Chess Loss Review - October 12th
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/185240421972 - The game of the passed pawn.
Opening: Fantasy Caro
Opening was reasonable, I didn't know the line super well but it was even. I missed a tactic:
Here you can sac the knight with Nxe5 to then win the Bishop.
Midgame: This was where I positionally lost the game:
I let then get in d6 and that protected passed pawn wrecked me late game.
My idea was to get a Knight on c2 and try to exploit the Queen/King alignment. However, there are enough pieces you can throw in front of the queen that it did not work.
I missed a second tactic:
Rxc1 works because after Nxc1 you can fork with Re2. I missed it, both trying to keep my time advantage up and because I discarded it too early.
At that point, I was screwed with best play and he played well.
Lessons Learned:
- It was a good try to take advantage of the alignment, but I did not calculate him throwing enough pieces in front.
- I completely undervalued how strong d6 was.
- I really should have done Nxd5 and cut it off when it started.