The 'psychology' of moving rook to b5 on move 6!

I had one of my first games in the Berkshire League back in October 2013. This was a Center Counter - my opponent had probably never faced 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4 Qxb4 5.Rb1 Qa5 6.Rb5!? (Note: if Black holds on to the pawn in the endgame then he's probably won). Unfortunately for my opponent, he spent something like 15-20 minutes trying to decipher moves 5 and 6 which was simple scare tactics - a psychological ploy, nothing hidden and no more complicated than that! This is pretty much how the game continued ... I would play a move and my opponent would grace me by taking excessive chunks of valuable clock time (no doubt in this game his indecisiveness cost him).

Poor time-management is not uncommon, but it is one of those foibles that has to be stamped out to be in for a shout at club-level. Blitz is a useful exercise in training the brain to think quickly, especially in an endgame melee. This game boiled down to a simple tactic that allowed me to win a pinned Knight and take advantage of my opponent's poor time-keeping!

As usual, any comments welcome ...

Center Counter

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4 Qxb4 5. Rb1 Qa5 6. Rb5 Qa6 7. d4 Qd6 8. g3 Nf6 9. Bg2 c6 10. Rb1 e6 11. Bf4 Qd8 12. Bxb8 Rxb8 13. Bxc6+ Bd7 14. Bg2 Qc7 15. Nge2 Be7 16. O-O O-O 17. Qd3 a6 18. a4 Rfd8 19. R1b3 Rdc8 20. Rfb1 Bc6 21. Bxc6 Qxc6 22. Rb6 Qd7 23. a5 Bd8 24. R6b3 Bxa5 25. Nd1 Bd8 26. c4 Qc6 27. Ne3 b6 28. Ra1 a5 29. Nc3 Be7 30. Qb1 Bb4 31. d5 exd5 32. cxd5 Qd7 33. Qd3 Bxc3 34. Rxc3 Rxc3 35. Qxc3 Nxd5 36. Qd4 Qe7 37. Qxd5 Qf6 38. Rd1 1-0

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