game vs a NM (Caro Kann Defense Showcase)

Hello all. Today I am presenting to you a new forum. As many of you probably know, there are numerous chess websites out there to play on; they all have master ranked chess players to play against. Today I am going to be posting a game that I played a few days ago against a National Master elsewhere. He has a rating of 2424. I was using a different set of moves that I have been studying for a while now. Even so, I was still quite nervous to be playing him. The game consisted of the Caro Kann Defense. Primarily the Classical version with black making the 7th move Nd7. I hope you all enjoy . I will even provide the link for you if you wish to see the game I played on there. I am going to be posting more games as white and black in the Caro Kann Defense. I hope you all enjoy this game.

Good to see some other people enjoying the Caro-Kann, which usually results in much more active and dynamic games than its reputation suggests. But this was just a horrible game by your opponent. It's somewhat understandable given that it was a simul, but even so, 22. ...Qxc4 is just a move that you should rule out on sight. 

An interesting potential move I spotted was 17...Nxh5, avoiding the problems which began after ...c5. After 18. Qxh5 g6 the queen is trapped in the corner and black can just throw pawns at the white king. I'd actually be curious if someone with an engine could evaluate that position. 

I took a look at what you were talking about and I agree. The Caro Kann, even if I don't openly use it in competition, is an opening I spend time studying considerably. Yes I agree though. 17... Nxh5 was an interesting move that should have been considered.

And well my laptop is about 8 years old now so I don't use any form of engine to studying with lol.

Get rid of this thread. He mentioned the name of that site.

Yeah? What is your point? Am I not allowed to post games I play on another chess website on here?

Everyone is allowed to post games they play. Even on another website.

There was no need to mention the name of the website. 

I posted the website for two different reasons. The first. For safety. In case people didn't believe me. The second is because its a wonderful chess website.

In some ways I hate playing players of that level I feel like I have to play so carefully because if I make one move slightly wrong they'll instantly crush me

I do agree with you on that one. But I also like the challenge of playing a stronger opponent. And I am allowed to test new strategies

Thank you very much!!! Yes playing stronger opponents, even if I do not win all the time, is the best way to learn how to play stronger.

Why 26.Rc1, that is a terrible move compared to the simple 26.Nxh5. 26.Rc1 lets Black equalize (maybe even a slight edge!) whereas 26.Nxh5 is dead lost for Black.

Because I pinned his Queen to his King. That and the fact this is a NM we're talking about. 

Oh, right. I've played in his simuls, and am going 2-2 with him. He's way stronger than both you and I combined, but he tries to blitz 20 people at once, which doesn't work well for him.

So, he captures your queen.

The end is really strange if he resigned.

When you castle Q-side, it's often better to leave the c-file, where your K is at c8 or c1, full of Pawns and start Storming K-side Pawns, yet Black went out of his way to clear the the c-file out so White's R could pin Black's Q to the K, though doing so was a blunder compared to 26 Nxh5.

Note that Stockfish 8, using chess.com's maximum analysis has Black ahead by 0.38 Pawn Equivalents at the end of the game after 26 Rc1, which the analysis considers a blunder, preferring 26 Nxh5.