A Game Review From One Of Our Readers.

Chess requires practice, and blitz can be part of that. We’ve probably already all heard someone saying that playing quick games is the best way to get worst at chess, or at least not to improve and grasp fundamental concepts that are required to reach new heights. But that’s not entirely true, playing a couple of short games is just as valuable as studying or analyzing other’s games. Indeed we don’t always have so much opportunities to play slow-paced tournament because those usually take at least a couple of days to come about. Moreover serious USCF rated chess events only occur a couple of time a year all over America. On that note one of our beloved readers provided us with one of his latest blitz game, so we could do a quick review and share it with you all. You can do likewise by emailing us too !

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[Site “MCC”]
[Date “2019.10.25”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Ian”]
[Black “Michael”]
[Result “1-0”]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 {This move order offers Black quite a lot of alternative. Of
course it depends how comfortable you are playing certain openings, nevertheless
giving your opponent that much choice may be unsound if you’re not aware of it.}
2…c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.e4

(5.a4 {This is another popular move and here Bf5 and Bg5 seem to be played quite often at the really high level.} 5…Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 {Here White has also tried Ne3 and e3} 8.Ne5 a5 9.f3 Nfd7{[#]} 10.e4 Nxe5 11.exf5 Nec4 {Doesn’t look like the preferable option} 12.Qb3 Nd6 13.g4 g6 14.Bf4 gxf5 15.O-O-O {And I would take the White side of this game.})

5…b5 6.a3? {With White, you want to move your a pawn to a4 and not e3, so this misstep should allow Black to play more aggressive.}

(6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5 Nxc3 9.bxc3 cxb5 {[#]And White tried to play Ng5 followed by Qh5 in many games, leading to interesting complications in the middle-game.})

6…e6 7.Be2 {I would play Nb.d7 possibly moving it again to b6 next move. Quickly developing my minor pieces to perhaps strike in the center with c5 for instance, undoubling my pawns and opening lines.} 7…a6 8.O-O Bb7 9.Bg5 Be7 10.e5 Nd5 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12.Qd2 h6 13.Ne4 O-O 14.Nd6 {Having planted an octopus knight within Black’s
territory doesn’t make his position feel right.} 14…f6 {Feels a bit flimsy but Black’s solid position can justify such a provocative move.} 15.Nh4?! Rd8? {Instead Black should have just captured on e5 forcing trades.} 16.Ng6 Qc7 17.f4 Rxd6 18.exd6 Qxd6 19.Bf3 Nb6 20.Rae1 N8d7 21.Bg4 f5 22.Bh3 c5 23.Rd1 Be4 24.Ne5 Nd5 25.g3 Nxe5 26.dxe5 Qb6 27.Bg2 Bxg2 28.Qxg2 Rd8 29.Qf2 a5 30.Rc1 a4 31.Rfd1 Qc6 *

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