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2nd Round

Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My second game for SC Réti in the 2022 SMM was played against an opponent rated about 1450.

Time control is again 90 minutes per player from move 1, with a 30 second increment from move 1 as well. Time control is reached after 40 moves, and both players get additional 30 minutes.

Analysis

We begin 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3 c6 4. c3 e6 5. Bd3 Bd6 6. Bg3 Bxg3, and White is very happy with this trade, opening the rook on the h-file. The game continues 7. hxg3 0-0?. I was winning here, but I completely missed this opportunity. 8. Bxh2! wins a pawn, and forces Black to walk his king to the center after 8. … Nxh2 9. Qh5 f6 10. Qxh7.

White is completely winning after 7. … 0-0

I’m still better though, which matches my intuition during the game.

We continue 8. Nbd2 Nbd7 9. f4? g6, better would have been 9. g4, since it exerts more pressure on the knight, and threatens g5 immediately. 10. g4 Kg7 11. Qf3 Rh8 and my kingside knight can finally develop via e2 or h3. 12. Nh3 Nf8 13. 0-0-0 b5.

Critical position after 13. … b5

During the game, this felt like a critical position to me. My position is clearly better: my pieces are much more developed than Black’s and can join in the kingside attack. But how should I continue? The candidate moves I found were g5, f5 and e4. I was not able to evaluate the nuances of these moves. Best is g5, followed by f5. 14. g5 kicks out the Black knight and keeps the center closed - exactly what I want when attacking the Black kingside. The move 14. … Nh5 is impossible because of 15. g4! trapping the knight.

14. f5 is also interesting: taking on f5 leads to a series of exchanges which end up which leave the Black king wide open: 14. … exf5 15. gxf5 gxf5 16. Bxf5 Bxf5 17. Qxf5. I was unsure how forced this exchange was though, and I was not sure what to do after 17. Qc8 Qg5+ Ng6. Black’s position still looks pretty bad, but there is no immediate win. There is also the possibility of 14. … h5 15. fxg6 hxg4 16. Qxg4, which keeps some tension but activates the Black rook on the h-file.

I was not really happy with g5 or f5, which was stupid in hindsight, and chose to play 14. e4 without much thought, a bad idea as it allows Black unnecessary counterplay with 14. … dxe4 15. Nxe4 Qd5. The engine claims that no advantage has been lost, but here I make another big blunder: 16. Bb1??. This move is spectacularly bad for two reasons: my king would much rather defend a2 than my bishop, and during the game I had temporarily forgotten that my queen was defended, so I was terrified to move my knight by accident and “blunder” my queen. I realized this mistake a move later, once I saw that my queen was actually defended by the pawn, but it is too late.

The most principled move is probably 16. Kb1. Stockfish wants 16. Nxf6, since Black has to recapture the knight with the king to avoid losing a piece for free. However, there is also 16. … Qxa2, which is ok according to the engine but gives activity to Black for no reason.

My opponent finally develops his bishop, and I offer him a queen trade 16. … Bd7 17. Nc5 Qxf3 18. gxf3 Nd5.

After 18. … Nd5, what is the bishop doing on b1?

I felt like I lost my advantage after e4, but here it really starts looking unpleasant for me. 19. Rde1 a5 20. Nxd7 Nxd7. An unfavorable trade, as the bishop was really doing nothing on d7, while my knight had a good outpost on c5. 21. f5 exf5 22. gxf5 N7f6 23. fxg6 hxg6 24. Kd2 Rae8 25. Ng5 Rxe1 26. Rxe1 Rh2+ 27. Re2 Rxe2+ 28. Kxe2. I think my opponent should have brought his rooks on the open files much sooner, something like 21. … Rae8, and not trade as aggressively. One possible variation is 27. Nf4, preparing the move Rh2+ because I cannot block the check with my rook that way, and my king would be confined to the first rank.

Our endgame after 28. Kxe2

After trading the rooks I felt like the game was equal again, and potentially even allowing me some long term winning chances because I have a bishop and knight instead of two knights. We continue 28. … Nf4+ 29. Kd2 N6d5 30. Ne4 f6 31. Nd6 Kf8?. I feel good in this position, Black’s king is far away from the action and my king and isolated pawn are excellently positioned against Black’s knights: neither knight can easily check my king or threaten my pieces.

32. c4 bxc4 33. Nxc4, threatening the pawn on a5, 33. … a4 34. Bc2, again threatening the pawn. My opponent tries to resolve this threat aggressively, however the c6 pawn will fall after the a4 pawn, giving me a clean pawn advantage. 34. … Nb4 35. Bxa4 c5?? a pretty bad blunder. Instead letting me take the pawn with my bishop, I can take it with my d-pawn, bringing it closer to promotion and allowing the b-pawn to defend it in the future.

Black allows my d-pawn to re-enter the game after 35. … c5

36. dxc5 Nxa2 37. c6 Nd5 38. Ne3 Nb4 39. Nxd5 Nxd5 40. b4 Ke7 41. b5 Kd8 The knight cannot take on b4 because the pawn is unstoppable 40. … Nxb4 41. c7! … 41. c8=Q. Now I have two connected passed pawns that force Black’s king to constantly stay close to the b and c files. Exchanging knight for bishop would be winning for me, as Black has to prevent my connected passed pawns from queening and I can go take all of Black’s pawns in the meantime.

Black is down a pawn and have I two advanced passed paws

41. Bb3 Nb6? is the final nail in the coffin. According to Stockfish the knight should have gone to e7 to help out with the defense of the black pawns and simultaneously prevent the b-pawn from walking. With the knight on e7 Black’s position, while very unpleasant, may be holdable.

Apparently Black can hold this endgame

From here on out it is a matter of technique: 42. Kd3 Kc7 43. Kd4 Nc8 44. Kd5 Kb6 45. Bc4 Kc7 46. Ke6 f5 47. Kf6 Nd6 48. Bd3 Kb6 49. Kxg6. Black cannot take on b5 because the c-pawn will queen: 49. … Nxb5?? 50. Bxb5 Kxb5 51. c7. Therefore, Black has no option but to continue shuffling 49. … Kc7 50. Kf6 Kb6 51. Ke6 Nc8 52. Kxf5 Nd6 53. Ke6 and Black resigns.

The final position

This game felt very similar to my first game: I had a huge advantage out of the opening, traded into a disadvantageous middlegame and then won due to endgame opponent’s blunders. In both of my games I had very good attacking chances - this game I should have kept everything closed with f5 or g5 instead of playing time I opened the center instead of playing 14. e4.

Thanks to my team captain Raphael M. and my fellow chess players Raphael S. and Iversen at SC Réti for analyzing my game with me and showing me how to improve my game!

My first rated chess game

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I first played chess with my father when I was a child, and I also remember playing (but not understanding) the chess computer game Fritz und Fertig. In school, I’ve been part of the chess club in some years, and spent some breaks playing chess with a friend.

In January 2019 I picked up online chess¹, and joined SC Réti, a local chess club, in late summer of 2021. We meet almost every Monday to have dinner and play, analyze or study chess. Having played two years of online chess, meeting with other people in person and playing on physical boards is a very different experience compared to online games, and I enjoy it immensely.

I played my first nationally rated chess game on April 30, 2022, in a tournament called the “Schweizerische Mannschaftsmeisterschaft” (SMM)² for the SC Réti in our sixth team, Réti 6. I’ve played a few games before with long time controls, mainly during Réti-internal tournaments, but those did not count towards my offical rating.

To hold myself accountable, I’ll try to share analyses of my games here.

The Analysis

The time control during SMM games is 90 minutes per player from move 1, with a 30 second increment from move 1 as well. Time control is reached after 40 moves, and both players get an additional 30 minutes added to their clock.

My opponent is rated about 1200-1300 Swiss ELO. We begin 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4, which I looked at briefly before the game.

The opening after 4. e4

Black gives me good control of the center, and I feel very comfortable. After the game the Black player told me he disliked his position during the opening. We continue 4. … Bg7 5. Qd2 0-0 6. 0-0-0 a6. I avoid all problems Black’s fianchettoed Bishop poses with 7. Bh6, leading to 7. … Re1 8. Bxg7 Kxg7.

White to play after 8. … Kxg7

Having castled on opposite sides, nothing prevents me from pushing the f-pawn. of course, pushing the h-pawn is also an option here, but I like pushing the f-pawn a bit more because it also fights for the center and prevents Black from playing e5. Thus, it continues 9. f4 b5 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Nd5. I’m not scared of Black exchanging our knights on c3. Taking Black’s knight would run into 12. … Qxd4!, a double attack against the g2 and a2 pawns, equalizing.

After 11. … Nd5

The g2 pawn feels a bit weak anyway, so I decide to develop the bishop to f3 via e2. 12. Be2 Nxc3 13. Qxc3 Bb7 14. Bf3. Only after moving my bishop to f3 I notice that the Black bishop can go to d5, posing the exact same problems as the knight did. Thus we get 14. … Bd5. Taking on a2 is not an option for Black, as I can trap the bishop with b3!. We continue 15. Nh3 e6 16. Nf4 c6, with me completing my development and my opponent still having some troubles with his knight. We both start our attacks with 17. h4 a5. I feel like I am faster though, especially since my queen quickly enters the kingside with 18. Bxd5 cxd5 19. Qg3.

White’s attack looks scary after 19. Qd3

Black develops his knight with 19. … Nd7. I don’t see how Black can stop my attack, so I play 20. h5 Nf8 21. Kb1 b4 22. b3 a4 23. hxg6 fxg6. 23. … hxg6?? would have immediately lost to 24. Qh3!.

I spent some time considering 24. Rxh7, but I didn’t see a sensible continuation after 24. … Nxf7. Stockfish shows the way: 25. Qxg6+ Kh8 (26. … Kf8? 27. Rf1! with mate to follow, as the Black king cannot escape via e7 due to Qg7#) 26. Qf7! and Black must sacrifice his queen avoid getting checkmated.

24. … Kxh7 also loses material after 25. Qh3+ Kg1 26. Rh1 Kf7 27. Qh1! and Black is completely paralyzed. The knight must defend the mate threat on h7, and 27. … Ke7?? runs into 28. Qg7#. Black must sacrifice material to survive.

White’s winning variation, sacrificing the rook with 24. Rxh7

However, I am not Stockfish, so I play 24. Nh5+ Kh8 after some consideration. Both Kg8 and Kf7 lose by force, but it is not terribly difficult to see. 25. Nf6 Re7 26. Qh3 and my attack has seemingly halted. During the game I don’t feel like I missed something obvious, but I have a very strong feeling that the position is equal now, if not slightly better for Black.

Now its Black’s turn to attack: 26. … axb3 27. Qxb3??. 27. cxa3 looks much easier to defend than Qxb3, which the engine agrees. 27. Qxb3 blundered into 27. … Ra2!, which my opponent fortunately overlooked as well. Instead we get 27. … Qa5 28. Rd3 Ra2 (now too late) 29. Kb2 Qxa2+ 30. Qxa2 Rxa2+ 31. Kb3 Ra3+ 32. Kxb4.

Black’s rooks are very active after 32. Kxb4

32. … Rxd3 33. cxd3 Rxg2 Black exchanges a pair of rooks and wins a pawn, however my king enters the black position after 34. Kc5 Kg7 35. Rf1 h5 36. Kd6 Rd2 37. Ke7, threatening to win the knight with Ne8+. Thus we get 37. … Nh7. I decide to take the pawn first, thinking that Nxf6 is better for me. In hindsight this isn’t true, and only gave black the opportunity to exchange his bad knight for my great one. 38. Kxe6 Rxd3 39. Ne8+ Kh6 40. Kxd5. 38. … Nxf6 would have been better according to the engine. I feel very comfortable again, as my pieces are well placed for the endgame: my rook defends the first rank and prevents lone pawns from promoting, my knight dominates Black’s knight and my connected passed pawns are one square closer to promotion than Black’s.

White’s pieces look much more active than Black’s after 40. … h4

Black tries to push with 40. … h4 but the h-pawn alone cannot promote while my rook patrols the first rank. 41. Ke4?, better would have been 41. e6 immediately. 41. … Ra3 42. Kd5 h3 43. e6 Ra8 44. Nc7 Rd8+ 45. Ke5 Rf8?. After my opponent offered me the exchange of rooks, I can win the game on the spot and take my time to calculate the following sequence: 46. Rxf8 Nxf8 47. e7 Nd7+ 48. Ke6! only winning move, as otherwise the black knight defends the e8 square from f6. 48. … Nc5+ 49. dxc5 h2 50. a8=Q and Black resigns, because 50. … h1=Q is followed by 51. Qh8+! … 52. Qxh1, and the game is over.

Black resigns after 49. a8=Q

I was very happy to have won my first rated game, but I felt that I was lucky my opponent made some mistakes in the endgame, allowing me to win after he had equalized in the middle game.

A fun puzzle

During the game, my endgame was winning due to having 49. dxc5 after 48. … Nc5+. It turns out that this endgame is also winning without the pawn on d4, can you find an alternative winning sequence?

White to play and win by force

one year before the pandemic and the ensuing popularity surge ↩︎
translates to “Swiss Team Championship” ↩︎