My proudest game here yet...

I don't really want to post this game, because it will probably be torn to shreds, but this is how you learn 🙂 I like this game because it contains sacrifices and it is rather aggressive.

I actually think my opponent gave up in the end and could perhaps have fought harder during the last few moves. I also think he may have had a good game at some point.

What do you think?

Game 6362559

Originally posted by Wumpus
I don't really want to post this game, because it will probably be torn to shreds, but this is how you learn 🙂 I like this game because it contains sacrifices and it is rather aggressive.

I actually think my opponent gave up in the end and could perhaps have fought harder during the last few moves. I also think he may have had a good game at some point.

What do you think?

Game 6362559

Hi Romanticus!

Thank you for having a look. My plan with 10. e5 was to gain some space, take away the f6 square from the king's knight, while opening the d3-h3 diagonal. The b3-move was simply to give it some cover when black starts reacting, by allowing the dark bishop to go to b2.

I always investigate bishop sacs on h7 after my opponent castles and a knight is missing on f6. They are usually worth it! So, yes, I've been caught out :-) I played e5 in the hope (and hope is a bad thing in chess) that my opponent will play Ne7, followed with 0-0. In retrospect, if he didn't, it will buy me some time to get my pieces to good squares.

... but he did castle and the rest is history. :-)

FAIL

I really liked your game.

Nice game indeed. A pretty resounding beating from the looks of it. 😀

It's a classic 'Greek Gift' sac; 12. Bxh7 is the signature move. And in this case, everything falls neatly into place because you have already opened the dark diagonal with b3.

However, Romanticus is right. Playing e5 and b3/Bb2 is the wrong plan in such positions. After 10. e5, Black should counterpunch immediately with 10...d5, or even 10...f5!? In the latter case, after 11. exf6ep Nxf6; 12. Bg5 OO, we reach a nice French-style position with advantage to Black. Even lines after 10...d6 are OK. There's no rush to position the BN or castle; and 10. e5 overcommits W to B's advantage.

But not as things worked out in this case 🙂

Sorry about hijacking your thread sir. but please comment.

Hi Wumpus,

That was a very nice game, and I can see that like me, you are always on the look out for a good Bxh7 combination. Well played. The only comment I have to make is that it didn't seem like you played in the opening in the traditional open sicilian style. Generally in this system, you'd want to prepare the idea of f2-f4, and the Bishops would belong on e2 and e3, or you would want to play Be3, Qd2, and castle Queenside. The problem I see with your approach is that it is a less ambitious, and it just allows black to complete his development without too much trouble. The traditional way of handling it allows for nice Kingside attacks and in general sets the most challenges for black. Your method worked very nicely in this game, but you might want to consider the standard open sicilian methods for positions like these in future games.

Hi chesskid - thanks for the advice. I will certainly have a look. What you see in this game is a classic case of someone that does not know his openings!

Hi Goshen - a nice game. Not a true 'greek gift' as the bishop was protected by the queen, but still well executed. Maybe someone else wants to add more comments.

Originally posted by Wumpus
Hi Goshen - a nice game. Not a true 'greek gift' as the bishop was protected by the queen, but still well executed. Maybe someone else wants to add more comments.