help, I don't know what to do
Sort:
in my latest game me and my opponent is stuck have no move that make game progress beside move that sacrifice pawn or delay move without any purpose behind it, what Is the best scenario to progress my game? am I have to sacrifice my pawn to make an opening or just make delay move to wait my opponent to make sacrifices move like in my latest game or just wait my enemy make a wrong move?
I’d sac a pawn
Completely disagree with your assessment of the position but you can’t ask for commentary on an ongoing game.
Nov 9, 2020
0
#4
rifqiandrian wrote:
in my latest game me and my opponent is stuck have no move that make game progress beside move that sacrifice pawn or delay move without any purpose behind it, what Is the best scenario to progress my game? am I have to sacrifice my pawn to make an opening or just make delay move to wait my opponent to make sacrifices move like in my latest game or just wait my enemy make a wrong move?
I think you played fairly solid, but just ended with an annoying draw due to the pawn formation being locked up. I've had many games where the position closes like this (mostly King's Indian Defense and Benoni Defense positions, but maybe it happens in other positions and those are just the openings I remember it happening more often in). The position locking up into a draw is almost never fun and I've also lost several games by trying to open those positions up and done it in a wrong way too 
Here were a few small moments that may have been decisive though:
6...c5? looked like a solid strike in the center, but I think ...O-O or ...Bg4 was better. After 6...c5? then White has 7. e5! and is instantly winning. One sample line is 7. e5! dxe5 8. dxe5 Nfd7 9. Be4 and Black will eventually lose the a8 Rook.
17...Nxd3?! the computer believes is a good move by you, but I think this is positionally dubious. One drawback of a computer is that it can't think in patterns and see the nature of the position like a human player can; computers just calculate really far and hopefully see far enough. I don't like 17...Nxd3?! because the position in closing up and Knights are better in closed positions. You are also taking White's "bad Bishop" since there are so many White pawns on light-squares. It is a positional consideration, but this exchange provoked the disappointing situation the game ended up in.
22...Nh5!? would have been an interesting find. If White ignores this with say 23. Rac1 then something like this looks better for Black: 23. Rac1 Nxf4 24. Bxf4 exf4 25. Rxf4 Qg5 with active play. So more likely is White trying something like: 22...Nh5!? 23. fxe5 Nxg3 24. Qxg3 Bxe5 25. Qe1 (to defend the c3 Knight) and Black can play attacking chess with 25...f5 or play slower with 25...Re8.
40. b4?? was a blunder by your opponent because 40...cxb4 (unlike ...axb4 in the game) forks the Bishop and Rook WITHOUT opening the a-file yet; this lets White trade and get off the hook).
45...Nc5?? is a blunder because similar to earlier in the game, you want your Knights in closed positions like this. You were probably just hoping to exchange when up in material but 45...Bf8! was the correct way to do this. Black then has an easy win. 45...Bf8! 46. Bxf8 Kxf8 47. Qb4+ Nc5 and the Black Queen can infiltrate with ...Qa4 soon).
47...Bxc5 was better than the pawn recapture because now your "bad Bishop" (DSB with a lot of dark-squared pawns) is at least outside the pawn chain.
50. Qa6? was probably the last mistake your opponent gave you. 50...Qxa6 is actually winning for you still! For example: 50...Qxa6 51. bxa6 Bb8 (with the Bishop just in time to stop the pawn from advancing) 52. Kg3 Kf7 53. h4 (to get rid of the backwards pawn) Ke7 (no need to take the pawn with the closed Kingside) 54. hxg5 hxg5 55. Kf3 Kd6 56. Ke3 Kc7 57. Kd3 Kb6 58. Kc3 Kxa6 59. Kb3 Bd6 (the pawn is always held by the Bishop so only Black can infiltrate when they want to) 60. Ka4 (King opposition doesn't help because the Bishop can always burn tempi if it needs to) Bc7 61. Kb3 Ba5 62. Ka4 Bc3 (the Bishop can leave because the passed pawn on d5 can't promote without the Black King catching it) 63. Kb3 Be1 64. Ka4 Bd2 (burning a tempo again to finesse the King in) 65. Ka3 Ka5 66. Kb3 Bb4! (The White King can't go to a4 anymore) 67. Kb2 Ka4 68. d6 Ba5 (the pawn is not in time) 69. Kc2 Kb4 70. Kd3 Kb3 and now it is clear the Black gobbles the pawns because the White King is in zugswang and can't defend the c4 pawn anymore.
You didn't need to calculate the endgame line as far as I played out. Many moves win for Black in that endgame if you can realize the goal of slowly gaining ground by infiltrating while keeping an eye on the White passed pawn on the d-file. I just wanted to illustrate one line to demonstrate Black wins if you were not 100% sure the win was there.
