Red Army vs. Team Romania results

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.

Well-played by bsankar, who picks up two points for the Red Army in the early going. One quibble -- there is no need for moves like 3. Be2?! -- Just play 3. d4 right away. White could have saved a move by playing 3. d4 immediately. But then Black wastes a move (3...h6?!), and then uncorks the anti-positional howler in 12...O-O that leads to mate in 9 moves.

Cboard (Red Army) enters a slow manuvering game and then Black attempts a dubious piece sacrifice that should have lost. White is winning, but then makes almost the only move that could have lost the game in 24. g3?? and resigns two moves later.

Two lessons from this game:

1. Winning would have been 24. fxe5 instead of 24. g3?? -- White overlooked the theme of discovered attack. Cboard, from what I have seen of his games, likes positions with slow manuvering. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is still important to study tactics. 24. fxe5 would have uncovered an attack on f7 that Black could not have defended against without losing more material. Almost any reasonable move would have won, but 24. fxe5 would have been the best. If you need to work on tactics, an oldie but goodie is Reinfeld's "1001 Chess Combinations." It is organized by theme, and it has whole sections on various tactical shots.

2. The problem with moves like 24. g3?? is that they open lines for the other player. It is always important when making captures or pawn moves to determine whether you are opening up lines for yourself or for the other player. When you open up lines for the other player, even 1200 players can take advantage. In this instance, 24. g3?? opened lines up for the Black Rook to jump onto the 7th rank and help deliver mate.

White tosses a Queen away on Move 26.

White missed a winning shot on move 10 -- he would have won back the piece with interest and an attack after 10. Bxf4 gxf4 11. e5 dxe5 12. Qxe5 Be7 13. Ne4 -- the Knight on f6 is pinned. Later, White's exchange on move 13 is a mistake because it gratuitously develops one of Black's pieces. On move 16, White risks getting his Bishop trapped; Black should have answered this with ...d5, cutting off the Bishop from the rest of the White pieces. On move 18, Black drops the Rook on h8 and resigns.

Black fails to castle and his Queen pays the price thanks to a Knight fork.

Michaels247 (Red Army) was winning in his second game against Scythe (Romania), but lost in a tactical melee. Black was winning most of the way but allowed a White Knight to go beserk and completely turn the tables on him.

First of all, on move 7, 7...Ba5?! was not necessary, especially since Black will capture the Knight a few moves later. This simply wastes a move.

White embarks on a speculative attack against g7, which should have failed. First of all, instead of the passive 11...Ne8?!, which is uncharacteristic of michaels247, the best way to defend against a Qg3/Bh6 pin is ...Nh5! That is because the Knight hits the Queen; in many cases (not here), that results in the win of a piece. As it turns out, this Knight remains a spectator for the rest of the game and turns the Rook on f8 into a spectator as well.

But White blunders with 13...Bxc6??, overlooking the in-between move 13...Qxc3+!, which gives Black the upper hand for a long time. He picks off two pawns with check before recapturing. Black then goes on to push his new passer all the way to the 2nd rank on move 22.

But then Black begins to go astray. On move 23, he could have completely stopped what followed with 23...Qd3, stopping Nd4 and stopping the Knight from coming to the aid of the Queen and Bishop. Steinitz taught one of the first principles to live by -- always take away an enemy Knight's squares. 23...Qd3 would have stopped the transit of the Knight to the King side.

Black was still winning, but then he made a more serious blunder -- instead of the blunder 25...g6??, he could have played 25...Qc3, uncovering an attack on the Rook on f1 and covering the g7 square. The Black Bishop on b5 is hitting the Rook on f1, meaning that White's threatened fork is harmless. After that, White is completely winning after the fork, which picks up a whole Rook.

White drops a piece right off the bat for what should have been a routine loss. But Black almost lets White off the hook -- instead of 26...Nd7??, he should have played 26...Nh5, when White has to defend against the threatened fork.

White missed a spectacular win with 30. Rxf5!! gxf5 31. Bxf5 Kh8 32. Nxh7 Ng8 33. Qh4 Kg7 (33...Rxf5 allows mate in 4) 34. Ng5 Rf6 35. Re6 Nh6 36. Rxf6 Kxf6 37. Ne6+ Kxf5 38. Nxc5. Black can try 31...Ng7 instead, but White then has 32. Bxg7+ Kh8 33. Bd3+ Kg8 34. Re6 Qa3 35. Bh7+ Kh8 36. Kh2 a5 37. Bd3+ Kg8 38. Rxf6 Rxf6 39. Qxh7+ Kf8 40. Qh8+ Ke7 41. Qxg7+ Kg6 42. Qxf6+ Kc7 43. Ne6+ Kb8 44. h4.

Moves like 30. Rxf5!! don't require exact calculation -- all White has to see is that there is no way that Black can defend h7 after the sacrifice. And sometimes, the best way to deal with going broke in chess is -- more expense. White is going to lose anyway if he doesn't break through on the King side; therefore, it was a mistake to regain the Pawn.

Romania 7, Red Army 5

jwhitesj (Black) evened the score against vladonne in a game that took many of the twists and turns of the last one. But there was one thing in common -- jwhitesj did not give up when a lot of other people would have resigned at some point. His persistence was rewarded with a point for the Red Army.

Black's O-O was a speculative attack that should have failed; 9...Nbd7 was completely safe. He continued in the same vein with 11...Re8??, which created a pin. But Black overlooked that his Rooks were starting down the barrel of a devastating Knight fork, which picked up an exchange. Black continued his speculative attack; however, he could have safely resigned after 20. Nf4, forking the Rook and Bishop. But the blunder 20. h4?? gave Black new life and he proceeded to pick off White's back-row pawns.

The logical cumulation of Black's play would have been 24...Nxd4 25. cxd4 Bxd4 26. Kh1 Be4, when the threatened discovery on the Rook on a1 would have decided. It would have done White no good to capture the Bishop on d3 since 25. Rxd3 is met by the discovery 25...Nc2+.

After that, White was back in control until he failed to see a simple pawn capture (34. Nxf7) and played 34. c4? instead. White was still winning, but then, apparently frustrated with missing his last move, played 35. Nxf7?? one move too late, dropping the Rook.

The ensuing liquidation resulted in an endgame that is completely winning for Black. Bishop and wrong-colored Rook Pawn generally don't win against a bare king, but with Rooks added, it does. It takes Black 50 moves to clear out the White forces and win the last White pawn, but he succeeds in doing so.

The system that Black chooses, 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nc3 g6, is not bad -- it is directed against the very sort of advance that White does starting with 4. e4?!. When Black fianchettos his Bishop, White must always watch out for the setup of ...Nc6, ...Bg4, winning the d-pawn and the game. The main move in this system is 4. e3, which leads to one of the main lines of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. The sort of tactics that Black employs would never have been possible had White played this line. It is always important to know the main moves of the system that one is playing or facing. Once the base of the White pawn chain at d4 is gone, the e5 pawn soon follows. 4. e4?! and 5. e5?! involved one of those plans where White thought he was being aggressive, but he wasn't. Here is a free online chess database that non-premium members who don't have the chess.com database can use:

Phoenix96 evens the score as Black as he easily rebuffs White's premature attack where he tries to challenge the whole Black army with one piece (9. Ng5?!). Black gets the better game as he gets real estate in both the center and the Queen side. Finally, he initiates a tactical brawl by moving the Bishop from c8 to f5 opposite the White Queen on c2 and wins material in the resulting mayhem. Finding these things does not have to be a matter of exact calculation -- if you have the better position, the tactics have a tendency of going your way.

White makes a premature attack (6. Ng5?!) and then compounds it with 7. Qf3? and 8. Qg3??, sacrificing a whole Rook for an attack that is not there. That is like all of the investors here in the US who kept thinking that the housing markets would keep going up and who kept spending money that was not there. Blackburne used to play these sorts of attacks successfully against strong grandmasters back in the 19th century -- but he was Blackburne. Black follows Lasker's principles perfectly -- when you get hit with a premature attack, counterattack.

A slow start, but we're making a match out of this.

Both sides had their chances in this game. First Black was winning, then White, then Black. We're doing better this time -- they creamed us 2-1 in the last match.