Through analysis dedicated to my Scandinavian Defense group --B-division 1st round
Only one rated player joined this tourney so this tourney cannot be a rated one. (Lot of rated players are busy for another concurrent championship) This would be a great chance for practicing my tournament play before struggling in rated event, though.
The game lasted 45 moves and I would break them down in several parts. Early opening (B01, Qd6 Scandinavian):
- 5. ...c6 was always shunned by Fritz and Chess.com engine though played by Tiviakov and is one of the most common move apart from ...a6. (evaluation for 5.Bc4: +0.28, +0.68 after c6, 16~17 ply depth)
- 8.d3!? (+0.13/19--->+0.03/18) was acceptable by Fritz. I set 0.15 as thershold so no recommendation was shown.
- 8.g4 (-0.31/18) weakens the king safety while black can still O-O-O and simply 8...Bg6 (-0.23/16) punished it. YET 8... Bxg4 (+1.39/18) is UNSOUND. Refutation for 9...Nxg4 (+4.37/18) was 10. Bxf7+ Kxf7 11. Ng5+ Kg8 12. Qxg4 Nd7 13. Re1 Nf6 14. Qc4+ Nd5
- 11. ...Qc7 (0.00/17 --> +0.37/17) was truly a mistake. Fritz gave a great move THAT EQUALIZE VERY EFFECTIVELY ROBBING BISHOP PAIR AND CHECKMATE THE OPPONENT QUEEN! Rarely do I accept Fritz's recommendation on opening moves but this move is just nice: 11...Ne5 forking Q and B 12. Qf4 Nxc4 13. Qxc4 Qb4 "checkmating" the queen 14. Qxb4 Bxb4 15. Ne4 b6 destroy a horse-hole 16. Be3 O-O-O 17.Rad1 (0.00/17)
- 12. Re1?! may not be that bad (very small drop in engine value) but really committed a bit early.
- In variation 12...Bd6?! (+0.32/16), 2 out of 4 moves listed against 13 Bxe6?? (-1.45/18) fails, namely 14...Kf8? and 14...Be7??. 14...Kf7 wins so Bxe6?? is a ghost threat. There are much calculation error corrected by Fritz and you may see them in the computer-analysed version attached (that part is long...).
- 13. Bf4 is okay and do not deserve ?! mark. It goes into black's plan of trading down though.
- 14. Bg5? (+0.21/18-->-0.38/17) is a mistake that I thought it was correct. Much better was trading down iteh 14. Bxd6 Qxd6 15. Rad1 Rhg8 etc...(shown in the com-version) Retreating the bishop either attracts pawn storm or loses time.
- After 14...h6 (-0.38/18) , 15. Bh4 (-0.41/16) is not a mistake. Instead, 15. Bxf6 (-0.79/16) was wrong now. [I thought it was okay as I intend to respond with 15. ...Nxf6? (-0.08/16) Fritz gave : 15. ...gxf6 [I marked it with ?? for losing a pawn but sorry, I overlooked my knight] 16. a4 f5 17.d4 Nf6 18. a5 Kb8 19 Bf1 a6 20 Ne2 c5 (-0.79/16) AND I do not understand well the idea behind white's retreating move. Also I cannot convince myself that black was better...
- I would still like to know why 17. Qxg3 (-0.14/17, without queen) was preferred over 17. fxg3 (-0.45/17, with queen) where the same pawn structure arises very soon.
- In variation 18...Nb6 I supplied two knight moves (Nxb2??, Ne5??) at move 20 to show that it loses but I overlooked... [Fritz 10: 20...Nd6 (+0.21/20) 21.Raf1 Rh7 22.g4 Kd7 23. Kf2... ] and there was a way out. The ?? mark on 19...Nxc4 should be dropped. Anyway the game move was better, though this shows that I see too much ghost and need more tactical awareness.
- My argument of 19.Ne4!? (should be ?!) wasted tempo was verified.
- In the variation 19.Bxd5!, 19...cxd5 and 19...exd5 was examined. In the line 19...cxd5, 22.Rf1 f6?! (+0.35/16) intended to defend a pawn but Fritz gave much better way to do so!
[22. Ne5! attacking the knight while adding 2nd defender 23. d4 Nf3+ 24. Rxf3 Rxd6 25.Raf1 Rb6 26. b3 Rc6 27. c3 (the rook scans through b and c file and forced those pawn to advance) f5 now the f pawn was defended 28. g4 f4 29.g3 Ra6 30.gxf4 Rxa2] (0.08/16) - 19...exd5 was perfectly alright (+0.00/16) and perhaps better than 19...cxd5 (+0.16) as in the game. In 19...exd5 variation 21...d4 (+0.94/16) intending prefaring Ne5 was a mistake. Playing 21 ...Ne5 (+0.10/16) right away is much better (the e5 pawn was firmly defended by my f6 pawn, no need to free the line for my rook to defend it!) The continuation suggested was [21...Ne5 22. d4 Nc4 23. g4 Rg7 24. Na4 Rxe7 25. Rxe7 Nd6]. 22.Na4 (-0.94) was a bad response to 21...d4 while the correct refutation was [22. Ne4 (+0.94/16) Kb8 23. g4 Rhf6 24. b4 b6 25. Nd6 Ne5 26. Nf5 Rh8 27. a4 ]which make white gaining massive space on both wings and a nice advanced outpost. Why 22.Na4? was bad? Simpliy because 22...b5! kills the white horse, though white can get back 2 pawns by Rd1-e6xc6(check)-c4xd4. After the incorrect 22...Ne4?! 23. Nc5! proceeding from 22 Na4?, I correctly saw black will be in disaster by playing 23.b6?? (+1.48/16) BUT Fritz told me by trading piece with (+0.32/16) [23...Rhe8! 24.Rxe8 Rxe8 25.Rf1 Nd7 26.Nxd7 Kxd7 27. Rxf6 Re5] still gave black a reasonable game (though 1 pawn down)
BACK TO MAINLINE. 20.Bxc5? chopping my knight was considered best against the folk on c2 BUT best and obvious defense was [20.Re2 (-0.12/16) Rhe8 21. Rf1 b5 22. Bb3 f5 23. Nd2 a5 24. Bxd5 cxd5]
20...cxd5 (-0.55/16) was really better than 20...exd5(-0.38/16) as it avoided symmetry of pawn structure that can lead to draw. 21. Nd2 should have the "?!" dropped as no improvement was given.
Both 21...b5!? (-0.25/16)and 21...e5!?(-0.27/16) are okay. Fritz gave latter the continuation [ 22.c4 Kd6 23.Rad1 Rhe8 24.cxd5 Kxd5]
Calm Fritz had better idea of activating the king (-0.55/16) [21...Kd6! 22.g4 f6 23.Rac1 Rc8 24.Kf2 Rhf8 25.Ke3 f5 26.gxf5 Rxf5] Black will play e5 next.
25.c3? was bad but I did not know this before reading the report. [25.Nb3! (-0.49/16) was the correct way to stop the advance of black's b-pawn! Kd6 26.g4 Rbc8 27.Nd4 a6 28 a5] Although my king move was a great positional idea... I overlooked a nice punishment line due to fear of being checked: [25...bxc3! 26.Rxc3+ Kd6 27.b3 Rb6 28.Rfc1 Ne5 29.a5 Ra6 30.Nf3 Rb8 31.Kf2 Rxa5 gained a pawn]
My 26...f5? turned a -0.50 game to a 0.00 one. The reason of this could be: white gained access to seventh rank by 28.Rc7 and have counterplay on me.Instead of ...f5 I should play [26...Nc5 (-0.55/19) 27.cxd5 Kxd5 28.Ne4 Nxe4 29.dxe4+ Kxe4 30.Rc4+ Kd5 31.Rc7 a6 32.Rfxf7 Rxf7 33.Rxf7 Rc8 34.Rd7+ Ke5 give black 1 pawn up ]
28...Nc5? (+0.41/16) has correct tactical idea to justify it but it turned my position even worse. Correct move by white against it was [29.Rc1 (0.41/16) Nxa4 30.Rd7+ Ke5 31.Rcc7 Kf6 32.Rh7 Kg6 gave white a pain of rook on 7th while blacks are passively placed on 8th rank]
29.Rxa7? (-0.66/16) suggested by me was less worse than the game move 29.Rf3?? (-1.31/16). 29. Rxa7? Ra8 30.Rh7 than 30...Rxa4? is not really now-or-never moment for grabbing the pawn back. Inseting moves 30...Rh8!(-0.66/16) 31.Rc7 Rhc8 32. Rh7 than ...Rxa4 yields the same position as 29. Rxa7? but with black rook gaining the open c-file.
There is a stronger move than 31.b3 (0.30/16) to refute 30...Rf6? which is a wrong move that I sucessfully avoided [31.d4 (+0.86/16) Nd3 32.b3 Rc8 33.Nc4 Kxd4 34.Rd7+ Kc3 35.Rf3 with my king in danger and at least cannot defend black pawns.]
Another 31.b3 (-0.79/16) - the one corresponds to 30...Rxa8?! : stronger move that allows white to get back in the game was [31.d4 Nd3 32.b3 Ra2 33.Rd1 Rd8 34.Nf3 Nf2 35.Re1 Ne4 36.Rb7 37.Rd7+ Kc6 38.Ne5+ (-0.23/16) gives black trouble of defending]
After 32.Nc4 I thought blak can take the pawn on d3 by Nxd3 BUT 32...Nxd3?? was a blunder! Correct was 32...Kd4 to add contorl to d3 and eventually that pawn can be safely taken (need long time). Refutation to the quirky Nxd3?? was 33.Rd1 Ke4 (3.57/16) than not 34. Rxh6?? (0.00/16) but [34.Rd7 f4 35.R1xd3 winning a piece!!!]
Back to the game. 29.Rf3?? (-1.31/16) could be more strongly meet by [29...Rb7 {29...Nxa4?! (-0.74/16)was played in the game } 30.Rxb7 Nxb7 trading off white's active rook 31.Nb3 $c8 32.g4 f4] 32.Rh7!? was interesting: Fritz considered it a blunder (-2.11/16) since he think I can play 32...Rh8, chase the rook to harmless f7 or g7 square and my another rook can go to d8 and hit the white knight and pawn. But this CANNOT BE FORCED as the the black rook has a7, b7, e7, h7 squares for attack but I have only 3 defenders (including the king)! Thus chasing the white rook can only get draw by repetition and the -2.11 was chimeric.
Late middlegame - early endgame (completion of toughwork!)