Game 7, French Defense, Steiner Variation, ADAMASK(1423) vs. sprcow(1398), Wednesday 1/9/2019
Today's warmup puzzle rush was especially sluggish, so I did a second one and felt much sharper. Got yet another pairing with black and my opponent was slow to start so I checked out their profile. Half a dozen comments on his profile commented about how he abandons games he's losing, so I was debating aborting and trying again, but then he moved and I decided to just go ahead and play.
He played a response to French Defense I've never seen before, with 2.c4, clamping down on d5. I avoided playing d5, and so it transposed into a sort of english-y position. I managed to get an advantage but at the expense of time (typical). He advanced a couple pieces on the queenside that seemed more threatening than they actually were and I should have just continued developing and ignored them. Instead, I kicked them out but allowed them to reposition to attack on the kingside.
I allowed my opponent double my pawns at the cost of a bishop, because it felt like I would still have pretty good prospects going into the middle game. My king was stranded in the center, but I had good pressure on white's center pawns and better control of the pawn breaks.
Eventually, I overlooked an opportunity white had to give a strong check (that's what I get for advancing the f-pawn) and things got a little hairy. We both missed some tactics, and ultimately I ended up coming out a piece up, but very low on time (again typical). I didn't play the most critical lines after that point, but managed to apply enough pressure to eventually win another piece and then start taking material by force and my opponent resigned.
Maybe the worst CAPs score I've had for a game this long, but going through it afterward it seems like many of the tactics I missed did not create concrete advantage very quickly, so I feel like the game was at least 'okay' in many aspects.
He played a response to French Defense I've never seen before, with 2.c4, clamping down on d5. I avoided playing d5, and so it transposed into a sort of english-y position. I managed to get an advantage but at the expense of time (typical). He advanced a couple pieces on the queenside that seemed more threatening than they actually were and I should have just continued developing and ignored them. Instead, I kicked them out but allowed them to reposition to attack on the kingside.
I allowed my opponent double my pawns at the cost of a bishop, because it felt like I would still have pretty good prospects going into the middle game. My king was stranded in the center, but I had good pressure on white's center pawns and better control of the pawn breaks.
Eventually, I overlooked an opportunity white had to give a strong check (that's what I get for advancing the f-pawn) and things got a little hairy. We both missed some tactics, and ultimately I ended up coming out a piece up, but very low on time (again typical). I didn't play the most critical lines after that point, but managed to apply enough pressure to eventually win another piece and then start taking material by force and my opponent resigned.
Maybe the worst CAPs score I've had for a game this long, but going through it afterward it seems like many of the tactics I missed did not create concrete advantage very quickly, so I feel like the game was at least 'okay' in many aspects.
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