Game 6, French Tarrasch, Scott_Hake(1342) vs. sprcow(1412), Tuesday 1/8/2019
Yet another game as black, yet another French Defense. Today was the Tarrasch, which always makes me think of the Tarrasque. Since it's strong and scary, like the Tarrasque, I guess it makes sense. White puts the knight on d2 where black can't pin it, though I don't play the Winawer anyway so in some ways I feel like it makes white's play more awkward and takes away their Nb5 ideas. Usually when someone plays 3.Nd2 against me, I still am a little cautious because it means they have at least some idea what they're doing in the opening and I might be in for a fight.
Today started out extremely typical, but my opponent allowed me to take the d4 pawn and then played a dubious knight move that also gave up the e5 pawn. I was worried I'd missed something tricky, but it looks like they just straight up lost those two pawns and now I had a comfortable advantage.
I tried to leverage this into a kingside attack, but I just couldn't get my pieces into the game quickly enough and convinced myself that making a few trades would benefit me, since I was up on pawns. Unfortunately, this just allowed white to defuse the situation and we ended up in a position where my lead dried up, and then I blundered a tactic because I didn't notice a back rank threat against myself. It's easy to tunnel vision on protecting your pinned pieces!
My time management wasn't awful, but I still played a number of obvious moves too slowly and was feeling some pressure by the end. I finished with only about a minute left on the clock. I think I need to continue to hone my sense of danger and work on keeping awareness of the full board throughout the game.
Today started out extremely typical, but my opponent allowed me to take the d4 pawn and then played a dubious knight move that also gave up the e5 pawn. I was worried I'd missed something tricky, but it looks like they just straight up lost those two pawns and now I had a comfortable advantage.
I tried to leverage this into a kingside attack, but I just couldn't get my pieces into the game quickly enough and convinced myself that making a few trades would benefit me, since I was up on pawns. Unfortunately, this just allowed white to defuse the situation and we ended up in a position where my lead dried up, and then I blundered a tactic because I didn't notice a back rank threat against myself. It's easy to tunnel vision on protecting your pinned pieces!
My time management wasn't awful, but I still played a number of obvious moves too slowly and was feeling some pressure by the end. I finished with only about a minute left on the clock. I think I need to continue to hone my sense of danger and work on keeping awareness of the full board throughout the game.
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