Dangerous counterplay
watusi (1675) vs. anotherminorpawn (1522)
Annotated by:
gleeful
(1982)
Chess opening:
English (A22), Bremen, reverse dragon
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1. c4
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Black blundered a piece, but found some counterplay in the center before allowing it to slip out of his grasp. Interesting game with some important lessons learned. |
 
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1... e5
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English opening with 1...e5 often leads to a reversed siciliean with an extra tempo for white. |
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2. Nc3
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Natural developing move, controlling d5 and e4. |
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2... Nf6
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Countering white's previous move. |
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3. g3
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Preparing to fiachetto the bishop, this seems to be the main line (though I've never looked it up). |
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3... d5
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Trading pawns before the bishop can influence the d5 square. |
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4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Qb3
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Developing the queen, attacking the knight, and adding pressure to the weak f7 pawn. I don't usually develop my queen so early, but can't find fault with it. |
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5... Nb6
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Retreating and devending the b7 square, which will soon be attacked by the fianchettoed bishop. |
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6. Bg2 Be6
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Forcing the queen to move again, costing white a tempo. |
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7. Qc2 c6
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The thought was to protect both the b and c pawns (from bishop and queen). |
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8. e3
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Preparing for Nge2, possibly also d4. It seems unusual to advance the e pawn after fianchettoing the kingside bishop. |
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8... Nb8d7 9. Nge2 Bd6
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Clears kingside for castling, and eyeing the g3 pawn. |
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10. b3
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Preparing to fianchetto the queenside bishop, also prevents black's knight or bishop from advancing to c4. |
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10... O-O 11. Bb2 f5
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Advancing to attack g3. |
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12. f4
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Prevents the attack, but severely weakens the kingside castle. |
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12... Nd5
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Offering to trade knights and hoping to open the c file. |
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13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. d3
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Countering black's pawn center. |
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14... Bb4+ 15. Bc3 Rc8
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Pinning the bishop to the queen. |
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16. Qd2 d4
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Attempting to add pressure, but forgetting about my bishop. I still expected white's bishop to be pinned. |
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17. Bxb4 dxe3
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Liquidating the center before white can destroy it. Specifically afraid of exd4 exd4, leaving me defending an advanced isolated pawn without a dark squared bishop.
I almost resigned, but decided to see what opportunities presented themselves. |
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