My analysis:
1. d4d5
White starts with one of the two best and most popular first moves, the other being e4. Both moves strike out at the centre with the pawn, allow the bishop on that side to develop and allow the queen to develop. d4 has the advantage of having the advanced pawn being protected by the queen, and e4 has the advantage of allowing the queen to develop to better squares.
Black's move is good for the same reasons, and the opening is known as the closed game (as opposed to both king pawns advanced two spaces, which is the open game). The most popular move for black in response to d4 is Nf6, starting the hypermodern “Indian Defence”.
2. c4dxc4
White's move, the most popular in this position, attempts to draw the d pawn away from the centre so that white can have more control of it, and offers a pawn to this end. This opening is called the "Queen's Gambit”.
The gambit is accepted by black (and this brings about the unsurprising name of "queen's gambit accepted"). More popular moves here are c6 (the Slav defence) and e6 (queen's gambit declined), protecting the d5 pawn.
While white could regain the pawn with Qa4+ and reinforcement of the d4 pawn after Nc6 with either e3 or Nf3 (and this is why the term “queen's gambit” is a slight misnomer), but the object of offering the gambit is usually to develop white's pieces instead (though often the pawn can indeed be won back later). Forking with the queen also brings the queen out rather early, which can dangerous, which makes it an unpopular opening.
3. e4
Nf3 is the main line of the queen's gambit accepted, preventing e5, but this is a good alternative move, though rather ambitious, dominating (for the moment) the centre and, because the e pawn has been moved out of its way, initiates a discovered attack on black's extra pawn at c4 by the king's bishop. The central pawns, however, are slightly vulnerable.
3. ... e6
A solid move, but a little passive: it blocks the queen's bishop from developing and doesn't threaten white in any way. It also allows white to take back the extra pawn. e5 keeps things competitive, and leads to interesting, unbalanced positions. Developing either of the knights would also have been a good idea here.
4. Bxc4Nc6 5. Nf6
As white safely takes back his gambit pawn, his three pieces in the middle are stifling black, and black and white play complementary knight moves, respectively attacking and defending white's d pawn while developing at the same time.
5. ... f5? - The first bad move. This move badly weakens the king in a few ways:
- The f7 pawn acts as a shield for the king in the opening, and continues to do so after kingside castling. Moving it removes that shield prematurely.
- White can now weaken the e6 pawn too, which was helping to protect a vulnerable diagonal which will be soon exploited, and was black's only pawn contesting the centre against white's dominating presence.
- If white chooses to take the pawn, black is faced with a choice of recapturing and allowing the e file to be open for queens and rooks to attack black's king (and the c4 bishop's diagonal to be more threatening to the king too), or being not only a pawn down but having the e6 pawn heavily under siege.
The intention to attack white's centre is good, but it weakens black's position far too much. Developing any of black's minor pieces would have been far preferable, especially since white has one more piece developed. White had the better position, but black was not in a bad position before this move.
6. exf5 exf5
Taking the pawn is easily the best way to exploit black's last move. Recapturing might be the best move for black; his other options are similarly bleak. Leaving the pawn on d6 is risky because it is now very easy to attack for white, however it might be just as good to develop some pieces now, especially if the can be used to block the dangerous e-file.
7. O-O
Castling in openings, whether kingside or queenside, generally has two purposes: to get the king to safety away from the middle of the board and to get the rook into a better position from which to develop it. In this position, the open e-file is threatening to both players kings, so white castling ensures that it can’t be attacked on the e-file and puts the rook in position to attack the black king, who is nowhere near in a position to castle.
7. .... h6?
This move controls the g5 square, which is good, since it could be very useful to the knight on f3 and the c1 bishop. Out of the pawn moves possible, this is certainly the best, but it would have been much better to develop a piece and block the e file at the same time, since white has plenty of other threats than on g5.
8. Qb3
This move creates a "battery" (more than one piece attacking along the same line) on the diagonal with the queen and bishop. This means that the piece in front can move to squares and already be defended by the piece behind it so long as it stays on that diagonal. With that diagonal already weakened by the pawn moves, this is an excellent attacking move, and threatens to check at f7 or win the g8 knight. Also good is Re1+, exploiting that open file straight away, in fact this is probably the best move.
If black had not weakened the d6 and f7 pawns with his 5th move, nothing like this would have posed a threat. Moving the queen in the opening is often risky, but this move exposes the queen to no danger and creates a powerful attack.
8. .... g5??
Well, this move has almost no redeeming features. I guess the intention was to attack the knight, but black is so badly under siege that setting up to attack a piece that isn't even part of the assault (yet) is basically handing white the game on a silver platter. Although black probably has a lost game by now, Nf6 puts up a little fight by developing and not allowing white's queen to get to d5 after Bxf7+.
9. Bf7+
Directly attacking the king, the bishop is defended by the queen because of the battery set up with the last move. The king is forced to move. There are other moves that will give white a large advantage, but this is the best move.
9. .... Ke7 - Forced, Kd7 would have meant Qd5 checkmate.
10. Re1+ - White makes Black pay dearly for allowing the open file.
The actual move played in this game by black was 10. ... Kd6??, followed by white's 11. Qd5 checkmate. Interposing Ne5 to break the check delays checkmate for another 5 moves, but Kf6 allows black to avoid forced checkmate, and any other move loses to Qe6 checkmate. We'll analyse how the game might have gone if Black had played Kf6 and avoided checkmate.
10. .... Kf611. Be8
A fairly subtle move. Bxg8 is a good move, as it vacates the f7 square so the queen can threaten checkmate on it, while at the same time capturing the knight. While it still keeps white in a winning position, black can mount two defences to the impending queen attack: Qd7, protecting f7, and Rxb8, sacrificing the rook to take away the bishop that makes the attack possible. The text move covers the queen defence of f7 and doesn't expose itself to attack by the rook. Black has no option but to sacrifice the queen to avoid mate (even Ra7 loses the queen after 12. Qxg8, with the queen threatening both the f8 bishop and g6, forcing black to capture the bishop with the queen).
11. .... Qxe8
Qd7 is the only other possibility here, also sacrificing the queen for the bishop, but this move wastes a tempo - the text means black can make one more move in the king's defence than Qd7 would allow.
12. Rxe8 Kg7
White is now up a queen for a bishop, and black finds a more defensible spot for her king while defending her bishop - this is the extra move that black got by not doing Qd7 last move.
13. d5
White is still targeting the f7 square and wants to attack that with Ne5, threatening mate yet again, but the c6 knight defends that square, so white forces it to move or face capture. White also vacates the diagonal against the king permitting Qc3+
13. .... Nf6
Blocks the diagonal against the king, ignores the threat against the other knight and creates one of its own against the rook. Moving the c6 knight just gives white exactly what he wants.
14. dxc6 - Rxf8 ends up with similar material gains but with black's forces more developed.
14. ... Nxe8 15. cxb7 - Pawn forks are important, since they often allow you to win material.
15. .... Bxb7 - Rb8 is also ok but leaves black more open to attack for the same material result.
16. Qxb7 - and now white is up a queen and a bishop for a rook, a slight improvement on before.
16. ... Rd8
Escapes capture by the queen and threatens back-rank checkmate at the same time: if white did something silly, black would play Rd1+ and the white king can go nowhere, and after Ne1 black plays Rxe1 checkmate, stealing victory.
17. Nc3 - white protects against checkmate and develops a piece at the same time.
At this point, White is up loads of material and has better development. Black has removed the threat of imminent checkmate, but at the cost of material and development, and any decent white player would convert this to a win.
Hi all. I've written a piece of analysis on a fairly poor game played against me back in may that could be useful for some beginners. Thought I'd show it here and see what you think.