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Somehow, I managed to make it to the third and final round of the Team Australia, 2022 Australia Day Tournament (Division 3) on chess.com! For non-Australians, Australia Day is January 26, so it’s been just over 8 months to get to the final round of five remaining contestants. This specific division were for Team Australia members rated up to 1150 ELO in daily matches at the beginning of the tournament.

I entered the final round with the lowest rating. The contestants:

• vitualis (the chess noob!) – 1158
• @gothedogs – 1159
• @KnightBeatsAll – 1186
• @edwardsl – 1229
• @flylikeaD6 – 1266

Each contestant plays the others twice – once as White and once as Black – so I have up to 8 matches in this round if nobody withdraws and abandons the tournament. I’m really excited that I’ll have a good chance of coming within the top three and getting a (virtual) medal!

I’m going to covering each of my matches, win or lose, in this round. The order of the videos and articles will be the order in which they finish.

Match 1 (https://www.chess.com/game/daily/426285971) was against @KnightBeatsAll where I had the white pieces. As usual, I lead with (1. e4) and my opponent responded with the excellent (1… c5), the Sicilian Defense. Earlier in rounds 1 and 2 of the tournament, I tended to play the Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian Defense. However, I recently have been experimenting with the unsound Smith-Morra Gambit (2. d4), to pull Sicilian players out of their comfort zone!

My opponent accepts the gambit (2… cxd4), meaning that after the next couple of moves (3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3), we are likely to be both completely out of theory and battle begins! One of the early ideas from this line is that my light square bishop on c4 (6. Bc4) and then queen on b3 (7. Qb3) lines up a powerful early battery on Black’s weak f7 pawn. Stockfish gave an evaluation of [+1.40], but I play inaccurately I don’t convert this advantage. In these games with higher stakes, I tend to be torn by a certain tension – my usual style tends to be aggressive and attacking, and yet, I second-guess myself and feel pulled into play more conservatively.

The same thing happens again a few moves later. My opponent blunders their rook (9. b6) by pushing their b-pawn which now cannot escape an attack by my bishop (10. d5). However, my fear of losing material in the short term from my opponent’s counterattack resulted in a seemingly conservative move that was a straight up blunder as I then lose the opportunity to take was, in essence, free material!

The game now steers towards me attacking Black’s king-side position. This was somewhat complex and we both blundered in the manoeuvring. This was a relatively low accuracy game! However, my opponent had some more intrinsic dangers in their position – they had, early on, lost or moved their king-side pawns so was reliant on their pieces for king defence. Earlier moves had also seen both of their rooks move off the back rank, and as the aphorism goes, “it’s never too late, to hang back rank mate”! My opponent made a terminal blunder on move 25 (25… Qf6), moving their queen off the back rank to attack my pawn on b2. Their own back rank was now exposed – my queen takes their back rank (26. Qe8) with now an unavoidable checkmate in 2. My opponent resigns and I win my first match in the final round of the 2022 Australia Day Tournament!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/426285971

[Event "TA 2022 Australia Day Tournament Div 3  ratings up to 1150 - Round 3"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "KnightBeatsAll"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Tournament "https://www.chess.com/tournament/ta-2022-australia-day-tournament-div-3-ratings-up-to-1150"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B21"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Smith-Morra-Gambit-Accepted-4.Nxc3"]
[UTCDate "2022.08.25"]
[UTCTime "13:14:03"]
[WhiteElo "1156"]
[BlackElo "1168"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "13:14:03"]
[EndDate "2022.08.29"]
[EndTime "02:41:01"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/426285971"]

{[Game 1]} 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 {Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted [-0.14]. I've started trying this gambit line to pull Sicilian players out of their comfort zone and theory.} 4. Nxc3 g6 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. Bc4 d6 7. Qb3 {[%c_highlight
b3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;b3;persistent;false,c4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c4;persistent;false,f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false][%c_arrow
b3f7;keyPressed;none;from;b3;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false] Powerful early battery against f7 [+1.40]} 7... Nh6 8. Ng5 $2 {A mistake [-0.66]. I was overly conservative trying to place more pressure on f7.} (8. Bxh6 {This was the better move, removing the knight defender and then f7 can be captured with Black losing the right to castle.} 8... Bxh6 9. Bxf7+) 8... O-O 9. O-O b6 $4 {A blunder [+3.93] as the rook on a8 can now be attacked} 10. Bd5 $1 Ba6 11. Nb5 $4 {A blunder [-0.63]. Again, an overly conversative move looking to conserve my pieces, rather than taking the free material.} (11. Bxa8 {Bxa8 is the best move. Black will capture my rook on f1 but at the end of the trade, I will be up a full piece.} 11... Bxf1 12. Kxf1) 11... Bxb5 12. Qxb5 a6 13. Qb3 Ra7 14. Be3 Nd7 15. f4 Nc5 16. Bxc5 bxc5 17. f5 gxf5 18. exf5 Bf6 $4 {A blunder [+0.53] as the king's defence is weakened} 19. Qg3 $2 {An aggressive counter [-1.22] but Ke4 would have been better} 19... Kh8 $1 20. Qh4 $4 {An aggressive attack that is objectively a blunder [-5.23] but ONLY if Black finds e6} 20... Rg8 21. Qxh6 Bxg5 22. Qh5 Be3+ 23. Kh1 Qf8 24. Bxf7 $6 Rg7 $2 25. Be6 $2 Qf6 $4 {A critical blunder [+M3] resulting from Black missing the threat to their back rank} 26. Qe8+ $1 {[%c_effect
h1;square;h1;type;Winner,h8;square;h8;type;ResignBlack] Black sees the impending checkmate and resigns} ({If black continued, this is the forced line to checkmate...} 26. Qe8+ Qf8 27. Qxf8+ Rg8 28. Qxg8#) 1-0