TeamLeague Round 3

I haven’t posted or for that matter even played that much chess in the last few weeks. I started a new job last week, by no means is it a long term job but it is something that allows me to put food on the table and to get some extra spending money. I am considering making the switch from Chess Assistant to ChessBase. I love the feel of the ChessBase program and it is much more user friendly than the Chess Assistant program. I really like the training and repertoire features in ChessBase, Chess Assistant and Aquarium may be able to do the same thing but it is much less intuitive.  Conveka’s training program is separate program and is not user friendly. I think ultimately I will make the switch pretty soon.

The game I am going to show was probably my best played game ever, except for my last move. This game was played in round three of the FICS TeamLeague (T59). I had the white pieces and I knew that I was going to play the English as it was my best chance of not making too many unforced errors. 

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

Caseylj 1332 - tightfist 1696

1/2-1/2 (FICS rated standard game) 2015.04.19

[#] 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 Bc5 4.e3 O-O 5.Bg2 Fairly standard position here among lower rated players and was played by two 2500 rated players in March at the Petrov Memorial Blitz 2015. Here I could have went Bg2 a move earlier but I still feel I am still good here. 5...Re8 6.Nf3 Here I should have went with Nge2 I know I was considering it at the time but I do not remember why I did not do go to e2. 6...Nc6 7.O-O d5 This is a mistake better was d6, here I can take out his center pawn with my c pawn giving me the better center. 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.d3 Taking the knight here is not good for white, I am more than willing to trade the knights on c3, d3 frees up the dark squared bishop and stops e4 by black. 9...Bg4 10.Qb3 Two ideas here putting a second attacker on d5 and attacking b6 10...Nb6 11.Ne1 The pawn on d3 was hanging, I missed this in my calculations and almost missed it, the black queen on d3 doesn’t look good for White. 11...Bd7 12.Nd5 Rb8 13.Nxb6 Bxb6 14.Qd5 Here I was trying to use the queen as bait to trap his knight and trying to win it for a pawn or trade queens at the worst. 14...Nb4 15.Qc4 Qe7 16.Bd2 a5 17.a3 It looks like his knight is going to escape but I felt we were equal and I was the one pressing the issue. 17...Be6 I can now trade the queens and be even material wise but I am giving my opponent the two bishops in a semi open game. Long term I may be in trouble but it will be very interesting. 18.Bxb4 axb4 19.Qxb4 Qxb4 20.axb4 c6 21.Ra3 Here I am looking to trade the rooks either on a8 or a3 after Nf3. 21...Ra8 22.Rxa8 Rxa8 23.Nc2 Ra2 24.Rb1 Bb3 25.Na3 Bc7 26.b5 Here I see that I can win a pawn with b5 26...Bd5 Here there are several ways to do this but only one will win me the extra pawn. Bxd5 is bad as cxd5 gives black two pawns in the center. bxc6 is best however if black captures back with bxc6 Bxd5 cxd5 and black has his two pawns in the middle, 27.bxc6 bxc6 28.Bxd5 cxd5 29.Nb5 White has this move with the idea of Nc3 forking the rook and pawn. 29...Bb6 30.Nc3 Ra5 Temporarily stopping me from taking the pawn. 31.b4 Ra3 Threatening the pawn but it is of no concern to white as Nxd5 attacks the B on b6. 32.Nxd5 Ba7 33.Rc1 g6 34.Rd1 Kg7 35.Kg2 Rb3 36.d4 Bb8 37.Rc1 exd4 38.exd4 Ba7 39.Rc3 Trade up two pawns I’m sure I can get the win. 39...Rb2 40.Rc4 Rd2 41.b5 There goes one of my pawns. 41...Bxd4 42.b6 Rxf2 I really wasn’t sure if I had blown the game at this point, I didn’t think him taking with the rook was a problem and it may give me the time to get the pawn to queen. 43.Kh3 Be5 44.b7 Rb2 45.Rb4 Trade the rooks and get the bishop on b8 was my plan 45...Rxb4 46.Nxb4 f5 47.Nc6 Bc7 48.b8=Q Bxb8 49.Nxb8 Here I am very excited, I don’t have to play perfect but I should have a clear win. 49...g5 50.Nd7 Kg6 51.Ne5 Kf6 52.Nd7 Kg6 53.Nf8 Kg7 54.Ne6 Kf6 55.Nd4 h5 56.Kg2 g4 57.h4 Now I only have to worry about one pawn and with the knight I should be able to gobble the pawns up maybe trade the bishop for both pawns if I can’t seem to make headway. 57...Ke5 58.Nc6 Ke4 59.Kf2 f4 60.Ne7 f3 61.Ng6 Kf5 62.Nf4 Got one 62...Ke4 63.Nxh5 Ke5 64.Nf4 Kf6 65.Nd3 Kg6 66.Ne5 Kf5 67.Nd3 Kf6 68.Ne1 Kf5 69.Nxf3 Kg6 70.Nh2 Kh5 71.Nxg4 Kxg4 72.Kg2 Kh5 I got this just don’t stalemate pay attention, he should have resigned he doesn’t think I can mate him without blundering. 73.Kh3 Kg6 74.g4 Kh6 75.h5 Kg5 76.Kg3 Kh6 77.Kh4 Kg7 78.Kg5 Kh7 79.h6 Kg8 80.Kg6 Kh8 81.g5 Kg8 82.h7 Kh8 83.Kh6 Game drawn by stalemate

[83.Kf5 Kxh7 84.Kf6 Kg8 85.Kg6 Kf8 86.Kh7 Ke7 87.g6 Kd6 88.g7 Kd5 89.g8=Q ;

83.Kf7 Kxh7 84.g6 Kh6 85.g7 Kg5 86.g8=Q ;

83.Kf6 Kxh7 84.Kf7 Kh8 85.Kg6 Kg8 86.Kh6 I had a 50 -50 change of making the right move with any random legal move but i made on of the 50% of the moves that draw and the only one that draws immediately.]

[1/2-1/2]

Generated by Aquarium

Major takeaway from this is that i can play with higher rated club players and that I must take more time to look at all the moves  even when I am tired.