As usual, any comments welcome ...
Catalan Opening
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 c6 5. Bg2 Bd6 6. O-O Ne4!? I needed a bit of a think here. I was expecting 0-0 or something like Qc7 or e7 and Nbd7 to prepare an ...e5 push. I play the Dutch myself so am vaguely familiar with the positions coming up after the f7-f5 push but Id always thought that this Ne4 move was premature before castling. Still not always that easy to find a way to punish these odd moves in a 5 minute game (not sure I could do it with an hour :) ) ( 6... Nbd7 7. Qd3 O-O 8. Nc3 Qe7 ) 7. Nfd2 f5 8. f3 Nf6 ( I thought Id made a blunder with f2-f3 at first as the line after.... 8... Nxg3 9. hxg3 Bxg3 looks pretty hairy. Qh4 is coming and most of whites pieces are still at home. However after a little while I found.... 10. f4 and white defends with Nf3 or even Rf3 and Nf1. A lucky escape as I should have checked this before playing f2-f3. ) 9. Nc3 O-O I was pretty happy with my position here. I feel like Ive got a very slight advantage in development and am ready to push with e4. 10. e4 fxe4?! Perhaps not the best as it helps to open the position when Black is not fully developed. Maybe something like ...c5 would have been better as Black does not need to worry about e4-e5 because there would be cxd4. ( 10... c5 11. e5 cxd4 ) 11. fxe4 dxe4 12. Ndxe4 Be7 13. Be3 Nbd7 14. Bh3 Just hitting the weak e-pawn 14... Nb6 15. Qd3 Ive got a pretty solid advantage here and it seems that my last 4 moves were all favourites of the computer as well! I promise I wasnt cheating but is definitely nice to see that Fritz agrees!! 15... e5? This is a mistake. I can see why this move makes sense as the d-pawn is pinned the c8 bishop is now attacked and the weakness on e6 is no longer so obvious. However my last move set up a hidden threat : The queen is now on the b1-h7 diagonal and Im aiming at the h7 pawn. 16. Ng5! Might not look like much at the moment as h7 is covered by both the knight and king. However were that knight to disappear....... 16... Bxh3? 17. Rxf6! Bang. Blacks position begins to crumble. The obvious move would be to just recapture on h3 but thats far less dramatic and also the knight would be out of the game on h3. Taking on f6 creates a mate-in one threat so black has to react. In chess and blitz games in particular I find that its often useful to look for forcing moves like this - Most of the time they dont lead to much but you can sometimes find a gem and forcing lines are generally easier to calculate so if they are a dud you can often work it out without spending too much time thinking. ( 17. Nxh3 exd4 18. Qxd4 Qxd4 19. Bxd4 And Black is doing very well - he can either grab the c4 pawn or just play c5 and lock down the d4 square. ) 17... g6 This allows a pretty finish but its pretty much all over to Black anyway. For example...... ( 17... Rxf6 18. Qxh7+ Kf8 19. Qh8# ) ( 17... Bf5 18. Qxf5 Bxf6 ( 18... Rxf6 19. Qxh7+ Kf8 20. Qh8# ) 19. Qxh7# ) ( 17... e4 18. Qxe4 And we are essentially in the same position - Black has managed to prolong the end by a move. ) 18. Rxg6+ Kh8 Taking the rook is not an option as Qg6+ quickly leads to mate. So.....A quick puzzle - see if you can find my last move after Kg8- h8......... 19. Rg8+! A nice way to finish. Black resigned as mate on h7 is coming. 1-0
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