July 4 Blitz Session
| Time Control: 5 min (Blitz) | Games: 5 | Record: 4W / 0D / 1L |
Overview
Five games of 5-minute blitz. Four wins and one loss, and my rating drifted up into the high 590s by the last game.
The loss came first, against Satchatch in a Pirc where I was fine out of the opening and then hung a piece in the middlegame. After that it was four wins in a row. One of them barely counts: aragon-9440 abandoned the game after five moves. The other three were all cases of the opponent handing me the initiative. SANNSTAR threw a bishop at f7 on move four with nothing to back it up, and I just kept the extra piece and converted. Argopo pushed an early queen to f3, I got a comfortable position, and a long scrappy game ended with my a-pawn promoting and a queen-and-rook mate.
The one I want to write up is the win against manuragh112. A very clean Greek Gift: bishop takes h7, knight comes to g5 with check, queen to h5, and mate a few moves later. The opponent actually sped up their own defeat by walking a knight back into a pawn capture that gave me the pawn I needed to finish.
All Games
| # | Color | Opponent | Opening | Result | Moves | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🏳️ | Black | Satchatch (572) | Pirc Defence | Loss (resignation) | 29 | 567 |
| 2 | 🏳️ | White | aragon-9440 (555) | Alekhine's Defence | Win (abandoned) | 5 | 575 |
| 3 | 🏳️ | Black | SANNSTAR (550) | Pirc / Modern | Win (resignation) | 34 | 583 |
| 4 | ⚔️ | White | manuragh112 (576) | Irregular (1...a5) | Win (checkmate) | 15 | 591 |
| 5 | ⚔️ | Black | Argopo (590) | Pirc Defence | Win (checkmate) | 48 | 599 |
Highlight: Win vs manuragh112 (576) as White
A seemingly dubious opening by my opponent. Black spent the opening shuffling pawns and their queen around the edge of the board while I built a big centre and pointed everything at the kingside.
1. e4 a5 2. d4 c6 3. Nf3 Qb6 4. Bd3 e6 5. O-O Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3 8. bxc3 O-O 9. e5 Nd5
The pieces did all the talking. 1…a5 and 3…Qb6 are just lost tempi, and by the time Black castled I had both bishops, the centre, and a lead in development. 7…Bxc3 8. bxc3 handed me the bishop pair and doubled my c-pawns, but those doubled pawns propped up a huge centre and I was happy to take them. The engine already had me somewhere around five points ahead here.
The move that mattered was 9. e5. It kicks the knight off f6, and once that knight leaves, nobody is guarding h7.
10. Bxh7+ Kxh7 11. Ng5+ Kg8 12. Qh5
This is the Greek Gift in its textbook form. The bishop gives itself up on h7 to drag the king out, the knight jumps to g5 with check, and the queen swings to h5. The king scuttles back to g8, and now the threat is simply Qh7 mate. There’s no piece anywhere near the black king to help. Stockfish calls it mate in seven from here.
12…Nf6
Black tries to plug the h7 square by bringing the knight back to f6. The problem is what it walks into.
13. exf6 Rd8 14. Qxf7+ Kh8 15. Qxg7#
13. exf6 is the whole point. My pawn takes the knight, and now that pawn sits on f6 guarding g7. That’s the square the queen needs. Black’s 13…Rd8 does nothing about the mate, 14. Qxf7+ drives the king to h8, and 15. Qxg7# finishes it: the queen lands on g7 protected by the f6 pawn, and the king has no square. Bringing the knight to f6 didn’t just fail to defend, it gifted me the exact pawn that delivered mate.
Reflections
What went well:
- Landed the Greek Gift cleanly against manuragh112. Knight off f6, bishop takes h7, knight to g5, queen to h5, and the mate followed on its own.
- Four wins from five, and I punished passive play in three of them. Slow openings, an early queen sortie, and an unsound bishop sacrifice all handed me the initiative.
What to work on:
- The Satchatch loss was even until I blundered. Stockfish had the position roughly level through the opening, and then 13…Nce4 just dropped a piece. That’s a blitz mistake: I moved a knight to a square I hadn’t checked. Slow down for one second before committing a piece, even with the clock ticking.
- Convert cleaner when I’m winning. The Argopo game was a win but a messy one, full of inaccuracies on both sides and several faster finishes that I walked past before the a-pawn finally promoted. Being up material isn’t a reason to stop calculating.