Opinions solicited on this game (slaughtering the

Let me just say how glad I am that I started writing down games recently. Check this out...

One of the things I'm working on improving in my game is use of sacrifice. This game (below, in PGN format) was played at a coffeeshop in New Orleans, I was white, black was a guy whose name I never caught.

I'd love to hear any comments/criticism. Please?

[Event casual untimed]
[Site CC's]
[Date 2004.02.02]
[Round 1]
[White Paul Gowder]
[Black didn't get name]
[Result 1-0]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 g6
6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Bg7 8. Re1 Nge7 9. Bf4 O-O 10. Qd2 e5
11. Bh6 d6 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 13. Ng5 Na5 14. Bb3 Nxb3 15. axb3
h6 16. Nf3 Be6 17. Nd5 Nxd5 18. exd5 Bg4 19. Qe3 f5 20. Nxe5
dxe5 21. Qxe5+ Rf6 22. f3 Bh5 23. Rad1 Qb6+ 24. Kh1 Kg8
25. d6 Raf8 26. d7 Qd8 27. Qe7 g5 28. Re6 Rxe6 29. Qxe6+
Rf7 30. Qe8+ Rf8 31. Qxh5 Kg7 32. g4 fxg4 33. Qxg4 Kh7
34. Qe4+ Kh8 35. Qd4+ Qf6 36. d8=Q
1-0


By move 20 I had clear advantages in mobility and king safety. I had a BUNCH of tempi up from the opening gambit (I think the smith-morra really oughta be called the sicilian? what sicilian? gambit...), had traded his fianchetto'ed bishop to weaken the king, had traded in the center to move that bishop and get dominance of the center. Move 19 was to (a) protect the knight without having to weaken my pawn structure (I would have been glad to trade knight for bishop in that kind of game), and (b) double queen and rook. He then blew move 19 by not in any way contesting any of those advantages that I can see. So my thinking on move 20 was what was it that Steinitz said? Oh, yea. Positional advantage. Must attack.

So I'd like to ask for folks opinions, if you feel like looking at the game, on the following questions...

1. Does the knight move on 20 count as a real sacrifice? In purely material terms, I guess, it counts as sacrifice of about a pawn (a knight for 2 pawns), but the other obvious advantages (center passed pawn on the 5th rank easy to protect with queen and otherwise unused rook, completely inaccessible to enemy king and unblockable except with major pieces; open file in the center for doubled queen and rook menacing king; winning yet ANOTHER tempi via capturing the second pawn with check) seem to add up to well more than a pawn.

2. Where did black screw this one up? I get the sense in general that he didn't really know how to respond to the opening gambit, because he never really tried to get all those tempi back. Also, his move 19 was weak, in retrospect, I think because it allowed me to put his bishop in a cage move 22, making it impossible for him to use it to block or capture the Pawn Menace around d7. But still, I shouldn't have been able to pull off that attack-from-hell. He couldn't have declined the early center trade of the knight without giving me a nice outpost. Was it all in the opening?

3. There's a few moves where I was really torn. On move 26, I was leaning toward Qxf6 instead of pushing the pawn, with the expected continuation 27 ... Rxf6, 28. d7 Rf8, 29. Re8 ... problem is, I think that's refuted by declining the capture because the black queen aims at that diagonal, and leads to either a draw or ending up with a rook against a queen. On the other hand, maybe I could have forced a mate by brining the other rook to the e file. What do you guys think? (sadly, it wouldn't have worked on 28, when it would really have been devestating with the queen already there, because the bishop now had access to that diagonal via 27 ... g5).

Anyway, I'm quite proud of this game, which is dangerous, because I don't want to turn into some kind of patzer who thinks he's hot stuff so you guys need to tear it apart for me now :-) If you find it at all interesting, that is...

?? 🙄

I read some of your message you seem to know what your talking about. I need some tips on winning with the dragon.I think i played you and lost at least onece,maybe i was playing under anther name


:'(

I didn't look over the game, but the Smith-Morra GAMBIT is a variation of the Sicilian. To get help with the Dragon (talking to Sean now), look on websites and get some opening books with the theory in it. The dragon is quite an opening to take on when you are new to chess. Some masters don't even play it because the lines run so deep and there is so much theory. Play in the dragon can get really dangerous tactically and for new and novice players that can be a death trap in itself. 🙄

In my opinion, your knight sac gave black a better position. Even though you had a passed pawn, black could easily have stopped it from promoting. Going back to move 27, black should have accepted the queen trade, 27...Qxe7 28. Rxe7 Rd8 29. Re8+ Rf8 and black has a winning game!!

I liked you opening and middle game a lot, but you Knigh sac was a bit premature. Anyways, the end justifies the means!
Congrats on the win...
Rahil

Originally posted by divideby
Going back to move 27, black should have accepted the queen trade, 27...Qxe7 28. Rxe7 Rd8 29. Re8+ Rf8 and black has a winning game!!