4... a6. We played this sideline trying to tempo the bishop and get in Bb7. Rybka prefers the main line of Nf6, scoring the game at +.29@16, or about the same advantage it gives white when you start the game. Maybe we should avoid this sideline in future games, we eventually had a lot of trouble due to being behind in development and it pressured us into making mistakes.
5... e6. Just as good as Rybka's preferred Nf6. Our move is a bit riskier though... Rybka scores this move significantly worse until it looks fairly deep into the position.
6... b5. Rybka is desperate to develop the king knight and castle, but now wants to play Ne7 now that it can develop without blocking the bishop. b5 is just as good at a depth of 14 though (+.44).
7... Ne7. Correct. We avoid blocking the bishop and prepare to castle.
8... c5. Rybka prefers O-O with Bb7, Nd7, and then c5 coming, scoring the game +.31@14. Our move scores +.52, enough to call it an inaccuracy I think.
9... dxc5. Correct. +.56@13
10... h6? Rybka wants us to develop with Nd7, hitting the e pawn and keeping the bishop out of f6, then play h6. We had the right idea, but we felt Bf6 would give us a pawn at the time... we didn't appreciate the danger of being so woefully developed. After Nd7 Qe2 h6 Bh4 O-O it's +.38@14. After h6 Bf6! though, we are hurting at +.97@14. Ouch! A key mistake.
11... Bxf6. Just as good as Rybka's chosen O-O. +.85@15.
12... Nd5? Rybka sees Nf5 a4 b4 Ne4 as the main line, scoring it +.78@14 vs +1.08@15 for our chosen move. Another significant mistake. In the comments we never even considered Nf5, and were focused on winning the f6 pawn with Ng8. We were right to abandon this move... Rybka is harsh, scoring it at +2.19@14 and gives a line we correctly saw in the comments: Ng8? Ne5 Nxf6 Bxb5! and now Rybka thinks that axb5 Qxd8 Kxd8 Nxf7 is so bad that it plays Bd7 Qf3 O-O Qxa8 instead.
So mixed review on this move... we recognized the danger before falling really far behind, but didn't find the best defensive move. It took us a long time to accept that Ng8 wasn't good, so we didn't have a lot of time to look at other moves. We just saw that Nd5 was better then Ng8 and moved it, ignoring other choices. Let's make sure we consider all the options!
13... Bb7? Rybka likes this move at first, but then realizes that we need to give up a pawn and play defense, preferring O-O with a score of 1.14@14. Our move scores quite a bit worse, +1.57@14. Again we never even considered the best move, but that's because we didn't see the danger coming. Poor analysis by us since it's easy to see that exchanges on d5 are going to open up the king.
14... Bxd5. Correct.
15... exd5. We went back and forth between Qxd5 and exd5 here. Rybka did the same early in the analysis, but eventually settled on exd5 as best, scoring +1.64@14, much better then +2.10@14 for Qxd5. Good discussion this move, even though we are still losing.
16... Kf8. Correct.
17... Ra7. Rybka likes Qd6 at a depth of 13 moves, but eventually it sees the danger and agrees with us that Ra7 is best, scoring +1.89@14. Good move.
18... Kg8. Correct. +2.06@14. Trying to save the pawn by playing d4 is worse scoring +2.48@14.
19... d4. Correct.
20... Kh7? Rybka likes Qd6, where our work would still be cut out for us and we are scoring +1.77@13. Kh7 costs a full pawn, scoring +2.88@14. Ouch! I think the key here is that the king is not at all safe on the h file... white intends to rip it open soon (as we discovered!) so we just waste a move at a time when we can't afford to waste anything.
21... cxd4. Rybka likes this move at first, but settles on Qd6 scoring +2.33@14. The end is near.
22... h5? Rybka likes Qc7, but we are still losing.
23... Qc7? Rybka says Qc8 planning Qf5 is a must. We didn't sense the danger in their kingside attack and blundered, but we were losing anyways. even after Qc8 rybka scores us at +3.57@14.
24... Qa5? a last desperate try. Rybka prolongs the agony by playing Qc8 then Qf8, but scores the game as hopeless at +6.28@12.
So we fell a bit behind early, which put us under pressure to play very accurate moves to hold the game. Our biggest problem is that we didn't appreciate the danger we faced at several key points until it was too late, which caused us to blunder.
Tough loss here. To their credit, Team India played this game extremely well. I think we can simply avoid the a6 line and play something a bit more mainstream, keeping in mind that in this early position (after say 4. Bc4 Nf6) we are still slightly losing and should be focused on getting castled and trying to equalize with a break in the center.
Rybka gives 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. O-O Nxe4! 7. Nxe4 d5 with the center fork trick as being slight advantage white, and this seems like the kind of thing we should look for against this setup. They play Bc4, we castle and then center fork trick!
Computer analysis of this vote chess game: http://www.chess.com/votechess/game.html?id=15857
4... a6. We played this sideline trying to tempo the bishop and get in Bb7. Rybka prefers the main line of Nf6, scoring the game at +.29@16, or about the same advantage it gives white when you start the game. Maybe we should avoid this sideline in future games, we eventually had a lot of trouble due to being behind in development and it pressured us into making mistakes.
5... e6. Just as good as Rybka's preferred Nf6. Our move is a bit riskier though... Rybka scores this move significantly worse until it looks fairly deep into the position.
6... b5. Rybka is desperate to develop the king knight and castle, but now wants to play Ne7 now that it can develop without blocking the bishop. b5 is just as good at a depth of 14 though (+.44).
7... Ne7. Correct. We avoid blocking the bishop and prepare to castle.
8... c5. Rybka prefers O-O with Bb7, Nd7, and then c5 coming, scoring the game +.31@14. Our move scores +.52, enough to call it an inaccuracy I think.
9... dxc5. Correct. +.56@13
10... h6? Rybka wants us to develop with Nd7, hitting the e pawn and keeping the bishop out of f6, then play h6. We had the right idea, but we felt Bf6 would give us a pawn at the time... we didn't appreciate the danger of being so woefully developed. After Nd7 Qe2 h6 Bh4 O-O it's +.38@14. After h6 Bf6! though, we are hurting at +.97@14. Ouch! A key mistake.
11... Bxf6. Just as good as Rybka's chosen O-O. +.85@15.
12... Nd5? Rybka sees Nf5 a4 b4 Ne4 as the main line, scoring it +.78@14 vs +1.08@15 for our chosen move. Another significant mistake. In the comments we never even considered Nf5, and were focused on winning the f6 pawn with Ng8. We were right to abandon this move... Rybka is harsh, scoring it at +2.19@14 and gives a line we correctly saw in the comments: Ng8? Ne5 Nxf6 Bxb5! and now Rybka thinks that axb5 Qxd8 Kxd8 Nxf7 is so bad that it plays Bd7 Qf3 O-O Qxa8 instead.
So mixed review on this move... we recognized the danger before falling really far behind, but didn't find the best defensive move. It took us a long time to accept that Ng8 wasn't good, so we didn't have a lot of time to look at other moves. We just saw that Nd5 was better then Ng8 and moved it, ignoring other choices. Let's make sure we consider all the options!
13... Bb7? Rybka likes this move at first, but then realizes that we need to give up a pawn and play defense, preferring O-O with a score of 1.14@14. Our move scores quite a bit worse, +1.57@14. Again we never even considered the best move, but that's because we didn't see the danger coming. Poor analysis by us since it's easy to see that exchanges on d5 are going to open up the king.
14... Bxd5. Correct.
15... exd5. We went back and forth between Qxd5 and exd5 here. Rybka did the same early in the analysis, but eventually settled on exd5 as best, scoring +1.64@14, much better then +2.10@14 for Qxd5. Good discussion this move, even though we are still losing.
16... Kf8. Correct.
17... Ra7. Rybka likes Qd6 at a depth of 13 moves, but eventually it sees the danger and agrees with us that Ra7 is best, scoring +1.89@14. Good move.
18... Kg8. Correct. +2.06@14. Trying to save the pawn by playing d4 is worse scoring +2.48@14.
19... d4. Correct.
20... Kh7? Rybka likes Qd6, where our work would still be cut out for us and we are scoring +1.77@13. Kh7 costs a full pawn, scoring +2.88@14. Ouch! I think the key here is that the king is not at all safe on the h file... white intends to rip it open soon (as we discovered!) so we just waste a move at a time when we can't afford to waste anything.
21... cxd4. Rybka likes this move at first, but settles on Qd6 scoring +2.33@14. The end is near.
22... h5? Rybka likes Qc7, but we are still losing.
23... Qc7? Rybka says Qc8 planning Qf5 is a must. We didn't sense the danger in their kingside attack and blundered, but we were losing anyways. even after Qc8 rybka scores us at +3.57@14.
24... Qa5? a last desperate try. Rybka prolongs the agony by playing Qc8 then Qf8, but scores the game as hopeless at +6.28@12.
25... resign. It's mate in 7 anyways: ...Re7 26. Rh4 Kg8 27. fxe7 Kg7 28. Nxg6 fxg6 29. Re6 h6 30. e8=Q Nc6 31. Rxg6 Rxg6 32. Qxg6#
So we fell a bit behind early, which put us under pressure to play very accurate moves to hold the game. Our biggest problem is that we didn't appreciate the danger we faced at several key points until it was too late, which caused us to blunder.
Tough loss here. To their credit, Team India played this game extremely well. I think we can simply avoid the a6 line and play something a bit more mainstream, keeping in mind that in this early position (after say 4. Bc4 Nf6) we are still slightly losing and should be focused on getting castled and trying to equalize with a break in the center.
Rybka gives 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. O-O Nxe4! 7. Nxe4 d5 with the center fork trick as being slight advantage white, and this seems like the kind of thing we should look for against this setup. They play Bc4, we castle and then center fork trick!