The Opening Phase of a game...

One really good feeling is outplaying your opponent in the opening. This is where the foundation for any middlegame masterpiece should be laid. herein I present you with two games.

GAME 1:

my opponent playing black messed up his opening and faced with hellfire in the way of tactical complications buckled and finally resigned on move 18. job well done I thought.

GAME 2:

my good friend playing black accepted a transposition into the kings gambit accepted and me massively excited, borrowed an idea from the Evans gambit and pushed the e4 pawn on move six upon which I got properly THUMPED!!
A masterful sacrifice was unleashed on me and I cracked.



MORAL of the story:
know your openings well and execute them with reason. Chess is not a game of emotions so only borrow ideas from other openings ONLY when absolutely certain it will pay off.
Back to the drawing boards for me till next time.

A Case For Borrowing Opening Ideas.

Occasionally one plays a chess game which causes immense pride and appreciation of all the hard preparatory work done.

I am a great fan of the evans and kings gambits but have never really had a chance to effect any ideas from the openings.

In this game however, ideas from the Evans gambit are “borrowed” and ruthlessly executed against a much higher rated opponent.

This game embodies some heavy gambit ideas:

• open lanes for the rooks

• open diagonals for the bishops

• limit the freedom of the opponents king

• attack with all the tools at ones disposal

• “force” the opponent to lose tempo by capturing your material

• sacrifice material to achieve the above five principles.

Looking at some critical moments of the game!!

on move 3:

The move order 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 .... sets up the Italian game and blacks response 3. ....h6 can be deemed a “tiny” blunder by black due to the possible loss of tempo in case white never needs the square g5 and instead seeks to blast the center wide open.

My question now was how can I make this count?After some hard thinking, I came to the conclusion that any long term plans will revolve around the freedom my dark squared bishop attains.

I will need to develop my dark squared bishop soon but to where??

I had two main ideas:

1. moving the b pawn and developing my bishop to a3. This would have to be real soon since I wanted this bishop to control f7 thus stop the king from castling . Giving the game an Evans gambit flavor.

2. castle king side followed by f4 eXf4 and finally developing the bishop to f4 giving the game a kings gambit flavor.

My choice of action would be decided by my opponents next moves. So I castled king side thus developing more pieces and waiting.

Soon enough black sought normal developing moves and finally Bc5 was played.

Position on move 5

Here my plan to blast the center open and attack blacks king in the center was put into action.

White sacrifices the b pawn in true gambit style with the move b4 and chases the black bishop and knight away with tempo.

On move 23:

From here on end, white chases and harasses the black king relentlessly until with white to move after 23 .....Kf5

Aquiet but deadly 24.c4 threatening Qh3++forces white to surrender the queen with 24.... QXR.

Like clockwork, from here on, the rest is history.

Torture in the hands of my friend......

As many a budding chess player will confess......
You cannot afford to lose tempo with no good reasons..
I followed the mantra in the opening and middlegame then forgot all about it in a knife edge middle- endgame transition.
seems I missed that lesson and was truly punished for wasting a move with 28....... Nf3-d2 only to return my noble knight on f3 on the next move..
I honourably resigned immediately cos my opponent had decisive control of the a- file

ok this is another lesson learnt...
Do not waste tempo ---check!!