A couple of days ago I recorded my 5000th online chess win! Obviously all those games were blitz chess games (one game lasted on average around 10 minutes). I achieved this milestone by playing 8431 games, so I had won 59.3 % of my games. More importantly I had recorded also 888 draws, so the number of my losses was only 2543 (30.2 % of my games). A fun fact regarding these numbers: I could lose 396 games in a row and I would still have no more than 33.3% losses.
I had imagined that my 5000th online chess win would be an epic long hard fight, but in reality it was totally anticlimactic. My opponent made a huge blunder already on move 5 and resigned after my next move. Well, too bad, but there was also a bright side of this situation – I could analyse and annotate the whole game with ease. More importantly it was one of the rare opening variations that I had actually prepared myself (using a chess engine). This time I made the analysis much more deep and it was fascinating. Let's see the actual game first. I was playing white.
Black resigned.
My notes:
1. The move 1.d4.
I always start with 1.d4 because from my own experience I can say that starting with 1.e4 is a suicide for a chess newcomer – black can answer with 4 (FOUR !!!) different equally good defences that are very different from each other: 1...e5, 1...e6, 1...c6 or 1...c5. Good luck with learning all the basic variations from your own mistakes. What's even worse after 1.e4 it is black's move that usually decides what the kind of game you will be playing (open, semi-open or closed). I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all. When I play with white pieces I want to decide about such things myself.
2. The move 1...d5.
My opponent answered in a typical way. As black I always answer in this way too.
3. The move 2.Nf3.
I NEVER play 2.c4 because this move is played by chess masters, so this opening is very well known to many players. Even chess amateurs can memorize some of such known variations, so I want to put them off the track right away. Putting your opponent off the track is actually one of the easiest way to win a chess game, even on grandmaster level. Chess masters prepare specifically for particular opponents knowing what king of games they like to play. In online chess there is no way to prepare for an opponent because you never know who will join your virtual chess table, so many players play off-beat openings on purpose. Well, some players are so weak and/or know so little about chess openings that they play off-beat openings by accident, but you never know if that's the case. Either way it's much easier to play in a system that you are more familiar with than your opponent.
4. The move 2...Bg4.
Surprise for a surprise! This move is hardly ever played because exchanging a bishop for a knight this early in the game is generally not recommended. However there is some logic behind this move – my opponent threatens to double my pawns on the f-file. I don't want this to happen, but I also don't want to play 3.e3 nor 3.Nbd2.
5. The move 3.Ne5.
This is a very interesting position because now the chess engine Stockfish 9 suggests that black should play 3...Be6, which seems like a totally crazy move! Usually I see black play either 3...Bf5 or 3...Bh5. Let's analyse the second move first because it maintains the threat to double my pawns on the f-file or at least to force my knight to go to the square d3 (a totally unnatural square for the knight) for example after 4.Bf4 f6 5.Nf3 Bxf3:
Such a position is still playable for white, but I would definitely feel off the track, so I have a plan to double my opponent's pawns instead!
I had analysed some variations after 3.Ne5 before, but never as deeply as now. Some of them are pretty fascinating, but usually also “computer-like” (hard to understand). Here's is a rather natural variation for both sides that results in a positional advantage for white (with both sides being off the track):
There is also a trap that black can fall into:
And here's a different variation of the trap:
Black can't hope to capture the pawn on d4 because he (or she) would lose a rook:
In the final position black can't even capture the pawn on g4 because he would lose right away: Qe8#!
Going a whole different rout (playing 5...h6 instead of 5...f6) is also not good for black. Out of curiosity I analysed a “human-like” variation (keeping material equality) till the very end:
So the move 3...Bh5 would not be good for black at all. The other move (3...Bf5) would be a better move that I would answer with 4.Bf4. There would be no opening advantage for white, but to me it would be much more important that I wouldn't be taken off the track. This is the correct strategy for me – when playing in a system that I am familiar with I minimize the risk that I will blunder, so I actually increase my chances for a good result (a draw) or a great result (a win). Many chess amateurs hate draws and they almost always play for a win, which makes them prone to blunders in systems they are not familiar with. Blunders that I can take advantage of. Please notice that for EVERY chess player the “correct strategy” is DIFFERENT because every chess player has different chess abilities. Playing a complicated variation without actually understanding the variation just because chess grandmasters (or chess engines) play this variation is silly.
In reality my opponent played a whole different move.
6. The move 3...Nf6.
Black let me exchanged my knight for his bishop, probably thinking that he would have a “development advantage”.
7. The move 4.Nxg4.
I called opponent's “bluff” and I captured his bishop with my knight.
8. The move 4...Nxg4.
My opponent captured my knight with his knight, as he planned.
9. The move 5.e4.
It was by far the best move to play – moving my pawn with tempo, chasing away the knight and still keeping the c1-h6 diagonal open for my bishop.
10. The move 5...dxe4.
Well, it turns out that I didn't actually chase away the knight – my opponent missed the fact that my queen was threatening his knight and captured my pawn! Most players would have played 5...Nf6. Such a move would actually be rather inconvenient to me because I want both the e-file and the c1-h6 diagonal to be open AND I don't want my knight to be on the square c3 (I prefer to have a pawn there, except for some relatively rare cases). The only move for me to play would be 6.exd5. Interestingly the chess engine Stockfish 9 claims that one of the best moves that black can play then would be 6...c6, but a human player would rather play 6...Nxd5 or 6...Qxd5. The last move is actually the best, but then I could play simply 7.Be2, setting a trap by the way:
If black don't fall for the trap I would followed by 8.Bf3, setting another trap:
11. The move 6.Qxg5.
I captured the undefended knight. Black realised his mistake and resigned.
The analysis of such a silly opening in such a short game made me sure that being a professional chess player must be a bitch. Imagine analysing and trying to memorise HUGE numbers of possible chess variations in many playable chess openings. Insane. But it confirms my opinion that a “correct strategy” is different for every chess player.
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