Round 8/9, ClubTournament, Fall -09

11/26 I played round 8 out of 9 at my club's ClubTournament. I played a 1117 player, and if my goal is to improve, and progress in chess, this was a guy I had to win against. I have played him once before (victory), and then he played The Scandinavian. So that's what I prepared for. I have just started to play The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit against The Scandinavian, and since I've never tried it in an otb match before, this seemed like a good moment. If I couldn't win against a lower rated player, how am I then gonna win with The Blaskmar-Diemer Gambit ever, was my thought ;) For those wondering, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit is a 1.d4 opening, but can be used against the Scandinavian as well, as it's transposes, i.e.: 1.d4 d5 2.e4 or 1.e4 d5 2.d4




1.e4 c6 What?? This isn't The Scandiavian!! There goes all my preparations :D Well, let's outplay him in The Caro-Kann instead ;)

2.d3 d6 hmmm, 2.d3 is what I play against Caro-Kann, but 2...d6 is not in my repertoire :D Needed to play plain chess then...

4.Be3 Seeing him preparing the Fianchetto, I thought I might as well go for some standard Bishop trading attack.

7.Be2 I thought he was very passive in the opening, and wanted to punish him. What I really wanted to do was play maybe 7.d4 (I started to regret my 2.d3 move and wanted to place my Bishop more aggressively on c4 making some treats. I ended up playing sound with development before attacking.

7...b5 ?? This can be any good? Not in my chess understanding anyway. Maybe 8.a3 is unnecessary, but at least I stop the possible complications.

8...Qa5 I had a plan of long castling, after this move I skipped that plan ;) So, 9.0-0 is logic and sound. He is pretty undeveloped and there should soon be some tactics punishing his play.

10.Bh6 I was more eager to play 10.d4, but couldn't really find the right plan. Some kingside pawn storm was also in my mind. A crazy continuation would be 10.d4 Bb7 11.Nxb5 Qxd2 12.Nxd6+ Kd7 13.Bxd2 Kxd6 14.Bb4+ c5 15.dxe5+ Nxe5 16.Rd1+ Ke6 17.Ng5+ and take on c5 with the Bishop. This should be winning, but with a piece down, I'm not sure if my strength would have won after this line :D

13.h4 Not sure if this is any good, but felt I had to attack. Black doesn't really have to much defense present. But after 15.h5 Nxh5 I'm finally getting my combination and have the advantage.

21.Qc7 I wanted to see if he dared taking on b2 - and end up losing -, but of course he didn't fall for that. 21.Qxh5 would have been better, but I felt I had a good game anyway. And he can still fall for the b2 trap.

26.Rfg7 OMG!!, had I overlooked something? I thought I was close to losing, and had a big time figuring out what to do. I thought g3 would lose to Rxg3 since my f-pawn is pinned. I totally overlooked saving the day with my Rook :D A good example on how to lose your mind tired and deep into a game ;) Well, I finally found Rd8 and was quite proud. This saves me totally, I think :) I hoped he would take on g2, and then I can take with the Queen, and he can't take back since his Rook is pinned. Then it would be curtains down.

27.Rd8 Qe5 28.R1d7 Qg5 His tempoloss with the Queen only helps me big time. 27...Qg5 would have been much better, but still losing.

35.Qf2 The final blow. Balck must take the Queen to avoid a quick loss. Of course, taking the Queen isn't really an option either ;)

42.Nf2 is a bit cautious. Nf4 intending Nxh5 threatening a backrank mate, would have been more mature :D I was'nt really afraid of messing things up tho.

So after a few more moves he gave up...