Annotated chess game: Recognizing the importance of weak Squares

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ANNOTATED GAME

Recognizing the importance of weak Squares
nxmike (1213) vs. fycorsia (1223)
Annotated by: fycorsia (1219)
Chess opening: Bishop's opening (C24), Berlin defence

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1. e4	This is my first attempt at a public annotation. I'm still a novice player and this is a way for me to anylse my own games and thought process and also that of others. If this helps you understand something, that's great because it was educational to me. If there is something erroneous in this annotation that might confuse or lead people astray in their strategy, please comment about it. Enjoy! Here is a short example of the importance of recognizing threats against your weak squares and also recognizing when weaknesses are not fully protetected by your opponent. This game proceed fairly regularly until move 4 where White leaves the generally recognized series of moves. by move 5 Black sees an oppurtunity to exploit a weakness at Whites f3 which becomes the star of the game. White's failure to fully acknowledge this threat and Black's ability to follow through with the attack are good examples of what both sides should watch for in their own play and their opponent's. Disclaimer: I know that all of my (Black) moves were probably not the best, but this annotation is from the point of view of an amature on a game played by two inexperianced players who were both making less than perfect moves. We're all trying to learn right? :)



1... e5	A stock reply.



2. Bc4	I don't see this variation often. The bishop's opening. It's has many dangerous possibilities including a scholar's mate, but is easily diffused....



2... Nf6	..by this move. This prevents a scholar's mate and also may prevent any further development of a Bishop's opening



3. d3	Here White continues along the Modern Bishop's opening line.



3... c6	This move effectively shuts down any Bishop's opening rep, modern or otherwise. It has a couple of advantages (I think) over other moves. 1) It opens up a lane for ..Qa5 2) Blackwill normally wait to move his Q until after ...Pd5



4. Bg5	Generally I will see two replies at things point. Either a Pf4 which, usually doesn't go anywhere. Or, to continue down generally accepted path of Ktf3, which is a good move that enables castling and puts some pressure on my e Pawn. This is an instance where someone plays a move that I don't recognize from any of the standard openings I have studied. At this point if there is no obvious threat a player can usually assume (in casual play) that the move is inferior and begin to examine the weaknesses. For one, it will be impossible to take Black's Knight without an even exchange and unless White's plan is to dismantle Black's Kingside pawn structure, this is not extremely useful. This move does nothing to address the 3 threats present on the board which are ..Pd5 ..Qa5 or ..Bb5 Also it does not apply any credible, equal threat.



4... d5	Black chooses to continue with his original plan. With this move Black figures that white can't take his pawn because that would lead to a free Bishop for Black. I think White's best move would be to still move his Kt down to f5 to allow castling and put some pressure on the center that Black is systematically taking control of.



5. Bxf6	This move baffles me and is where I think the game was lost. Because of the protection of Black's Q, White will not disrupt Black's pawn structure and he has no way of effectively counter attacking when White retakes with his Q, which also leads to a direct attack on f2 which is completely unprotected.



5... Qxf6	Now Black got a lead in tempo because he's only a couple moves away from mating White and White does not have any credible threats that he can mount on such short notice.



6. Bb3	Here, instead of answering the threat with the, still viable, Kf3 he begins to retreat. Even PxP at d5 would have been a good move because without Black's queen White has conrol of d5. Black was willing to lose that square in order to gain control of f2. However, this weak move only helps black strengthen his position on the board. I think in a situation like this where White realized he had made a mistake, he should have begun attacking the weakest point that he could find in Black which is d5. Retreating only gives white more advantage in tempo.



6... Bc5	Here, white is one move away from a sort of scholar's mate variation, which still focuses around the completely vulnerable f2 square. ..Qxf3#



7. f3	At this point, White is very far behind in tempo. I don't believe this was his best move and I think Ktf3 would still be very helpful to him at this point. Notice that this move only blocks the Black queen but does nothing to relieve the pressure on f2. It's also interesting to note that f2 is a black square and White sacrificed his Black-squared-Bishop which puts him at even more of a disadvantage in defending said square.



7... O-O	Black Castles in order to get his King out of harms way for the upcoming battle. White could have taken advantage of this by possibly trying to threaten or attack somethin of white.



8. Nd2	? - This move doesn't seem to serve any purpose. I appears as if white may be trying to move material in order to 0-0-0. One thing that it doesn't do is asnwer the still looming threat at f2, which Black has never lost sight of.



8... Qf4	Black takes the opportunity to strengthen his position on the board. By ..Qf4, Black is now making White very uncomfortable because he is still within 2 moves of being mated. Q.. e3 Kf1 .. Qf2 Again, I believe this all goes back to making the Kt/B exchange giving Black control over f2, the second part of the problem was that White either; a) never saw the threat or b) recognized it but never answered it or tried to reinforce f2. so, even though f3 was temporarily blocked with 7. f3, it was never protected and therefore Black can now attack the weak square by simply going around the pawn at f3.



9. Ne2	White seems to realize that The Q is indeed about to cause some trouble and so tries to threaten her position. However, the crucial square is still ignored (f2).



9... Qe3	This simple move gets Black's Queen out of danger and puts heavy pressure on white to finally either acknowledge the undefended f2 square or be mated. this still could have been made into a very interesting game by moving the rook to f1 which would have forced Black to retreat and reform his attack elsewhere. Had White moved his Rook to f1, Black probably would have replied with ...Qg5 to attack the new weak square at g2.



10. c3	This move signals that White probably was never aware of the threat at f3.



10... Qf2#	Finally, 5 moves after initially targeting the square black takes full control for the win. This out come could have been easily avoided by white, even with the weak 4. bg5 followed later by the equally useless 5.Bxf6. At that point, White should have realized the threat on f3 and addressed it fully instead of just superficially blocking the Black Queen's Path.