Here is Themofro's game for the Analysis exchange. Firstly I'd like to say that Themofro is a better player than me, and if I say that "I don't like" a move that he (or Pogga for that matter) it very well could be because I missed something that was planned out of it. Anyway: here it is.



6... dxc4 Looking to sacrifice some room in the center for a lot of room on the queenside and a tempo.

9. a4! I like this move. Stops the march of the c pawn (which is probably what he was preparing for) and after the Knight goes to e4 you've got a solid position where he won't want to take with the knight because the exchange would leave you with a bishop on the long diagonal and him down a defender of his king.

12... Be7 I like the control that white has over the board at this point. Black's pieces have very few places to go. The light squared bishop is stuck staring at his own pawn, the knight on d7 is stuck with only b6 and b8 to go to, neither of which are very appealing, and this was the only square that the black dark square bishop was able to develop to.

16. dxc5 Keeps the c6 pawn where it's at making the b7 and e7 bishops just crap and opening up the line for the b2 bishop at the same time. BUT, it also hangs the c5 pawn through tactical reasons.

16... h6 I don't understand this move. Feels like it wasted a tempo to me. There's no possibility of a back rank mate and weakens the kings position. (For example if enough pressure was made on the g7 pawn to make it move forward the h6 pawn would become VERY weak.) Only reason to want to do this that I can fathom is to put the knight on h7 in order to free the dark squared bishop, but even that isn't that good of an idea as the knight loses most of it's mobility so close to the corner. Better is Bxc5 winning a pawn. If Qxc5 then Qxd3 still winning a pawn and gaining a LOT of room in the process so most likely white would avoid the exchange with Rd1 followed by Bd6.

17. Rfd1 Threatening Bh7+ winning the queen and subsequently claiming the d file since the queen has to move to avoid this.

18. Rd2 I don't see where doubling on the d file accomplishes much frankly. If you gain the double on the d file unobstructed then at best you get ownership of the d file, which you already have. There's no way that I can see to force anything that way, and it just doesn't feel like the double improves your position. This is a really hard spot to find anything productive to do though. (For me at least) the best I can come up with is Rc1 looking for Qc4-Qh4 (possibly after checking the king to put him on the h file and pin the h pawn) But even that is rather lackluster.

18... bd2 Freeing the bishop at last from it's horses ass view. Probably looking to trade dark square bishops and free some space.

19. Rad1 Alright this one is ugly so I'll put it in hidden text to make it more agreeable and understandable.

Hidden Text Below - [Show it] - [Hide it Again]

20. e4 Feels like this move is a little too little too late.

25. Qd4 Having sacrificed the exchange I'm not really sure why the queen trade is offered here. Time pressure was mentioned, and maybe this is where that takes over in the game because the moves after this start to resemble a lot more like hurried moves than previously. Better is d7 pushing the passed pawn and forcing Rd8 making both the rooks to be useless. (The d8 rook is passive at that point, and the f8 rook is trapped.)

27. Be2 Preparing an attack on the c6 pawn. But I think before the attack can be made the d7 push is required, of course it's hard to hold the d7 pawn with the d file blocked by the knight. Thing is, the black c pawn is fine where it is, with it like that the queenside is completely locked, and black's bishop is still crap. Action on the queenside will only free black's bishop. The black rooks can't get to thh queenside as they are all suck inside the pawns and the only way for him to break anything in there is to sacrifice a rook which he can't afford. I think the best bet is to keep the queenside locked and prepare an attack on the kingside via a rook lift and repositioning the bishop to d3. Where he can only defend with his f8 rook and pawns. So here I think the best move is to play Nf3-Ne5 keeping his position locked down and then maneuver for an attack on his king to win the pawns over there.

29. Bg4 The c pawn no longer a target white just seems to move here for the sake of moving and doesn't appear to have any real plan. (Probably time issues.)

30. Bf3 Wasting a move, better is Nf3 preparing ne5. If f6 is played then a huge hole opens up on g6 for black to exploit and keep pressure. All this tempo wasting proved to be the deciding factor in this game I think.

33. Bg4 4 out of the last 6 moves have been bishop moves and the bishop has only covered 2 squares, the king has been allowed to escape and the exchange coming up will lose a knight for 2 pawns and free black's bishop. At this point I don't see anything that white can do to salvage the situation.

I think that if 16...Bxc5 then I would first play 17.Bxh7+ and then recapture on c5, so I wouldn't lose a pawn and would still have play against black's c-pawn.



Yes my positional advantage is utterly ruined by this point, I was mainly playing on principles in doubling my rooks on the open file etc. although in hind sight probably not the best idea in the world





This is excellent analysis! I'll have to go over this more in depth tomorrow, but seems really thorough, just thought I'd commend you for that



Yep, you're also right here as well. I was indeed in horrendous time trouble from about here on as I had spent so much time contemplating my exchange sac, so my play is quite bad



Spot on!

Yeah I'm pretty much dead in the water here.

Overall, excellent analysis. I know I played this game pretty badly from as soon as we got out of the opening (which I think I emerged with a plus) ,but wanted to see what you would make of the exchange sac. I still feel it was sound, but what do you think?

I think that playing against the c file is a bad idea. (at least from my limited knowledge and some principles I read in How To Reassess Your Chess) His darksquare bishop is utterly useless as it is, if you take the c pawn then the dark square bishop becomes active again (or traded). So essentially he's down a bishop, if you take the c pawn but give him back the bishop then you're losing your material advantage, if you trade something of yours to take his bishop then you gave him a piece of yours to get his piece that isn't doin' anything then you're "losing" a piece.

So, the exchange sac. I like it if nothing else based on one thing. You're only using one rook the whole game, his bishop is very active. So you're exchanging your inactive rook for his active bishop, that's good in one respect. Then if you think about it that dark squared bishop doesn't count as a piece as long as it's useless. From an abstract material point you've got 2 pieces for a rook this way as long as you don't let him activate that piece.

Also, with your exchange sacrifice you tie up his rook in defense of the thing... if you had played d7 then I think you could have tied up both rooks for at least 2 or 3 moves. So yeah, I think it's a good move. By the time I got to that part of it my brain was dead from 2 hours of looking at that one variation. (I'm just hopin' I didn't miss some tactical thing on it 2 moves in and all that was for not. )

Great analysis Robofriven!



Very true. I must say that I was out of theory after this move and I also like this move for white. I think I reacted poorly, because themofro got much better position.



Also 16.. Bxc5 17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. Bxh7+ looks very good for white, so I didn't dare to take on c5.



That was the move I was afraid of. I hated my position at this point so I tried to do something to trade some pieces. I was relieved after 19. Rad1.



I was thinking of playing 19.. Nf4 but it's still very hard for me to free my game.

I want to give few more comments.

I think facing a new move (9. a4 was new for me) in a blitz game can be challenging. After a new move in blitz, you pretty much have to figure things out in 20 seconds (spending much more will often give only time trouble and even more pressure).

But this is a great way to learn openings. I checked how I should have played from my database and once I saw what I should have done (9.. b4 was correct, but after 10. Ne4 I should have played either Bb7 or c5 right away, for example after 9.. b4 10. Ne4 Bb7 11. 0-0 c5 black is ok) I feel I understand this type of positions a little better. It's not about memorizing the moves, but understanding how crucial it is to get that c5 in.

Late middle game was also interesting: material imbalance and weird situation where all my pieces are defensive and white has a huge space advantage. So I'm happy themofro wanted to get this game analyzed and that Robofriven did great job.