Wartime streak, Day 9: Win (1566-1589)

Yesterday's game confirmed that at my level Rapid games are still decided not by positional understanding or calculation prowess but by blunders. Going into today's game my plan was to expect that my opponent would blunder, be vigilant in detecting when he did, and avoid silly blunders myself. It's not clear how much these plans, although they sound good on paper, actually work in practice.

For today's game Chess.com matched me with one KrokodilKim, rated 1572 out of Croatia. It was an exciting game, volatile, in the course of which I amassed a six-point lead in material, allowed the lead to shrink to just one point, and then promoted that one point to a queen in a king-and-pawn endgame that should have been a draw. The win improves my wartime record to 5-1-3 and puts me back within striking distance of 1600.

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Position 1: Black to move

Assigned the black pieces, I replied to White's 1.e4 with the French 1...e6. White advanced 2.e5, to which Game Review wanted me to reply 2...d6 with an immediate attack, but it also approves of 2...c5. What it doesn't approve of is White's 3.f4, to which I replied 3...Nc6. Next came 4.Nf3, and I developed with 4...Nge7 en-route to the g6-square. White's 5.Bd3, which I thought was an awful move for blocking the d-pawn's advance, prompted me to reconsider 5...Ng6 and instead I attacked with 5...Nb4. White's 6.Be4 got the bish to a safe square, cleared a path for the d-pawn and maintained pressure on g6. I attacked again with 6...d5, and after White en-passanted me with 7.exd6 and I rechopped with 7...Qxd6 White kicked my knight with 8.c3. I retreated with 8...Nbd5, double-attacking White's undefended f4-pawn, and after 9.0-0 my advantage of -0.49 flipped to +0.83 with the move 9...Nxf4.

1. Why did I choose 9...Nxf4?
White's pawn on f4 was undefended and I was attacking it twice. I chopped with the knight and not the queen to avoid any disco tricks on her highness from White's rook and bish.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
Even looking at the position now, without the help of the engine and Google Gemini I can't figure out why capturing with my knight shifted the advantage to White. The engine, looking ahead to move 20, sees a future where I am still up a pawn but White has three major pieces staring down an open f-file while my pieces are poorly coordinated and mostly passive. Gemini agrees that opening the f-file for White, along with moving the knight a fourth time when my only other developed pieces were a queen and a bish, is worth more to White than his f-pawn. Is that enough of a reason to forgo capturing in a similar situation next time? Probably not.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The move Stockfish wants is a tossup between 9...Qxf4 and 9...g6. Capturing with the queen would keep the knight centralized and would only be her second move. Furthermore, it would come with tempo on White's e4-bish. As for 9...g6, it would reduce the scope of White's light-square bish and take away the h5-square from White's queen.

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Position 2: Black to move

White continued 10.Ng5 with pressure on my h7- and f7-pawns. I parried with 10...f5, prompting White to retreat his bish with 11.Bc2. Game Review labels my 11...h6 a mistake, preferring 11...Neg6, but White's 12.Ba4+ was worse. I was thankful for the opportunity to exchange light-square bishes and White obliged with 12...Bd7 13.Bxd7+. To avoid getting knight-forked I rechopped with 13...Qxd7, and an exchange of knights followed with 14.Rxf4 hxg5. White retreated his rook with 15.Rf2, and I prepared to deploy my bish with 15...Ng6. White broke in the center with 16.d4, correctly as my king was still uncastled, and as this discoed an attack on my g5-pawn I pushed 16...f4. White's 17.Qg4 attacked my g5-pawn, and 17...Be7 defended it with development.

Here White chopped with 18.Bxf4, presumably expecting me to chop back with my pawn, but I rechopped with 18...Nxf4. Game Review classifies 19.Rxf4 as excellent, which is bizarre considering 19...gxf4. White chopped a pawn with 20.Qxg7, and I finally castled with 20...0-0-0. White continued 21.Nd2, and I capitalized on having three attackers against two defenders to simplify with 21...cxd4 22.cxd4 Qxd4+ 23.Qxd4 Rxd4. White attacked my rook with 24.Nf3, prompting 24...Rd5. White checked with 25.Rc1+, and I should have centralized the king but was afraid to and replied 25...Kb8. White advanced 26.a4, and I stacked on the d-file with 26...Rhd8. We each tried improving our pieces, but importantly White's king made it to the center of the board while mine remained in the corner: 27.Kf2 Bc5+ 28.Ke2 e4 29.Rc4 a6 30.b4 Be3 31.h4 Rg8 32.Ng4 Rd8+ 33.Kf3 Rh8 34.g3 Rf2+ 35.Ke4 Bd4 36.gxf4 Rxf4+ 37.Kd5 Rhxh4 38.Ne6. My next move, 38...Rh8, isn't considered a blunder as the eval bar only went from -4.88 to -3.86, but as it needlessly gave up a rook I should understand what the correct plan was.

1. Why did I choose 38...Rh8?
White's king was shielded from my rooks, so I needed to reroute one of them to a more impactful position.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
I moved the wrong rook, allowing White not only to win an exchange but to chop my bish into the bargain.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 38...Rf1, en-route to the d1-square, presumably so my passer on e5 could advance toward promotion.

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Position 3: Black to move

White continued 39.Nxf4, and I missed the in-between 39...Rd8+, instead chopping with 39.exf4 and inviting 39...Kxd4. Stockfish at depth=20 evaluates my advantage at -4.36, compared to Game Review's 2.8, but both are in agreement that my next move, 40...Re8, was disastrous, reducing my advantage to -0.30.

1. Why did I choose 40...Re8?
My passer was on the f-file, White's king was on the d-file, and by positioning my rook on the e-file I was keeping White's king away from my pawn.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
White had only to swing his rook around to the f-file and force an exchange that would result in an equal-material endgame.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
40...Rf8 would allow my passer to advance and force White's king and rook away from the a- and b-pawns, which my king could then take on solo.