Here's the game I played and gave my impressions of last week. It's actually better than I thought--a couple of weak moves in the middle and good ones after that. On the other hand, I can't find any better moves for my opponent until move 21, but after that it's all downhill. I give myself an "A" for effort!
8 comments:
Excellent play, Robert. I loved your 30. d6! move. That was an absolute killer.
From move 20 onward you played an excellent game, as enjoyable to watch and analyse as many famous master level games.
Gentlemen, I appreciate the kind words! Certainly, I've not had a game compared to "master level" in any respect before...I did really like 30. d6! though I suppose most strong players would have found it in a couple of seconds.
Your finish is very strong, everything after you win back the exchange looks great.
Vern and I go snowboarding on Fridays sometimes (last Friday was one of them) and he was very mad about this game. He had seen 21...d3 during the game but had not played it for some reason.
And he has reason to be angry with himself, d3 leads to a fairly easy win.
The game up until that point is a little wild. I'm not going to judge your approach to the Dutch because I don't play it for either side and I feel that is a little unfair. I think b3 is a little suspect though, it doesn't seem to add any value to your position, I know you want to defend the pawn but in reality the pawn on d5 is bound to e4, because if he takes your pawn on c4 then you will be able to achieve a very favorable breakthrough on e4 and your attack will be overwhelming. 6.Nh3 is stronger than the position you reached in the game and is the main alternative to 6.Nf3. b3 weakens the knight on c3 and this is why Bb4 is such a strong reply.
10.f3 - This is a serious mistake. Weakening the a7-g1 diagonal and ignoring the impending breakthrough. It is ok to miss this once, but from now on I expect you to always be wary of a center pawn on the third rank. These breakthroughs are very important and make up the core strategy of closed positions. You must always be thinking how your opponent will free his game, and make sure to either prevent it or be ready to answer it in some way.
Kevin, thanks for your excellent comments, I think it improves my understanding of this opening formation. And yeah, like I wrote if he sees 21..d3! objectively I'm lost. I suspect from the look in his eye after the game that he'll be coming at me pretty tough in our next game.
Ok, I correct myself,
From move 22 onward you played an excellent game.
I bet that felt good! Nice Game.
I never play the Dutch, so don't have a real good feel for what's going on early.
Black's draw offer on move 22 seems like one of those desperation draws, where he knew he wasn't looking overly healthy, and kinda hoped you wouldn't see it. (See also Polly's recent draw post!)
Did you feel a psychological boost at that point?
30. d6 was pretty sweet. A great fight, and it just goes to show that although we have some skill, it's often worth fighting on against us! (Er...not sure that sounded real encouraging...)
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