Martin0 vs Taulmaril minimatch

Hi everyone, this is a minimatch between Martin0 (ELO 1916) against Taulmaril (USCF 1889). It will be a really short match with only 4 games. I will try to annotate the games with some brief analysis after the games.

Match rules:

Number of games: 4

Time control: 25|10

First game random color, then switch color after every game

Games will be started irregular times (each game will be scheduled separately).

The first game will be started in about 30 minutes. I will post a link to the game once it has started for those that wants to watch it live.

Awesome! That is a cool time control. Good luck!

Game 1 live: https://www.chess.com/live#g=1546056118

Won't include it to BCM2, because it's too short. But still nice to watch it! :) Complicated games!

My app backed me out of the chat. Anyway, instead of 17.Bh7 does Bxh3 win me a pawn? I saw it only after moving instantly. Lol

Hm, after looking again it doesn't win me a pawn but leaves me with a better king and pawn structure. At least in the variation I looked at.

I managed to win the first game. I spent a lot of time in the opening and middlegame and struggled a bit to convert the win when I was running low on time in the endgame. It was a really good game. I will post some analysis later:

Instead of 56. Rd7 56. Kb5 snares my bishop.

How does 17...Bxh3 not just lose a piece? 17...Bxh3 18.gxh3 Nf3+ 19.Bxf3 exf3 Anything I'm missing?

56.Kb5 was cute, too bad I missed it

Lol ah yes that's correct. Simply miss counted pieces somehow. Should provide some insight into my current mental state. Lol

There w we re sone less cutesy options I could have tried. b6 instead of a5, though I didn't want to weaken the light squares further, specifically c6. Also around move 9 or 10 I wished I had played f4 on move 7 instead of fxe4.

I'm really not sure about how the opening should have been played. Normally I think I would have played 2.Nf3 to avoid this opening. It seems 3.Nf3 is a lot more popular than 3.d5 as well. Maybe 7...f4 would have been better for you. All I know is that I didn't mind my position after 10.Qe3, but at that point we had left theory many moves ago.

Yeah the idea is to avoid theory. Yeah I like f4 since it poses the question about what your draw squared bishop is going to do. Then my plan is simple. Storm the kingside.

Let me know your next earliest available time. I want vengeance. Lol

Game 1 with comments.

Lovely game, Martin0!

What is the time control? And how many games are you guys planning?

4 game match, 25 minutes with a 10 second increment is the time control.

Then good luck - you'll need it! :-)

Martin0, 2.c4 is not very popular here--instead, 2.e4 is best. The main reason is that e5 equalizes, and 3.d5 does not give white anything.