Candidates tournament game captaintugwash - evert823 with Guard and Witch

a6

9. We3

castle

10. Bxd7

Gxd7

11. Bxb6

Bi6

12. Rd2

We6

13. Nc5

Bg4

14. h3

resign

Yeah that got ugly pretty fast. Castling was a mistake, We6 was suicide, and Bg4 just made things worse.

9... e6 and I think you have a solid enough position to not collapse. 11... Rd8 is better than Gxd7, and 12... Qe8 or Ge8 was virtually forced. After We6 you're down a pawn and witch, too much. Bg4 doesn't save the witch.

I think your bishop-knight-guard formation in the opening is a serious weakness, the pawn storm comes with too much tempo. 9... e6 does solve your immediate problems, but it's still not a great defensive structure.

gg evert, 

Not the quickest in terms of moves. I might hold the record for fastest loss vs landontu.

Thanks for the analysis. One small thing from my side was totally missing that my d-pawn was hanging.

It's easy to see that Black has gotten into some trouble. If it was a lesser player I probably would not have resigned, but against Tug I think things were hopeless.

Good game and congratulations to Tug!

Thanks. Black is losing his bishop or witch. His bishop cannot retreat, otherwise Nxd7+ wins the queen as well as guard. If black tries Ge8 (probably the best option) then I was planning on Nxe6, forcing Bxe6 Qxe6 and white is up a pawn and witch. Considering I also have an immense bishop on b6, and will soon be castling safely, black's position is completely hopeless here.