Quick Intro

Writing this blog to keep track of my chess games with the hopes that writing a bit about them helps me learn from the mistakes I make as well as help me to think a bit more deeply about positions. In general, I like to play chess daily. I play bots and way too much 3 and 5 minute blitz. The former helps a bit, and the latter doesn’t do much. I also like solving puzzles on chess.com’s site, and find that I can do okay if I take time to really think about it. Currently, I’d say I’m around 1000 on chess.com and ~1300 on lichess. My goal is to get to 1500 on chess.com by the end of the year. Ideally, I’d like to make it to 1800, but I’m too low level of a player to know the sort of commitment that would entail. Baby steps.

That being said, my rough idea for posts will be to include the game in it’s entirety and then walk through most moves to describe what I was thinking / reacting to in the moment. I’ll try to do a bit of “what if…” analyses, but we’ll see. That being said, here’s the first game.

Game – Queen’s Gambit Opening

This was a 10+5 rapid game on lichess. Below is the game:

1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 c5 4. dxc5 e6 5. e3?! Bxc5 6. Be2 Nc6 7. O-O O-O 8. Ng5? d4?? 9. Nxe6?? fxe6 10. exd4 Nxd4 11. Bc4 Re8?! 12. Re1 a6?! 13. b3? b5 14. Bd3 Nd5?? 15. Be4?? b4?? 16. Nxd5?? exd5 17. Bxd5+ Qxd5 18. Rxe8+ Kf7 19. Re1? Bb7 20. f3? Qf5? 21. Rf1?? Nxb3+? 22. Kh1 Nxa1 23. Bb2 Bc6?! 24. Bxa1 Qd7 25. Qe2 Bb5 26. c4?! Re8?? 27. Be5?? Bc6 28. h3 Bd6 29. f4? Kg8? 30. Qh5 Bxe5 31. fxe5 Rxe5 32. Qxe5 Qxh3+ 33. Kg1?! Qxg2# 0-1

1. d4 d5

I’m black in this game. I’ve been playing the Queen’s Gambit opening myself so and my response to d4 is d5 waiting to see what happens next.

2. Nc3 Nf6

Simple enough, my opponent didn’t go for the QG, so I protect my pawn while developing my knight.

3. Nf3 c5

Probably a better response may be …e5 to take more room in the center, but this kinda transposes into this QG idea for Black. I figure I can develop my e pawn with an attack on their pawn if they go with dxc5. I also like the idea of the file to the queen becoming more open.

4. dxc5 e6

As planned, after the pawn capture, I develop my e pawn getting ready to recapture the c5 pawn with my bishop. I’m not thrilled about blocking in my light squared bishop. For this reason, it may be slightly better to play Nc6 (according to the engine), but that line seems a bit more complicated and the difference is miniscule to me.

5. e3?! Bxc5

The engine gives white’s move the classic ?! that I’m very used to seeing in my own games. My guess is because that move does nothing to prevent the loss of the c5 pawn. e4 is a better response. That being said, I proceed with my plan to recapture.

6. Be2 Nc6

White prepares to castle and given that my King is in no near danger, I opt to develop my knight instead.

7. O-O O-O

Yup, now we castle.

8. Ng5? d4??

Engine gives white a ? and me a well deserved ??. My thinking was that I counted that I had three defenders of the d4 square (knight, bishop, queen), so I was safe to push. Instead, it seems I should have fought for more of the middle.

9. Nxe6?? fxe6

Another puzzling move by white, gives me a free knight. However, I instantly recaptured with my pawn. Instead, I should have recaptured with the bishop to both develop that piece and keep the pawns near my king steady.

10. exd4 Nxd4

After white takes my newly moved d4 pawn, I recapture with the knight to apply pressure on the bishop.

11. Bc4 Re8?!

White moves their bishop to safety while also attacking a pawn. For some reason, I thought that moving my rook to this semi open file would be a good thing to do as it also overprotects the pawn. Do pawns need overprotecting? I have no idea. At this poiint, the engine says this is a ?! move by me. I read that as I could have done worse.

12. Re1 a6?!

Another questionable move by me. I was preparing to push b5 to chase white’s bishop.

13. b3? b5

I go after the bishop.

14. Bd3 Nd5??

This is a clear blunder by me that I completely missed by not checking for attacks. At this point, 15 Qh5 threatens an attack my white while also eyeing my d5 knight and rook on e8.

15. Be4?? b4??

Thankfully my opponent missed that and goes after my knight, I guess. However, I miss a free knight that comes with an attack on the king (15 ..Nxc3). While it looks like my rook is open, I’m attacking the white queen so that would have been nice to find. Instead, I decide to attack the knight with my pawn, figuring it has no good square to go to.

16. Nxd5?? exd5

After white takes my knight, I recapture back with my pawn, now threatening the light square bishop as well.

17. Bxd5+ Qxd5

Bishop takes while also threatening my rook so the only logical move is to recapture.

18. Rxe8+ Kf7

Rook takes with check so I move out while forcing white to move the rook away from the 8th rank.

19. Re1? Bb7

Rook moves all the way back and I threaten a cheeky checkmate by lining up the bishop and queen.

20. f3? Qf5?

Blocking with the f pawn is a mistake. I would have done the same thing, but it can be followed with 20 ..Nxf3+ which is a double check, forcing the King to move back to h1 (f1 is mate in 3 by forcing the king to the middle with Nxh2+). After the king moves to h1, 21..Nxe1 and can’t be recaptured because it hangs mate in 1 since I still have the battery lined up. Only trading queens saves white. I’m sorry that I missed this great move. Instead, I moved my queen to prepare Nxc2 to fork the two rooks. I didn’t need to do this because moving the knight is a discoveed check,

21. Rf1?? Nxb3+?

Perhaps avoiding this fork, white relocates one of the rooks. I continue with my tunnel vision to win a rook with the discovered check that I now see. However, this is a missed win as Ne2+ is mate in 2. It is a double check that pushed the king to the corner. After the 22.Kh1 is ..Ng3+ with a forcing move of 23. hxg3 where then the queen delivers mate on h5. This could have been a low level puzzle and I whiffed on it.

22. Kh1 Nxa1

King moves and I win that rook I cared so much about. All it cost me was giving up mate in 2. Not a good tradeoff in retrospect.

23. Bb2 Bc6?!

Fearing that my knight is lost, I move my bishop to readjust it for an attack on the rook. However, my queen is guarding c2, where I should have moved my knight to keep it safe.

24. Bxa1 Qd7

White captures my knight and I look to tradeoff queens to get to the endgame.

25. Qe2 Bb5

White is not interested in trading queens but in moving, allows me to get my bishop on the same diagonal as the queen and rook.

26. c4?! Re8??

c4 looked like a good move to me at the time that I didn’t see so I re-manuevered to attack the queen. When I reviewed the game and saw that I missed an en passant capture to continue my brilliant attack, I was devastated.

27. Be5?? Bc6

White moves their bishop to intercept my rook, but I have an easy move to get my bishop out of danger

28. h3 Bd6

I create a double attack on the bishop. Moving it lands me the queen.

29. f4? Kg8?

Even after white defended the bishop, I still wanted to trade but realized that my King was on the same file as the king so I moved my king to safety. This highlights a weakness of mine: I often miss pins. I could have responded with 29 ..Qxh3 and the queen can’t be recapured since the bishop pins the pawn. That also leads to mate in 3.

30. Qh5 Bxe5

My opponent brings their queen in and at this point I notice the pin. However, I just need to get their queen away from the h file. I figure I can now capture the bishop and try to trade my rook to get the queen away.

31. fxe5 Rxe5

Biphops traded and I bait the queen away with my rook, also attacking the queen.

32. Qxe5 Qxh3+

The queen has to take and then I go after the king. It’s all over white now.

33. Kg1?! Qxg2#

Instead of moving their King to g1, intercepting with the queen is a bit more of a hassle as it leads to me trading my queen for both the white queen and rook leaving me with a bishop and 4 pawns vs 2 pawns. I’ll take it though.

Final Thoughts

This was a rare game where I was never really in trouble but I did miss a lot of chances to take devastating leads. I should not look for just going up in exchanges, but stay alert for checks, captures, and threats. I missed a couple key knight moves that would have won it for me as well as an en passant capture that would have led to a big lead as well.