Chess

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Game #1

I am particularly proud of this game because I only had two inaccuracies, had an average centipawn loss of 32, and broke a rapid rating of 2000 on Lichess!

Game #2

Despite playing what I felt were extravagant and overly fancy moves, I ended up only having one inaccuracy, and an average centipawn loss of 25.

Instructive Games

Game #1

I played black this game. Flip the board by clicking the e7 square, or clicking anywhere else on the board and hitting the 'F' key.

Unfortunately, including my analysis in the PGN produces a URL that is too long. I have included it below the game as text instead. Rather than scrolling up and down from the board to the analysis, I recommend opening a new tab.

9. Bg3: I wanted to develop my bishop to pin my opponent's knight on c3 and hopefully apply pressure with Ne4. I could threaten to win the bishop pair and double some pawns.

10. Rc1: I decided to add more pressure to the queenside of the board first (concretely, to the now soft a pawn).

12. Rxc3: I was surprised by Rxc3 instead of bxc3, as this allows me to win a tempo on the rook while attacking the bishop.

13. Qc2: My opponent makes a good point — perhaps sacrificing the exchange isn't so bad, for long term prospects of attacking with the bishop pair and maintaining an intact pawn structure. After all, the bishop is only defended by the c pawn; recapturing with this pawn weakens my opponent's king and center. I decided to take the rook in hopes of trading down into a materialistically-winning endgame. It turns out this was the correct decision. While taking the bishop does result in a good position for me (-1.4), taking the rook is significantly better (-3.4).

16. Be2: Another notable point in the game. My opponent was ready to castle. I was afraid of easy counterplay along the open a and b files against my over-extended queen. Qa1+ either results in a queen trade or a pinned bishop (which allows me to win a pawn with dxc4). Both are good, so I went for it. However, I missed that I could just immediately play 16... dxc4, since 17. Bxc4 is a blunder to 17... Qa1+! The only three moves are Ke2, Kd2 and Qd1. Both king moves drop the h1 rook. Qd1 drops the c3 pawn with check, and thus the undefended c4 bishop!

22. Kh2: My opponent does not want to trade queens into a lost endgame (I can just push my a pawn), so I figured I could gain some space.

24. Qd2: I got claustrophobic. I was afraid my queen would get trapped with Ra1 and Bd1, so I scooted her over to a3 to gain access to the safe dark squared diagonal. I noticed that the c3 pawn was weak, but missed that I can exploit this and keep my initiative with Na4 — my opponent can't trap my queen and simultaneously defend the c3 pawn.

28... Qxf4: My opponent resigned. A queen trade results in too little initiative and a lost endgame. The queen trade cannot be denied without also losing the h4 bishop.

Interesting Puzzles

Sources

Main image: By Josh Appel, hosted by Unsplash, license

Chess game embedder: pgn4web

Highlight Games
Interesting Puzzles