A missed opportunity
I'd met this same Opponent only a couple of months earlier; a game in which I'd played the opening rather weakly and been fortunate to escape with a draw. This time around I was a little - only a little! - better prepared and managed to follow something close to a main line.
As soon as we had to think for ourselves, of course, the game started to go downhill...
In post-mortem we both thought that white had had much the better of the opening - but with the benefit of hindsight, databases and computing power I no longer think that this is true. It's probably not until 23. ... d5?! that black is in any real danger. That didn't last long, though:
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After either 26. Ba4 or 26. Bf1, white should win a pawn and have a very good chance of taking the point. I can't really explain how I came to play 26. Rxd5? instead. You'd think that the game continuation (26. ... axb5 27. Rxe4 Rxa2) was both easy to see and the first thing you'd check. The sorry truth is that I spent so long checking that my tactic still worked after 26. ... Nxc3 or 26. ... Ne7 and suchlike that I just failed to make sure of the obvious.
We might have played on a bit longer, I suppose, but I think that the final position should be drawn - and probably both players felt that they'd made too many mistakes to deserve to win. Certainly my mind was more on what might have been than what might yet be.
As soon as we had to think for ourselves, of course, the game started to go downhill...
In post-mortem we both thought that white had had much the better of the opening - but with the benefit of hindsight, databases and computing power I no longer think that this is true. It's probably not until 23. ... d5?! that black is in any real danger. That didn't last long, though:
After either 26. Ba4 or 26. Bf1, white should win a pawn and have a very good chance of taking the point. I can't really explain how I came to play 26. Rxd5? instead. You'd think that the game continuation (26. ... axb5 27. Rxe4 Rxa2) was both easy to see and the first thing you'd check. The sorry truth is that I spent so long checking that my tactic still worked after 26. ... Nxc3 or 26. ... Ne7 and suchlike that I just failed to make sure of the obvious.
We might have played on a bit longer, I suppose, but I think that the final position should be drawn - and probably both players felt that they'd made too many mistakes to deserve to win. Certainly my mind was more on what might have been than what might yet be.
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