Yes, I kann!

Every chessplayer knows the rollercoaster of emotions and motivation around their play. After two rounds I was believing I could win them all, and then after my round three capitulation, I was wondering if I should even bother. Chess, especially classical chess, can a very long struggle for an eventual loss; and defeats can feel, well, defeating.

Round four I came twenty minutes early to find a car crash on the road outside and not many people inside the chess centre. It was a peculiar evening. There was no-one familiar so I just sat at a playing table and played chess on my phone until the pairings were announced. The arbiter was talking to some juniors and coincidentally raised my name, presumably because one of them, possibly my opponent, asked who I was, "unrated but strong, about 1700" was his summary. And it is probably accurate. 

Once the crowd disappeared I saw my pairing was another junior, different to my last two rounds though as he was from a Pasifika background. A little search found him and his family in the news with trophies galore. At 11 he was rated much stronger than my round two opponent, close to my "1700".

Fortunately, just like my previous round's opponent, he was mature and comfortable around adults and we could chat before the game. Then it was show time and I finally got to play the opening that defeated me in the last round, the Caro-Kann, this time from the black side. 

1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Be2 Nf6 5. O-O Bg4 6. c3 e6 7. d3 Bd6 8. Bg5

O-O 9. Nbd2 Nbd7 

The game was not any usual start to the Caro-Kann. In fact, I've never had an opponent play like it: He just set up his pieces, seemingly without trying to have them interact much with mine. He said after the game that he hadn't played against the Caro-Kann before and was just really making it up as he went along. The moniker "All pawns and no hope" comes when people attack the Kann and this wasn't yet much of a challenge. But, the young man hadn't done anything wrong. And for what it's worth, I was just setting myself up without really trying to do too much either. But now he began to make moves against me.

10. c4 

I have never seen this move in the Kann. But the more I looked at it, the more I was unsure how to deal with it. After much hesitation, I played a nothing move that I had vague plans around. Immediately he showed he had solid plans:

10. ... Re8 11. Nd4 Bxe2 12. Qxe2 Rc8 13. Nb5 Bb8 14. Kh1 a6 15. Nc3

Now, I go through these games with an engine to understand my opportunities better and to be clear around this point I was having some dread that I was being outplayed. Perhaps this is the feeling I will always have. The computer thought I had a solid edge, but all I could see was his initiative.

And it was here that happened one of those sequences where I conceive of a line and then immediately regret it thinking it was losing:

15. ... dxc4 16. Nxc4 Qc7 17. f4 Nd5 18. Ne4!?

Now, he is really getting in my face. In fact, he has a really concrete threat of planting a knight in my throat and forking my rooks that were arranged perfectly for forking on account of that nothing move earlier on. I was burning through time. He already had about a thirty minute advantage in time and what I thought was a handy advantage on the board. The amazing thing is that the engine gives me a clear advantage. I spent a ton of time looking at a rash looking pawn grab and thought after a long time that it couldn't possibly work. (It did work.) Then looked at a banal move unenthused. (It was would keep my advantage.) Then there was a move right before me that I hadn't really wanted to think about and suddenly it looked a lot better than anything else, so I played it.  18. ... f6. Amazingly all three moves are the equal best moves, all with a strong advantage but I wasn't strong enough to realise it.

What I didn't see coming was that he would throw caution to the wind a throw a haymaker: 19. Ncd6 - he went for my throat and in doing so was sacrificing a bishop. I took it, 19. ... fxg5, and then he gave his follow-up: 20. Rac1??

After 20. Rac1?? - the beginning of the end for my young opponent.

 

It was a blunder - the kind that you have to stop and make sure it is not some elaborate trap. I'm not sure at what point he realised it was a mistake. He had attacked my queen with his rook not realising I could in fact take his attacker with impunity. If he recaptured, it would have been checkmate. So, scooting down the board my queen went to take his rook.

20. Qxc1 21. Nxe8, he moved quickly with almost the only move, and then I realised there was a possible trap. I almost moved to my logical follow up Rc2 without thought before I found an even better move: 21. ... Nxf4 

The game then went quickly downhill for him. His position to be clear had some dangerous elements but no time to stick them together: 22. Qf3 g4 23. Qf2 Rc2 24. g3 Qxb2 25. Qg1 Nh3, and he put his king on its side to indicate resignation, 0-1.

I am still amazed that the computer had me stronger for most of the game despite my intuition. I was clearly setting my pieces with a lot of latent power and that was also why, even in my middlegame frustration, almost any of the three moves were actually strong. 

He was astonishing though for his age. He could set up his forces to an opening that was unfamiliar to him and even in defeat you could see he was calculating accurately. For him, it was a one move blunder that meant I had an easier time. If he hadn't, what would have happened? The computer has me with an edge but his position would have had more life and the chance for me to make a mistake, especially since I was so far behind in time. 

Here is the game as it happened. Notice the tide turning.

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.