King's Indian Attack | ATTACK the KING!
#kingsindian #kingsindianattack #brilliant
I'm quite proud of this game as I managed to get a high accuracy (> 90%) and had a brilliant move with a rook sacrifice! My opponent played a slightly unorthodox opening sequence, which transposed into the King's Indian Attack (1. Nf3 d5 2. g3). I think this might be the first time I've faced against the King's Indian Attack, or at least, it's the first time I can remember! As I played this game on the Australia's "King's Birthday" public holiday, it seemed very fitting!
On move 4, White had created their set up - they had castled short, the bishop was in the fianchetto position, with knight on f3. So, my strategy was relatively straightforward. All further development would be aiming to move pieces to attack on the kingside. Tactically, castling queenside would allow a kingside pawn storm. Also, trading off White's strong fianchetto bishop will be good for me.
So, with those ideas in mind, I play (4... Bg4). Stockfish calls this an inaccuracy [+0.5] and this can be understood using opening principles. If there is an opportunity to take the full centre with pawns (e.g., e5 in this game) it's often best to do so. However, my logic with this move was to prepare for long castling, and getting ready for a bishop-queen battery along the light square diagonal to force trade the fianchetto bishop. Also, by placing my bishop in a somewhat provocative position on g4, I thought that psychologically it would restrict White's plan for development: if they moved the e-pawn, their knight would be pinned (which blocks the fianchetto bishop's access to the long diagonal). I thought it might also provoke White to play h3 to dislodge my bishop, but in doing so, White would weaken their king's defence.
And this came to fruition! On the next move, I formed the bishop-queen battery. White spooked, try to kick the bishop, a blunder as the pawn was straight up hanging, and I get to force trade the bishop (6. h3 Bxh3 7. Bf4 Bxg2). On move 8, I long castles (8... O-O-O) and I had a strong sense that I was ahead. The next step was to march my h-pawn forward supported by my rook!
I made a few provocative moves, sacrificing a pawn to start of trading sequence removing White's other bishop. White, however, made a terminal mistake with (13. Nxh4). Simply, I had more attackers than they had defenders. White’s knight was ostensibly defended by a pawn on g3, but this was dangerously their "last man standing". On move 13, I found a brilliant rook sacrifice (13... Rxh4). White captured back with their g-pawn, and this was a blunder [-M5]! King safety always trumps material. The opened g-file and step forward by the pawn critically weakened the king's defences allowing my queen to infiltrate the position. The king was trapped in the opened alcove of the h- and g-files with checkmate on move 17. GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/80263206913
