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ANNOTATED GAME
Making progress when there is none to be made.
elyhim (2490) vs. remajik (2494)
Annotated by: elyhim (1200)
Chess opening: Scotch (C45), Schmidt variation
elyhim (2490) vs. remajik (2494)
Annotated by: elyhim (1200)
Chess opening: Scotch (C45), Schmidt variation
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1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 |
The Scottish game | ||||
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4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 |
pins the knight and seeking to undermine the e4 pawn. Though this comes at a cost of a permanent structural weakness. | ||||
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6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 |
Developing and defending e4. This bishop can become a useful future attacking piece if white ever has a chance to play e4-e5. | ||||
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7... d5 |
un-doubling the pawns while at the same time increasing the scope of his LSB and queen. Black is following a common theme in the Scottish game which is to hit at and liquidate the e4-pawn. Here he succeeds in getting white's center pawns of the board but at the expense of freeing the d3-bishop. Such wide open spaces often suit the bishop pair. | ||||
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8. exd5 cxd5 9. a3 |
putting the question mark on the bishop and forcing black to decide what to do retreat or exchange. | ||||
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9... Be7 |
This is IMO slightly more accurate than 9....Bxc3 as in one resent correspondence game white manage to make good use of his bishop pair after 10.bxc3 0-0 11. 0-0 Qd6 12. Qf3 Ba6 13. Bf4 | ||||
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10. Bf4 |
Develpoing the bishop to a very active square and hitting at the weak c7 pawn. | ||||
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10... c6 |
shores up d5 but not that threatening more active is 10...c5!? with counter play. | ||||
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11. O-O |
An alternative here was to spend the extra tempo gained from ...c7-c6 to play 11.h3 preventing black from playing a piece onto g4. however, the immediate ...Bg4 is met with f3 increasing white's control of the e4 square and forcing black to retreat the bishop with tempo. Therefore, I saw no need to create a weakness in front of my castled king position. It is often advised to now move the pawns in front of the castled king unless absolutely necessary. | ||||
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11... O-O 12. Na4 |
This is a novelty in my books. The idea is to immediately challenge black's main idea which is to play ...c5. For example, if black did try the immediate 12...c5 white could now counter with 13.c4 and black's counter chances are all but stopped and settled with a backward c-pawn that could be a target. | ||||
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12... Re8 13. Re1 |
centralizing the rooks. | ||||
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13... c5 |
I had prepared for this and had planned to meet it with c4 | ||||
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14. c4 Bb7 |
IMO 14...d4 with an enduring space advantage in the center was a better option. | ||||
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15. cxd5 |
black now has an isolated c-pawn. White's bishops are slightly better than black's. Things are slightly in white's favor. | ||||
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15... Qxd5 |
setting up an immediate attack on g2 and regaining the pawn. | ||||
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16. Bf1 |
defending g2. | ||||
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16... Qf5 |
black has a very active queen and LSB while white has been forced to retreat a bit. | ||||
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17. Bg3 |
despite having the bishop pair kicked around abit the position is dynamically equal due to white's strong presence in the center and black having a isolated c-pawn. | ||||
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17... Bf8 |
Neither side is willing to commit to an attack. So black quickly offers a trade and tries to force a draw. | ||||
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18. Rxe8 Rxe8 19. Nc3 |
It will have to be an error on one side to break the deadlock here. But for now I seek to rejuvenate my pieces. | ||||
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