Karim and I just finished a very fun game:
https://www.chess.com/game/daily/492019173
I went with the Sicilian, which I play only occasionally—partly to change things up and partly because I think in our last game I played e5, and we ended up in a pretty familiar (and positional) Italian game variation, so I wanted something sharper this time.
The Sicilian is a double-edged sword, but Karim obviously knows it pretty well. The game was very solid on both sides. On move 14 I was convinced white was better after 14. Bg5, sidestepping the black knight on g4, which now looks slightly misplaced. (Stockfish disagrees and says the position is still a draw, and on the next move stockfish finds 15. … fxg5–and I guess black is better after 16. hxg4, where the bishop and knight are traded and the f file is open for the rook)
I didn’t find that move—instead I played 15. h6, with the idea of opening the h file instead, and eventually putting a rook on h8. But h6 is apparently a blunder, because white has time to retreat the bishop to f4, and black’s knight is still misplaced and has to go to e5, where it will be traded off for white’s knight (and white keeps the bishop pair).
Luckily Karim didn’t find that either, and so after 16. hxg4, hxg5 the position (according to stockfish) was dead even (-.02)
After that we had mostly minor inaccuracies on both sides (well, I had one blunder — 23. … Nh6 is apparently bad, but only if white plays exf6, opening the position). The position was still a dead draw on move 30, when I rerouted the knight to what I thought was a better square with 30. … Nf5. (Stockfish prefers Rh8 there, but I’m not 100% sure why. Rook is going there eventually anyway I suppose).
When a game is this close for this long it can turn on the slightest of inaccuracies. On move 31 I played d5, locking the pawns and attacking white’s queen. White played Qb1, moving the queen to safety, but apparently needed to find 32. exd6 (en passant!), and the game is still close to even after Nxd6 (renewing the attack on the queen) and THEN Qb1, because the black king has way less shelter and white’s connected pawn chain will be very annoying in the end game.
After that I did (finally) put a rook on h8, and was able to mount a king side attack with 32. … Rh3. After the g pawns were traded the queen got into the attack, and although both kings lack shelter (and black’s bishop is a tall pawn with white’s pawn chain on dark squares), black’s attack is just a little bit faster. White resigned after 39. Qxg4+, as there is no way to stop mate on the next move.
Super fun game—could have gone either way.
please dont post our games superfraggle.
