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This was the first match against my fourth opponent in my group in round 1 of the “Lower-rated Aussies 2021 Christmas Challenge” tournament. My opponent played with the white pieces and used the London system, which is an opening to which I have relatively little familiarity. This resulted in an interesting and aggressive game by my opponent, which ultimately turned out in my favour.

My opponent was positionally ahead, potentially winning, after the opening. However, preferencing a very aggressive kingside pawn advance over addressing a hanging knight was a blunder. The opponent was never able to recover from the loss of material, and they simply didn’t have sufficient number of attackers on the kingside to overwhelm my defence. We entered an endgame where the opponent had a pawn majority, but I had an extra knight, which made all the difference.

I hope you enjoyed this video, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/373571357

[Event "Lower-rated Aussies 2021 Christmas Challenge - Round 1"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2021.12.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "jethroamiet"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[WhiteElo "1132"]
[BlackElo "1052"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[EndDate "2021.12.27"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Be2 Bd6 7. Bg3 Ne4 8. Nxe4 Bxe4 9. c3 Bxg3 10. hxg3 f6 11. Bd3 Qe7 12. Bxe4 dxe4 13. Nd2 O-O-O 14. Nxe4 b6 15. Qd3 Kb7 16. b4 Ne5 17. Qe2 f5 18. Rd1 Nc6 19. a4 fxe4 20. a5 a6 21. axb6 cxb6 22. Ra1 Ra8 23. b5 axb5 24. O-O Rxa1 25. Rxa1 Ra8 26. Rxa8 Kxa8 27. Qxb5 Kb7 28. Qh5 g6 29. Qh4 Qxh4 30. gxh4 h5 31. Kh2 b5 32. Kg3 Ne7 33. Kf4 Nd5+ 34. Kxe4 Nxc3+ 35. Kd3 Na4 36. f4 Ka6 37. Kc2 b4 38. Kb3 Ka5 39. e4 Nc3 40. e5 Nd5 41. g3 Ne3 42. Kb2 Ka4 43. f5 Nxf5 44. d5 exd5 45. e6 d4 46. Kc2 Ka3 47. g4 hxg4 48. h5 gxh5 49. Kc1 g3 50. Kc2 g2 51. Kd3 g1=Q 52. Ke4 Qe3+ 53. Kxf5 Qxe6+ 54. Kxe6 d3 55. Kd5 d2 56. Kc5 d1=Q 57. Kb5 Qc2 58. Ka5 b3 59. Ka6 b2 60. Ka5 Qb3 61. Ka6 b1=Q 62. Ka5 Qb5# 0-1