[Event "Rated Classical game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/cvLfWt53"]
[Date "2020.10.05"]
[White "LeonFresh"]
[Black "Ima2013"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2020.10.05"]
[UTCTime "10:55:37"]
[WhiteElo "1990"]
[BlackElo "1961"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+21"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-5"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "1800+20"]
[ECO "E21"]
[Opening "Nimzo-Indian Defense: Three Knights Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. d4 Bb4+ 4. Nc3 { E21 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Three Knights Variation } Nc6 5. Qc2 O-O 6. a3 {[%cal Ga2a3]}
{[#] This seems all standard here, black will often give up his dark square bishop in order to prevent an easy E4 by White which would be a massive center and pressure. }
Bxc3+ 7. Qxc3 d5 8. Bg5 {[%cal Gc1g5]}
{[#] Personally I’m not so sure of this move. I did it because optically it looked good, as black now lacks a dark square bishop. However, he had a nice trick after to get out of it without getting into trouble. }
dxc4 9. Qxc4 Qd5 10. Qd3 Ne4 {[%cal Rf6e4]}
{[#] I retreated my bishop to d2 after this knight move, but I really wanted to play be3 instead to save the bishop. I was scared of a Queen check on a5, however, now that I am looking at it, I see that Be3 was playable because my knight on f3 can always go to d2 to block the check, which seems passive but probably better than what I did, losing the nice bishop.<br/><br/>
<em>Engine suggests h4 instead, which seems pretty good. If black tries to attack the bishop with a pawn he will weaken the kingside structure, and captures doesn’t seem good because it opens the H file for my rook. </em>
}
11. Bd2 Nxd2 12. Qxd2 Na5 {[%cal Rc6a5]}
{[#] The knight threatens a fork on my rook and Queen so I think moving the Queen to c3 is pretty good because it also moves her out of the open file, which could be pressured by his rook later. }
13. Qc3 Nb3 14. Rd1 Qa5 {[%cal Rd5a5]}
{[#] I really don’t like how black is playing this so far. He has wasted a lot of knight moves and is now trying to trade Queens, in which case I feel like I would be better since my king is not safe yet and my pawns control the center more. He could have tried Rd8 and e5 which would seem to be a lot more challenging to deal with. }
15. e4 Qxc3+ 16. bxc3 Na5 {[%cal Rb3a5]}
{[#] Now my position looks a lot better even though my kingside isn’t developed yet. I spent a long time here trying to figure out a plan — whether I should fianchetto my bishop, or just get it out and make it active. There seemed to be pros and cons to each and I thought getting it out was a bit better because it was controlling his knight more and I thought if I did he would do the same and it would be hard to prove anything. }
17. Bd3 Nc6 18. O-O {[%cal Ge1g1]}
{[#] I just castled here but I kind of wanted to try Ke2 as well since it’s close to the endgame now. However maybe at some point, I wanted to control the E file with the rook so I didn’t go for it. }
b6 19. d5 {[%cal Gd4d5]}
{[#] Now because his knight dropped back I try and force the issue with d5, saying that I am better so I open lines. Note that his bishop isn’t developed yet as well, so it’s a good time to try and force the issue. If he doesn’t take and goes Ne7, I was going to go c4, reinforcing the structure. And so he took and I get to play c4 anyway. }
exd5 20. exd5 Ne7 21. c4 Ng6 {[%cal Re7g6][%csl Ye5,Yc6]}
{[#] This was a critical moment for me. I thought in this position I can actually take his knight with my bishop and be better because my knight will be very powerful, having nothing that can really take it and have some very nice outpost squares, and it actually turned out to be the case. }
22. Bxg6 fxg6 23. Ne5 Re8 24. f4 Bf5 {[%cal Rc8f5]}
{[#] I was calculating g5 more in this position as the main threat to both undouble pawns and go for my knight’s outpost. I was thinking of going g3 as a response but it does give me an isolated pawn. However, bf5 was played and I guess he valued development more instead. Note that since I closed the diagonal with d5, now fianchettoing doesn’t make sense. }
25. g4 Bc2 26. Rd2 Ba4 27. g5 {[%cal Gg4g5]}
{[#] And now I get to close the position by playing g5 myself and it’s hard for him to challenge it with h6 because of my knight. }
Rad8 {[%cal Ra8d8]}
{[#] Here he threatens to play c6 to destroy my pawn chain because my rook is unprotected and pinned, so I had to move my rook. }
28. Rb2 Bd7 29. c5 {[%cal Gc4c5]}
{[#] Another idea which is a temporary sacrifice of a pawn to open the position for my active rook and get it to the 7th rank which is the ideal spot to pressure the opponent, especially in combination with my beautiful knight. If he ignores it I could potentially play c6, or support my pawn with Rd1, many ideas. But he takes and I feel like I would get enough compensation for the 2 pawns because of the activity. <br/><br/>
<em>Turns out this is a mistake, perhaps I played it too soon and should have prepared it. </em> }
bxc5 30. Rb7 Bf5 31. Rxa7 Rxd5 32. Rxc7 Ra8 33. Rf3 {[%cal Gf1f3]}
{[#] Since I was afraid to lose the pawn on f4, I tried to protect my pawn laterally with Rf3, I didn’t think the checks would matter too much so I allow it. However, I feel like Ra1 might have been better because it supports the promotion a lot better and it doesn’t allow any checks. It probably takes him too long to take my f4 pawn and if he goes Rd4 I capture his c5 pawn anyway. <br/><br/>
<em>This seems to be not true, Rf3 is perfectly fine because the f4 pawn is too important.</em>
}
Rad8 34. Kf2 {[%cal Gg1f2]}
{[#] I calculated that after Kf2 Rd1, Kg3 Rg1+, Kh3 he didn’t really have much of a follow-up, so I went with Kf2 here because by playing Rd8 he was lining up some threats to my king. Also note that if he ever leaves the back rank with his rook, I might have some checkmate threats in the air. }
Rc8 {[%cal Rd8c8]}
{[#] Instead he tries to trade off my beautiful rook on the 7th rank. I have to oblige because otherwise, his C pawn would be too strong. }
35. Rxc8+ Bxc8 36. Rc3 {[%cal Gf3c3]}
{[#] I immediately eye his dangerous C pawn with the rook and stop it from going any further. My position is very good here. The enemy king cannot even get out so easily because my knight controls the F7 square. And his rook is stuck in a very passive square guarding his best pawn, and if it moves it then I can simply capture it. <br/><br/>
<em>It seems like trying to trade off his rook here with Rd3 is the best move as the endgame with my pawn on the A file which is very far from his king is just too strong. </em>
}
Bf5 37. Kg3 {[%cal Gf2g3]}
{[#] After this King move, I thought about it and regretted a little. Maybe Ke3 would have been more accurate to centralize the king further and be more active. But then the downside is that my king is no longer protecting the H pawn. However now that I think about it, perhaps it doesn’t matter because it might take him way too long to go after it. <br/><br/>
<em>Yes Ke3 was definitely better here.</em>}
Be4 38. a4 Rd2 39. Rxc5 {[%cal Gc3c5]}
{[#] He finally moves his rook, but this allows me to take his pawn and also threaten checkmate since his bishop just moved. I believe he moved his bishop to cover the promotion square a8 however it’s apparent that it’s a mistake due to the loss of further tempo. }
Bf5 40. Rb5 {[%cal Gc5b5]}
{[#] He defends the checkmate with the bishop but I renew the threat. The following few moves I was trying to get my knight to a better square in order to support the promotion. }
Rd8 41. a5 Ra8 42. Rc5 Kf8 43. Nc6 Bd7 44. Nb4 {[%cal Gc6b4]}
{[#] This knight move may be a mistake because it allows him to deliver checks and winning one of my good pawns on the kingside. Looking back at it, I could have done Ne5 and prepared some knight moves a lot better. It was always dangerous for his king to get close to my A pawn because of my knight making forks whichever direction along with rook checks. So perhaps I have time to walk my king in or perhaps improve my position first. However, I was getting low on time here. }
Rb8 45. Na6 Rb3+ 46. Kf2 Bg4 47. Nc7 Rf3+ 48. Ke1 Rxf4 49. Re5 {[%cal Gc5e5]}
{[#] I notice now that it’s actually very hard to promote because his rook can always go to a4 and be very annoying. So I turn my attention to his king and try some plans to attack it with my rook and knight combination. }
Rc4 50. Nb5 {[%cal Gc7b5][%csl Yd6,Yc8]}
{[#] He turns his attention to my knight but I have a very beautiful move here with the knight, with the intention of going to d6 with a checkmate threat and an attack on his rook. And also it defends the c8 square so his rook cannot simply retreat to the back-rank. }
Bf5 51. Nd6 {[%cal Gb5d6]}
{[#] He made a terrible move bf5 which is the final nail in the coffin. There are too many threats now of checkmate and just winning another pawn. I think that he thought I was under time pressure so he was in a rush and missed the checkmate threat. All-in-all I made some mistakes but I think they were pretty deep positional ideas, otherwise, I felt like I did capitalize well on his suboptimal early game play. }
Rf4 52. Re8# { White wins by checkmate. } 1-0
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