My best game of chess?

Now, after last game being one of the worst ones I´ve played, I decided to change the tone somewhat. And present game that I enjoyed playing a LOT, game that changed my chessplaying, since (and this IS something) I actually had this A-ha-experience during this game, about how do I want to play this game, in the best way...Game was again against my chess computer, that I wasn´t really able to beat on a regular basis, mainly because I think my whole playing strategy was not right, and got punished duly for that time after time. So, onto the game and it´s details...There is a question mark in header for a reason, but this is the game I´ve maybe thought in my mind and gone through afterwards more than any other game.

ChessWanderer - Chess 2001 (Level 11, 9 min./move) 2.- 21. 10. 2000

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Qc2



I used to play this kind of opening system in sicilian. 4.-Nc6 5. Be2 Be7 6. 0-0 d5 7. exd5 Qxd5 8. c4?



Questionable move, giving up squares b4 and d4 for black knight to occypy. I just tried to be active in the opening, but this is risky and describes well the way I used to play that time. 8.-Qd6 9. Nc3 0-0 10. b3 Nb4 11. Qb1



I wanted to keep d3-square in control. Well, putting queen to there already shows why my opening hasn´t gone all too well, not a good sign. You can easily get squeezed when playing like this. 11.-Bd7 12. a3 At least I can push this knight away easily. 12.-Nc6 13. Bd3 Looks like amateurish opening play huh? Well, this seemes like a good idea though and opening is quite silent anyway. Clumsy, but not loosing yet. 13.-Ne5 Now I have to exchange the knights, avoiding to get double pawns. 14. Nxe5 Qze5 15. Bb2 Qf4 Now, natural move would be Qc2 protecting d2. Well, I came up with other idea. From this point on, my playing starts to get better in my view. I was just saying to myself, ok, played not so great but I will just settle here and make one good solid move after another...applying tactics only when it´s good! Earlier, I got into lot of troubles as I said, playing fancy-feeling moves which computer can easily block if they are not correct. 16. Ne4!



Nice idea, activating knight and thus freeing my play more. Black cannot just take, cause after 16.-Nxe4 17. Bxe4 white wins pawn due to double threats. 17.-Qxd2 fails because of 18. Rd1. Thus, black decides to retreat with 16.-Ne8 17. Qc2 f5 Black desides to get active on the kingside...looks natural alright. 18. Ng3 Bf6?! Well, this gives away the bishop pair which suited very fine with me. 19. Nh5 Qg5 20. Nxf6+ this knight has done it´s job. 20.-Nxf6 21. b4!



With this move white takes good control of the queenside! With bishop pair, I liked this position pretty much. I had achieved what I wanted, taking little but clear advantages after the opening, unlike before...This is the way you want to beat those machines, by better knowledge. 21.-Rac8 22. b5! Great grip of the queenside, now very much shutting down black´s whitesquare bishop! 22.-Rf7 23. Rae1



Now, look at the position. Advantages for white: bishop pair, control over squares c6, d5 and e4 and now halfopen e-file! Black is not doing strategally good here. Nothing decisive yet though. Let´s see how situation evolves... 23.-Re8 24. f4 See how clumsy black is? 24.-Qh4 25. Re3! This moves takes ground from black´s only potential threat, his knight-queen combination. He tries to do something with it though... 25.-Ng4 26. Rh3 Qe7 Now, that black knight does have a good position right? Not really, only superficially as we will see. 27. Be2! Forcing retreat. 27.-Nf6 28. g4!



Powerful play! Immediately taking active measures to push on black´s passive position. Nasty checkmate-threat allows this move. 28.-fxg4 29. Bxg4 Rd8 Trying to do something, but really hard to find good moves being this passive, without weaking kingside, while queenside is totally being shut! 30. Re1 Again, emplying halfopen e-file with rook, also taking use of black queen´s bad spot. White´s every piece is now very active. 30.-Qd6 31. Be5! Very rude, simply tightening the grab. 31.-Qb6?! Mistake probably, but machine is trying to get some activity by queenside, other chance was just to put queen on f8, but that is really passive, again. 32. Rh4 now it was useful to cover the bishop, although black cannot take it now! 32.-a6 Trying desperately...but. 33. a4! axb5 34. axb5 Black gets a-file, but that is not any threat to white, taking with c-pawn would pose more risks. 34.-Ra8 35. Re3 continuing develop, all is headed for black´s very shaky kingside! Everything is guarded yet though... 35.-Ra5 Is the machine trying to sacrifice it´s useless bishop to get two passed pawns?! Kind of looks like it, didn´t believe it to happen though...And no reason to be worried about it anyway. 36. Rg3 Aiming at the enemy king. You can think of Rh3 too, but eventually black king would have chances to escape after white´s crash on h7. Now black feels need to put some obstacles into white´s way...36.-g6 So, maybe black did not think it has time for that fancy sacrifice on b5 ;) Well, this feels like mandatory defensive try, but does weaken kingside too for sure, which I lay my eyes upon! 37. Bh5!



Forces the exchange of black´s most important defender, the knight! Black would really need his whitesquared bishop to be active. 37.-Nxh5 38. Rxh5 Rf5 Alright, covers weak g6-spot for now... 39. Rh6 Well I´ll just go right after that pawn again! Naturally, not just the poor pawn I am after. 39.-Qa7 Hm, not interested to put that bishop to e8, giving some extra protection to it? 40. h4! Just simply forward! My pieces are well placed, so I will just add one pawn to attack also. Black does have potentially active queen-rook-combination, but that poses absolutely no danger. 40.-b6 Ok, this move tells clearly how poor black must have "felt" itself. Doesn´t do else than gives it´s queen sight to kingside. 41. h5! Now this is too much for black, he wants to try something... 41.-Rxe5 Giving up the exchange! Well, this does take away that dominating bishop. Desperate, anyhow. Which I will show right away.



42. Rgxg6+! Bang! No need to take notice of that black´s meany rook there. If black would now take, it would lead to mate. Thus he played 42.-Kh8 And now, what does white do? Only promising continuation seems to be Rxh7+, but that leads to complications, with no clear winning continuation in sight! Has white calculated badly and got an inferior position? He has played strongly and forcingly until this point, but those black pieces might get active soon!



43. Rg8+!! Wow. Giving up whole rook now for black king to eat. But there it is. And he just has to swallow it...43.-Kxg8 After this, rest is very forcing. I am being two pieces down, but with a decisive attack. 44. Qxh7+ Kf8 45. Rf6+ Ke8 46. Qg8+ Ke7 47. Qf8 Mate. That´s it! Black king found no escape. The machine is beaten! You can only believe how good mode I was in. Because you do have this uncertainty always, not perfectly sure if there is winning continuation or not. And this I had to see all in my mind, not using ChessPad this time. It was pleasure. And after this win, my chessmind got it´s uplifting boost, that carries on until this day. This game wasn´t my first nice victory, but probably the most important one. I did humiliate chessmachine, after all, that for me was almost like Deep Blue (being only lil bit sarcastic), in those days.