Win vs ntb1296 (976)
| Opening: Colle-Zukertort (D02) | Result: 1-0 (Won on time) | Time Control: 1 day/move (Daily) | Rated |
Game Overview
My first daily chess game. Very different to the bullet games I’ve been playing. It was great to have a small, achievable task each day: just log in, make one move, no time pressure. That was usually enough to get me onto chess.com and maybe stick around to do some puzzles or play a game.
The opening was a Colle-Zukertort, though my bishop ended up awkwardly on d2 instead of its usual home on b2. I castled on move 10 and had a decent position. Black blundered a piece on move 14 with 14…Nxd4, and from there I converted the advantage through a bishop attack, queen trade, and eventually a rook endgame where I promoted a pawn. My opponent let the clock run out instead of resigning on a mate-in-one position.
The Opening (Moves 1-13)
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nbd2 Bg4 4. h3 Bxf3 5. Nxf3 e6 6. e3 c5 7. b3 Qa5+ 8. Bd2 Qa3 9. Bd3 a5 10. O-O Nc6 11. Bc1 Qb4 12. Bb2 cxd4 13. exd4 a4
The opening was pretty similar to other Colle-Zukertort games I’ve had, although my bishop did end up on d2 instead of its usual home on b2. I had to shuffle it back to c1 and then over to b2 the long way. I castled on move 10 and had a decent enough position with a standard d4 pawn centre.
The Blunder and the Fork (Moves 14-16)
14. Ne5 Nxd4
My opponent made what appears to be a mistake on move 14 with 14…Nxd4, inviting me to push my pawn to c3, forking the queen and knight.
15. c3
The fork is on. Black has no way to save both pieces.
15…Ne2+ 16. Qxe2
The knight hopped away giving a check, but I took it with my queen. I’m up a piece.
Bishop Attack and Queen Trade (Moves 17-23)
16…Qd6 17. Bb5+
I attacked with my bishops from the queenside, pointing at the king who never had a chance to castle. Black blocked with a knight and I lined up a rook against their queen.
17…Ke7 18. bxa4 Ne4 19. c4 f6 20. cxd5 Qxd5 21. Ba3+ Nd6 22. Rad1 Qxe5 23. Qxe5 fxe5
They offered a queen trade, taking my knight on e5, which I accepted.
The Endgame (Moves 24-37)
24. Bxd6+ Kf6 25. f4 Bxd6 26. fxe5+ Kxe5 27. Rfe1+ Kf5 28. Rxd6
I took back Black’s knight and then we also traded dark-squared bishops, so we’re in an endgame now with me up a bishop and both of us having two rooks. Black hasn’t developed their rooks at all. They’re still on their starting squares.
28…Rae8 29. Bxe8 Rxe8
Black made a mistake by going rook to e8, where I can trade it for my bishop. Now I’m up a rook. Feeling pretty confident, I offered another rook exchange on move 32. Black took the offer and now I have a rook against king and pawns.
30. Rb6 Re7 31. Reb1 e5 32. Rxb7 Rxb7 33. Rxb7 e4 34. a5 e3 35. a6 e2 36. Rb1 e1=Q+ 37. Rxe1
Black made one final attempt at promoting a pawn, but I could see it would be easy for me to take it with my rook in two moves. I waited for it to get to e2 before bringing my rook down to b1, then grabbing the pawn after it promoted.
Promotion and Timeout (Moves 38-45)
37…g5 38. a7 g4 39. hxg4+ Kxg4 40. a8=Q
I promoted a pawn to get a queen and then pushed the king back up to the top of the board.
40…Kh4 41. Qf3 Kg5 42. Re5+ Kg6 43. Qf5+ Kg7 44. Re7+ Kg8 45. Qf7+ 1-0
It’s mate in one, but my opponent didn’t make the final move, so I won on timeout. I’m not sure what the etiquette is for these daily games. It would’ve been nice of them to resign rather than wait the full 24 hours, but I guess that’s totally fair within the format.
Engine Review
Excellent accuracy: 91.3% for me, 84.3% for my opponent.
As I thought, 14…Nxd4 was a blunder. While using the pawn fork with 15. c3 wasn’t bad, I could’ve just directly taken with my bishop: 15. Bxd4. After all, that’s why the bishop is sitting on that diagonal. I might’ve been playing some hope chess there, thinking my opponent might retreat their knight and blunder the queen.
The main miss for me in this game came on move 23. I accepted a queen trade on e5, but there was a better move: 23. Bxd6+, forking the king and queen with my bishop. Black would’ve had to either take the bishop with their queen or retreat the king, allowing me to take the queen with my bishop. Interestingly, the best response is just to give up the queen and retreat the king, because taking back with the queen leads to mate in 10.
It was mate in 4 from the moment I promoted a pawn, although I didn’t use the most accurate checkmate. It got the job done in a couple of extra checks.
Reflections
What went well:
- Playing accurate moves, treating each move almost like a puzzle, trying to figure out the best way to make my opponent uncomfortable on every single move.
- The daily format itself. Having a small daily task to bring me onto the platform was a great way to stay engaged with chess.
What to work on:
- I was too willing to go for the queen trade rather than seeing there was a great fork with Bxd6+. I’ll keep my eye out for that in future. It’s not often you can fork the king and queen two squares apart from side on, but it would’ve been devastating in this game.
Full PGN:
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nbd2 Bg4 4. h3 Bxf3 5. Nxf3 e6 6. e3 c5 7. b3 Qa5+
8. Bd2 Qa3 9. Bd3 a5 10. O-O Nc6 11. Bc1 Qb4 12. Bb2 cxd4 13. exd4 a4 14.
Ne5 Nxd4 15. c3 Ne2+ 16. Qxe2 Qd6 17. Bb5+ Ke7 18. bxa4 Ne4 19. c4 f6 20.
cxd5 Qxd5 21. Ba3+ Nd6 22. Rad1 Qxe5 23. Qxe5 fxe5 24. Bxd6+ Kf6 25. f4
Bxd6 26. fxe5+ Kxe5 27. Rfe1+ Kf5 28. Rxd6 Rae8 29. Bxe8 Rxe8 30. Rb6 Re7
31. Reb1 e5 32. Rxb7 Rxb7 33. Rxb7 e4 34. a5 e3 35. a6 e2 36. Rb1 e1=Q+ 37.
Rxe1 g5 38. a7 g4 39. hxg4+ Kxg4 40. a8=Q Kh4 41. Qf3 Kg5 42. Re5+ Kg6 43.
Qf5+ Kg7 44. Re7+ Kg8 45. Qf7+ 1-0