Whose Pressure?

The Advice: When your opponent is in time trouble, play strong moves, not fast moves.

The Actuality: It is so tempting to blitz along with the opponent. Of course, that eliminates that "strong moves" stuff.




perrypawnpusher - jomme
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Bc5

The Italian Four Knights Game, by way of the Petroff.

5.Bxf7+

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bxd4 8.Qxd4 d6

I've had this position before, scoring 4 wins and a draw. Add 0-0 and ...h6 and in that position I have 7 wins, 4 losses and a draw.

9.0-0 c5

This is the kind of move that just doesn't feel right, but I couldn't find anything against it and I couldn't decide where the best square to retreat my Queen to was. Luckily, my opponent was using up his time at a fast clip, and in a few moves he was playing mostly on the increment.

10.Qe3

Or 10.Qd1 Qb6 11.Na4 Qc6 12.f4 Bg4 13.Qd2 Nc4 14.Qc3 Qxa4 15.b3 Nxe4 16.Qd3 Qc6 17.bxc4 Rhf8 18.Bb2 Kg8 19.Rfe1 Rxf4 20.Rxe4 Qxe4 21.Qc3 Rf7 22.h3 Be2 23.Qg3 Qxc2 24.Ba3 Re8 25.Qxd6 Qc3 26.Qxc5 Qxa1+ 27.Kh2 Bf3 28.gxf3 Re2+ 29.Kg3 Qe1+ 30.Kg4 Rf4+ 31.Kxf4 Qh4+ 32.Kf5 g6 checkmate, jutabar - vladx, FICS, 2006.

10...Re8

This seems better than 10...a5, in a game that I should have known better: 11.f4 Nc4 12.Qe2 Nb6 13.e5 Re8 14.Qf3 Nc4 15.exf6 Ne5 16.fxe5 dxe5 17.fxg7+ Kxg7 18.Qf7+ Kh8 19.Qh5 Rg8 20.Qxe5+ Rg7 21.Bh6 Ra6 22.Bxg7+ Kg8 23.Nd5 Rd6 24.Ne7+ Black forfeited on time, jfhumphrey - Fenkoff, FICS, 2010.

11.f4

After the game Rybka mentioned 11.f3, which is the kind of recommendation it makes when it can not see any chance for advantage and wants White to just brace himself and risk nothing.

11...Nc4

Certainly 11...Nc6 was more solid.

12.Qd3 Nb6 13.b3

This is a simple idea (remember, I was foolishly speeding up my moves, too) but it was probably time to break with 13.e5, now or on the next move.

13...a5 14.Bb2 Kg8 15.Rad1 d5

16.exd5 Bd7 17.h3 a4 18.Rfe1 Rxe1+ 19.Rxe1 Qc7

I was getting annoyed: he kept finding moves. Why wouldn't that flag fall??

20.Re5 Re8 21.Qe4

His time pressure, my blunder. Unbelieveable.

21...Rxe5

The sad thing is that even though my opponent missed taking my Queen, this move is strong enough to win.

22.Qxe5 Qxe5 23.fxe5 Nfxd5 24.Nxd5 Nxd5

With Black's clock headed back into the healthy range, White is lost, as he is a piece down in an uncomplicated ending (he cannot hold his "compensation", the pawn at e5).

I hung on for almost 30 more moves, but it was wasted effort, as my opponent was even less likely to blunder when he had time to think.

25.c4 Ne3 26.Bc1 Nc2 27.Kf2 Kf7 28.Ke2 Ke6 29.Bf4 Nd4+ 30.Kd3 axb3 31.axb3 Nc6 32.Ke4 Nb4 33.h4 Bc6+ 34.Ke3 Nc2+ 35.Kf2 Nd4 36.g3 Nxb3 37.Ke3 Nd4 38.Kd3 b5 39.cxb5 Bxb5+ 40.Kc3 Ne2+ 41.Kd2 Nxf4 42.gxf4 Kf5 43.Ke3 c4 44.Kd4 Kxf4 45.e6 Kf5 46.e7 Kg4 47.e8Q Bxe8 48.Kxc4 Kxh4 49.Kd3 Kg3 50.Ke2 Kg2 51.Ke3 h5 52.Kf4 h4 White resigns 0-1