This game to me took a lot of concentration. Your opponent seemed evenly matched with you. He lost focus in his end game, but still a good game; worth studying.

gxtmf1: plural of analysis ----> analyses, pronounced analy-sees

Yes, you are right. This was an incredibly long game. The last game to finish in the first round in any section of a total of about 100 games and did go well beyond midnight into the morning hours. So that did make the victory all the more satisfying.

ah, i remember this tournament very well...

you forgot to mention how this was the last game to finish, and ended at about one in the morning.

i look forward to seeing your other games.

Thanks Kingfisher. Yeah, you bring up a good point. Whenever you play xg6 to capture a minor piece on that square you must be careful as the opponent may have dangerous play on the open file with a Rook.

7.Ne5? would of been a big mistake. Not only does it give tempo as Matt pointed out, but if you really go for 8.Nxg6?? hxg6! allows black to get nasty on the h file.

Did it once myself. Not fun at all.

Like Karpov in his good old days.. He played a lot of Caro Kann games himself, and made a lot of endgaming doing so. Not always easy to make small advantages grow, without "help" from your opponent.. Nice logical game.

...great...i'll get back always here at ur's...good stuff!...

Thank you for your comments Spiffe. Actually 23. h3 would be a major blunder after 23...Nxf2 when the Knight on g3 would then be undermined.

I've played at LPO myself several times in the past.  One of my most memorable games ever was at that tournament, against a friend of mine.  I had him in a position where his queen was hanging and he was facing mate-in-one, not able to defend both... but he actually had a winning move on the board and missed it!

Your game was well-played.  Wouldn't the immediate 23.h3 have won the knight clean, though?

Thanks! I'm trying to learn how to analyze games and your blogs are very helpful! Please continue your analysis (what is the plural of analysis?)!

Thank you for your feedback PavleKosic. I can say that I did not consider this move you suggest as it moves a piece twice before completing development of the remaining pieces.

I have just looked at 7. Ne5 with Rybka and it shows it is playable (+0.02) but not in the top 3 prospects. It seems better is to continue with the development of the pieces as all of the top choices by Rybka help with the development of the pieces in some way.

I must admit that I am impresed with endgame, as Caro-Kann have a reputation of good for black in the endgame, couse of the solid structure. You played quite well in my opinion, although I personaly like more to play Maroczy atack or Spassky variation against Caro Kann as I think it puts more presure on black, but its a rather personall choice. I think that interesting move would have been 7. Ne5 with the idea of getting rid of black white squere bishop as I found that this bishop can be realy anoying, also its a slow opening so waste of tempo is hard for black to use, as he also needs time to develop. I think that this move should be analized as I dont have Rybka program I cant do it myself, but if you find it interesting put it trough and post analises.

PS nice that you have returned with blogs;)

For me  Nxe4 better  than Qxe4