I just finished playing a blitz game which seems fairly instructive.
First, let’s look at the whole game:
Now, let’s break this down into some components…
Here is a position coming out of the opening. It’s Black to move…
Here I felt like I was extremely cramped. Like I *must* exchange on d5 *or else* – I’m sure you all know the feeling I’m speaking of.
But it’s not really that bad. In fact, if I can get the dark square bishops off the board and play …e5 then I’m not nearly as cramped as I was before.
For instance…
11…Ng4 12.Bxg7 Kxg7 13.h3 Nge5 14.Bc2 Nxf3+ 15.Nxf3 e5
OK, White appears to be better here, but this position seems much easier to play. Key word here though is “seems.”
A few moves later in this position I become desperate to reroute my pieces and I play 14…Bc8.
The problem is that White can swap off a pair of rooks and grab the e-file in a way that really cramps me with:
15.Rxe8+ Nxe8 16.Re1 Nef6 17.h3 and here my pieces are restricted and I’m going to struggle a bit.
My opponent doesn’t see this, and a few moves later we have this on the board:
At this point I’m seeing ghosts. I play 20…a6 trying to get some counterplay going on the queenside, but the reality is that I have a simple way of eliminating what I am perceiving as the threat of Qe7. I can just play 20…Nd7, then if 21.Qe7 I force the queen back with 21…Bf6
The problem is that 20…a6 is too slow. Here they can play 21.Qe7 and now 21…Nd7 no longer works because I’ll never get …Bf6 is, ala 22.Ng5 Rf8 and now there are sacrificial ideas on h5:
Instead my opponent plays 21.Ng5 and here I decide that since I’m in such desperate straits I’m going to lash out and try to regroup, so I play 21…h6 22.Nf3 g5 and here the mouse slip happens. However, this position is dead won for White.
Either 23.Nf5 or better yet 23.h4 should lead to a quick demise.
But there’s a problem here…let’s go back to this position which we just saw…
I can just play 21…Rb8 and now e7 is tactically protected. If 22.Qe7 then 22…Qxe7 23.Rxe7 Bf6 wins.
More to the point, after 21…Rb8 I can play …b5 soon and get some actual counterplay going.
The moral of the story? Had I not been feeling like my position was garbage for the last several moves I would have been more objective and not felt the need to lash out in perceived desperation.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott
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