Botvinnik System and An Open File

This was a 25+5 game we played on chess.com this evening.

until move 23 Amazingsimplicity was playing quite abit above his/her rating

ding dong heheh

Am I wrong, or is the Botwinniksystem according to Symmetical English with 1.c4 c5?

Black missed to take the outpost on d4 with adventage, but i think the position with your passed on d5 is very drawish. In my opinion even a pawn ending would not be lost!

Amazing! After move 22, black play is totally inconsistent with his/her previous quality of play. One sees only blunder after blunder. Wonder why black did not take the d4 pawn!

mauerblume> Am I wrong, or is the Botwinniksystem according to Symmetical English with 1.c4 c5?

The Botvinnik System is characterized by pawns on c4-e4, a fianchettoed kingside, and knights on c3 and e2. It can be played by White or Black and usually arises from the English (symmetric or otherwise) or Sicilian. White plans b-, f-, or rarely d-pawn breaks.

Unheralded_Euwe> until move 23 Amazingsimplicity was playing quite abit above his/her rating

I agree, AmazingSimplicity played quite well until move 23.

mauerblume> Black missed to take the outpost on d4 with adventage, but i think the position with your passed on d5 is very drawish. In my opinion even a pawn ending would not be lost!

Yes, that's what bothers me. I was aiming to win, and barring that unsound sac, the game seemed destined to fizzle out into a draw.

Upon further reflection, I think another place I went wrong was I focused on the b- and f-pawn breaks. My opponent gave me an opportunity for that rare central break. Eg, 9.Rd1 O-O 10.d4 would've given me a nicer position to work with.

not bad for a 1129!

I have a question Likeforests, the outpost That Black missed, it is R-d4, RxR then c5xd4?  Which leaves the c4 pawn as the outpost for Black to be supported with R-c8? or as usual am I missing something?  Thanks for the instructive example.

An outpost is a square on an open file which is protected by a pawn. The d4-square itself as the outpost, and 20...Rd4 claims it. If 21.Rxd4?! cxd4 the outpost is replaced by a passed pawn (and threats of ...Qxc4 and ...dxc4).

Instead Black played 20...e5?, creating an outpost for me on d5. I took posession of it with 22.Nd5. After 21...Nxd5 22.exd5 my outpost was replaced by a protected passed pawn. Nimzovich discusses outposts in My System.

Thank you Likeforests for the explaination, yes I understand what an outpost is, but I had referred to the wrong square, it should have been d4, not c4.  So other than that issue, I think I got it. :)