A Game I Shouldn't Have Lost
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Please analyse the game. Although I was expecting to win to a material advantage, I lost all of a sudden with a mate. I should have been more careful and next time I shall be watching more games like this. Any comments you have, please post.
ok
Deja Vu...
Oh the pain. Those sneaky diagonals. This reminds me of too many of my own games where I was completely winning... ended up thinking only of attack and...
Sound players seem to always have weak spots defended. Really strong players incorporate prophylaxis into their game... defending weaknesses while furthering their own attack. You seemed to have a nice thing going with your knight and bishop... meanwhile your two rooks and queen meant absolutely nothing on the back rank. Somewhere in there it would have been worthwhile to get them activated... and of course.. with hindsight... defending g7.
Couple of things,
dont be afraid to occupy the centre with your pawns , 6.e6 should be e5 an it should be played earlier. also don't forget to check what your opponent is doing .
You were greedy, you went after the Rook and overlooked his mating threat. Remember, "Greed doesn't pay". That's how we learn.
You had many chances to trade off his dark-squared bishop. Even without noticing the threat of mate, it would have been a sound trade just because that bishop was very strong.
thought the mating threat in b2 was obvious all along
In the position from 17 ... Bxe5 I would have traded off as many pieces as possible, you have won the knight and don't need to be ahead more material to win. Dan Heisman has a article in the Chesscafe.com archive which describes how to play when ahead, February 2002 When You're Winning, It's a Whole Different Game.
2 ... f5 seems strange, your opponent has given you the opportunity to play d5 and build a strong centre. The h pawn is fishing for something like X. Nf3 followed by X+1. Ng5 h6 X+2. ... hxg5 which is quite like a fishing pole attack but with the wrong move order to work well.
19 ... Nxf6 20 exf6 (20 Qxf6 Qc3 removes the Queen) Bg4 21 Qf7 (or Qg8) Qe6 definately removes the Queen or 22 ... Qd7 mate.
Overall your opponent threw some spanners at you which you adeptly dodged, you went ahead with good tactical vision but tried to wipe his army off the board rather than grind the win out carefully.
This is the game you almost win.
It is lucky for white to win due to your big mistake.
You should have exchanged the white bishop with the black knight earlier.
Instead of 23...Nf2+, you had to get the white bishop with Nxb2.
Or instead of 24...Nxh1, you had to move Rf6 or Qf6.
If you did so, you would win this game.
You forgot the threatening of the black queen and bishop instantly because of the exciting fork of white king and rook.
And you'd better not move the black f pawn. So the white king side become dangerous.
wow! i'm gonna love this game...
Not much to comment on....you are winning easily (piece up) then overlook a mate in one. You could have taken his B/b2 eliminating the mate threat or simply played Qf6 trading down even more. When you are a piece up one of the first things you should try and do is trade queens.
Your opponent had set up a mate threat (diagonal battery)on move 22, which you did great delaying with checks, but taking the rook was too greedy.
