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Against the Queen’s Gambit, I usually play the Slav Defense. At some point in the past, I just chose this system to play. I think my logic at the time was that I preferred this to the Queen’s Gambit Declined, which is playing e6 rather than c6 on move two, because I didn’t want to block in my light square bishop, and then I just ran with it. In the game I played yesterday, my opponent played the aggressive and provocative Bg5, launching an attack on my knight on f6 on move 4. I was surprised as usually in games of the Slav Defense, we finish development first. Completely out of theory, I decided to aggressively counterattack the b2 pawn with Qb6.

One of the things with playing aggressive and unexpected moves is that it can take the opponent out of their comfort zone. It disrupts the tactic or strategy that they may have been planning. My opponent played Bg5 quickly, meaning that they had planned this move, but then thought for over a minute and a half before responding to my queen move, and according to Stockfish, their response wasn’t the most accurate.

Later in the middle game, the game was won when I managed to strike with a powerful tactic, the discovered attack with a knight move, which in this case, also came with check. This resulted in a cascade where I captured the opponent’s queen, bishop, and then rook. One of the things that made this possible was the fact that the opponent’s king hadn’t yet castled.

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

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/41582970815

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.20"]
[Round "?"]
[White "OpenClub"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D11"]
[WhiteElo "1208"]
[BlackElo "1295"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "23:47:09 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Qb6 5. Qd2 Ne4 6. Qc1 Qb4+ 7. Nbd2 h6 8. a3 Qa5 9. c5 Nxg5 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. e3 Bf5 12. h3 Nd7 13. Be2 O-O-O 14. b4 Qc7 15. a4 e5 16. b5 cxb5 17. axb5 exd4 18. Rxa7 Nxc5 19. exd4 Nd3+ 20. Bxd3 Qxc1+ 21. Ke2 Bxd3+ 22. Kxd3 Qxh1 23. Ra8+ Kd7 24. Ra7 Rb8 25. Nf3 Qxg2 26. Ne5+ Ke6 27. f3 Bd6 28. b6 Bxe5 29. dxe5 Qxf3+ 30. Kd4 Rh4+ 31. Kc5 0-1