My opponent's strength blinded me to stronger moves.

I play white here - it's my fourth game against this player, and I've never managed to beat him.



I had a winning position near the end, and ended up seeing the forced draw - it wasn't until I was analyzing it afterwards that I discovered that I had a forced mate also.

I'd appreciate whatever insight you all are willing to offer on this game.

i dont know much about you and your preparations, but, try to trick him, prepare ambush, some tricky mistakes, type hanging piece, so he bite and you punish him.

7.Ke5? Was that the best available move? I would be thinking more about the development of my pieces... esp. the dark square bishop. If you could play this game over again, how would you do things differently from move 7?

These are just my opinions but I looked at the game and...

I think you aren't being aggressive enough vs someone who appears to have a fairly aggressive style.

I think there are a few cases where you avoid fighting directly for the center and suffer for it.

2. Nf3, ...

9. Qe4 (passive move, c4 would have been much better).

10. e4, ... (again, another passive move when exd4 would be better).

13. bf4? were you not expecting Nxf3, or thought waiting to take would be stronger?

18. rook f1 (exf5) this is an issue because f5 from black becomes a problem, putting you on the defensive constantly.

21. King h1 (another passive move when you're already on the defensive)

You wait until move 28 to start the final attack, which i think is too late based on your position and black's development. it should have happened earlier (move 23 with cxd4).

13.Bf4? and 14. Rxf3? both these moves seem conspicuously un-natural to me... if a move has an odd or clumsy feel to it than maybe there is something better to be found.

@Art3mistic 7.Ne5 was to allow my light squared bishop to defend the g4 square, as I was planning on developing my Queenside knight to f3 via d2. If I played it straightaway, black has a nasty fork:

7.Nbd2 Ng4 8.Ne5 Nxe3, forking the queen and rook.

The three main candidate moves in this line for move seven are 7.a4 (preventing b5, and allowing Nc3-Nb5 in some lines), 7.Qe1 (with the idea of Bf3 in most lines), or 7.Ne5.

The dark squared bishop is supposed to get developed with eventual e4 and f5 pawn pushes, once I've prepared them enough.

Though as you can see... things don't always go according to plan XD. Next time, maybe I'll hold off on Qe1 and get my Queenside knight to f3 quicker.

@TopNoodle and @Art3mistic I think 13.Bf4 was (aside from missing the mate in the end and just earning a draw) my biggest mistake. Totally threw away any momentum I was making in the opening. I agree with both of you that there was a better move there (the engine likes 13.Nxe5 Bxe5 14.Bh6, but it seems a bit artificial to me).

I wanted to put my rooks on files I thought would open up, and didn't want to start my attack in the endgame until my bishop was outside of my pawns.

As for all of my passive play in the early stages of the game, I like building a kingside attack with this opening, and closing down the center - especially the diagonal my caslted king is on (g1-f2 diagonal).

I really do appreciate hearing all of your thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to look things over and sharing them with me.

Nice game!

14. Bxf3 would have been better to keep the light squared bishop.

18. exf5 would have been better to keep the dark squared bishop more active as well as the position slightly more open.

@solstice021 Thanks! Yeah, having the bishop pair would have been really nice. And I was so surprised by 18...f4! I didn't expect him to close down like that.

I definitely think I need to work on my killer instinct XD. Can't believe I missed such an easy to follow mate.

Thank you for sharing what you thought about my game.

Don't fall into that chess psychology of being intimidated by a stronger opponent. Just play good moves.