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I started this morning with a nice smooth Scotch… Well, a Scotch Game – it’s probably too early in the day for a whisky! I don’t tend to face against the Scotch game very often, even though my understanding is that it’s a good opening and system for white and can lead to some fun and dynamic games. Apart from a blunder right at the beginning of the middle game, for which I luckily wasn’t punished, this game smoothly went my way.

In this game, I mostly tried to follow good principles – develop pawns, develop minor pieces, try to take the centre, take hanging pieces, trade equal value pieces when there is an advantage like damaging the opponent’s pawn structure, and then, liquidating pieces once ahead to push towards an endgame. And this worked out!

I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/36973826349

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.26"]
[Round "?"]
[White "mjsmiddy"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C45"]
[WhiteElo "1195"]
[BlackElo "1204"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "14:31:13 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 Nxe4 9. Qf3 Qe7 10. Be2 Nxg3 11. fxg3 Bxd4 12. cxd4 Nxd4 13. Qd3 Nxe2 14. Qxe2 Qxe2+ 15. Kxe2 O-O 16. Nd2 Re8+ 17. Kf2 d5 18. Rhe1 Bd7 19. Rac1 c6 20. Nb3 b6 21. Nd4 Rxe1 22. Rxe1 Re8 23. Rxe8+ Bxe8 24. Nf5 h5 25. h3 f6 26. Ke3 c5 27. Ne7+ Kf7 28. Nxd5 Bc6 29. Nc3 Bxg2 30. h4 Bc6 31. a3 a6 32. Kf2 Ke6 33. Ke3 Ke5 34. Ne2 b5 35. Nc3 a5 36. Ne2 b4 37. axb4 cxb4 38. Nd4 Bd5 39. Nb5 a4 40. Nd4 a3 41. bxa3 bxa3 42. Nc2 a2 43. hxg5 fxg5 44. Na1 h4 45. gxh4 gxh4 46. Kf2 Kf4 47. Kg1 Kg3 48. Nc2 h3 0-1