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This is the second entry in the new series of videos, “chessnoob Game Review” where the focus will be on identifying in how a game, whether I win or lose, could have been improved. This gives me an opportunity to reflect more deeply about a game and hopefully, the lessons that I draw for myself will be helpful to my fellow beginner and beginner-intermediate chess players!

This was a 10 min game of rapid, with 5 second increment on Lichess. I had the Black pieces, and my opponent led with the the Ruy Lopez Opening. Recently, I’ve been responding with the spicy Jaenisch Gambit, and my opponent accepted the gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. exf5).

The Jaenisch Gambit is very much like a reverse (Falkbeer) Vienna Gambit. And just like how accepting the Vienna Gambit is bad for Black, accepting the Jaenisch Gambit is actually bad for White. After accepting the gambit, Stockfish 15 NNUE at depth 30 gives an advantage to Black at an evaluation of [-0.50]! Black now has a clear tactic by advancing the e-pawn (4… e4) and immediately attacking the White knight on f3. Just like in the Vienna Gambit Accepted, the knight has nowhere good to go as all the squares it has access to, other than undeveloping to g1, is defended by Black pieces.

My opponent attempts to pin the pawn to my king, but I can immediately unpin with a symmetric queen move (5. Qe2 Qe7). The tension is held for a turn with the Ruy Lopez bishop exchanging itself for the knight (6. Bxc6 dxc6). And then, I suspect my opponent relied on their usual moves in the Ruy Lopez by short castling (7. O-O) and taking their queen out of the prospective pin, and lost sight of the continuity that that knight was still hanging. Ouch. Needless to say, I captured the knight and was basically immediately in a winning position [-4.31] as long as I didn’t blunder back.

My strategy at this point was to castle as soon as possible to get my king to safety, and then to aim to force piece trades and simplify. For instance, on move 12 I had the opportunity to capture an unprotected hanging pawn on c2, or to take the pawn on f5. Stockfish prefers Qxc2, and in the game, I couldn’t see a problem with that move. However, I opted to capture the pawn on f5 (12… Qxf5) to try to encourage a queen trade – what I saw as a safer and conservative option that neutralised my opponent’s most active piece. Stockfish calls this an inaccuracy. I’ll need to reflect on this some more as the difference in evaluation was [-6.54] vs [-4.55] – both options are winning for Black regardless.

My opponent next captured my a-pawn with their bishop (13. Bxa7) and this is a tactical mistake. This is a pattern worth learning actually – the bishop cannot alone capture the seemingly undefended a-pawn after long-castling as it’ll be trapped by the b-pawn. After a forced queen trade with my opponent being forced to open up their g-file and exposing their king (13… Qxf3 14. gxf3), the b-pawn advanced locking the bishop in my territory (14… b6). Two moves later the king whacks the bishop (16… Kxa7).

At this point, I was feeling a bit smug as I had the bishop pair and both rooks, versus my opponent with only their rooks. This isn’t a good thing as I tend to be more reactive and thus, undercalculate. Indeed, although I was in no danger and didn’t blunder a piece, I nonetheless completely missed a beautiful checkmate on move 26 (26… Bxf3#) with bishop and rook, reacting to my opponent’s b-pawn advance that wasn’t a threat. However, being up two pieces was an overwhelming advantage and on move 30, I forked my opponent’s rook and pawn (30… Be5) and White gracefully resigned. Good game!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/471hwbeJHC

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/FnppekXM"]
[Date "2022.08.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "bartolio21"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2022.08.21"]
[UTCTime "12:08:09"]
[WhiteElo "1562"]
[BlackElo "1576"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+12"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "C63"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Schliemann Defense, Jaenisch Gambit Accepted"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
[WhiteUrl "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Lichess_Logo_2019.svg/1200px-Lichess_Logo_2019.svg.png"]
[WhiteCountry "112"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.ab0f2ae8.30x30o.12380eb711c1@2x.jpeg"]
[BlackCountry "17"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. exf5 {Ruy Lopez Opening: Jaenisch Gambit Accepted [-0.50]. Black has a small advantage.} 4... e4 {[%c_arrow
e4f3;keyPressed;none;from;e4;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false,d8g5;keyPressed;none;from;d8;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false,e7h4;keyPressed;none;from;e7;opacity;0.8;to;h4;persistent;false,c6d4;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;d4;persistent;false,c6e5;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;e5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
h4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h4;persistent;false,g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false,e5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false,d4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d4;persistent;false]}
5. Qe2 Qe7 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. O-O $4 {A blunder [-4.31] as the knight is hanging} 7... exf3 $1 8. Qxf3 Nf6 9. d3 Bd7 10. Bd2 O-O-O 11. Re1 Qc5 12. Be3 Qxf5 {Stockfish prefers Qxc2. My goal was to trade queens as I was up a piece} 13. Bxa7 $2 {A mistake [-8.48] as the bishop will be trapped} 13... Qxf3 14. gxf3 b6 {The bishop on a7 is lost} 15. Nc3 Kb7 16. Ne4 Kxa7 17. Nxf6 gxf6 18. Re4 Rg8+ 19. Kh1 b5 20. a4 Kb6 21. Rf4 f5 22. axb5 cxb5 23. c4 Bd6 24. Rh4 Rg7 25. Rh6 Bc6 26. cxb5 $2 {[%c_highlight
g6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g6;persistent;false,g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false,g4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g4;persistent;false,g3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g3;persistent;false,g2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g2;persistent;false,g1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g1;persistent;false,f3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f3;persistent;false][%c_arrow
c6f3;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false,f3h1;keyPressed;none;from;f3;opacity;0.8;to;h1;persistent;false]
A mistake as this hangs [-M1]} 26... Bxb5 {A blunder [-10.9] with Black missing mate in one with Bxb5. However, Black is still completely winning.} 27. Rf6 Bxd3 28. Ra3 Re8 29. Ra1 Kb7 30. h4 Be5 {[%c_arrow
e5f6;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false,e5b2;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;b2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false,b2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;b2;persistent;false][%c_effect
b7;square;b7;type;Winner] The bishop forks the rook and pawn [-53.4] and White resigns} 0-1