Would love some "human" analysis on what I could have done differently. My position was blown up during the middle game, and I made a huge blunder at the end.
Sicilian Najdorf Main Line
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I'm no expert, especially on the Sicilian, but it doesn't take a genius to see how much more control he has of the board around move 10.
You didn't castle, which left you vulnerable to a sac like Nxe6.
As far as I'm concerned, your "blunder" at the end didn't make a bit of difference, the position was already lost because of the d7 pawn you were forced to defend.
One thing that did catch my eye is 14...e5 instead of 14...h6, attacking the only c2 defender.
If you are playing mainline najdorf you need to know the theory really well that's it. Your game is an unfortunate lesson what happens when you don't. Get a book on this line, and I am sure it will show you where you or your opponent deviated and what to do.
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So everything up to 10...b5 is very standard, and then comes: 11 Kb1 i'd say a passive move, and i'd play b4 right away. Get your pressure on the queenside started.
12. Bg2 was a blunder by white, and after ...b4 13 Nce2 Nxe4 is nearly winning.
Other than that you just were manouvering too much without much of a plan. White has all of his forces and a massive pawn storm on the kingside, and you were just relocating your pieces until it hit. You need to start attacking the queenside and forcing weaknesses around the white king. Use the a and b pawns and the half-open c-file.
2 more remarks: h6, either play it early or don't play it at all is my opinion, it's generally makes it easier for white to open up the kingside. And second: don't allow such dangerous sacs on e6, always be aware of them in such sharp variations of the najdorf.
The main point is still that you need to start creating counterplay faster.
paulgottlieb wrote:
Boy, what a blast from the past: a mainline Najdorf like they used to play when Bobby Fischer and Misha Tal were young and fearless. There is a mass of theory in this variation, of course. White was the first player to deviate from mainline theory. Back in the day, 11.Bxf6 was the overwhelming choice, and from the database I looked at, that's still true. In fact, 11.Kb1 was played about 2% of the time and has a very poor record.
I think you would have done much better by just grabbing the e-pawn with 13...Nxe4. It looks to me as if Black is doing just fine here.
18...Qc4 would have kept you in the game, I think. After 18...Qc5 19.Nxe6, you were pretty busted. And after 21...Be7? 22.Nf5! it was time to turn out the lights
Thanks for your analysis. 13...Nxe4 does look sort of obvious once it's been pointed out. I'm curious if you think 13...Bxe4 would be worse than Nxe4? Seems the bishop would be attacking the queen and give me some additional initiative. After looking at the move 13...Nxe4 I'm thinking the threat of Nd2+ might be the reason this move is better than 13...Bxe4.
I think I understand the point of Qc4 instead of Qc5. I'm always thinking of trying to win as black. SO in this case I did not want to trade queens because I liked the Queen rook battery. But when playing black in the sicilian, especially when white is ready to pounce..trading queens and going for a draw is far better then getting squashed and losing. Not to mention, I missed the Knight sac, never even considered it. I'll be looking for that next time. It's funny because I play this as white and sac pieces all the time. Never even crossed my mind in this game.