rad_cliff (1294) vs SenseiDanya (1466)

1420Episode 04 · 0-1

During the gameIn the review

  1. Evans Gambit Accepted, Anderssen Variation
  2. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4
  3. 3... Bc5 Bishop before knight: sidestepping the Fried Liver Opening Bishop before knight. ...Nf6 would allow the Fried Liver; developing the bishop first sidesteps it entirely, and this is the move he recommends generally.
  4. 4. b4 The Evans Gambit, and what White is really buying Opening The Evans Gambit. White gets c3 with tempo and, more importantly, access to b3 - the Qb3 battery against f7 is the real point, not the pawn. The review opens with its history: named after Captain William Davies Evans, who played it in London in 1829, though McDonnell had played b4 first and La Bourdonnais then used it against him repeatedly. Still fully playable today - Black has several ways to disarm it and none to refute it.
  5. 4...Bxb4 5.c3
  6. 5... Be7 Choosing the retreat with the fewest drawbacks Opening Every retreat has a drawback, so pick the one with fewest. ...Bc5 walks into d4; ...Bd6 shuts in the c8-bishop; ...Ba5 makes the bishop irrelevant and invites Ba3; ...Bf8 undevelops entirely. That leaves e7, and Danya rates it the safest line for Black.
  7. 6.d4
  8. 6... Na5 Eliminate the c4-bishop at all costs Opening The essence of the whole variation: the c4-bishop is the source of all evil and has to go, whatever it costs. The knight looks awkward on the rim, but eliminating that bishop from the diagonal matters more than anything else on the board. Yes, Nxe5 defends the bishop - and that is the bargain of accepting a gambit. The extra pawn is a chip you can hand back for something better. The review explains why it must be immediate: it stops Qb3 dead. If instead Bxf7+ Kf8, White must find Qa4 hitting the knight; the greedy try loses the queen outright to ...c6, since a knight on the rim is doing real work here.
  9. 7. Nxe5 The critical test White missed Opening Not best, says the review: Bd3 is the critical test, when ...d6 hands the pawn straight back to accelerate development, and Qa4+ does not win the knight because ...c6 extends the queen's guard.
  10. 7...Nxc4 8.Nxc4
  11. 8... d5 Strike the centre with tempo Opening The counter-strike. It opens the bishop and develops the queen, both with tempo - which is what stops White consolidating the big centre.
  12. 9.exd5
  13. 9... Qxd5 The recapture forks two targets Tactics The recapture forks the knight and the pawn; White cannot hold both.
  14. 10. Ne3 Hanging pawns, named Pawn structure A clear concession - the bishop's best square was f4 and this blocks it. It also leaves White with hanging pawns: a c- and d-pawn with no neighbours, defending only each other. Not isolated, but marooned.
  15. 10... Qd8 Retreat, then finish developing Strategy Retreat and finish the job: the knight comes to f6 and the king castles.
  16. 11.O-O
  17. 11... Nf6 Hanging pawns cut both ways Strategy The assessment. Hanging pawns cut both ways - central and strong, but easy to attack and prone to buckling. With the two bishops in an open position Black is already slightly better.
  18. 12.Re1 O-O 13.c4
  19. 13... c6 A speed bump before the pawns roll Strategy The fianchetto is the tempting move and the wrong one: ...b6 and ...Bb7 leave f5 unattended, and Nf5 gives White a real attack. First a speed bump. ...c6 makes d5 much less attractive, because taking on d5 would leave White with an isolated pawn.
  20. 14. a4 Space is good, overextension is not Strategy A good move that needs the right follow-up - White gains queenside space but must not overextend. In the review he sticks with that verdict: a4 is fine, the mistake is what came after it.
  21. 14... Be6 Add a guard to d5 Piece play No need for ...a5. The bishop comes to e6 instead, adding another guard to d5.
  22. 15. Nc3 Not every piece has to be aggressive Strategy The review's improvement. The knight should have gone to c2, cementing d4, with the other knight holding the other pawn - both knights on defensive duty. Not every piece has to be aggressive, and a Ba3 trade was available too.
  23. 15... Bb4 Punish the hole the pawn move left Piece play Read what the last move cost. a4 left a hole on b4, and the e7-bishop was doing nothing, so it moves somewhere it does. The test for whether a pin bites: no pawn supports the knight, so a piece must defend it - and that defender then cannot hold anything else. That is exactly what happens. The review calls this bishop the dangerous piece in the position, cementing itself on b4.
  24. 16. Bd2 The losing move, and how White survives Piece play The losing move. Fianchettoing was the lesser evil. The review works out how White survives instead: Bb2 defends the knight with the right piece, and after ...Qa5 the rook holds things together from c1. Unpleasant, but not lost.
  25. 16... Qxd4 One hanging pawn falls, the other follows Pawn structure One hanging pawn falls and drags the other down with it - the usual fate of hanging pawns once mishandled. By here, says the review, White is simply losing.
  26. 17. Qb3 The move that leaves a bishop loose Tactics It attacks the loose bishop, but it also leaves White's own bishop undefended. The review is gentle about it: this hastens the end, but the position was already collapsing.
  27. 17... Qxd2 Give up the better bishop Tactics Illogical on its face - handing over the better bishop - and correct anyway, because of what comes next.
  28. 18.Qxb4
  29. 18... Ne4 Tactics hack logic Tactics The point. A double attack the pin makes unanswerable: the knight hangs, f2 hangs, and Nd1 does not exist because that knight is pinned. Danya's framing: tactics are a way to hack logic. Verbal reasoning says do not trade that bishop; a concrete tactical property overrules it.
  30. 19. Re2 Defending one thing, not both Tactics It defends f2 and not the knight, so it solves nothing.
  31. 19... Qxc3 Recapture with the right piece Tactics Take with the queen, not the knight - the queen would otherwise hang. And not the rook: after Nxe2 the pin people imagine is not there, because that queen has already moved.
  32. 20.Qxb7
  33. 20... Qxa1+ Collect the rook Attack Now the rook goes too, and with the knight tied down the second hanging pawn falls as well.
  34. 21.Nf1
  35. 21... Bxc4 The paralysed rook Attack Rxc4 would be met by mate on f1, so the rook is paralysed and the game is over.
  36. White resigned
End of episode 04 · 0-1 ← 03. vs AlexSem (1469)All games at 142005. vs CallTheKrankenwagen (1560) →