"Solution"

OK, well it's not exactly a solution to the position I posted a few days ago, but this is how the game continued. I think Black could have played better in some places, but the plan I executed seemed logical to me.
My reasoning for the plan was to gain more space and put miy light Bishop on a better diagonal. Black's Bb7 is his best piece at the moment, so wanted to neutralise it so as to exaggerate my advantage. I am not sure if this plan was too slow, but it worked out.

1)f4!? Nef6 2)Bf3 Nc5

So it was clear that Black's counterplay was going to revolve around the e4 pawn, and he has redeemed the poor positioning of his Knights in just 2 moves. Herein lies the interest in the starting position: His pieces are only temporarily misplaced, and as such White it seems must act energetically to make anything of this. Therefore I am not sure sure f4 and Bf3 were the best. However, the placement of the Black knights is not permanent, and white is ready to push in the centre.

3)e5! Nfe4 4)Nxe4 Bxe4!?

Trying to exhange more minor pieces off on e4, which eases Black's cramp and neutralises Whites active pieces. I wasn't in the mood to co-operate, and so pressed on with 5)exd6 Bxf3 The main justification of exd6 comes from 5)...Qxd6 6)b4! which attacks the knight defending the Bishop on e4. Therefore, 6)...Bxf3 is forced, and after 7)bxc5! Qxc5 8)Nxf3 White has a very comfortable position. 6)dxe7! Qxe7 7)Rxf3 Ne4?!

I am not sure about this move, and I was certainly expecting 7)...Nxa4 regaining material. I was planning to play on trying to take advantage of the out of play Knight with 8)b4!?. From this position, although a pawn down, Black certainly seems to have solved his positional problems from the initial position, and perhaps a pawn is fair compensation for this. However, White is more centralised and can continue with more dynamic action to press Black. Note the Rooks on a8 and f8 have nothing to say at all.

8)Nc6! Qe8 9)Qd7! Bxb2??

This is the losing move. It was unattractive but obviously better to play 9)...Qxd7 10)Rxd7 where white dominates the 7th rank, but at least Black is dropping more material. White to play and win from the diagram....

10)Ne7+! Kg7 [10)...Kh8 11)Bd4+ Bxd4 12)Qxd4 and Ne4 falls. 11)Bd4+ Bxd4 12)Qxd4+ Nf6

Again, first impression are that Black has his house in order. However, it is white to play and mate, which is forced. Can you find the win? (The solution is in the comments to this post).

An interesting initial position, from which it seems many positional plans are possible.

Analyse Your Won Games!

The best advice for improving you play is to analyse your games. This makes a lot of sense, but how many of us actually do it consistently? Personally speaking, I do not. But that is changing this year! The best way to analyse your games has 4 stages:

• Post-mortem with opponent
• Analyse yourself, investigating alternative plans, missed tactics (for BOTH sides!)
• Go over your analysis with a stronger player (grab that mentor from LeChess Club!!)
• Only THEN do you turn on the engine to see what you all missed tactically

This is a must for all long games. But you can even benefit from scanning your 5-min games through Fritz just to check any major blunders (or missed opportunities!). Many people make the mistake of not analysing their won games, thinking they played perfectly otehrwise they wouldn't have won. THIS IS AN ERROR!! There will be plenty to learn in ALL of your games, which I found out today. In a side variation Fritz found one of the most beautiful moves I have seen in one of my games....

JimGrange (1897) Vs joegal (1915)




1) d4 d5 2)c4 c6 3)Nf3 Nf6 4)Nc3 g6!? The Slav/Grünfeld: Schlechter variation. An interesting alternative, one which I have never faced. I just continued with normal development. 5)e3 Bg7 6)Be2 O-O 7)O-O Nbd7 Like in most Slav/Caro formations Black tries to free his game with ...e5 or ...c5 8)Qc2 Re8
Black is aiming for ...e5. White needs to decide where to place his dark Bishop. It is quite OK to play Bd2 and go for Queenside play with a Rook to the c-file, b4, a4 etc. However, with the position opening up with ...e5, Blacks Bishop would be unopposed down the long diagonal. Therefore I came up with a common plan in a new position to oppose the Bishop and make ....e5 harder to achieve. 9)b3!? Novelty. 9)Rd1 is common here. ...e5 10)dxe5 Nxe5 11)Nxe5 I wanted the Black Rook on e5 to expose it to a timely Bg2 with tempo ...Rxe5 12)Bb2 dxc4 13)Bxc4 Rg5
I felt I had much the better position here; I have a lead in development in an open position with two very active Bishops and a Rook coming to the open d-file with tempo. Although at first I felt my lead in development was negligable due to Balck being able to play Bh3 connecting rooks with tempo, I managed to see that this plan was dubious due to f4! Therefore I tried to make my temporary imbalance (lead in development) into a more permanent one (control of open d-file). 14)Rfd1 Qc7 15)Rd2 Bh3?! 16)f4! Bf5 += 17)e4! Nxe4 18)Nxe4 Qxf4? It would have been a lesser evil to trade on e4 then on b2 admitting that Black just loses a piece. The text loses immediately.
19)Bxf7+! Kxf7 The only move. 19)...Kf8? gets mated in 8 by Qc5!, but what about moving the King to h8?
If the move Fritz found doesn't convince you it is worth going through every one of your games, WIN or LOSE, then nothing will! Can you find it? (Answer at the end of this post). Back to the game after 19)...Kxf7. 20)Nxg5+ Qxg5? Another example of it being better to lose material (here with Kg8) than to get mated!
21)Qc4+! Be6 22)Rd7!+ Kf8 23)Bxg7+ and Black resigned due to mate next move.
An eye opener for me that it is important to look at all of your games; some beautiful moves can be found in side variations that weren't played, and these would be lost forever unless you take the time to mine the gold in your games!

Solution to puzzle: If you spotted the amazing, heart-stopping 20)Qc3!! then you have earned my deepest respect! Qc3 mates in all variations, or Black loses his Queen.