Game 4, Pseudo-London(?), RickF1959(1299) vs. sprcow(1394), Saturday 1/5/2019
I wasn't sure if I would queue up today, but I decided to keep the streak going even though it's not a work day.
I got matched up against someone rated ~1570 and was ready for a fight, but they abandoned the game and I had to queue again. Second matchup was 1299 and I had black yet again, but what can you do?
My opponent opened 1.d4, which is definitely less common at my rating, but I've been studying my Grünfeld Defence and was hoping to put some of my practice to work, so I dove right in with 1...Nf6. White annoyingly responded with 2.Nf3, which could still transpose, but then they brought out their other knight, played Bf4, e3, and the slow h3, hammering out all the moves nearly instantly. Clearly this was some kind of system they use, like a London except with an earlier Nc3 and the over-cautious h3.
I think I played fairly well in an unknown opening, and my opponent made a strategic error by capturing my c-pawn and opening the long diagonal for my dark square bishop. I pressed the advantage for a bit, but failed to find the most challenging continuation and we ended up trading a lot of pieces.
I thought Black had a better position because I had managed to entomb White's bishop, but the engine shows that white actually has a slight edge through most of the ending. White almost trapped my rook a couple times (and could have with optimal play), but escaped and then White blundered their bishop, resigning immediately after I captured.
On one hand, I'm a little disappointed by parts of my play, and find it ironic that I win the game I only had one tactical shot at closing out despite giving my opponent a couple options to get ahead, and lost the two games where I had an advantage for large parts of the game. On the other hand, part of the way to win chess games is to not blunder for long enough that your opponent does. While it wasn't a very elegant tactic to win, I did still hold long enough to let my opponent make a mistake, so it's not any more or less legitimate than other wins or losses.
Overall, I'm a little happier with my play yesterday, though, even though I lost.
CAPS score today put me around 90, with 56% 'best move', which is not bad (again with the usual caveat that it's impossible to take out of context.)
I got matched up against someone rated ~1570 and was ready for a fight, but they abandoned the game and I had to queue again. Second matchup was 1299 and I had black yet again, but what can you do?
My opponent opened 1.d4, which is definitely less common at my rating, but I've been studying my Grünfeld Defence and was hoping to put some of my practice to work, so I dove right in with 1...Nf6. White annoyingly responded with 2.Nf3, which could still transpose, but then they brought out their other knight, played Bf4, e3, and the slow h3, hammering out all the moves nearly instantly. Clearly this was some kind of system they use, like a London except with an earlier Nc3 and the over-cautious h3.
I think I played fairly well in an unknown opening, and my opponent made a strategic error by capturing my c-pawn and opening the long diagonal for my dark square bishop. I pressed the advantage for a bit, but failed to find the most challenging continuation and we ended up trading a lot of pieces.
I thought Black had a better position because I had managed to entomb White's bishop, but the engine shows that white actually has a slight edge through most of the ending. White almost trapped my rook a couple times (and could have with optimal play), but escaped and then White blundered their bishop, resigning immediately after I captured.
On one hand, I'm a little disappointed by parts of my play, and find it ironic that I win the game I only had one tactical shot at closing out despite giving my opponent a couple options to get ahead, and lost the two games where I had an advantage for large parts of the game. On the other hand, part of the way to win chess games is to not blunder for long enough that your opponent does. While it wasn't a very elegant tactic to win, I did still hold long enough to let my opponent make a mistake, so it's not any more or less legitimate than other wins or losses.
Overall, I'm a little happier with my play yesterday, though, even though I lost.
CAPS score today put me around 90, with 56% 'best move', which is not bad (again with the usual caveat that it's impossible to take out of context.)
Comments
Post a Comment