French Defense: Win (1565-1589)

The school year is winding down. Regular classes ended last week, and all that's left are two weeks of final exams. Since it's only at school that I can bring my A-game, that leaves me roughly two weeks to hit 1600 on Chess.com Rapid. Failing in that endeavor and going through the summer still sub-1600 would be a disappointment.

For this afternoon's game Chess.com matched me against one Nihad_Karimli, rated 1549 out of Azerbaijan. It was a game I was hesitant to play on account of a mosquito having disturbed my sleep at night, but everyone had left the school and I was feeling confident. We played five moves of theory a-la the Steinitz Variation of the Classical French, and on move fourteen opponent blundered his queen to a skewer. A move later he resigned, and for the third time I am a win away from 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. The game continued 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 and as always I was nervous about 4.Bg5, but thankfully White made life easy by pushing 4.e5 and after 4...Nfd7 5.Nf3 c5 he departed from theory with 6.Be3. Game Review wanted me to develop with 6...Nc6, adding pressure to d5, and after 6...cxd4 it wanted White to rechop with 7.Qxd4, but White chopped with 7.Bxd4 and his advantage in the game dropped to -0.6. Now I deployed my knight with 7...Nc6, and when White attacked with 8.Bb5 I was again relieved. Game Review evaluates the position at -0.9, but after 8...Nxd4 the eval receded to -0.3.

1. Why did I choose the move 8...Nxd4?
Usually exchanging a knight for a bish benefits the player losing the knight.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
White's dark-square bish had limited scope given his pawn on e5. My f6-knight, on the other hand, was an active piece pressuring two important central squares. Furthermore, my capture allowed White to centralize his queen without the loss of a tempo. White's light-square bish on b5 eventually traded itself for my d7 knight because it had little better to do, but had it traded itself the f6-knight then rechopping with the b-pawn would allow my own light-square bish to develop more efficiently.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 8...Be7, prepping castles and an f-pawn break and leaving it to White to figure out what to do with his bishes.

Position 2: Black to move

White did me a favor with 9.Bxd7+, allowing my bish to activate for free with 9...Bxd7 and restoring the eval to -0.8. White rechopped with 10.Qxd4 and I developed my last remaining undeveloped minor with 10...Be7, but that send the eval back to -0.3.

1. Why did I choose the move 10...Be7?
Especially given the absence of White's light-square bish, I was keen to castle and break with my f-pawn.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
While the engine doesn't disapprove of 10...Be7, it considers it passive.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
Game Review's top move was 10...Qa5, pinning White's c3-knight, controlling more squares on the queenside, and defending a7 so the rook could activate on the semiopen c-file.

Position 3: Black to move

The game continued with 11.0-0 0-0, and White, likely anticipating my f-pawn break, vacated his knight from the f-file with 12.Nd2 such that he could meet my 12...f6 with 13.f4. My pattern recognition lights started flashing as I noticed White's king and queen on the same dark-square diag that my dark-square bish had access to with the f5-square. Only problem was I wasn't controlling f5. Hence my 13...b6 push, but that lowered my advantage from -1.5 to -0.9.

1. Why did I choose the move 13...b6?
From b6 the pawn controlled c5, whence my bish could execute the skewer and win White's queen.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
I was playing hope chess, setting a trap for White that he could have easily averted with 14.Kh1.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
Game Review's top move was 13...fxe5, prompting 14.fxe5 and resulting in an iso f-pawn for White.