A Long Haitus
Tuesday night was my first time back to the club in 2 1/2 years! As I self-predicted back then, the realities surrounding Covid for me were far, far greater than for example when I got the virus itself. I got Covid back to back so had it for a month, and never took a day off work since I worked from home, it was more of a nuisance than anything else.
10.Bg5 Okay, I realized that I had left theory here, and played this move since Nd2 drops a pawn and at least I came up with an aggressive response for defending my center pawns, not knowing any theoretical move for the Arch-angelsk variation at this point. I always thought I'd just figure something out at the board if I got this variation, then this happened!
11.Bd5 I did think about playing h3 here, which probably makes more sense, as it allows the Bg5 to retreat to ..h4, instead of trading it on f6, as played in the game.
13.BxNf6. I was afraid of the variation 13.Bh5 g5, 14.Bg3 g4, 15.Nh4. He said he would have traded pawns in the center instead of ...g4, and I wasn't even sure if 15.Nh4 works or not but looks incredibly risky to play. I also figured that the sac on g5 just loses.
14...Nd8? A horrendous move, from a positional perspective, lets me back in the game. For White, I was for example already looking at continuing with BxNc6, Nb4 Bb7, Nd5 with the same sort of concept as played in the game. I suggested 14...Rb8 to him after the game, a multi-purpose move of covering the b-file and getting the rook off the a-file, just to develop it.
16...c5. This move took me by surprise, as I was only expecting either ...Qg6 or ..cxd4. ...Qd8 looked passive, but Stockfish prefers it.
18.a4 a4 is going to be a thematic move against the Archangelsk, anyway. If the pawns on d4 ever get traded, then a Ra3 rook-lift is possible, and from there it could go to g3.
18...bxa? It's hard to believe that this is a losing move, and that White is suddenly now up nearly +3! I figured that Black must have some way to defend after 19.Qxa, but I guess not. I did note that Black could have tried to defend with 18...Ba7, although the computer also gives that as +2; of course, among humans the position can still go either way.
I noticed the difference in the game is that after 19.Qxa4 Bb7, there is 20.dxe5 possibly followed by 21.Qxa6 though it probably requires a think. It's hard to believe that 20.dxe5 dxe5, 21.Qxa6 Qc8 with ...Re6 coming, is already +4 for White. This is where evaluation skills come in to play.
19...Na5?? I saw that this drops a piece, right away, but still played my next two moves slowly. After the game, I pointed out that White was threatening a double threat of taking on b7 and b6, after Qc6. So, Black had to answer this threat somehow.
From here out, I had to remind myself not to drop a piece by putting one on a covered square. Who knows what is possible, since we are probably all more used to playing online since Covid.
21...Rab8. More expected was 21...Qxb2, 22.dxe5 dxe5, 23.Qxc5 Rac8, 24.Qb4
35.g4?! I felt like this was a mistake when I played it, should play Ke2 instead to control my back-rank, but it's easy to just want to move when a piece up.
I was down to 34 minutes when he blundered his piece, so it was incredibly poor time-management on my part, the sort of thing that is more decisive in a Class Championship game amongst peers. It pays to put off thinking by knowing more or longer main-line theory.
I didn't find any games with this variation (C78 with Bb7) in my OTB games.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get Bd5 first, then realized that it creates a pressure in the center.
I agree, Nd8 looks horrible, just look where the knight ends up, Rb8 is the best.
I liked 18. a4, 18... bxa4 is really bad, computer then suggests 19... cxd4 20. 20. Qc6 getting 2 pawns for the knight, 18...Ba7 which I prefer, loses pawn. After his blunder the game was over.
The difference in the class showed.
Thanks! Yeah, you pretty much summed up the game. My opponent is still a boy, but he is very focused in the opening, and then I think I may have bored him a little by all the time I took. He sort of got cold in between the wait, I'd say. If he would have put more of a fight before he was down a piece, in any of those critical moves, it would have been a different game.
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing about Bd5 is that the engine liked it too, first choice, and evaluated my position more highly than I did throughout the game.
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