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One of the joys when analysing a game in chess.com is when the algorithm rates a move as brilliant. Even better is when this is for a move that you thought was good during the match. Although I’m not sure we should get too much emotional affirmation from a computer, it’s still a lovely feeling. This happened in a game I played this morning against an opponent who played the London system.

Unlike yesterday, I played this game this morning with coffee in hand and it seemed to work for me. The game went fairly smoothly in my favour, and I was substantially ahead by the beginning of the middle game. A second blunder by my opponent resulted in the clear loss of their knight. And one of the strategies you can employ in that situation as I described in an earlier video, is to try to liquidate the opponent’s pieces with balanced material trades to create an endgame with a piece advantage. As you can see in this game, even though these weren’t necessarily the most accurate moves, they were relatively easy to play and safely led to a win.

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

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/36624681913

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Lucassa98"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[WhiteElo "1137"]
[BlackElo "1216"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "13:33:53 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. c4 e6 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Bd3 Nxf4 8. exf4 Nxd4 9. Qa4+ Nc6 10. Nd4 Qxd4 11. Qxd4 Nxd4 12. O-O O-O-O 13. f3 Bc5 14. Kh1 Bf5 15. Bxf5 Nxf5 16. Nc3 Bd4 17. Nb5 Bxb2 18. Rab1 Bf6 19. Rbc1 Rd7 20. Nxa7+ Kb8 21. Nb5 Rhd8 22. g4 Nd4 23. Nxd4 Bxd4 24. Rc4 c5 25. Ra4 Be3 26. f5 exf5 27. gxf5 Rd5 28. Re1 Bd2 29. Re2 Rxf5 30. Rg2 g6 31. Re4 Rxf3 32. Rge2 f5 33. Re8 Rxe8 34. Rxe8+ Kc7 35. Kg2 Ra3 36. Re7+ Kd6 37. Rxh7 Rxa2 38. Kf3 b5 39. Rg7 Kd5 40. Rxg6 c4 41. Rg5 Ra3+ 42. Ke2 Bxg5 43. h4 Bxh4 44. Kd2 c3+ 45. Kc2 Bg5 46. Kd1 Ra2 47. Ke1 c2 48. Ke2 c1=Q+ 49. Kd3 Qe3# 0-1