[Chess] Agony & Ecstasy in Chess

So I’m playing a 30/0 game on my “smurf” account on Chess.com.
I am playing black.


1 b3



Nimzo-Larsen Attack!!?


1… e5
2 Bb2 Nc6
3 e3 d5
4 Bb5 Bd6
5 f4



I tried my best to seize and hold the center, but he lashed out violently from the flank. I had exactly same position only with color reversed in a correspondance game with none other than TLPlexa. Here, I tried to “punish” him for exposing his kingside like that and made him loosen up his kingside even more.


5… Qh4+



6 g3 Qe7
7 fxe5 Bxe5
8 Nc3 Nf6
9 Nf3 Bg4



I’m just trying to get all my pieces developed before I think about any tactics. A useful habit to develop I suppose.


10 Rf1 0-0
11 Bxc6 bxc6
12 Qe2



He messed up my Queenside pawn structure, but I didn’t mind. Since he’s getting ready to castle queenside, half-open b file may actually help me, not hurt me.
Something like Rb8 and a7-a5-a4 to rip open his castle could be ugly for him potentially.




12… Bh3
13 Rg1 Bd6



I figured it would be a useful thing to make his rook get off the half open f-file; that could buy me a tempo later on. And I’m getting ready to remove his fianchetto’d bishop.


14 0-0-0 Bg4
15 Rde1 d4



The Knight – Queen – Rook diagonal was just too juicy of a pin to not take advantage of. And now that I finally have basically all my pieces developed, I decided that it’s tactics time.
If he should pawn takes pawn. I will have a removal of the guard tactic to win the knight on f3.




16 Nd1 Ba3
17 Qf2



My opponent finally decides that the pin by my light squared bishop is just too darn annoying, so he unpins it at last.


17… Ne4
18 Qg2 Bxb2+
19 Nxb2 Qa3



I have gotten my knight to a more attacking position, traded off his bishop, and placed my Queen to a threatening place. Even though all my pieces are all over the place, I felt like I was holding all the ace right now.


20 Kb1 Nc3+?



This was… not even a miscalculation. This was just stupidity. Not looking at what my opponent’s best reply is.
What I saw here before I played this move, believe it or not, was this line.


And I have a dangerous attack.

But only if he is stupid enough to make a king move and not a knight move. Why didn’t I see that he can move his knight? It’s one of those chess blindness that plagues people of lower level like me. I forget to consider ALL his legal moves when I see a dream like variation.

Yeah… silly huh? After thinking for a while, my opponent lashed out his moves with computer speed.


21 dxc3 dxc3
22 Nc4



It was here when I went “SHIET!!” and realized how stupidly unsound my sac was. It was one of those moment where you go, “ARGGHHHH, do I even know how to play this game?? I NEED TO RESIGN NOW!!”

I didn’t even realize until post-mortem that I had a game-winning decoy -> fork tactic at move 20.


ARGGHGHG why didn’t I see this???

Instead, I went for a fantasy line that made me look REALLY dumb.
Well… what can you say? I had one of those Smeagol moment where half of you inside is telling you to resign while the other half is telling you to fight on.

After about 5 minutes, I regathered myself and decided to play. Fortune shall favor the brave.


22… Qc5
23 Nfe5



Forks all over the place. It’s obvious that he wants to trade Queens which is a good plan when you’re up a piece.


23… Be6
24 Qxc6 Qxc6
25 Nxc6 Bxc4
26 bxc4



Against the “general principle” of ‘don’t trade pieces when you are down’, I went ahead and traded anyway so that I can open the b-file and make all his pawns weak.


26… a5
27 Ne7+ Kh8
28 Nd5



Forking my precious pawns. >_<


28… Rab8+
29 Ka1 Rb2



My line of thinking was, if he takes, any pawns with the knight, I can take the c pawn, and potentially double my rooks on the 7th rank and at least work for a draw.



30 Re2 (defending the pawn) c6 (kicking the knight out and forcing him to take c3)
31 Nxc3 Rb4
32 Rb1



Offering a trade of rooks. I’ve already showed one level of stupidity, but it would take another level to trade here.


32… Rxc4
33 Ne4??



BAM!!!! THAT’s WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!
It’s precisely because things like this can happen at this level that I played on.
My opponent completely blunders in one of the worst fashion I’ve seen. It’s one thing to miss a fork or removal of the guard or any other tactics, but DONATIONS man! Wow.

Heart is pumping. Adrenaline is rushing. YES!!!


33… Rxe4



All of a sudden, material is equal, and I might even be slightly better thanks to him having 1 more isolated pawn than I.
My opponent, clearly infuriated, expressed his sore displeasure.



Haha. Oh shit, let the shit-talking begin! It’s game on fo real now. I’m purposely using bad spelling and grammar to troll him.


34 Rb6 Rc4
35 Ra6 a4



I ain’t giving away any free pawns dude.


36 Kb2



Oh… here, I calmed down and kind of sobered up a little. Because I realized “I’m gonna lose my a pawn yea?” Damn! What the hell, I should have played Rc5 instead of a5…
But then, I realized, wait a minute… if he takes the a pawn, I can draw this with perpetual check! HOLY CRAP YES!


and perpetual check ensues

36… Rb8+
37 Ka3 Rc3+
38 Kxa4 Rc4+



Despite gaining a pawn lead in a wild roller coaster game, it dawns on my opponent that he is powerless to stop the perpetual check draw.

He had this to say about this situation



I love using their energy against them in shit-talking. I wondered if he was really going to just afk and until he has 10 sec left, then take the perpetual and draw.


39 Ka3 Rc3+
40 Ka4 Rc4+
41 Ka3 Rc3+
42 Ka4

0-1



WHAT?? This guy crazy or something? I was LITERALLY going to play Rc4+ and press the draw button since the position has been reached 3 times. LMFAO.



Well, what can I say? Bitter man is bitter.
I was just so happy about the free knight gift that all I could think was draw draw draw.
But after a bit of post game analysis, it turns out my opponent had a good reason to resign after


And mate.

He would have to give up a rook to avoid mate, but then, it’s game over anyway.

Was this line the reason he quit? Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. But here’s the kicker.
I didn’t know I had this game winning line at my disposal. All I was focused on was just getting 3 fold repetition draw and spoiling what should have been his win.

If he had just “stuck around” and played on (like me kekeke), I would have declared a draw, even though I had a game winning line right under my nose. I was literally 1 sec away from moving my mouse and making my move too. How funny.

Man it feels good to be rewarded for having a good attitude. I never would have thought I would win in this fashion after Nc4.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed as much as I did