Classic Game Recap: Winning the ChessPunks Best Game of the Year Award
Recapping a game as Black against the English
This week I won an award for the ChessPunks Game of the Year. I submitted the game for consideration and the judges selected it. This was both a huge honor and a surprise — I’ve seen the games from previous awards and in my opinion my game pales in comparison. I’m sitting among giants.
As well, there were other winners of awards who were very deserving. Solveig (aka @RookieRedhead) won “Most Encouraging ChessPunk, and Kamryn (@kamrynheidi) won “Best Content Creator”. Both of these women are great members of the online #Chesspunks community on Twitter, so it was an honor to be in such esteemed company.
If you have the time, you might be interested in watching the whole thing. This includes some cool tournament announcements as well. The support the chesspunks community has received from chess.com and Chessable has been pretty amazing.
I got a small chance to share the game on the video for the awards, but it was a bit flustering and of course, my memory was a little fuzzy on the details and I didn’t have much time to really discuss it. So I wanted to try to share it and explain some more things now that I’ve had some time to decompress.
Let’s get started.
Time Control: 60 minutes + 15 second increment per move.
White: Joe Birt (1817 USCF)
Black: Me (1684 USCF)
I’ve never played Black against Joe in a long time-control game. I have always had White. He seems to play a different defense in every game. As White I did a little preparation, and determined that he would either play the Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4) or the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4).
1.c4
The English Opening. I’m already almost out of book. This move is rather rare, but there are a few ways to play against it. I promise this isn’t a chess theory deep-dive, but I do think this sort of thing might be interesting.
The first way is for Black to play as they would against 1.d4 (aka the “Queen’s Pawn Opening”). Often White uses the English to evade harder tries against 1.d4, and plays d4 at a later time to transpose to a favorable variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined or Indian Defenses. This means Black could go a number of setups (for instance: g6+Bg7+Nf6, e6+d5+Nf6, b6, c6+d5 — all of these are different ways that can completely change the flow of the game) — there’s a lot of flexibility here for both sides, but White has the advantage because Black always has to be on guard for the d4-break. This means the positions can be a bit more tense.
The second way for Black to play is to copy White and play 1…c5. This is called the “Symmetrical English” for obvious reasons. Black can copycat White for a number of moves here. Eventually one side has to break symmetry, but the game often remains very strategic and maneuvering in general.
The third way for Black to play, and probably the most fighting way, is to play 1…e5. This is referred to as either the “King’s English Variation” or, more informatively, the “Reversed Sicilian”. It’s called “Reversed” because it mirrors the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5), but White, having the first move, is “up a tempo”. This leads to very interesting ideas that you wouldn’t see in a normal Sicilian since the extra time White has means they have extra options. This is the most “fighting” and combative way to play against the English because Black is occupying the center directly against the flanking 1.c4. This is my choice against the English. Since I play the Open Sicilian as White, I know more about the resulting positions here than I do in the other two options.
1…e5 2.g3
Going for the early fianchetto of the King’s Bishop, where it will seek to influence the game from a distance for a long time on that diagonal.
2…c6 3.Bg2 d5
I’m seeking the get a strong pawn center (on e5 and c5) and support it to limit the reach of the bishop. By playing 2…c6, I’ve made sure that if a capture occurs on d5, I can recapture with a pawn rather than with a piece, maintaining that strong center.
4.cxd5 cxd5
Structurally it’s very symmetrical. The board is open, so Black’s bishops have a good future. Black has more space. All these considered, I think White’s theoretical first-move advantage has dissipated into equality.
5.e4?
In my later analysis I noted: “no master games in the lichess database. Even in Lichess player’s database, this is exceedingly rare. Black appears to score well. This e4 push does not show up in my repertoire. I debated between pushing d4, closing the position and taking more space, and dxe4, opening the position and isolating White’s d-pawn. Both of these are decent choices.
5…exd4!
I chose this over 5…d4 because I was thinking the move 6.f4 could give White a lot of play.
6.Nc3
This seemed clever but not quite correct. Taking with the bishop might lose time, but probably not as much as taking with the knight. After 6.Bxe4, I would play 6…Nf6 and kick the bishop.
6…Nc6!?
This move isn’t nearly as popular as Nf6. However, I wasn’t concerned with keeping the pawn. I wanted to play Nf6, but first f5, which gains a tempo on the bishop or knight capturing on e4. Nc6 is more statistically winning however. I was also thinking about White’s option (after 6…Nf6) of Qa4+, which would be a little annoying to deal with. The best move in this position was actually 6…f5, which seemed really greedy. However, there’s no risk of damage to the Black King, so I ought to have gone for it.
7.Nxe4
My opponent gains back his pawn. But I already had made up my mind how to deal with this.
7…f5
Kicking the knight back, gaining space on the kingside, with the benefit of Nf6 no longer blocking in the f-pawn.
7.Nc3
At the cost of giving back the pawn, my position is already slightly better.
8…Nf6?
I missed a tactic here that computer analysis made clearer to me afterward. However, my opponent found it and prevented it in case I tried the next move.
9.a3
This move puzzled me, because I thought he was preparing b4 for some reason, or trying to prevent Bb4. However, later I realized that it was preventing Nb4 (looking at the hole on d3. So I realized that my prior move was a mistake later.
9…Bc5 10.Nge2 O-O 11.O-O
Now that this has happened, an idea about the d3-square becomes irresistible to me.
11…Qd3!
When I showed this to a coach of mine, he said it reminded him of a famous game between Louis Paulsen and Paul Morphy in 1857:
In all honesty hearing that a game I played would remind anyone of Morphy is flattering.
12.b4 Bb6 13.Bb2 Be6
I’m just blocking any checks on b3
14.Nc1
My opponent has contorted his position to kick my queen out. This represents a net gain of time and positional advantage for me, since my pieces are all pretty active, and his are on the queenside looking for jobs.
14…Qd7 15.Na4
I think my opponent was trying to win the e5-pawn. My response was a bit poor, and a line that I thought was dangerous for Black here ended up being just fine.
15…Bd4?
Simply trading the attacker off. However, this gives away any advantage I might have had. I should have gone for 15…e4! 16.Nxb6 axb6 17.d3 (the move I was worried about) Rad8! pinning the d3 pawn.
16.Nb3
An odd choice, because it allows me to misplace the a4 knight. 16.Bxd4 was a much better and more consistent idea.
16…Bxb2 17.Nxb2 Bd5!
Both pairs of bishops come off the board now. I wanted to centralize my knights on e4 and d4 and take advantage of the light square weaknesses in my opponent’s kingside.
18.Nc5
A move I hadn’t foreseen, but it was only a little inconvenient. It makes sense to improve this knight somewhat, but it also gives me the d4 square for my knight.
18…Qe7 19.Bxd5+ Nxd5 20.Qb3
I had foreseen this far. The pin looks annoying but the knight is easily defended. The queen is the only piece that can attack the knight.
20…Rad8 21.Rad1 Nd4
Centralization. However after analyzing with the engine, I found that 21…b6 was a strong move. I did look at it, but went for something else. The reason the move works is that it forces the knight to an inferior square before the queen is forced out of b3 by Nd4 (otherwise, the knight could return to b3 and resume control of d4). So this was a nice find by the computer. The position is so bad for White that Stockfish suggests straight up giving away the whole knight and ignoring the attack.
22.Qd3
The only way to prevent Black from playing Nf3+. Now I want to expand, but the knight would hang.
22…Nf6
Defending the knight on d4 and preparing e5 + Nf3+
23.Nb3 Ne4
The knight on d4 will be traded off but I make progress with a lift rook that comes with tempo and pressure on the d2-pawn that has sat on its starting square the entire game.
24.Nxd4 Rxd4 25.Qb3 Kh8
I am now threatening to win the exchange with Nxd2
26.d3
It’s sad that the engine thinks this is the least bad move for White. White saves the exchange at the cost of blocking his queen from the defense of the increasingly weakened king.
26…Ng5
Nf3+ is incoming.
27.h4??
I thought to myself “this must be winning for Black” almost immediately. I have a clear plan, and two major pieces that just need some pawn cover stripped away from the king. h4 helps my cause.
27…Nf3+!
Chess books often use the phrase “Sword of Damocles” to describe an impending unstoppable attack against a king. Interestingly here, Stockfish finds a stronger move: Rxh4. I had seen this in my calculation but it wasn’t as clear to me what the idea was to continue the attack. However, suffice to say that at the end of the line, White is basically forced to give up the queen. My choice, however, is also completely winning.
28.Kg2
My opponent says he didn’t see the next move coming.
28…Nxh4+!!
Of course. Now the king has no cover and my major pieces are ready to pick up the attack.
29.gxh4 Qxh4 30.f3
Giving his king a little luft.
31…Rf6??
A huge blunder, snatching a draw from the jaws of victory. Qg5+ was correct. However, my opponent was apparently making room for the wrong piece.
31.Rg1??
And my attack now comes crashing through. Rf2 would have saved the game as now the king escapes to the e-file where I cannot continue attacking it.
31…Rg6+ 32.Kf1 Rxg1+ 33.Kxg1 Qg3+ (I just dog-walk the king into a checkmate) 34.Kf1 Qxf3+ 35.Ke1 Qe3+ 36.Kf1 Rf4+ 37.Kg2 Qf2+ 0-1. White resigned because it’s mate on the next move.
Here’s a full gif of the game, if you’re interested:
And a link to a lichess study with this game and the full Paulsen-Morphy game I cited.