Aren't you the guy whom I defeated pretty badly couple of months before?
Game of the Day 1-13-16: "Feeding Time at the Aquarium"
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EDIT: By Popular Demand
Hello everyone, a few things before we begin.
1) I will be spending a lot of time annotating this game in the style of Silman, because usually when I annotate on the little board, it goes to waste. A lot of people don't even look at the board or it glitches and they can't such as what happened in "My Most Beautiful Positional Win" in General Discussion. Even so, that game was meant to be a sort of showcase, but now I want this game analyzed so I'm going to procure it as best I can on the page. I will add the full game at the bottom when I am done.
2) My coach has forbidden me from playing anyone lower than +200. I have been thus far having good results playing with much higher rated players.
3) This game is BEAUTIFUL. I really hope you enjoy.
Standard Time Control - 45/45
Iamaquarius(1404) - Sixtyfoursquares(1745)
My opponent is rated nearly 400 points above me. But I don't mind, I love playing higher rated players than me and getting a lot of experience with it.
1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
A standard Caro Kann. White's main move here is dxe4 which leads to the classical setup. The classical Caro-Kann is ECO (B19) and can be found here.
Also possible was 2...d3 rather than d4. That opening tends to lead to very interesting positions in the KIA style that, because black has committed a pawn to c6, work out very well for white.
Notice how the black knight on b8 is hindered by its own pawn. Black will have to spend valuable time to put that knight on c6. Meanwhile, white's knight on d2 is very strong even though it's mobility is limited. The paradox of this knight and black's overextended pawns keeps white's game alive.
3. Nf3 a6?!
I was NOT expecting this move and I did NOT agree with it. Even when I googled it after the game, I still found nothing as it had no name and on the chess.com game explorer it had only been played 4 or 5 times. Even so, the move deceptively sets a cunning trap...
My opponent had worked out these details before the game from what I saw. Relieving the tension is a big mistake after Qb6 because black can just sure everything up with e6 and there is no way into the black position. It's like a bad poisoned pawn najdorf where black has all the play!
4. Bf4!? Qb6
Of course if black plays 4...dxe4, white will not play 5. Nxe4, but 5. d5!
Black cannot take and the pressure on the center will lead to a heavily dynamic game. I feel I have an advantage with both a time lead and a space advantage, whereas black can only boast of one or two pawns.
5. Qd2 ...
I want to stop for a moment to appreciate this move. The position with Qb6 promises far less than the poisoned pawn Najdorf because black's knight is not yet develop to an aggressive square. Therefore, black should not take the pawn, as it will only end badly for him. More logical is to take e4 first as black did in the game. This is because the white knight on f3 is better on that square allowing d5 later and Rb1 right now.
5...dxe4
This is now a gambit game, as was originally intended. The position now looks like this:
As we will see, black's attempts to diffuse the pressure and hang onto his pawns only end in disaster.
5. d5! Nf6
6. Bc4 cxd5?
I think this is a mistake, albeit a small one. Black probably thought that he could get his knight out and look good doing it, but let's analyze this position for a moment after the move...
It looks like white's centralized pieces and pressure on the exposed black king give him excellent compensation for the pawn. Bear in mind that black can never play Nxd5 because after Nxd5, black will lose at least his queen if not the game.
7. Bxd5 Nf6
8. Bd3! ...
I am really proud of this move. It pretty much forces the queen to move to a worse square. As nimsowitch said, the threat is more powerful than the execution. Here, white dares his opponent to prove that the threat of Qxb2 is good or even sound.
8...Qxb2!
The ONLY way to try and refute the gambit. Black HAS TO GRAB ANOTHER PAWN.
...Qc7 and ...Qd8 both allow castling queenside, after which the threat of Bxc6 is monstrous and almost cannot be stopped. Black must relocate the queen to a3 and then back to e7, but as we will see, this is not so safe.
9. Rb1 Qa3
10. Nge2 e6
11. Bxc6 bxc6
A series of standard moves have been carried out. Black now threatens the nasty continuation of Bb4, which white must now attempt to stop.
With this move, 12. Bb6!, white stops every threat by creating his own threat. One of mate. While it looks like black has succeeded, that he can keep his pawns and castle, the position is not so simple, as we will soon see.
13. Be7
It was well worth looking at the position after Qe7.
But Qe7 fails to Nd4, because white's position is much better after a series of moves like Nd4, 0-0, and Rfd1, after which white begins to threaten things like Bc7 and Rb8+ and the only plausible way out is to play g6, which just seems far too slow.
14. Nd4 Bd7
15. 0-0 0-0
Suddenly, black looks like he's out of the soup, but in reality, this is not the case.
16. Bc7!!
What just happened? I asked myself this during the game. The bishop is useless on b6, so I put it on c7. Suddenly, white's position flares to life. In the future, white will put his bishop on d6 or e5 and pressure the black king. Black will have to be content with an extra pawn that isn't passed. White is now threatening Rb3 and Rfb1, doubling on the important open file for total control.
16...Bb4?!
This dubious move may not have been what black needed. That said, black is in the soup and so it wasn't easy to find the move he needed, if it existed. Since bc7 all at once blocks the queen's path to d6, prevents c5(which traps the black queen), and threatens to redirect the bishop to a better square, the move black played might have been the best, as it allows the black queen to escape.
17. Rb3 Bxc3
18. Qb3 Qe7
19. Rfb1 Nd5!
An excellent try! But there is a tactic that I have foreseen for many moves that will now come to light.
20. Qg3! Nxc7
21. Qxc7 Rfc8
22. Qe5! c5?? Falling right into my hands. Black sees the tactic but thinks he has an out. I will conclude this annotation with a puzzle.