September 2020 Club Games Upload 2020.09.14 Here Upload 2020.09.21 Here [Event "Team Game"] [Site "https://lichess.org/gKFqZqpO"] [Date "2020.09.21"] [Round "3"] [White "JosephOAlford"] [Black "Mihir Bafna"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "0000"] [BlackElo "0000"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "2020.09.07"] [TimeControl "G/60; 5"] 1. e4 {Joseph Alford and Darren Erickson were white against Mihir Bafna, Steven Newman, and Rahul Vudaru} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Bb4+ {A common response. Alternatives are Bc5 or Nf6; e5 d5; ef dc; fg Bg7; 0-0} 5. c3 {Bd2 Bd2+; Nbd and White recovers the pawn with a better position.} dxc3 6. bxc3 Bd6 {Ba5 leaves the bishop out of the game. Be7 meets Qd5 Nh6; Bh6 and White wins.} 7. O-O Nge7 {Fritz is not impressed with this move, prefering Qf6 or Qe7, but still shows a Black advantage.} 8. Re1 O-O 9. e5 {We don’t want Black’s knight to be able to go to e5.} Bc5 10. Na3 a6 11. Nc2 b5 12. Bd3 {with threats against h7} Ng6 13. Ncd4 Bb7 14. Ng5 Be7 {Fritz counts that as a blunder. A Black defender goes off the board and a White attacker is activated. He likes Qe8} 15. Qh5 Bxg5 16. Bxg5 Qe8 {Fritz says the queen should get out of there with Qb8. Now Nf5 theatens a sacrifice on g7 with a classic queen and bishop mate.} 17. Re3 Nxd4 18. Rh3 {The White allies discussed this for quite a while. Simply cd would leave White with a solid grip on the center and all the attacking chances. We were looking for a quick mate.} h6 19. Bxh6 Qxe5 20. Bg5 Ne2+ {An amazing defense, removing the bishop from the attack. If the king moves then Bg2+; Kg2 Nf4+; Bf4 Nf4+ forks the queen.} 21. Bxe2 f6 22. Qxg6 {Fritz likes Qh7+ Kf7; Bh6 Rg8; Rg3 with advantage to White.} Qxg5 {Note that Black is now threatening mate.} 23. Qh7+ Kf7 24. Bh5+ {White throws away most of the advantage. Rg3 Rh8; Qd3 is still a win.} Ke7 25. Rg3 Rh8 26. Re1+ Kd6 27. Qd3+ {Rd1+ forces Kc6; Qh8 Rh8; Rg5 fg; Bf3+ and after the bishop trade Re7 picks off the equalizing pawn.} Qd5 28. Qe3 {In extreme time trouble, White drops a piece. Bg6 or Bf7 is probably still a draw.} Rxh5 29. Qe7+ Kc6 30. Rxg7 Re5 31. Qxf6+ Re6 32. Rxe6+ dxe6 33. h4 Kb6 34. Rg5 Qd1+ 35. Kh2 Qd6+ 36. f4 Rf8 {And White lost on time.} 0-1 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. [Event "2020.09"] [Site "https://lichess.org/rav9G5lf"] [Date "2020.09.14"] [Round "2"] [White "Bafna, Mihir, mbafna"] [Black "Allies, quasialeaf"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "1828"] [BlackElo "9999"] [PlyCount "54"] [EventDate "2020.09.14"] [TimeControl "G60; 5"] 1. e4 {Club Champion Mihir Bafna took on 3 allies. Joseph Alford (1920), Jeffrey Smith (1435) and unrated Steven Newman} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 {At this point we discussed the merits of a6, d6, Bc5, Nd4 and the move we finally decided upon.} 4. O-O Be7 {The point of blocking the e-file is avoid Bc3 dc; Ne5 Ne4; Re1 Nf3??; Nc3 discovered check which wins the queen.} 5. Qe2 O-O {Black need not guard e4 since Bc6 dc; Ne5 Qd4 recovers the pawn.} 6. c3 d6 7. h3 Bd7 {Fritz claims equality for Black at this point.} 8. Rd1 Qc8 {At several points we discussed a sacrifice on h3. The position never quite warrants that.} 9. d4 exd4 {The threat was d5 when Black’s knight has no good square. After this trade, the square e5 is available.} 10. cxd4 Re8 {It is often useful to have the rook on the file occupied by the enemy king or queen.} 11. d5 {We thought this was premature. Developing moves Nc3 or Bg5 or b3 and Bg7 should be made before exchanges. Black is cramped and this allows freeing exchanges. Fritz says d5 is slightly better than Nc3.} Ne5 12. Nxe5 {Nc3 would be a useful developing move.} dxe5 {I suggested we look at Bb5 first. White’s light-squared bishop is often a potent attacking piece. And the move would draw White’s queen to the wrong side of the board. Mihir generously granted us a take-back. It appears the bishop exchange is only marginally better.} 13. Bc4 {Fritz likes Bd3 because now b5; Bb5 Bb5; Qb5 Ne4 favors Black. We never considered b5.} h6 {It seemed important to hinder the deployment of White’s second bishop. We were also discussing Nh7-g5 eyeing a sacrifice on h3.} 14. Nc3 Nh7 15. Qf3 {Now that white bishop comment looks a lot stronger with the threat of d6. Although we liked to have our bishop support Ng5, we could see no future there. Also, d6 would free d5 for White’s knight. We decided it was more important to block White’s attack by putting a bishop on d6.} Bd6 16. Qg3 Kh8 {Steven had been urging putting the king in the corner and advancing the pawns to attack. Now we are kind of forced to do that by the threat of Bh6.} 17. Rd3 {This is clearly premature. I was expecting f5 to bring up his bishop. Fritz prefers the slower Be3 to develop all the pieces before attacking.} f5 {So let’s bring up our bishop first. Note that ef allows e4 attacking queen and rook.} 18. Qg6 f4 {We really liked fe with Bf5 to follow until we realized fe would be met with Rg3. f4 stops Rg3 and keeps White’s second bishop locked down.} 19. Bd2 Rf8 {White’s pieces are getting tangled up and our king-side attack is building.} 20. Nb5 {Fritz really doesn’t like this move, shifting the advantage to Black. He likes Bb5 or Qh5, both concerned with protecting the White queen from the Black bishop.} Rf6 {We likes this move, chasing the queen and protecting d3. Fritz screams no! You let the queen escape. He likes Nf6 with Be1 to follow. The longer you look at that, the better it looks. Still, I think our move fits well into our plan of king-side attack.} 21. Qh5 Ng5 22. Re1 Kh7 {Threatening Rg6 or f3} 23. h4 {White gets knight and rook for the queen, but the open g-file is too much. Fritz, of course, finds two better lines. Either Nf3; Qf3 Bg4 or Ne4 with Bf4 to follow. I follow Fishcher – you only have to win the game once. Our line is a win.} Bg4 24. hxg5 Bxh5 25. gxf6 gxf6 26. Rc1 f3 {The killer move. White can’t take it and he can’t leave it.} 27. gxf3 Qh3 {Rg8+ is coming next} 0-1 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.
