Chess Is A BRUTAL Game | Stream Recap | MVP Chess LIVE!
MVP Chess LIVE! is my stream where I play instructive 10-minute games on Chess.com. I explain my thought process move-by-move to have fun and help you improve your game. Here's a written recap of the instructive moments from today's stream. If you enjoy this content, please follow me on Twitch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel. Thank you for your support and enjoy!
Game 1 - Catalan Opening
In Game 1, I had the black pieces and faced the Catalan. I love playing the Queen's Gambit Declined, but I don't have great results facing this variation. It's often very difficult to deal with the Catalan bishop and the pressure it exerts on black's queen side. If you play the Queen's Gambit with white, try exploring this line to meet the QGD/Nimzo-Indian Defense.
Fortunately, in this game I was able to accomplish two strategic goals for black: bring the bishop to b7 to oppose the bishop on g2, and play the freeing pawn break ...c5. Therefore, I was able to equalize and start my own counter play. I formed a queen/bishop battery to challenge white on the long diagonal. This pressure forced him to commit a blunder! I won a piece and was able to convert the endgame.
Game 2 - Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)
In Game 2, I had the black pieces again and faced the Italian Game. I prefer to play 3...Bc5 to avoid the 4. Ng5 lines in the Two Knights Defense. My opponent played Bg5 before I castled. This allowed me to play a quick ...h6 and ...g5 to start an attack and castle long! My dark square bishop became a fire breathing dragon on a7!
I found a really nice tactic (...Bxf2!!) to obtain a winning position, but I began to lose the thread. Sometimes when you have a great position, it can be difficult to choose a move! I made a critical error allowing my opponent to open the a-file and b-file towards my king. I gave him too much counter play and committed a blunder by playing ...Ra8??
Game 3 - Queen's Gambit Declined (Exchange Variation)
In Game 3, I had the white pieces and played the Exchange Variation to challenge my opponent's QGD. I obtained very strong play against my opponent's weak light squares and managed to win a pawn. In the endgame, I had a winning position with rooks on the seventh and connected, passed pawns on the queen side. I thought I was going to win with my passed a-pawn, but to my great surprise my opponent had me in a mating net and checkmated me on the h-file!
Game 4 - Queen's Gambit (Semi-Slav Defense)
In Game 4, I had the white pieces again and played the Queen's Gambit. My opponent played the bulletproof Semi-Slav Defense. He managed to equalize without much effort, but made a strategic error to give me the bishop pair in a wide-open position.
I "cashed-in" my bishop pair to shatter my opponent's kingside pawns to reach a promising endgame. I had the more active king and rook, but overlooked a tactic on the queenside. Then I mouse slipped and dropped my king on the wrong square! This allowed my opponent to fork my rook and king with his bishop and steal the full point.
