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12. f3 Bh5
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Ugh. My foolishly optimistic attack on black's f7 square is stopped. That would be fine if my pieces were well placed. Here comes the advice I have read at least twenty times in various chess improvement books (but fail to listen to way too often). "No cheap tricks!!!. Assume your opponent will find the best move to defend the position. Only choose plans that improve your position, not ones that rely on your opponent to make a mistake." So, are my pieces well placed at this point? NO!!! My king is unsafe (the f2 pawn no longer blocks the g2-a7 diagonal and does not defend the g3 or e3 squares anymore), my bishop on c4 is hanging (undefended), my knight on g5 is into enemy territory and only one decent escape square (2 if you count the h3 square but that is a terrible location for a knight to go to), my d-pawn is hanging (it is technically undefended at the moment since my queen is tied to the defense of my e1 rook) and my dark squared bishop is undeveloped. That is a lot of problems to solve so this was a terrible opening for white and amazing for black. During the game I knew my position was quite bad because I was able to identify all of those problems. My next move attempts to solve two of the problems but fails terribly. |
 
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13. Be3
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I thought developing the bishop was the way to go here. It defended the d4 pawn, developed the bishop, and allowed my queen to move since the other rook could now defend the e1 rook. I felt good about it. |
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13... Rxe3
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My heart sank when I saw this move. What a beautiful tactic (decoy) my opponent came up with. I never considered this in my analysis. Another important piece of chess advice to learn here. Before considering possible moves (candidate moves) calculate ALL possible checks and captures the opponent can make. Even if the check or capture looks ridiculous, calculate the lines anyway. It is possible that a tactic called a decoy is being used......decoy is dragging a piece to a square that will result in mate or bigger losses than were sacrificed. |
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14. Rxe3
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Do you see it now? Black sacrificed the exchange (rook with a trading value of 5 pawns for a bishop trading value of 3 pawns) to decoy my rook onto a square that will lead to worse losses for me 14....Bf4 attacks both the rook and the knight. That would be fine if the rook could safely move to a square that defends the hanging knight but the e5 square belongs to black. Obviously the knight can not move anywhere that will defend the rook. There is one option that might look promising at first....15. Nxf7 would at least take a pawn down with the knight since the knight attacks the queen from there however remember another major problem of my position from earlier. My king is unsafe!!! Black can respond to 15. Nxf7 with 15...Bxe3!! ignoring the attack on the queen since white is forced to move the king out of check. |
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14... Bf4
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I deserved this for violating important opening chess principles and underestimating the defensive resourcefulness of my opponent. |
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15. Re1 Bxg5
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This does not appear quite as bad as it really is to some players so let me explain a little. White is down a pawn if you count the trading value of pieces so that seems troublesome but not completely lost as I think this position really is. The true trading value of knights and bishops is really closer to 3.25 rather than 3 but players don't learn this until a little further into their chess development. The bishop pair (one player has both bishops and the other does not) makes the combined trading value of the bishops closer to 7 (3.5 each). Therefore, the reality of this position is worse than down 1 pawn.....it is much closer to down 2 pawns maybe even more due to other factors. My king is forever less safe than black's, my isolated d-pawn will eventually fall since black has more pieces that can attack it than I have to defend it, and black has no central pawns to limit the mobility of his bishops. My position is full of dark squared holes which black's knights will eventually exploit. |
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16. d5
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Now I am in desperation mode so I try to rid myself of one weakness. |
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16... Ne7 17. Qe2
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My plan here was to actually improve my pieces for once while using real threats to do so. That is how one should play chess. 17. Qe2 attacks the e7 knight for a 2nd time. Black hangs the knight if 17....Nexd5. Why? Because of black's weak back rank. Let's look at the line. 17....Nexd5 18. Nxd5 Nxd5 19. Bxd5....it looks like black will be up a pawn but wait....if 19....Qxd5 20. Qe8+ Rxe8 21. Rxe8#. The result is the same if 17....Nfxe5. Black has a couple of reasonable defenses left...Ne8, Nd7, Nc8, or Kf8. What is wrong with 17...Nf5? The pawn fork 18. g4. My guess is 17....Nc8 even though it looks scary for a second. Back rank mate is covered by the f6 knight though and black's next play is Nd6 blockading the d-pawn and covering the e8 square a 2nd time. Black will easily reorganize and white's temporary initiative will be easily solved. I could have played on for a while hoping for a blunder from my opponent but I prefer getting to sharing and hopefully helping the team. |
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