For the first time this year, I played three blitz games on Gameknot's Live Chess portal. I left the colour setting on random although I was hoping to get the black pieces so I could practice the "Sniper" as advocated by one of my chess pals, Charlie Storey. I read his book on the Sniper a few years ago, but did not properly absorb the lessons. I picked it up again this year and am going through it more thoroughly.
However, I was randomly given White all three times. I blundered badly in the first game and lost, but did much better in the next two games. The video below gives my commentary on both games, and I’ve added a few key screenshots further down.
https://youtu.be/25bLWRYpm8A?si=9wtXPmNlV_W2F3na
Game 1: Black Plays a King’s Indian... and Trades Off His Own Defender
In the first game, Black went for a King’s Indian setup - not the Sniper, but it does feature a similar Bishop fianchetto on g7. Now, if you’ve looked at Charlie Storey’s Sniper material, you’ll know he sometimes recommends exchanging that bishop for the knight on c3 - but only when it makes sense so to do, if it damages White’s pawn structure, for example
Here, Black went ahead and played ...Bxc3, but in my view, this was a mistake.
Yes, it briefly doubled my pawns, but in return Black gave up the main defender of his kingside, the dark-squared bishop. That trade left his king more vulnerable, and the problem was exacerbated a few moves later when his queen grabbed the a2 pawn.
When Black moved his Knight to b6?, there was no longer anything preventing my Queen from occupying the diagonal:
And this led to this:
White to Move, Checkmate in 3...
Game 2: The Jack Cade Defence
In the second game, my opponent went for what I call the "Jack Cade" defence, namely a series of pawn moves that left the quality at home. (Jack Cade led a peasants' revolt against Henry VI in 1450).
The game ended when my central pawns were threatening to break through after my Knight forked his King and Rook.
I think it would have been prettier to have promoted my pawn to a Knight, but the Queen did the trick and my opponent resigned.
Cheers!
David Hurley