Tournament: Part II

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 {I played the opening as usual, developing my pieces in fairly standard fashion.} 5. d3 Be7 6. O-O b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 {The move weakens the d3 pawn– I generally prefer to only play c3-d4 as it’s more efficient if at all possible.} O-O 9. Nbd2 {White then sets about shunting his knights to the kingside.} Bg4 10. h3 Bd7 {Having provoked a little bit of a weakness, the bishop retreats.} 11. Re1 Na5 {The knight clears the way for the c-pawn by tempoing the bishop.} 12. Bc2 c5 13. Nf1 Qc7 {The queen can then help support a push to c4 and protect the e-pawn.} 14. Ng3 Nc6 15. Nh4 d5 {The center now largely belongs to Black, but White will soon have an ideally positioned knight on f5.} 16. Qf3 d4 17. Ngf5 c4 {I try to break through and create a passed pawn, but perhaps overextend. Be6 first, to support the advance, was perhaps a superior move.} 18. Bh6 {Better was a4, which begins to break down the wall of pawns.} Ne8 19. Qg4 {This, which I somehow missed, opens up 19…Bxh4 Qxh4 20. gxh6. Although I don’t remember it precisely, and it’s possible I dismissed the move for being too dangerous, I employed the same type of lackadaisical complacency as the day before, with similar results.} Bf6 20. Bg5 Bxg5 21. Qxg5 f6 22. Qg3 Be6 23. dxc4 {Taking the other way only helps the Black pawns.} dxc3 24. Qxc3 Bxc4 25. b3 {White kicks out the Black bishop.} Be6 26. Bd3 {26. Qxc6 Qxc6 27. Ne7+ was another option.} Rc8 27. Rac1 Nd6 {Here is the blunder; I walked right into the same trap I was earlier aware of.} 28. Qxc6 Qxc6 29. Ne7+ Kh8 30. Nxc6 Bd7 31. Nb4 Ra8 32. Nd5 {Seeing no counterplay, and no time trouble, I elected to not waste both our times and resigned. 1-0.}

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 {Again, I’m on the Black side of a Ruy Lopez.} a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 {I choose to prevent a capture early so as to cause less trouble.} 6. Bb3 Be7 7. d3 d6 8. c3 {His plan appears to be to play d4, and yet he doesn’t– for the remainder of the game, in fact.} O-O 9. a4 {Instead, he attacks with a4, another standard plan, but one he doesn’t really follow up on.} Bb7 {If I had not moved the bishop, the a-pawn would be pinned on axb5. Since he didn’t play d4 or h3 on the following move, I considered Bg4, working against d4, to be unnecessary, and instead supported my own eventual push to d5.} 10. Nbd2 {A better move might have been Na3, which would put further pressure on the b-pawn.} Na5 11. Ba2 c5 12. Re1 Nc6 {His earlier hesitation has now allowed me to clamp down on the d4-square, preventing the d-pawn’s advance.} 13. Nf1 {He then moves to a different plan altogether: positioning a knight on f5. This doesn’t cost him immediately, but is a little more disorganized than if he had focused on one approach.} Qc7 14. Ng3 Rad8 15. Qe2 Rfe8 16. Be3 d5 17. Ng5 Bf8 {The bishop moves to allow the rook to help support my center. However, this opens up a few different, minor tactics White missed in the end, perhaps best being 18. exd5 Nxd5 Qf3, which leaves Black without a great way to defend the knight.} 18. Rf1 d4 {I remember thinking very clearly: “The f-pawn is protected,” forgetting that the queen wasn’t a working protector.} 19. Bxf7+ Kh8 20. Bxe8 Nxe8 {To add to my mistake, I make the wrong recapture.} 21. Ne6 Qe7 22. Nxd8 Qxd8 23. cxd4 {And here I wrote down 24…Qxd4, which is obviously incorrect, and neither Nxd4 or the pawn captures work with the following moves. Either way, the important part of the game is over, and I eventually resigned. …1-0.}

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 {A reprise of my least interesting game from the day before.} 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 {I decide to take the same approach, but instead of being a tempo down, Black elects to to transpose into an opening similar to 1.d4.} Be7 6. c4 O-O 7. Bd3 f5 {The move weakens the king slightly, but cements the knight’s position and gives Black much better central control.} 8. b3 {I elect to pre-emptively reinforce the center and open up another avenue in which to develop my bishop.} Bf6 9. O-O Nc6 10. Bb2 Kh8 {Black makes a noncommittal move which gets the king of a slightly dangerous diagonal. However, it wastes time more than anything else, since he has several pieces still undeveloped.} 11. Nbd2 {I decide to trade off Black’s best piece for one of my worst.} Nxd2 12. Qxd2 Bd7 13. Rfe1 {Taking the open file.} Ne7 {Seeing that the knight is unproductive on the queenside, Black resolves to swing it over to the kingside.} 14. Re2 {As he does this, though, he continues to delay developing his other pieces. I, instead, use the time to double on the open file.} Ng8 15. Rae1 g6 {Black shores up the kingside.} 16. d5 Bxb2 17. Qxb2+ Qf6 18. Qd4 Qxd4 19. Nxd4 {Since neither side has dark-squared pieces, those weaknesses aren’t such a big deal for Black, but if White can station a piece on e6, his position will become very difficult.} Kg7 20. b4 {I take some more queenside space.} c5 21. bxc5 dxc5 {White now has a passed pawn, which he can use as a last resort in the endgame.} 22. Nf3 Rae8 23. Ne5 {The knight now has a great position.} Nf6 24. f4 Ba4 25. Rb2 b6 26. g3 Rd8 {Black works against the passed pawn.} 27. Bc2 Bxc2 28. Rxc2 Ne4 {Black’s knight is now equally well stationed, but White has more options as to how to proceed because of the pawn structure: namely, a4-a5 and a station on c6, as well as exploiting the passed pawn.} 29. a4 Rfe8 30. Rb1 Kf6 31. Nc6 Rd7 32. a5 bxa5 33. Nxa5 g5 34. Kg2 gxf4 35. gxf4 {The position is now relatively equal, since the knights have equally good positions and each side controls an open file.} Rg8+ 36. Kf3 Rdg7 37. Rb5 {Vacating the first rank allows for possibilities such as 37…Rg4 38. Rb3 Rh4 39. Re3 Rg1, threatening both horizontal and vertical checks.} Rg1 38. Nb3 Rf1+ {All Black has now, though, is a perpetual.} 39. Ke3 Re1+ 40. Kd3 Rgg1 41. Nxc5 Rd1+ 42. Ke3 Rge1+ 43. Kf3 Rf1+ 44. Kg2 Rg1+ 45. Kh3 {This is the (only, really) fatal mistake, allowing Black to set up a side rank checkmate.} Nxc5 46. Rxc5 Rd3+ 47. Kh4 Rg4+ 48. Kh5 Rh3# {1-0.}