Advantage/Equalize in the Opening

This thread is for the purpose of showing games where one takes advantage of small mistakes by one's opponent in the opening. I would like to keep out serious blunders (like hanging a piece). Post the entire game or just up to where you got the advantage/equalized. Annotations are welcome.

My idea (if this thread takes off) is to revamp my opening repertoire (by adding more opening ideas and, well, more openings...doh!)and to improve my analyzing skills by thoroughly going over any openings posted.

I'll start by showing the beginning of a standard game just played on fics.

I don't have anything prepared against the English currently, so I usually play 1...Nf6 and hope for transposition to Queen's Gambit.
3...Bb4+ One of my favorite openings is the Nimzo; I was hoping my opponent would oblige and he did. 4...c5 is my normal move, but I know d5 is played most often so I tried it. 6...exd5 I always have Ne4 ideas and didn't want to not have them after Nxd5. 7...Bd7 I was trying to give my light-squared bishop away so I could play Qxd7 followed by Ne4; he wouldn't have that, I guess. 9...bxc6 My idea here was to push c5 with tempo, plus I felt a bishop on c6 wasn't doing much. 10...c5 I didn't really want to push it yet because I thought I was losing a pawn, but I didn't see any other way to castle. After 13.Bxc5 I realized I was getting his dark-squared bishop or a huge initiative. I felt after the better 13.Bd2 or 13.Bd3 and 13...Nxc5 I was doing OK (at least equal). After 13.Ba6 I felt on principals (opponent moving an already developed piece) that I should be able to capitalize and I looked very hard to find it and I did.
I should note that before I found 15...Ba4 I was trying to make 15...Nxf2 16.Qxf2 Rxd3+ work, but couldn't figure out how to continue after 17.Bd2. Then the deflection of the queen became obvious all of a sudden.

So I hope y'all find that useful, please give me some of your opening ideas.

Here's another game just played where my opponent moves an already developed piece and I decide thats justification enough to attack, attack, attack.

11.Be2 was my first tough decision. I was considering h3 with the plan to push f4 then g5, but in the end I decided that it was a slow plan and just completing development would probably help me more.
12.f4 this is objectively a bad move, the computer likes the simple dxe5, but I felt like I was supposed (a la Sierawan, as my opponent is opening up the center before he's castled) to attack and f4 looked like the best way to do it (subjectively, I'm no worse after the move).
After 14.Qxe3 you can see my idea. Give up the pawn and bishop for his centralized knight and to activate my rook. The game after 18...Qxa2 is a forced mate the computer found. My opponent did not play this move, but I thought it would best show the strength of the attack. Finding the other forced mates after black's 19th move is instructive.

Maybe I should add that 16.exd5 was not the best either, I should have played the better 16.fxg6, but at the time I couldn't resist trying to open the line between my queen and his king.

Originally posted by Uries
I suppose developing pieces for an attack while attacking his queen is getting small advantages..

[pgn]1. e2-e4 c7-c5 2. d2-d4 c5xd4 3. c2-c3 d4xc3 4. Nb1xc3 e7-e6 5. Ng1-f3 Ng8-e7 6. Bc1-g5 Qd8-b6 7. Qd1-d3 Ne7-g6 8. Bf1-e2 Bf8-b4 9. O-O Bb4xc3 10. Qd3xc3 O-O 11. h2-h4 Qb6-c6 12. Qc3-a3 Qc6xe4 13. Be2-d3 Qe4-g4 14. Nf3-h2 Qg4-d4 15. Rf1-d1 Qd4-b6 16. Ra1-c ...[text shortened]... g6-e5 18. h5-h6 f7-f6 19. h6xg7 Rf8-f7 20. Bg5-h6 d7-d5 21. Qa3-f8 Rf7xf8 22. g7xf8=R 1-0[/pgn]

I really liked 6.g5 after his poor knight move almost forcing f6, but he plays the worse 6...Qb6. I think you could have really stuck it to him with 7.Rc1 (7...Qxb2 8.Nb5!). I've studied the Smith-Morra a lot, mainly from the black side. I hate that there are sound gambits. I don't think I'll be adding this to my repertoire, but I think you definitely punished your opponent from his opening neglect.

After 14.Nh2 you had definitely won the opening. The initiative is too strong and your opponent is too far behind.

Edit: I think you should have pushed h5 much sooner though.

We can file this under 'bringing the queen out too early'.

In actuality Qa4 is book. We follow book up until 11.Bf4. 11...Rc8 he should play Qd2. The queen suddenly comes under attack forcing the win of a piece(The win of a piece isn't really forced, but I am winning material in any case). The seemingly innocuous 12...h6 should have clued him in.

This is a nice trap to remember.

5...dxc4
Typically black waits for white to play Bd3 before making this move causing white to move his bishop twice in the opening losing a tempo. With the text move I'm able to develope my bishop and recapture the pawn with one move.

8...b5
Black wants to play Bd7. With b5 he vacates the b7 square with a tempo. However black no longer has a pawn to guard c5. Being able to occupy c5 with a piece can be very decisive for white in the queen's gambit. Also black has now created a weakness in his backwards c pawn.

9...Nd7
Black is now poised to play c5. This is the freeing move for black in most queen pawn games. My plan is to keep black burdened with his backwards pawn by removing the knight on d7 and the bishop on e7.

12...Bxf6
With the defenders of the c5 square removed, now is the time to occupy the c file and bring pressure on the c pawn.

The game ended with a simple knight fork but black was going to have a difficult time. The backwards pawn not only cramped black's position but black also had to devote resources to protect the weak pawn. Preventing black from playing c5 proved to be an advantage.

Recent threads claimed some positional analysis, which is one of my favourite issues. I was pretty much decided to do something good about this (with my modest capacities).
In the beginning, my idea was to write a few comments about one of my games, and to post it on Resigning soon topic (equalizing and taking advantage, something like this); but it soon took longer, and ends up with ten pages. So I think it is worth posting it on a new thread.
My hope is this analysis will help beginners to get an idea of what positional thinking mean. If it gives them a first sense of positions, it will make me very happy. I tried to detail everything to the most simple argument.
This is also a way for me to advertise for the Catalan opening, a wonderful opening, full of possibilities, agressive king attacks and long positional fancietto games. In a recent article, the New York times underlines that Catalan was strongly renewed recently, to the point that players are now trying countergambits... I recommend it to Resigning soon!

The game I choose is pretty interesting for getting slowly and in various decisive steps a strong advantage, in a typical positional style. Chess Master counts only a few major mistakes for each of us. So the game is rather clean.I am myself a limited, young player, so be indulgent with my comments (but do not hesitate to be critical!) The somewhat lyrical style is just for fun. Hope you’ll like it.



Here is the game.

1. d4 Ng8f6 2. c4 e6 3. g3

This situation defines Catalan opening. g3 prepares Bg2; it therefore announces further work on the white diagonal, the famous h1 a8 diagonal; with at first sight, an attack on the queen side. Of course, black will prevent this, and try to set up a counter attack plan at the center or King's side. Fancietto and attacks on the Queen's side often mean longer, more positional games.
One more remark, As you can see with this first structure, you can go to Catalan when coming from declined Queen's Gambit, or Semi-slave and slave openings; or even from the English.
These transpositions are very interesting. They mean that when you play d4, you have pretty good chance to come back to Catalan, if you want.
Sometimes though, this leaves the opportunity to your opponent to play the Dutch (f5) since he did not play Nf6. But usually this does not happens.
So very good, you can play Catalan all the time.

3. ... Bf8b4+
Black brings his black bishop out.

This is one possibility. Other possibilities are...

Let see some basic catalan opening theory.

- obvious one: d5. This one, can be deduced from what I said earlier. With d5, black does sth with the famous h1 a8 diagonal; this is the most common move (the transposition from Queen's gambit leads there).

If he chooses the d5 path, Black will soon or late have to do a strategic choice.
- Will he take the c4 pawn and accept the Catalan's Gambit? we would go on an open Catalan then: black has one pawn, but this imply some delay in development, and creates weaknesses: Black gives up the center, and White can possibly play e4, e5 for instance. It opens the famous diagonal, and White’s nice white bishop will hit b7 and Ra8.
- or Black does not accept the Gambit, and the threat is he slowly dies from within, because at a certain point, he cannot make any move.

- c5 is much more counter intuitive! Why? Because black cannot anymore play c6. and guess what: c6 is part of the famous diagonal. So when doing this, Black just calls for white bishop to attack his/her Queen's side.
So why c5? It attacks d4. and then, it forces White to make choices.
either White pushes d4 -many players do - but this makes me sad because it kills my famous diagonal (at least temporarily). Or White plays Nf3, and after cxd4 Nxd4 we have something very open. and very good for my bishop. usually, after c5 white will soon play d5 to try to fill in the holes he is doing in his/her Queen's side.
and then black will have the same choice (closed or open Catalan); but white can create an IQP (isolated queen pawn), right on the famous diagonal. the perfect target...

- other moves are not very active, except Bb4.
What is the idea of Bb4+?? sounds weird too! Obviously, first idea, it fastens development: you get out one piece and at the same time check my King. but obviously, it is not a real threat, just a way to get time.
But is that all? because I will just get one piece out to protect my king, and then I just develop myself also! So what's the point? what advantage do you I get from that move??
Let us be more precise.
you force me (since I do not want to move my king) to put a piece ... in d2. very intelligent! Now I can see! two reasons. 1. a piece in d2 is not very well developed; I will probably have to move it once more before it is really efficient. 2. if it is in d2, then d4 is not anymore protected by my queen; and when game will open, I will have to be careful about d4 pawn (a bit, only).
So Bb4 is a very good move too. this is what Black plays.

4. Bc1d2

Why this ? there are at least two other possible moves at that time!
Here it's only a matter of taste. I think taste is very important in chess; and nevermind all tactical, logical necessities, you still have taste. here it's taste. Please have good taste; make up your taste, improve it, as much as you can; make it become a style. So that chess is not only intelligent, but becomes beautiful. All great chess players have specific styles no? very important.
so, what are the two other moves.
Cc3. this you can play, but you do not feel it. because after black c5, Qa4 and possibly Ne4, it makes a lot on your poor knight. and it is easy for black to play this. So you can play, it is not a mistake; but black have higher success rates with this.
the other move is: Nd2. This is as good as Bd2. But I feel more free with the Bishop e2, because whenever I feel bad I can exchange with Bb4. and also, I can develop my knight on c3, if necessary. But on the other side, I may loose a Bishop. Anyway, I do not like normal bishops. they are lazy. This black bishop, I know, in the Catalan, is usually a bit lazy. So I will keep the knights. I love them, they are like dancers, dancers of the famous diagonal, coming here and there, like nasty flies, and suddenly going deep inside the opponent structure.

4. ... Qd8e7
he/she could also have brought his Bb4 on e7. What?? bringing back stuff in the beginning? why wouldn't he/she rather play Be7? he is wasting his time!
No he is not. Because, as you know now, it is not exactly the same position: now I have a poor bishop on e2...

putting the Queen here is the other possibility. it defends the Bishop, and you cannot take it. it develops the Queen; and possibly prepares... for the long castle?

5. Bf1g2
Whites set up his major piece. This piece he wants to honor with the Catalan! His second king.

5. ... a5 !?

pretty unusual in the Catalan... why not!! it seems that black would like to attack on queen side? I am not sure here, but probably not a good idea to exchange (he would probably take back with the pawn, opening the rook file, and having an annoying pawn in b4, preventing your knight to get out).
So let him to his own story. at least he has style! and I have no more book to help me... damn, how can I do without cheating?

6. Ng1f3
Whites just develop naturally his pieces. One thing to know: the Nf3 in the Catalan, likes to go on e5, especially when the dxc4 gambit was accepted: from e5, he may be able to take back the pawn. Moreover, he may attack from e5 on c6 (part of the famous diagonal). This can be terrible, when in one move, white bishop and Nf3 attack c6, at the same time.
In some situations, Nf3 may prefer going to d2; with similar effects (attacking c4, opening the famous diagonal).

6. ... b6

Here, an immediate thought: look at the diagonal! We just talked about Ne5, why not now? this would attack Black rook on the famous diagonal. and put the knight in such a way that he cannot play Nc6 to protect his rook (because then, as I just said, my dancer knights will take it.)
well, I did not play it, because he could simplily play c6. and then he cannot put his knight in a very good place, but he prepares a correct d5.
So, this looks weird, but for the moment I just look.
This, again, is very important: take your time! It is a matter of elegance. Would you go on the meat when it's not even prepared? Just think inside yourself: hmm, nice, nice. Look like you are inspired 🙂 or like he just played a surprisingly good move.

7. O-O
So I take my time. and just castle... but this is an offensive castling... as shows the next move.

7. ... Bb4xd2
and yes! he has to take my poor bishop with his good bishop. and he wastes time. because I will take developing one piece. whereas Black will not develop anything with this.
So why does he have to take??
well if he does not, what happens next? I just remove my bishop in a good place, and then, with a3, forces him to go back. but he has no more good space. He would have to go on d6, which looks awful, because it suppress any counterplay to Bl...

Originally posted by KneeCaps
[pgn]1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nb1c3 Ng8f6 4. Bc1g5 Bf8e7 5. Ng1f3 dxc4 6. e3 O-O
7. Bf1xc4 a6 8. O-O b5 9. Bc4d3 Nb8d7 10. Bg5xf6 Nd7xf6 11. Nc3e4 Ra8b8
12. Ne4xf6 Be7xf6 13. Ra1c1 Bc8b7 14. Qd1c2 g6 15. Nf3d2 Rb8c8 16. Bd3e4 Bb7xe4
17. Nd2xe4 Bf6e7 18. Qc2c6 Qd8d5 19. a3 a5 20. Rc1c5 Be7xc5 21. Ne4f6 Kg8h8
22. Nf6xd5 1-0[/pgn]

[b]5...dxc4
Typic ...[text shortened]... ources to protect the weak pawn. Preventing black from playing c5 proved to be an advantage.[/b]

Very nice! I like your succinct analysis and perfect way to take advantage or your opponents opening inaccuracies.

Originally posted by Macpo
Recent threads claimed some positional analysis, which is one of my favourite issues. I was pretty much decided to do something good about this (with my modest capacities).
In the beginning, my idea was to write a few comments about one of my games, and to post it on Resigning soon topic (equalizing and taking advantage, something like this); but it soon too looks awful, because it suppress any counterplay to Bl...

Ahh! It looks like you got cut-off and I was really enjoying your annotations. Hope you continue it.

And I have to say that I think the Catalan looks like a great opening to play; I think I may be too married to e4, but this would probably be where I would steer if I take on the 1.d4.

I'm curious about a certain line in the Sveshnikov:

I like this move a lot, but it's not main line(11.c3). Can someone talk me out of playing it? I'm preparing it more deeply and you might save me some trouble with a good argument against.

Originally posted by Uries
After b4 I like Qa4 because ...bxa3 loses black a pawn to:
13. Qxc6+ Bd7
14. Qxa8 Qxa8
15. Nc7+ Ke7
16. Nxa8 Rxa8
17. bxa3

However if black dodges this pitfall he seems to get a nice knight outpost on d4 which as aforementioned can't be removed now that the pawn is on c4.

Edit: What am I talking about, white wins more than a pawn.

I like Qa4 a lot...I hadn't considered it. I'm not at home so I can't sic the computer on it, but it looks good. I get b4 response most often in blitz, but without deeper analysis Qa4 seems fishy. Can white get away with it? (I hope so.) I'm going to put this one on the board and give it a good long think.