Two Blitz Games
Last night I played two blitz games (8 minutes per side) for the first time in a month. The rust showed, and also my lack of opening study.
The first game: http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=6784450
The game started out with the Sicilian, but then my opponent played 3. c3 which I'm not familiar with. I played 3. ... g6 which is out of book. I guess I was planning to fianchetto my bishop, but I wouldn't have enough pressure on the center. The most popular moves here would have been Nf6 or d5. I don't think I'd be comfortable with either of them and might opt for 3. ... e5 instead. That looks relatively safe.
But that's not what I played. Instead, I let white's two center pawns hem me in. I made the nice move 11. ... Qc7 with a double threat, which gained me the h2 pawn. After capturing the pawn, I immediately backed my bishop out; in retrospect maybe I should have left it there and dared him to play g3 in which case I'd trade my bishop for his two remaining pawns and his king would be bare. On the other hand, my pieces were still hemmed in and couldn't continue the attack.
In general, I had a miserable position and decided I'd had enough and played 16. ... Bxe5?? out of frustration more than anything else. After that, the game was pretty much over.
Here's the second game: http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=6785147
Once again, I had the black pieces and my opponent befuddled me with the opening move of 1. b4. I debated whether to respond with d5 or e5, eventually settling on d5. For some unknown reason my second move was c5, which is a mistake. Then, to top it off, instead of capturing the pawn on move 4, I passed, I think because I wanted to entice him to play d5, locking in his own bishop. He did, but his pawns on d4 and c5 were a thorn in my side.
My next strange move was 8. ... Qa5+, where I had no plan. I played it and then retreated, which was silly. I then played the incredibly stupid 11. ... b5, hoping he would take en passant (because everyone captures en passant), allowing me to take with the queen and attack his bishop. Of course, he could just capture the pawn with his bishop on e2 (which I didn't see, and apparently he didn't either). And if I wanted him to take the pawn I should have just played 11. ... b6 instead.
Still, I managed to open up the g- and h- files for my rooks and after move 31. Rac1, I had mate with Rxh3+ followed by Qh7+. But I didn't play Rxh3+, instead playing Qg7 for some reason. My opponent didn't see the reply Rc8+ that would have ended my attack, instead playing the losing Rg1. As soon as he played that, I played Rxh3+; maybe all the tactics trainer problems are helping a little.
Anyway, two games, two bad openings for me, but I salvaged one win and one loss. I think I'll study the openings some more before playing another game.