---

I managed to make it to the third and final round of the Team Australia, 2022 Australia Day Tournament (Division 3) on chess.com! This is the final match for me – the seventh of seven and I’ve managed to win my first five matches and draw in my first match against my opponent in this game!

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

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

At this point, I think I’m guaranteed to come within the top two and getting a (virtual) medal!

Match 7 (https://www.chess.com/game/daily/429178637) was against @edwardsl – I had the white pieces and they black. @edwardsl is probably the strongest player in this tournament and I think that I was lucky to have drawn him in the first match!

I played (1. e4) as usual, and they responded with the Sicilian Defense (1… c5). I’m not surprised that they responded with probably the strongest opening against e4! I’ve recently been exploring the Smith-Morra Gambit (2. d4) but I opted against it in this match. Simply, I didn’t have much experience with the gambit, and thus far, I’ve found it a little difficult to convert the quicker development (at the cost of a pawn) for an advantage. Rather, I often end up in a middle- and endgame just down a pawn.

So instead, I opted to play the Grand Prix Attack, which starts with the Closed Sicilian (2. Nc3), followed by (3. f4) the next move. Unfortunately for me, @edwardsl was very familiar with the Grand Prix Attack, and he told me after the game that he used to play this himself. Interestingly enough, we both either play book moves, best moves, or excellent moves up to and including move 7, but then on move 8, I start playing suboptimal moves or inaccuracies. One of the challenges with the Grand Prix Attack is that if Black plays very accurately, it effectively just plays like a Closed Sicilian, and I tend not to be so good with closed positional games.

As we move into the middle game, we both make some inaccuracies, but these accrue faster and more seriously with my moves. On move 12, I push the wrong pawn, opening the centre in a manner that was disadvantageous for me [-3.93] and vibe of the game changes. By move 17, an inaccurate queen move results in basically a collapse of my defences [-4.45] and it seemed that my loss of inevitable. I couldn’t see how I could launch an attack on my opponent and further loss of material was inexorable. On move 29, my opponent wins by checkmate. Good game! I lost but felt fine as I was clearly outplayed and outclassed by my opponent.

I’ve now completed all my games and have come at least second. Depending on how well @edwardsl performs in their remaining matches, I still have an opportunity for first!

[Event "TA 2022 Australia Day Tournament Div 3  ratings up to 1150 - Round 3"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.09.06"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "edwardsl"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Tournament "https://www.chess.com/tournament/ta-2022-australia-day-tournament-div-3-ratings-up-to-1150"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B23"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Grand-Prix-Attack...4.Nf3-Bg7-5.Bc4-e6"]
[UTCDate "2022.09.06"]
[UTCTime "20:16:17"]
[WhiteElo "1194"]
[BlackElo "1240"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[Termination "edwardsl won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "20:16:17"]
[EndDate "2022.09.15"]
[EndTime "10:10:34"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/429178637"]

1. e4 c5 {Sicilian Defense} 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 {Grand Prix Attack [-0.03]} 3... g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 e6 6. d3 Nge7 7. O-O d5 8. Bb5 {A relative inaccuracy [-0.98]. Bringing the bishop back to b3 is better.} 8... Qb6 9. Kh1 O-O 10. a4 $2 {A mistake [-2.37]. The light square bishop is the \"bad\" bishop in the Grand Prix Attack and it is often good to trade it for the knight on c6. This would have drawn one of the potential defenders around the king (the knight currently on e7) away from the king-side.} 10... Nb4 11. a5 Qc7 12. d4 $2 {A mistake [-3.93]. Opening up the centre in this way is detrimental. Pushing the e-pawn to e5 is recommended by Stockfish as it closes the diagonal to the powerful Black dark square bishop.} 12... cxd4 13. Nxd4 dxe4 14. Nxe4 Rd8 15. c3 Nf5 16. cxb4 Rxd4 17. Qf3 $6 {And my defenses crumble [-4.45]} 17... Rxb4 18. Nc3 Bxc3 19. bxc3 $6 {An inaccuracy [-7.28] as trading queens  is better, but either way, Black is in a dominating winning position} 19... Rxb5 20. Rd1 Bd7 21. Qd3 Rd5 22. Qc2 Rxd1+ 23. Qxd1 Qxc3 24. Bd2 Qd3 25. Qe1 Bc6 26. Rc1 Bxg2+ 27. Kxg2 Nh4+ 28. Kh1 Qf3+ 29. Kg1 Qg2# {[%c_effect
g8;square;g8;type;Winner,g1;square;g1;type;CheckmateWhite]} 0-1