Noob vs Noob UNPLUGGED #7 | Vienna Gambit and the tricky Bird's Opening | Casual chess & jazz 😌♟️🎵
#unplugged #jazz #vienna #birdsopening
CHESS UNPLUGGED | Sometimes, I just like unwind by not thinking too hard, play a couple of quick casual unrated games, while listen to some slow jazz! 😌♟️🎵
Today, I played a couple of quick games before heading off the work. As noted in my video on the Greek Gift Sacrifice yesterday, I've been really busy working on my book, Become a Chess Assassin! for the past month and haven't been playing a lot of chess. At the moment, I'm waiting for a print sample to arrive, and once I've checked that over, it will be launched! The current plan for release is mid-November 2024 so keep an eye out for it!
This morning, I had a neat little game of the Vienna Gambit, Declined 3... d6. Unfortunately for my opponent, they decided to go super aggro with their king's knight, leaping it into my territory for the attack, and in doing so, hanging it. Although making an early attack is a Romantic thing to do (I approve!) to be a Chess Assassin you can't immediately just trip over your own feet! Opening principles are opening principles for a reason.
In the second game, I again the black pieces and my opponent played the off-beat Bird's Opening, and get a pretty good advantage over me in the opening and early middlegame. One of the advantages with playing uncommon openings at the beginner-intermediate level is that the objective inferiority according to the engine rarely matters, but you take your opponent out of their experience and thus, gain an advantage in knowledge and psychology.
The game ended up being fairly closed, but I also noted that my opponent seemed a bit hesitant in their play in the opening. I noted that it was probably advantageous for them to have opened the centre, but they avoided doing this. And as such, I avoided it as well strategically, as the closed game allowed me to launch an attack.
Eventually, I found an attack by infiltrating with my knight, attacking White's kingside position. The "prodding" then provoked White to make a mistake/blunder as we started to approach a time scramble, and that allowed me to infiltrate with my queen. The tactical idea was that it was easy for me to play the next move (saving time), while my opponent needed to calculate carefully (losing time). Eventually, I won with them flagging; not the most satisfying win, but a moral one nonetheless as the game had turned around. I was reasonably sure that I was probably going to win if the game had continued.
Anyway, keep an eye out for the launch of my book! If you like to learn more about Romantic chess, this will make a great book for yourself, and potentially a fantastic present for your chess friends for Christmas!
Game 1: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4sh4fRFBBU
Game 2: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/3eXno1x1sC
