27 December 2017

Annotated Game #182: Remember that your king can move (and other board sight freeze-ups)

This short, rather sad second-round tournament game illustrates the title quite well.  An example of how not to play the English very effectively, plus I got flustered by my opponent's sudden tactical threat at the end.  I occasionally have these types of board sight / move choice failures, which typically fall into the categories of not seeing: 1) king moves while on the defense; 2) pawn advances; and 3) backwards moves.  What I believe is going on is that my brain assumes that the pieces involved are either static, or should move in a different direction (forwards, in the case of missed backwards moves).  These are all understandable failures due to mental bias, but they will hold my play back if I don't think more dynamically on a consistent basis.

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1.c4       A11: English Opening: 1...c6 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Bf5 5.0-0 e6 6.d3 I thought for a while here on this option. White can play reasonably with different approaches. 6.b3!? 6...Bd6 7.Qb3 this seems a premature queen development, although the idea of taking advantage of the absence of Black's light-squared bishop is a standard one. 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Nc3 0-0 9.Nh4 Be6 10.e4 Na6 11.Qe2 Re8 12.h3 Be5 13.f4 Bxc3 14.bxc3 dxe4 15.dxe4 Bd5 16.e5 Bxg2 17.Kxg2 Qd5+ 18.Nf3 Rad8 19.c4 Qe4 20.Re1 Qxe2+ 21.Rxe2 Nd7 Carlsen,M (2813)-Smeets,J (2651) Nice 2010 1-0 (36) 7...Qc7 8.Bg5 the idea was to get the bishop developed first, then play Nbd2. 8.Nc3 is a quite reasonable square for the knight, though. 8...Nbd7 9.Nbd2 the position is very equal here. Unfortunately I have a lack of strategic ideas, however. h6 10.Be3 now the drawback of the Bg5 development is evident, with its limited squares. Compare this to how it would look on the long diagonal, for example. 10.Bxf6!? at the time, I thought that exchanging would leave Black better off, but the Nd7 is in fact well-placed where it is rather than on f6, so this would have been a worthwhile trade for me. Nxf6 11.cxd5 exd5= 10...0-0 11.Rac1 Rfd8 12.cxd5 Nxd5 13.Nc4 13.Bd4 when other plans aren't obvious, one can always improve the position of your worst piece. e5 14.e4 exd4 15.exf5 Bc5 16.Ne4= 13...Nxe3 14.Nxe3 Black has the pair of bishops now. Bh7 15.Nc4 Be7 16.h4?! a pointless move, since there are no attacking prospects on the kingside and the g5 square is not critical to control. In the game, I wanted to transfer my knight to e4 via d2 and avoid ...Bg5 pinning it, but the manuever just isn't worth it. Bf6 17.Nfd2 17.Rfd1 Nb6= 17...Nb6 18.Ne4 Bxe4 19.Bxe4 now we have an opposite-colored bishops position. Nxc4 20.Rxc4 after some dubious middlegame ideas, I emerge with a pleasantly even position. Rd4 21.Rfc1 21.Rxd4 there's no reason not to simplify down further at this point. Bxd4 22.e3 Bf6 23.d4= 21...Rad8 22.Rxd4 this is not in fact the losing move, although it allows Black to set up the potential tactic. 22.e3 Rxc4 23.Rxc4= 22...Bxd4 23.Qc2?? played as I recall rather automatically, not realizing until too late what my opponent could play. 23.Kg2= this should have been easy to find (or Kf1). 23...Qxg3+ 23...Qxg3+ 24.Kh1 Bxf2 25.Bh7+ Kh8 26.Bf5 exf5 27.a3 Qh3# 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResECORnd
ChessAdmin-Class B-0–1A11
Posted by ChessAdmin at 7:52 PM

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