their knight, and it gave me just enough time to coordinate an attack on Black’s king with my rook pair and bishop!
I’m especially pleased with (30. Rg1!), a devious trap! If Black played the natural looking (30… Kxg7) and captured what seemed to be a hanging rook, then (31. Bf5+), a discovered check and I win Black’s queen! Black saw through the trap, but the only good move in the position was the very sketchy looking (30… fxg6), which seemed to expose Black’s king to a devastating battery attack from White’s rooks.
Black either didn’t find or didn’t believe in this move, and instead, moved their queen out of the potential attack. This was a mistake/blunder, with Stockfish returning the evaluation to equal [0.00]. However, I now had the initiative, and the position was much easier to play for White.
I had a series of checks, forcing Black’s king onto the d-file. And then with (33. Rd1+), Black’s king had only two legal moves. Both seemed to force Black to trade their queen for one of White’s rooks, though there was one difficult to see line where Black manages to avoid doom by the skin of their teeth. Black needed to play (33… Kc5), which seems to march the king into a skewer against their queen (34. Rc7+). However, Black actually had (34… Nc6), which just manages to block the check and maintain a difficult equality.
However, I suspect that Black had expected to lose their queen and quickly traded their queen for one of my rooks (33… Ke3?? 34. Rd3+! Qxd3 35. cxd3), and we entered a simple endgame where I had rook and bishop vs Black’s knight. My approach was clear; aim to trade Black’s knight for my bishop and mop up Black’s split pawns with my rook. And that’s exactly what happened. My rook captures Black’s a-pawn and then flies to the h-file, hunting their undefended final pawn. Black resigned, good game, GG!
