An interesting game of daily

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trw0311

Jun 3, 2022

I just won this daily game and I spent a lot of time on each move leading up to the last sequence which was straightforward. My opponent has a much higher rapid rating than me so this was a nice win.

1. My opponent decided to play the English which I don’t know really well. I usually play the symmetrical English but decided to change things up with the reverse Sicilian.

5. …Nb6 I retreat here rather than defend with my bishop because I don’t want his Queen to take b7 and attack my rook.

7…N8d7 I move my knight here to interpose check. Yes I’m losing the pawn but I want to try and get the initiative by developing pieces and disruspting his attack.

11. Nxd6 I liked that my opponent made this move. He sacrificed his good knight for my bad bishop, giving me a nice strong center , with a safe king, and no threats from him. I feel good leaving the opening.

12. …Nf6 preparing d5. Space is even but I have 4 pieces attacking the d5 square and more developed pieces. I push d5 on the next move to trap his light colored bishop and open up a file for my rook.

14. …RC8 just improving my position by controlling the open file and preventing a queen side castle. My opponent played f3?? Which is almost always a mistake. I want to keep his king on the weakened king side.

15. B3 QD6! I move my queen here to prevent his dark squared bishop from attacking my rook, which would be trapped. He has no way to get his bishop to a3 now. I expect him to put his bishop on b2 and he does.

16. …e4 I break open the position with e4. I believe he has to take here and he does. My knight is now on an excellent square and I could potentially threaten a back rank mate or really nasty mate in 4 with QC5. He sees this I think.

19. Qd4! This is his only good move. He blocks the attacked f3 square and allows for D3 to kick my good knight.

20. Bg2! I thought this was a very clever move. If he takes my knight , I get his rook. He has to attack my bishop, doing so he loses the right to castle and I can take his knight. Retaking greatly weakens his position by opening a file in front of the queen and allowing for a nasty fork by my knight.

23. Rf1 the only good move and he found it. I proceed to get a rook on his back rank and his position pretty much falls apart from there.

summary: I tried improving my position as much as possible before attacking. I tried to use silmans imbalances to determine my plan. I was down a pawn from the get go so I did not want to take an end game. However, the overwhelming imbalances created in the middle game allowed me to create holes in my opponents position.