Annotated chess game

first i like to congrats you with annotation nr 300

Right! I can see your first mistake right away! That is going along with this Master Mater business. You are out-psych - ing yourself from the start! Try reading a book on sports psychology. You should be telling yourself that you are playing a good player, over 2000, but what of it? You have drawn against players of that rating and one day you will beat one.

It's whatever works for you. For some people the 'he ain't such a mountain to climb as a steep hill within my capacity to scale' will work; for others, the 'this dude is Everest!' is not in fact a bad approach. Possibly the summit is harder to achieve psychologically, but once having reached it... Man, the satisfaction! By the way, Jo is the sort of person (I believe) who, when she does win one, would hope it will be when that opponent is at somewhere near his best. Of course, there has to be a mistake, else it will never happen, but you know what I mean...

Just a nitpick: don't you mean 1...g5, and 2.Nxg5 h6 3.Nf3 etc in the continuation next move?  

I do not play this line often. but for me it is not only taking you out of the database. but also to create open files and all kinds of threads that mess up your position. in my opinion you should not play this line against anyone above 1950 rating

you mean 1. ... g5, and the other move numbers are off by one.

I think maybe white should have played d3 instead of d4

I happen to hate moves like this... EDIT; Nxf7 is a very daring move against a player like Freddy!  

instead of 4. Nf3, isn't Nxf7 Kxf7 dxe5 worth a punt? Black hasn't exactly got an advantage in development for his sac, and he can't castle. (edit) well, seems better than Nf3 and Nfd2 (Ne5 maybe?)

Let's look at 4.Nxf7: 4...Kxf7 5.dxe5 and White has 3 pawns for the Knight, and the Black King-side is broken up. But can White maintain her advanced pawn? After 5...Qe7, White might be well advised to let the e5-pawn go in the interests of mobilization: 6.e4 Qxe5 7.Bc4ch K-moves 8,Nc3.

You are wrong jkarp. alot of variations show that castling queenside is much better.

As usual, jkarp is sort of right and sort of not right. In general it is indeed safer to castle short (i.e. K-side). The question is: is it safer to castle short in this game, and right now? Maybe castling long is safer? Maybe White should wait, perhaps keep Black guessing? Given the open lines Black has available on the K-side - especially the g-file, I'd think twice, and twice again, about castling short. Castling long leaves the king on a square that should contain a rook (c1), so you would might have to spend 3 tempi shuffling about (0-0-0 ...; Kb1...; Rc1...), or else think about employing the rooks elsewhere. Given the hanging pawn couple in the centre, I'd probably castle Q-side.

On average, it is a bit better to castle queenside than kingside. If you understand that activity is the most important thing in chess, this should be obvious. The d file is usually open and the f file is more often closed. The main point of castling is to bring the rooks into the game efficiently, only secondary is the king safety. When you have advantage in activity, that compensates anything.

Now here's where you see easy19 at his diabolical canniest. He knows White will be thinking about which side to castle on, and that probably she'll choose the long option. 'Right!' says he, playing the Knight to b4, 'Castle long an you will, but it will cost you!' White's best is to hang on to her light-square bishop, and play it to b1, and get ready to get rid of the knight by a3 subsequently.

There you go. The good old light-square weakness. Note that it was White's 'good' bishop that bit the dust.

Black has got back quite a bit for his pawn: the bishop pair; White remaining Bishop rather passively placed, even if her Knight looks good right now; plenty of open lines to play on; and the vulnerability of White's centre pawns. The game must be at least even by now, if not slightly in Black's favour.

a3 seems to leave the white squares horribly weak around the white king. Surely 20. Kb1 was much better?

I agree with charleshiggie.

As do I. The light squares in the centre are of major concern, so much more so if that weakness extends all the way to the left flank. After 20.Kb1 Bd6 21.Qf3 Qxf3 22.gxf3 Bxe5 23.dxe5 Rxd1ch 24.Rxd1 Rg2, Black will pick up a pawn, but the game looks pretty level from then on. But another plan might have been to let the a-pawn go with something like 20.Qf2!? Bxa2!? 21.g4! Qg5 22.Nxf7 Bxf7 23.Qxf7 Qxg4. This position is unclear, but White would not have been badly placed.

and your white squares are horribly weak - see my previous comments.....

opposite colored bishop positions we should especailly care for the activity of that bishop-here white's bishop is almost like a pawn.

All your pieces are now on black squares. It looks like you are trying to play draughts (or checkers as our American cousins would say). I think g3 is another mistake. Maybe now was the time to give the pawn back with say 24. Qf3, or - as you play Rg1 next move - play it on move 24 instead. There is opposite coloured bishops in this position. In the middle game they help the attacking side, but in an end game they produce far more drawing possibilities. In the middle game the white squared weaknesses are horribly exposed by his queen and bishop, where in an end game it would be very hard for him to take advantage of it. So it is easily worth a pawn to get the queens off.

Look how Black proceeded by threats - against the g-pawn; against the rook (the White Queen was hampered by the need to guard that, and watch the g2-square as well) - and now establishes a firm, incontestable, fee-simple tenure of the central light squares. Possession, nine parts of the Law? Not here: here it is the whole ten! Leaving aside the question of whether White could have improved earlier in this diagram sequence, what ought to have been Move 26? Let's try the GKE 26.Bd4 Qc2ch 27.Ke1 Bg4 (this move ought to be examined, as should ...Bd3 {not so good, as it turns out}, though 27...c5 is a good move as well. But lets go with 27...Bg4). The threat is 28...Qd1ch 29.Kf2 Qd2 etc. So White plays 28.Rg2 Qd1ch 29.Kf2 Qxf1ch 30.Kxf1 Bh3 and Black picks up the Exchange, Rook for Bishop. Observe that White dare not try Bxa7 anytime soon, as ...b6 leaves the Bishop inprisoned, with Harry the Headman close by. It is hard to find any really sensible move instead of 26.Bd4.

This sudden collapse is wholly understandable. White's position was under a fearful strain, and any slip would have sent the whole structure into the Tay.

I'll be watching out for that game  

me to

heh. nail.