
Re: kamus - Playoff #2 W vs Flinteastwood [52:19]
I still didn't get to analyse the game, but in the opening I'm suprised that you say black should accept the gambit. I thought the motif ...Nxf4 d5 ...Nsomewhere and Qa4+ would win the knight. The are definitely lines where you can take the pawn, and often I do, but much of the time e4 is indirectly defended, and I thought this was one of those positions. Honestly though I didn't calculate too hard due to time reasons...I thought it's silly to spend time in the opening worrying about this when I can just play solidly and get a normal position. This motif is why I played Bd7, because then e4 is definitely attacked. Not sure if that was the best place for the bishop. Clearly it is a tactical liability there, but I think it is Bd7 in combination with Qa5 that really screwed things up. I thought Qa5 actually prevented e5, because after Nh5 I attack e5 with tempo. However I missed the very last point, which was that you have the threat of g4, winning the knight. Perhaps instead of Qa5 (or even Bd7) I should have played e5 myself.
In the end I got lucky with d5. I figured that Qb6 is perhaps not the best move, but it was the only thing I could see which would give you a chance to make a mistake, so I just crossed my fingers and went for it. If you could have seen me I was gazing into the screen just willing the d4 pawn to move forward... Maybe there was some psychic influence at play here haha
Thanks for the games Kamus, and I look forward to our next encounter
