"Define tactical mess"

How about a non-perfect game?

Today I have a pleasure to show you one of the craziest games I've ever played. Of course it features my goofy opening. It has clutch moments by both sides. Blunders and brilliancies. Instane tactics and one nasty pin. So let's get into it!

I played with Black against a Brazilian National Master. The opening is a result of me exeriementing a little with my repertoire against both e4 and d4 (mainly Queen's Gambit)

Double opening surprise

I've changed my Queen's Gambit repertoire from Semi-Slav to much simpler d5-e6-c6. If they don't defend, I take on c4. If they defend, but block their bishop, I play a stonewall. I'm still not sure about 3. Nf3 followed by 4. Qc2

I'm not a big fan of adding the dutch with 1... f5 to my repertoire, as White can simply play 1. Nf3, and everything goes out the window, but this way, White's options are very limited. However they can still avoid my tricky repertoire against queen's Gambit with 1. d4 2. Nf3 3. c4. Maybe here I'll start accepting the pawn?

Middlegame madness

And so, it begins. We are out of the opening, with a very unique position we both see for the first time. Great start for a crazy game.

Dynamic 14... g5 by me gave my opponent a chance to gain huge advantage with g4. He missed that resource letting me eventually go g4 myself restricting his rook. This, combined with my pieces coming to life very quickly (Ba6, Bc5, Rd8) allowed me to play this pretty move Rxd4. But it's stil far from the end.

Endgame shenanigans

A little bit of a spolier, but yes, there will be an endgame. But not your traditional 3v4 boring rook endgame draw ;p

A perfect game of chess always ends in a draw, there was nothing I could do. Overall, considering I'm freestyling in an opening deemed dubious against a higher-rated player, I can't complain too much. Game link.

The end?

A quick blog, in fact too quick for me, so I'll give you something more ;)

Perfect prep

A flashy showcase of my (public) preparation :D

If you want to play a game like this, I covered the exact same variation (and many more) here. But you must know, that this isn't a very common response. You can also find my blog on the Anti-Sveshnikov on my profile. Game link.

Perfect Stonewall Attack

I finished this blog before playing this game, but the game fits here so well, I had to add it. Another stonewall, where my opponent set up like in the game above, but he heavily underestimated my opening.

I have a chessly subscription (Gothamchess' platform), and one of the courses in on the Stonewall Dutch starting with 1. f5, so there isn't much material on White playing e3.

But when talking about ideas, he showed, that White can't ignore Black's attack, and just do stuff on the queenside, because Black will land this Bxh2+ tactic. And I thought to myself, I wish my opponents would blunder that. And here I am. Game link.

Bonus endgame

A double bonus! This time not a full game, but just the ending. It's rare to get any sacrifice in the endgame, as there are so little pieces left. and excluding underpromotion and stalemate tactics, it practically never happens.

Let me present to you the never.

2 insane draws in one blog haha. Rxg6 wan't that hard to spot after I noticed, that queening doesn't work, calculating it was the hard part. I calculated everything correctly, I'm pretty proud of that save. If you want to see the full game (with my new lines against the Caro), here's the link.

The end, but for real this time

I hope you enjoyed those 2 games and one endgame, I definitely had fun playing them.

Right now I started working on lines against Bg5 for Black, and something new and exciting against the Caro-Kann for White. I'm not sure, which one whould I focus on. On one hand I'd like to continue working on my combative repertoire against d4, on the other hand, my goofy lines against the Caro are very fun. We'll see what the future holds.

Thank you so much for reading. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to comment/DM me here on lichess. See you!