Fight Where You're Winning
Hello again! Going along with the theme of agressive games, here’s a game I recently finished on chess.com where I made a positional blunder that allowed my opponent to win in a strong, agressive style.
CCT Passed Pawn QF R1: Board 15
The opening is a typical Caro-Kann advance variation, which tends to look more like the French defense because the c6-pawn was pushed to c5. The main difference from the French defense, though, is that the light squared bishop is not trapped behind its pawns.
This marks the end of the opening. I (as black) have placed my b1 rook and queen on the queenside in order to open lines and gain queenside space. White has possible play on the kingside after a later f4 where the rooks can join the queen on the kingside. However, white’s queen is misplaced on b3, so black has a slight advantage.
The last move, 15 .. Qe4?!, was a mistake. While the e4 square attacks more squares, the queen is much better placed on c7 where it can aid the rooks in a queenside attack. In fact, this move allows the queen to get chased back to c7 while white develops his rooks.
Now the position starts to open up. White’s c5 pawn is weak (note that 19 .. Qxc5 fails to 20. Nd7), but he also has more centralized rooks and an active knight. While the move 19 .. f6 was not terrible, it was better for me to focus on playing on the queenside then trying to push white back in the center, an area of the board with only one black piece.
This is my decisive mistake. My rooks are on b8 and c8, and my queen is on c7, in no position to support my pushed pawns on the kingside. This unnecessary agression weakened my king so much that my position came crashing down in just a matter of a few moves.
And after 25. Nxe5! fxe5?? there is little I can do to stop mate.
All in all, it’s important to focus the game on the side of the board where you’re winning. For example, in this game, I should have played b6 with the idea of opening the b and c files, activating my pieces, instead of advancing on the kingside, where my opponent could overwhelm my defense.