[Event "Sitges Open 2023"] [Date "2023.07.25"] [White "Tressiore, Luca"] [Black "Vardanyan, Aras"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1874"] [BlackElo "2285"] [Annotator "Aras"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "E10"] [Opening "Blumenfeld Countergambit Accepted"] [StudyName "benkonian's Study"] [ChapterName "Tressiore, Luca - Vardanyan, Aras"] [ChapterURL "https://lichess.org/study/6LB57EYp/PBke2l3l"] [Orientation "white"] { At this point I was already rather decent, but of course I was still making opening mistakes. Of course I wanted to win against my 400+ lower rated opponent and at the time I was still playing stuff like the Benko and Benoni, King's indian, etc, but it was becoming predictable. For this game, I had for some reason decided to play the Blumenfield gambit, with which I had dabbled a few times before. I was expecting my young opponent to not know much about this dubious sideline, but to my horror, he was extremely well prepared } 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. dxe6 fxe6 6. cxb5 d5 7. Nc3 { The critical approach, trying to play a quick e4 to destroy the center } 7... Nbd7 8. e4 d4 9. Na4 { I remember seeing this as the engine's top suggestion while I was preparing the opening, my basic idea was that "there's no way he will think of this", as usually people were playing e5 in response to d4, which doesn't give white much. Nb1 to go to d2-c4 is also a reasonable option, but this Na4 move, at least to me, didn't make much sense. The strength of this move will become clear a bit later } 9... Bb7 10. Bd3 Bxe4 (10... Bd6 11. b4 cxb4 12. Nxd4 Ne5 13. Bc2 { Don't remember if I had looked at this, but it looks scary for black }) 11. Bxe4 Nxe4 12. O-O Ndf6 13. b4! { Here I guess we were still both prepared. The problem is that objectively the position is very risky for black. I think I knew a couple more moves, but at this point we were in basically uncharted territory and playing the engine moves, which is definitely not a good place to be at against a 1900 rated opponent. It just goes to show how easy it is to memorise lines nowadays, especially with all the chessable courses and similar resources available to everyone } 13... cxb4 14. Nxd4 Qd5 { The only move for black to not get in big trouble, here black is only in medium-sized trouble, even though he knew the opening perfectly up until here } 15. Be3 Bd6 16. Qe2 Rb8? { My opponent had been blitzing out all of the moves up until here, but now he stopped to think. Usually this means one of two things - 1) you made a mistake, a move that's so bad that it was not analysed by your opponent, or 2) your opponent had looked at a line only up until here. Unfortunately here it was the former } (16... O-O { black has to play this to stay in the game. } 17. Rad1 Rae8 { and then this. Even after playing 17 moves of the best engine line, black has not really equalised and he will forever be in trouble due to the weak e pawn and weak king. The only thing to blame was the opening - it was simply objectively dubious. The shortcomings of such openings become clear only against well prepared opponents such as this one. If this was some normal opening like the nimzo or the QGD, black would have equalised many moves ago, probably without such an unsafe king as well. }) 17. Rfd1 O-O 18. Nc6?? { Fortunately, my opponent fell for my "trap". This looks like it will win material, but it turns out black has a nice tactic. Incidentally, this was the first or second move by my opponent that was out of his preparation. When playing against lower rated players, especially when in trouble, I like to think "there's a reason their lower rated than you", which means maybe they're worse at calculation, at endgames, time management or something else, you just have to wait and find out. } (18. Rac1 { developing the last piece, black has to clear moves and white will start destroying the center quite soon }) 18... Qxb5 19. Qxb5 Rxb5 20. f3 { This was the point. If you'd like, you can think of how black can turn the tables here } 20... Bxh2+! 21. Kxh2 Rh5+ 22. Kg1 Ng3! { Black is a piece down here, but surprisingly he has an almost winning advantage the immediate threat is Rh1-Kf2-Nfe4 with checkmate and against this there's not much white can do } 23. Bf4? (23. Ne7+! { This surprising check lets white stay in the game, but still black is better } 23... Kh8 24. Nf5!! { I guess this deflection is basically impossible to see. Now white gives back the piece but black's attack will be stopped and he will have time to get his pieces in order }) (23. Kf2 Nfe4+ 24. Ke1 Rh1+ 25. Bg1 Rxg1#) 23... Ne2+ { This had to be seen in advance } 24. Kf2 Nxf4 25. Nxb4 Rg5 { Black is a pawn up with very active pieces and the rest is rather simple } 26. g3 N4h5 27. Rg1 Nxg3 28. Nc6 h5 29. Rae1 Nfe4+ 30. Ke3 Nd6 31. Rd1 h4 32. Ne7+ Kf7 33. Rxd6 Kxe7 34. Ra6 Re5+ 35. Kd4 Rd5+ 36. Ke3 Re5+ 37. Kd4 Kf6 38. Nc3 Rd8+ 39. Kc4 Rc8+ { 0-1 Black wins. } 0-1