This next first-round tournament game demonstrated multiple themes in analysis, which are worth remembering for the long term:
- The slightly cramped nature of the position for Black early on was unfortunately relieved by my poor decision to exchange minor pieces, which led to immediate equality.
- Later on, I cramped my own position progressively, with misplaced rooks and (more decisively) with a misjudged f2-f3, which created dark-square weaknesses and blocked my own bishop on the light squares.
- In this opening structure, the immediate d4-d5 advance to kick a black knight appearing on c6 is key.
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ChessAdmin"]
[Black "Expert"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "ChessAdmin/Dragon 3.2"]
[ECO "E61"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[GameId "2148113476530356"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Be2 O-O 5. O-O d6 6. c4 c5 7. Nc3 {logical development, but not the only possibility.} (7. d5) (7. b3) 7... Nc6 8. Re1 {while it's good in principle to get rooks into the game, there are more productive things to do immediately.} (8. d5 {immediately kicks the knight to a worse square.}) (8. h3 {restrains ...Bg4}) 8... e5 9. d5 {best and essentially forced, positionally. However, Black now has a better square for the knight to go to and a central pawn on e5.} Ne7 10. e4 $14 {White has a space advantage and Black's pieces will take some more time to re-deploy.} Ne8 11. Bg5 (11. Rb1 {would be faster with White's queenside expansion plan, plus the bishop is all right for now where it is on c1.}) 11... h6 12. Bxe7 {exchanging simply helps relieve Black's more cramped position.} (12. Bd2 $14 {the bishop's journey would not be completely useless, as White now could establish a Q+B battery on the c1-h6 diagonal.}) 12... Qxe7 $11 13. Rb1 {here I thought a while about the best plan. I correctly identify that the b2-b4 break is what White should be aiming for.} (13. a3 {may be the better way to get in the b2-b4 advance, however.}) 13... f5 {the standard King's Indian f-pawn lever. Black will play on the kingside, White on the queenside, and it becomes something of a race.} 14. b4 cxb4 15. Rxb4 b6 {I was surprised by this, but the engine agrees that it's the best move. The Rb4 is now awkwardly placed and should shift position.} 16. a4 {played with the intent to crack open the queenside as quickly as possible.} (16. Rb3 $5 $11) 16... Nc7 {at first this looks a bit weird, but the knight's path to c5 is now clear and comes with tempo, with the rook on b4.} 17. Nd2 Na6 18. Rb2 {the rook ends up being a bit awkwardly placed here.} (18. Rb1 {is the engine's preference, although humans have a problem returning pieces to their original squares, wanting to see at least some progress to show for their moving around.}) 18... Nc5 {this is a key positional plus for Black, being able to occupy this excellent outpost.} 19. f3 $6 {I played this before in a similar position and it also turned out wrong; the ability to further reinforce e4 seemed to outweight the negatives, at the time.} (19. Qc2 {immediately accomplishes the same goal without the f-pawn move creating weaknesses and blocking the Be2.}) 19... Bd7 20. Qc2 Bf6 $17 {Black is now able to activate his dark-square bishop, while my light-square counterpart is walled off and my counterplay inadequate.} 21. Ra1 Bg5 22. Nf1 {at least I spotted the Be3-d4 maneuver that my opponent ideally wanted.} Qf6 23. Bd3 Rac8 24. a5 {here I thought I was doing fine, but I missed Black's simple follow-up, which keeps things shut on the queenside.} bxa5 25. Rxa5 a6 {now my backwards c-pawn will become more of a problem than Black's isolated a-pawn. Note how strong the Nc5 is at both defending a6 and pressuring d3/e4.} 26. Qe2 Qd8 27. Raa2 Qc7 28. Bc2 {this was the point of move 26, to try to exchange on a4.} Rb8 29. Nd2 {unfortunately this does not solve my problems on the b-file. Visually it's clear how Black's pieces are combining their efforts effectively, while mine are uncoordinated and desperately trying to cover weaknesses.} (29. exf5 gxf5 30. Ng3 $17 {is suggested by the engine but still looks miserable.}) 29... Rxb2 30. Rxb2 Rb8 $19 {now I could see how exchanging rooks would let the Black queen in on the b-file, but the alternative turns out just as badly.} 31. Ra2 Qb6 32. Kf1 Qb4 33. Ndb1 Bc1 34. Kg1 {played to avoid tactics on the a6-f1 diagonal, but now Black gets a winning bind even more quickly.} Bb2 35. Qd2 f4 {sealing off the diagonal and protecting h6.} 36. Bd3 a5 {now the idea of Nb5 occurred to me, but in visualizing the variations I did not see that the Bd3 would be left hanging after the queen exchange.} 37. Kf1 a4 38. Nb5 Qxd2 {my opponent however saw this worked, and as soon as he played it I did too.} 39. Nxd2 Nxd3 40. Nxd6 a3 {and with more material losses coming, I resigned.} 0-1
