Continuing from my previous post Chess Analysis and the Need to Practice, after the moves
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.h3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.Qe2 Ne4 10.0-0-0 Nd7 11.h4 Qc8 12.Kb1 a5 13.Ng5 cxd4 14.cxd4 Ndf6
The position in the first diagram was reached.
In this position I played 15.Rc1, and to my amazement my opponent blundered, playing 15…Qd7?? allowing 16.Rc7 winning a piece! Black got his queen out of the way by playing 16…Qd8 and after 17.Rxb7 the position is as shown in the second diagram.
Note that although white’s rook is deep in the enemy camp, rescue is not a problem - unless, of course, you do what I did. Black continued 17…Bd6 and there followed 18.Bxd6?? Nxd6 trapping the rook. Somehow I just forgot knights can move backwards! How can this happen? Note that after 18.Ngxe4 Nxe4 19.Nxe4 dxe4 20.Bxe4 the rook is safe (there are other variations that I haven’t gone into, but I have checked with Fritz that they’re working out for white - for example, note that the black queen must stay with the b6 pawn, otherwise my rook takes it and gets out). However, what I’d planned was the same thing after 18.Qxd4 - but as I said, somehow I missed the recapture with the knight (momentarily forgetting they can move backwards).
The madness continues! After 19…Nxd6 all is not lost: I should also have seen that white can avoid material loss with 20.Rxf7 (see third diagram)
because after 19.Rxf7 Rxf7 20.Nxf7 Kxf7 white emerges a pawn up (after 19…Nxf7 20.Nxe6 Qd7 21.Nxf8 Kxf8 white is two pawns up). Again I didn’t see this until Fritz pointed it out. As I said before, I think I need to practice my analysis.
With that I’m going to wrap up this post and publish it. Despite the fact that I lost the exchange, the game was by no means over because I still has quite a reasonable attacking position. The fun - and the mistakes - are to be continued.
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