Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Cheap Tactics
I think I know now a (small) reason why some people dismiss tactics.. I think when you win with strategy, or when you are able to triumph after a long bitter end-game, you get a feeling of satisfaction. You say "I did it. Me alone, was able to overcome". But when an opponent blunders, you feel a little cheated. I mean a win is a win, but somehow a blunder-win feels lower than a "skill"-win (Although, it takes real skill too to spot the blunders)

Take this game for example. I was very happy with this game. By moves 15 and 16 I was able to gain the fabled outpost. However, he had to ruin all by walking into a fork. I won, but - Bummer.

Nezha (1695) vs. monier (1682) --- Tue Nov 28, 06:04 PST 2006
Rated standard match,
initial time: 30 minutes, increment: 15 seconds.

Move Nezha monier
---- ------ -------
1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Bg5 dxe4
5. Nxe4 Be7
6. Nxf6+ Bxf6
7. Bxf6 Qxf6
8. Nf3 O-O
9. Bd3 Nc6
10. c3 b6
11. O-O Bb7
12. Qc2 g6
13. Qe2 a5
14. Be4 Rab8
15. Bxc6 Bxc6
16. Ne5 Be8
17. Rfe1 Rd8
18. Qc4 c5
19. dxc5 bxc5
20. Qxc5 Rd5
21. Qe3 Bb5
{Black resigns} 1-0
Paste Game Here

Some notes:
15. Bxc6 - I was afraid to take the horse as his bishop is bearing down on my king-side, but -
16. Ne5 - The previous move was done to establish this outpost (actually moves 12,13, and 14 was done exactly to setup this one move). There were some small tactical threat at this moment, and i was counting on them to negate the threat of his bishop and queen. I think i made the right choice. You could imagine my delight when i was able to place that horsey on e5. Now i have a strategically won game i told myself (Achieving strategic advantage such as this is as rare as rain in a dessert in my games)

The next step, he will play the the freeing move c5. I just knew it. So my moves from here on is meant to take advantage of that fact.

17. Rfe1 - To free my queen, the queen will go to c4 to counter the c5 advance
18. Qc4 - All according to plan - he is helping me conduct the game => the next few moves were already calculated.
..
..
21. .. Bb5 - I didn't calculate this. Why did he have to do it... why!?
 
posted by Nezha at 10:46 PM | Permalink |


3 Comments:


  • At 5:01 AM, Blogger Frank Sträter

    A nice clean game. The sort of game Tempo would have liked to play ;)

    But if you want to play like Nezhmetdinov, you maybe should have opted for a different approach. Did you consider castling long? 10. c3 was too passive, the pawn did not need extra defending. I would have considered 10. Qd2 or even sacrificing the pawn with 10. Qe2 Nxd4 11. Nxd4 Qxd4 12. 0-0-0

     
  • At 6:04 PM, Blogger Nezha

    hmmm,

    nice variation.. i didn't thought of that.. yes, that would have been very sharp

     
  • At 10:19 AM, Blogger Blue Devil Knight

    LOL: I know the feeling. When I am playing great chess and the opponent just hands me some material, it is something of a let-down.

    But then again, how many times have I felt all positionally superior, and blown it in the endgame? Too many times.