Not so fantastic

And so the prophecy of the previous blog came to be: I went into the chess hall and found that I was indeed paired against my colleague's daughter, but as white. I had had the opportunity for a bit of "oppo" research during the week so I knew what she played as white, but I didn't know what she played as black against my preferred Kings pawn starting move. My colleague later told me her daughter had tried to find any game of mine online to no avail. Lucky she didn't know about this blog!

Anyway, they arrived not long after and we exchanged a few brief words. Unlike the 11 year old last week, she was more mature and fairly relaxed around adults. We were on Board 5 so we actually were going to be having a live game that could be followed if someone wanted to, or checked later by anyone. Everyone will be able to see my play in this game.

"Please start your clocks", the arbiter Tim said. We shook hands and she started my clock, and I did my typical 1. e4. Her reply: 1. ... c6, the Caro-Kann Defence, my weapon of choice for most of my chess life. In the series Queen's Gambit it gets an unfortunate description, "all pawns and no hope", but it can be dynamic, too. In my teenage years, I didn't play much against "the Kann" because I had been a queens pawn player, so this was literally the first time I was having a tournament game against my favoured defence. I had however played it against it a lot online. Early on I had bumped into an offbeat line against the Caro-Kann called the Fantasy Variation, a unique way to play the white side. It had never been played against me in my teen years but had become played even in high level grandmaster games. Even though I won my first encounter online with it on the black side, it triggered my interest as a novel sideline to specialise in for my white repertoire. So, I played it whenever I had the chance with black and white. And so I did it today:

2. d4 d5  3. f3, the key move that defines the Fantasy Variation, and she replied: 3. ... e6, not my way as Black to play against it. In fact, I hadn't had a game with an opponent playing this. I had seen a video but I wasn't sure of the lines so suddenly I was a bit unsure. 4. Nc3 Bb4  5. a3 Ba5, and this is when I did something I have done several times in games: I will see a threat on an early move, then forget it at a later move. The Fantasy Variation does have a couple of Achilles Heels and I spotted that there was a risk in Be3 on move 5, that she'd get her Queen down to do some mischief. Strangely on move 6 I still played Be3 and allowed her the possibility: 6. Be3!? Bxc3, and it was this move when my blood ran cold and I could see that I'd lost at a pawn, or else her Queen would come down to apparently destructive effect. I sunk into a bit of self-loathing that so early in the game I'd missed this. 7. bxc3 dxe4.

After some disappointment I tried to play in a way that would "gambit" the lost pawn. A gambit in chess, where the Netflix series gets its name, is when you effectively offer up a pawn for an attack or development. There are plenty of gambits in chess, some good, some not so good, but the key thing is that if you're going to lose a pawn you should get some activity or initiative to cause problems to your opponent. Regrettably the move I chose wasn't among the top five engine moves. However, what neither I nor she noticed was that in fact, white could allow the Queen in. White, with appropriate play, could grab the advantage but I thinking I had blundered, and possibly not having quite the calculation ability to notice that I could trap her queen, didn't even consider the option. 

8. Bc4? Qa5  9. Qd2 Nf6  10. Bg5 Nbd7 11. Ne2 exf3  12. gxf3 h6  13. Bf4 b6, it was at this point that I could see she was quite a conservative player. She wasn't yet forcing but making sure I didn't have chances. 14. Rg1 g5  15. Bd6 Bb7, she had now nicely got her pieces out and was ready to castle her king to safety. I didn't like my position but I though there were some opportunities to make trouble for her queen. 

16. Qd3 0-0-0  17. Bb4 Qa4, and with plenty of time on my clock I saw a motif and went for it with a blunder 18. Kf2?? This just lost a piece outright with a tactic so obvious she had calculated it a few moves ago. She did the prudent thing of calculating it for a minute, in which I saw it and basically resigned in my head, but inevitably she played the obvious fork: 18. ... Ne5. I lost composure and played two moves with abandon that effectively killed any chance of a stoic defence: 19. Bxe6+ fxe6 20. Qe4 Nxe4, and I resigned. 

It was an earlier night than either of us had anticipated. She did me the honour of some post-game analysis where we shared some Caro-Kann experiences. She had done a very similar early mistake to mine in an online game earlier so knew how to take advantage of my early mistake (even though the computer now says it wasn't a mistake). 

So now I'm on 1.5 out of 3. Although my next game should be easier, I cannot take anything for granted. It'll be with black and I cannot be careless or frivolous like today.