Red Army vs. Morlocks results

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.

The graphic consequences of failing to castle are illustrated -- luckily, at the other team's expense.

After I failed to take advantage of a pin, Black could have completely equalized with 18...b6, stopping what follows. Instead, he dropped a pawn and later a piece.

White plays for a bind on the light squares and gets one when Black fails to play 8...c6, stopping what follows. Black then plays 17...c5??, allowing a Knight fork.

White embarks on a policy of mass simplification, only to find by move 41 that he is in a completely lost ending because of his backward b-pawn. If you're going to simplify, you have to have some purpose in mind -- you can't just simplify and hope that the other person will go wrong. There were plenty of chances for White to embark on favorable complications earlier, but they were not utilized.

Bsankar evens the score.

White fails to develop, fails to castle, and falls victim to a horrible discovery.

Black resigns prematurely here. White, of course, is better, but Black could have struggled on with something like ...O-O-O.