On Monday in Arcadia, I was paired against Eren Karadayi, rated 1918. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I had played Eren three times before but never with the white pieces. I wasn't completely sure what to expect and assumed he might play a Sicilian, since I know he is quite an aggressive blitz player. The following game is quite tragic, as I built up a winning position and then played one of the most horrific blunders of my life that 99% of beginners wouldn't have even played.
Tonight I showed the game to GM Jesse Kraai, who I sometimes have lessons with, and I have added his thoughts to my own.
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5
Already a slight surprise but the Scandinavian can be quite tactical, so perhaps it suits Eren's style of play.
3. Nf3 Nf6
I always used to play 3. Nc3 against the Scandinavian but started playing 3. Nf3 two or three years ago. I like the idea of being able to dislodge black's queen with a timely c4, with the knight being able to move to c3 later. White would then have hanging pawns on c4 and d4 which can be both a weakness (especially the pawn on d4) but can also give white some dynamic possibilities if he can achieve a d5 push.
4. d4 c6
At the time, I didn't think this was so bad but Jesse already thought this was a mis-step by black. The point is that black usually plays c6 at some stage to give his queen a way to retreat from a5. On c6, the pawn also dominates white's knight on c3. However, in this position the queen is not on a5. Even worse, white hasn't put his knight on c3 yet, so 4. ... c6 is really a waste of a tempo.
5. c4 Qd8
I thought this move was suspicious, which Jesse concurred with. True, the queen does often go back to d8 in the Scandinavian, either directly after white puts a knight on c3 or after some sort of Bd2 attack/discovery on the queen when she is on a5. Here, however, putting the queen back on d8 is really an undeveloping move and black now owes us at least two tempi.
6. Nc3?!
I flagged this move as being slightly dubious. I didn't realize it at the time (in fact, it seemed perfectly normal) but Jesse said 6. Nc3 is an inaccuracy. When he explained why, it made perfect sense. It's inaccurate because I am not taking into account what black wants to do. What black should want in this position is to put his bishop on g4, then trade on f3 and play e6 (in either order). Since black is a bit cramped, this will help to free his position somewhat and he will be getting rid of arguably his worst piece. After he plays e6, black will have a good clamp on the d5 square and the d5 push is really white's only way to open up the middle of the board.
Better would have been 6. Be3 or 6. h3, preventing black's light squared bishop from reaching its ideal square on g4.
6. ... e6 7. g3
This was an interesting moment. Although fianchettoing the light squared bishop is sometimes played by white against the Scandinavian, in my experience it isn't very common. The natural move would obviously be 7. Bd3, which Jesse felt was best. Fritz actually thinks 7. Bf4 is best, with 7. Bd3 being its second choice. However, it says there is nothing wrong with 7. g3 and rates it only slightly less favorably than its top two moves.
My rationale behind fianchettoing the bishop was that I felt Eren would be more comfortably in a tactical sort of game, whereas he would be less comfortable in a more strategic position. The position is going to loosely resemble a Catalan structure, which I thought he wouldn't be very familiar with, and I wanted to mix things up a bit.
Jesse's rationale behind playing 7. Bd3 instead was that he is naturally suspicious of unnecessary pawn moves. Also, black is so far behind in development already that white should want to rapidly finish his own development. Jesse stressed how important time is in chess and he is right about that. If I had this position again, I would play Jesse's recommendation.
7. ... Be7 8. Bg2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qc2
This is okay but Jesse thought that the queen would be better placed on e2. As we will see, he was right as usual!
10. ... g6
This is a serious positional mistake. Eren was obviously nervous about my queen exerting pressure along the b1-h7 diagonal but his fears were misplaced. True, the queen does eye some juicy squares but there are no immediate threats against h7. Black should play g6 if he absolutely has to (and here he doesn't have to) because it causes a whole host of weaknesses on the dark squares around his king.
11. b3
Again, Jesse wasn't thrilled with this because it's another pawn push that isn't strictly necessary. He said I should have been looking at how black intended to untangle himself and then I should have been trying to stop it. The most natural way for black to coordinate his pieces is to play Qc7, b6, Bb7 and then c5. Therefore, white should seriously consider playing 11. Bf4 because it keeps the queen off her best square (c7). White needn't fear 11. ... Nh5?! because this just loses another tempo after 12. Bh6 and then the knight is horrible on h5 anyway.
From my perspective, I had seen that black had severely weakened the dark squares around his king and I intended to fianchetto my other bishop, potentially putting pressure along the a1-h8 diagonal. True, to achieve much of anything along that diagonal I will eventually have to push with d5 but I was trying to think long term.
11. ... Qc7 12. Bb2 Re8 13. Rfe1 b6
Here Jesse wryly noted that the queen would have been much better on e2 than c2 because then white could seriously consider playing Ng5 next move, threatening to capture on either e6 or f7. True, black can play his bishop back to f8 and that seems to put an end to most of the fun but at least it would cause black a little grief.
14. Ne5! Nxe5? 15. dxe5 Nd7
Here I felt that black was strategically lost. He has chronic problems with both the d6 and f6 squares.
16. Rad1 Bb7 17. Ne4! Nxe5??
A horrible move. It was knee jerk reaction from Eren, who was understandably very concerned about me planting my knight on d6 that he would have a hard time ever getting rid of. However, 17. ... Nxe5 is an outright blunder that should have cost him the game. Fritz says black is totally busted here, giving white an almost four pawn advantage.
18. Qc3! f6 19. f4 Nd7 20. Rxd7!
Of course. This was the reason why I played 16. Rad1 a few moves earlier. The exchange sac removes the knight that was holding black's position together.
20. ... Qxd7 21. Nxf6+ Bxf6 22. Qxf6 e5
Let's take a look at the position. Believe it or not, I am about to lose in one move.
This position is crushing for white. Fritz rates it as +3.14 after 23. Rxe5. Even if I had played the more natural looking 23. Bxe5, the computer still says it's nearly two pawns better for white. I honestly thought Eren was going to resign on the previous move but he probably figured he might as well play on for a bit to see if I made a mistake. I more than obliged on my next move!
23. Qh8+?? 0-1
Tragic but let's talk about what happened here. Our last few moves had been played at a near blitz pace because they were all forcing. As a result, I had several moves to write down in order to catch up with the position on the board. On move 21, I had made a mental note that if my queen reached h8, black could not play e5 because he would lose his queen to a skewer after, for example, 22. ... Rf8 23. Qh8+ Kf7 24. Qxh7+ Ke6 25. Bh3+ and it's game over. After Eren made his 22nd move, I committed the cardinal sin of not looking at the board before I played my move. Consequently, I didn't check that 23. Qh8+ was playable (I just assumed it was) and, without so much of a glance at the board, I slammed my queen down on h8.
I won't go into too many details but I thought Eren's reaction was rather disrespectful. Instead of just meekly taking the queen, he pointed at the board, let out a loud guffaw (which naturally aroused the curiosity of various onlookers, only adding to my embarrassment), and then started loudly talking to Craig Faber behind him about the huge blunder I had just committed. I don't think he intended any malice with his reaction but he should have kept himself in check, especially since this game was nothing for him to be proud of given he had been outplayed and lost for many moves.
After the game, I didn't beat myself up too much about what had happened. It was just one of those things. I felt that, despite a few inaccuracies (well pointed out by Jesse!), I had played well for the most part. I would almost prefer to play well and lose than to play poorly and win. Well, almost...!
Jesse and I have scheduled another lesson two days before the start of the American Open, which takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend at the end of the month. Before then, I have another three games to play in Arcadia. Hopefully I have better results than in this one!
Here is the complete game PGN:
[Event "Arcadia Fall Challenge"]
[Site "Arcadia"]
[Date "2014.11.03"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Hayes, Matthew"]
[Black "Karadayi, Eren"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2133"]
[BlackElo "1918"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "2014.11.03"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d4 c6 5. c4 Qd8 6. Nc3 e6 7. g3 Be7 8. Bg2
O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qc2 g6 11. b3 Qc7 12. Bb2 Re8 13. Rfe1 b6 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15.
dxe5 Nd7 16. Rad1 Bb7 17. Ne4 Nxe5 18. Qc3 f6 19. f4 Nd7 20. Rxd7 Qxd7 21.
Nxf6+ Bxf6 22. Qxf6 e5 23. Qh8+ 0-1
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