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House of Cards

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I titled this blog entry House of Cards after the way my position falls apart rather quickly after my pawns are undermined.  Looking over the game, I felt that the key mistake was one of calculation.  I'll run the game through Rybka to see its evaluation of the relative positions where I accepted the exchange loss versus loss of 2 pawns.  This decision might have been another key error in judgment.  A few moves later I had a 'burned image' effect where I continued to play down a line as if it was burned into my mind without reevaluating it move by move to spot quick enough that it wasn't sound.  I've annoted the key spots in the game.  I'll update with what I find from Rybka.

Update:  I"ve added some information from Rybka's evaluation.  The main interesting thing this uncovered was that I overlooked a better response to move 16. Nxc6.  This was a psychological problem.  I never looked for a better choice, being upset that I realized that my initial choice of 17. ... bxN wasn't going to work.


Update:  I did a little research to see how I played the opening.  This was a Symmetrical Tarrasch.  I appeared to have played it ok.  At move six, the most common reply for black is 6. ... a6, keeping the symmetry.  I might play this in the future.  Mostly because I feel like I'm wasting the Be7 move (better to take at c5 in one move, vs having played Be7 then Bxc5).  The a6 move is more useful because it sets up dxc followed by b5. Plus the pawn at a6 means that after 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. b4 black can play Bd6 without worry of harrassment by white's knight via Nb5.