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First of all, I am going a different direction with these annotated games. It has gotten to the point where it has gotten too time-consuming for me to annotate all the match games that we play -- I have a full-time job. But what I can do is take the most interesting games that we play and go over a few of them every day. The way I see it is this -- there will always be games we win and games we lose. That's just a fact of life. It is how well we do in handling the close games and the won games and whether or not we finish our games that will make us or break us in any given match. I may also take master games and go over them as well -- studying them will always make us better. With that in mind, I present a mate in 20 in the Exchange Slav, of all openings.

I just wanted to make a post thanking Eternalhope for all the hard work he has been doing. The game analysis for the team matches has been awesome. Also, thank you for setting up all the tournys.

It has been out for a while, but still most people have not played it. I could sit here and try to explain it in detail, but the easiest thing is to say it's vote chess, but only 10mins between moves, so give it a try if you are curious. If you post below (just a blank message is fine), i can send you a link. Some of the chess.com vote chess alerts are still not working.

Red Army 1, Dias Petroupolis 0

White (Team Romania) opens with the Bishop's Opening, which is not that bad. However, he hangs a Pawn on move 9 and makes a dubious exchange sac later in the game. The result is never in doubt.

A wild game to start off our match with the Morlocks. I chose the Latvian, which White had not faced before, and White promptly chose the wildest line of the Latvian -- 3. Bc4!? instead of the normal 3. Nxe5 Qf6. In this line, Black sacrifices an exchange similar to some lines in the Schliemann for a central pawn roller. But White, in return, prepares a countersacrifice -- he unloads a piece for superior development and to flush my King out of the pocket and drive it all the way to c6. The sacrifice is completely sound -- White's initial error was 12. Nf6+, when it turns out that the Knight is attacking air. Even when White can set up a discovered check using the Knight, it has nothing to attack. Better would have been 12. Qf7+ Kc6 13. Nf4 Bc5 14. d3, when White has full compensation for the sacrificed piece. His Knight is blocking the b8-h2 diagonal which proved fatal in the game, he is about to finish his development, and Black still has to bring some pieces out. Of course if Black can survive the middlegame, he has chances to win the endgame provided he can stop White's king side pawn roller.White could not play 14. Qg5? because after 14...Qxh2 15. Kf1, Black had 15...Nc6!!, when the discovery on the Queen is useless because Black can interpose his Bishop and attack the Queen. Black could have won quicker with 18...Rf8. I rejected it because of Qd5 and Rg1. But it turns out that after 19. Qd5 Rxf6 20. Rg1, Black has mate in five starting with 20...Bg4+. And after 20. Qxb7, Bg4+ is fatal because White is mated before he can win the Rook.White could have made the win a lot more difficult had he simply captured the e-pawn and discovered my Bishop; however, after the actual game continuation my Knight has all sorts of forking possibilities in the game while White's Knight is useless even with the discovered check. Red Army 1, Morlocks 0

The first results are in: Cboard (Red Army) is hit with a fishy opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5?!), and does not take the best advantage of the situation -- better than 3. d3 is 3. exd5, and if 3...e4, then 4. Qe2! This move is counterintuitive, but leads to the win of the pawn and generates pressure on the e-file. 3. Nxe5 is the other main move here -- the best thing to do if you want to answer 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 is work out these two lines for yourself and see which one you are comfortable playing. Black gets the better game after 3. d3?! and White is left groping around in the dark. But then Black overreaches with 17...b4? and loses a pawn. After that, cboard masterfully squeezes out the point and has a nice liquidation at the end that leads to a won king and pawn ending. Red Army 1, Chess Association 0

Black mixed systems and paid the ultimate price. He forgot White played 6. Bc4 on the 6th move instead of 6. d4. After 6. d4 d6 7. Nd3, 7...Nxe4 is totally playable. But when White plays 6. Bc4, 6...Nxe4?? is a blunder because f7 is hanging. After 6. Bc4, d5 is forced. Team Europe 1, Red Army 0

18...Nd3+ would have won despite Black's large material deficit. Turk Chess Players 1, Red Army 0

Iznogud (Red Army) gave up 130 rating points in his two games, but had a chance to win this one as Black. He played a dubious opening; 3...Be7, 3...Bc5, and 3...Ba5 are all better than his Bd6?!, which leads to a +- for White. It is never a good idea to lock one's pieces in like that. But White does not properly take advantage of that and his premature Queen sortie is repulsed and Black is left with the better position. Black wins a piece through a fork, but then on his 37th turn, overlooks the pin and plays ...Nc5??, losing the piece and the game. Two words of advice: 1. Don't hurry -- you have three days a move. A lot of these moves looked like they were blitzed off. If you like blitz, there is the live server, or there are plenty of other places. You have three days to move -- use them. 2. If you want to know how the openings are played, you can either get a database program like Chessbase or Chess Assistant; if you want to just know how they are played in general, you can use Nunn's Chess Openings or MCO; if you don't have the money to invest, you can try http://www.chessopeningsdatabase.com/Chess-Openings-Database.htm, a free online chess database. Spartans 1, Red Army 0

scramanigs (Red Army) dropped a piece against badname and lost. For game and comments, see the puzzle. Team Phillipines 1, Red Army 0

Black wins a pawn but then on his 17th turn, he allows a removal of defender tactic in 17...Qg5?? Much better was 17...Nxc3, eliminating the dangerous Bishop. Not only does 18. Rxe4! eliminate a defender, it also defends the attacked Queen as well. There is no substitute for calculation -- there are five days in this match. Take at least as long as you would in an OTB game or set up the board and look at the position. Christian Chess World 1, Red Army 0

Good job, guys. Use this thread to discuss the game.

Forbidden 1, Red Army 0