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ANNOTATED GAME
Training game with jkarp
jkarp (1073) vs. l-d-j (1738)
Annotated by: l-d-j (1747)
Chess opening: Petrov three knights game (C42)
jkarp (1073) vs. l-d-j (1738)
Annotated by: l-d-j (1747)
Chess opening: Petrov three knights game (C42)
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This is a game that I played against jkarp and which I promised to annotate afterwards. Joe went down a piece early on, but I did not play my best chess and allowed him some chances. He took one of those but unfortunately for him the material advantage was already too big to overcome. Nevertheless he did play well for his level and had some good ideas. I'll try to explain as much as possible so that all players can understand this annotation and learn something from it. | ||||||
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1. e4 |
The king's pawn game. | |||||
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1... e5 |
The double king's pawn opening, which is my usual choice. | |||||
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2. Nf3 |
The king's knight opening: White attacks Black's pawn on e5. | |||||
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2... Nf6 |
This is called the Petroff. Black chooses not to respond to White's attack on the pawn by defending it, but attacks White's e4 pawn instead. | |||||
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3. Nc3 |
A good response, defending the pawn and still threatening Black's pawn on e5. The normal move is 3.Nxe5, after which Black first plays 3...d6 to chase back the knight, and after 4.Nf3 he can take the pawn on e4. | |||||
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3... Nc6 |
Now we have transposed into a simple four knights game. | |||||
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4. Bb5 |
! This is a good move if you like to play the Ruy Lopez. The type of play is similar. The Ruy Lopez can also be called Spanish opening, and because of the similarity with the Ruy Lopez this variation is called the Spanish four knights. | |||||
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4... Nd4 |
This is an agressive move. Black hopes to get a wild and interesting game very quickly. The bishop on b5, knight on f3 and pawn on c2 are all attacked, but they are defended well for the moment. Meanwhile Black has a pawn hanging as well... | |||||
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5. Nxe5 |
!? And White decides to take it. And if you don't see a problem with taking, why not? Actually the move does not win a pawn, since after my next move I will win it back, but this move is not bad. More common, however, are 5.Ba4 and 5.Bc4. With those moves White tries to preserve his bishop pair, which can be a strong force in open positions like this one. | |||||
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5... Qe7 |
With this move Black attacks White's knight on e5 and if it moves, he will win the pawn on e4 back. The disadvantage is that he blocks his bishop on f8 in. Usually that is temporary so it's not such a big deal. | |||||
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6. Nc4 |
?? A perfectly natural reply, but it gives away a piece. The most common move in this position is to defend the knight with 6.f4 and after 6...d6 move it to f3, after Which Black can exchange on b5 and win back the pawn on e4. Another possibility is 6.Nf3 which is also a good move. | |||||
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6... a6 |
The retreating route for the bishop was just blocked off and if it flees to a4, Black plays 7...b5 with a pawn fork. There is no way to save the piece. | |||||
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7. O-O |
?! It's good to castle to get your king safe and develop your rook, but in this case White should have waited. He can win a pawn for his piece by playing either 7.Ba4 b5 8.Bxb5 axb5 or 7.Bxa6 bxa6 (or 7...Rxa6). Now Black wins a full piece. When you know you're going to lose a piece, you should try to win as much material as possible for it. | |||||
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7... axb5 |
Taking the bishop and attacking the knight at the same time. | |||||
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8. Ne3 |
The knight retreats to the only good square. 8.Na3?? is not only bad because 'a knight on the rim is dim', but also because the pawn fork 8...b4 wins a knight for Black. | |||||
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8... Nxe4 |
?? I simply took the pawn, but when I analyzed with my computer I discovered that this is actually a blunder, as I will explain momentarily. | |||||
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9. Nxe4 |
? Fortunately for me, White didn't capitalize on my mistake. The move 9.Ned5! would have chased my queen away from the defence of my knight. After 9...Qc5 or 9...Qd8 White can simply take the knight with his c3 knight and after 9...Qe5 White can pile on the pressure on the knight by 10.Re1. I can try to defend with 10...f5 but after 11.d3 there are just too many attackers and my knight will eventually fall. The move played just leaves White a piece behind. It exchanges knight voluntarily and exchanging is usually not good when down in material, but if he leaves the knight there I can exchange myself and 9.Nb1? is just a horrible place for the knight. After 9.Nxe4 Qxe4 White can try to develop while attacking the queen (developing with tempo) so I think that 9.Nxe4 is the second best move. But really, the only good move is 9.Ned5. This goes to show that a 1700 like me can also make blundners and that you are not without a chance against them. | |||||
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9... Qxe4 10. d3 |
! A very good move, attacking the queen and giving the c1 bishop a diagonal to develop on. Especially when the knight on e3 has moved, it has some nice squares to move to, for example e3 or f4. | |||||
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10... Qg6 |
Retreating the queen while keeping an eye on the White kingside. I'm thinking of a kingside attack. I don't know how yet, but I thought a bishop on d6 could be nice. Another move which could possibly be a threat was ...Bh3, which is not possible now but could be played after moving the d-pawn. If the knight on e3 would not be there and I could put a bishop on h3 now, I would be winning an exchange because I would be threatening mate on g2 and the only defence would be g3, which would allow ...Bxf1 Kxf1. These moves are potential threats to White and thus they are part of my plan. When I can execute them with good effect, I will be totally winning so I'm going to try to be able to play them. Of course I also have to assess the probability that I can play my plan, if it is an unrealistic plan it doesn't make sense to try to execute it, of course. This is a good method of long-term planning, which I use quite often. | |||||
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11. Nd5 |
! Another good move by White. It attacks the c7 pawn and threatens a fork between my king on e8 and rook on a8. I have to defend the fork and there are four ways to do that, 11...Kd8, 11...Qc6, 11...Qd6 and 11...Bd6. Those are the candidates I need to examine. | |||||
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