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Two Knights Defence Imperfect but Exciting game



At around move 23, white is a pawn up, and everything looks fine, but actually Stockfish says it is -5. Amazing compensation for the pawn.

I mean, 23. Qd3 allows the queen to be harassed by the rook, but even I as the black side didn't expect that it was so bad a move (-5 for white).

Any comment for my improvements are welcome.
Yes around move 23 you have tremendous compensation for the pawn: active rooks on open files. You finished the game nicely.

However, starting move 14 there was a phase where black lacked compensation. 14...Bg5? is a mistake and practically exchanges the attacking black bishop for the undeveloped Bc1 on move 18. 14...Bd6 is much stronger, as it creates threats along the diagonal to h2.

16...Re8? is another mistake. Look at the position after your 17...Ne6: is your rook better at e8 or at f8? You just gave him a move. At f8 the rook helps to push ...f4.

He missed 19 b4 or 20 b4, and if the knight moves 20 Bxc6 spears a rook. This is another reason why 16...Re8? was bad.

As a side note, I think that the checkmate qualifies as a "pure" checkmate.

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