1.e4 For the last couple of years I've been playing 1.d4 exclusively, it's starting to feel a little stale, so at the end of a little Lichess session, I thought - maybe Fischer was right. Never mind that I haven't studied anything for year, let's just play chess. The first game I played the Kings Gambit (goodness knows why) and scored a lucky win. This was game two  1...c6 Immediate panic. One of Black's most annoying options I think. What can I possibly play?  2.Qf3!? I thought of a sideline of a sideline that I used to try regularly. I saw it on a Scottish player's website (I remember his name was Chandler - not the New Zealand GM, a 2200ish player)- he called it the Egyptian opening I think. Or maybe just the Cairo Kann (get it?)  2...d5 ( White's move order invites 2...e5 after which White argues the Queen will be happy on g3. I am not sure this is a strong argument, but anyway ) 3.Nc3 Lichess called the opening the Goldman variation. White's second and third moves are normally reversed. I have two books by Goldman. One on this pet line, which was ruined and rendered completely useless by catastrophically awful editing and production, and one an excellent biography of Schlechter.   3...d4 4.Bc4

This is the idea, if you had to retreat the knight immediately it has no good square, but now e2 is free without blocking the bishop  4...dxc3?? Of course Black can always stop the knight from retreating by killing it, but this is known to be very unwise. I don't think you remember the refutation, you rely on being able to wing it. Certainly that's what I did here  5.Qxf7+ Kd7 6.dxc3 With two pawns and a gigantic attack for the piece, Black is actually hopelessly lost  6...Nf6 ( Stockfish suggests 6...Kc7 ) ( or 6...Qe8 are Black's best tries ) 7.Bf4 cutting off the King and preparing to castle. You could totally premove O-O-O actually  7...Qe8 8.O-O-O+ As it happens it's mate in three  8...Nd5 9.Rxd5+ cxd5 10.Qxd5# Lichess gave me a pleasant report; 0 mistakes, 0 innaccuracies, 0 blunders, 8 centipawn average loss (no doubt due to the funny second move). I decided this was an excellent omen for the competitive game later in the day (see below) and called the session a wrap.  1-0

1.e4 See previous game, with the same reasoning, that chess is just about having fun  1...c5 Ross' inevitable reply. Already I caught myself worrying that Ross really knows his Sicilians. Never mind. Courage. Also Ross was nearly half an hour late so maybe that would help down the track.  2.Nc3 Just a move, I wanted to just play and see what happens  2...Nc6 3.f4 e6 4.Nf3 d5 Now I thought of the game in the afternoon, I better get the Bishop out the way so I can retreat the Knight to e2 without messing up my coordination!  5.Bb5 d4 6.Ne2 I played this immediately and regretted it just as fast. Stockfish points out the obvious, the light squared bishop is going to be exchanged, and that's okay because White is going to have pawns on d3 and e4. But why not extract a price in the form of doubled pawns? There's just a few games in my database, but for what it's worth White scores 36% with my move and 80% plus with  (6.Bxc6+ first! ) 6...Bd7 7.O-O ( I managed to avoid 7.d3?? Qa5+ and a very early evening ) 7...a6 8.Bxc6 Bxc6 9.d3 Nf6 10.Ne5 Played for the rather wimpy reason that I can eliminate Black's two bishops at will now, and be left with a slightly better bishop if the centre pawns become fixed on e4/e5  10...Rc8 11.Ng3 ( The computer has the clever idea 11.f5 Bd6 12.Nc4 e5 and maybe White gets a slow burning attack based on his space advantage ) 11...b5 An interesting move. During the week I saw Magnus on twitter (I know) giving a rule of thumb that "if you're one move from castling you're fine, three moves you're not fine, two moves it can go either way. It occurred to me that if Ross spends another move on Bc6-b7 I get the full three moves, and maybe I can make something happen. So I prepared the sacrifice that occurs in the game, after all I can always bail out later ( Importantly Black cannot challenge the knight and develop his dark bishop to it's best square with 11...Bd6 right away, because of course  12.Nxc6 Rxc6 13.e5 Ross' idea is to both keep his bishop pair and develop the dark squared bishop to its best square, but it takes a bit of time. It's absolutely consistent with his style - I've noticed before he willingly gets behind in development to pursue positional goals  ) 12.Qf3 Ba8 13.f5 Bd6

Exactly as expected, and now I have to make the big decision. I'm nowhere near strong enough to calculate something like this, I just had to trust my instinct and tell myself that tonight's theme is "play chess for fun"  14.Nxf7! Stockfish approves as it happens  14...Kxf7 15.fxe6+ Kg8 I told myself White has two pawns and an attack - just like the nice Caro game before! ( If 15...Kxe6 I had calculated the bail out line  16.Qf5+? Kf7 17.e5 wimpishly getting my piece back. White has better options and this would lead to equality  ) 16.Nh5? A logical move but a flaw in an otherwise nice attacking game (16.Bh6! is winning, but the calculation required is really beyond this skill level ) 16...Qf8

(16...h6! is now a saving only-move for Black, it cuts out the Bh6 idea and prepares a bolt hole ) 17.Bh6! This is the key idea, it's much easier to see in this position than a move earlier. White is going to capture on g7, and the only ways to stop it fail for very specific reasons.  17...Nxh5 ( or 17...gxh6 18.Nxf6+ Kg7 19.Qg4# ) 18.Qxh5 Qe8 (18...gxh6 19.Rxf8+ Kxf8 and I must admit I was going to play  20.Rf1+ (20.Qf7#! ) 20...Ke7 21.Qf7+ Kd8 22.Qd7# ) 19.Rf7 Bf8 20.Qg4 Protecting e6 and, other things being equal, insisting on capturing on g7 next ( After the game Ross pointed out that 20.Qe5! is even stronger as then  20...g6 allows the pretty immediate knockout  21.Rg7+ Bxg7 22.Qxg7# ) 20...g6 21.Rxf8+ Ross resigned here which I must admit I found extremely disappointing as I'd worked out a nice win. I need something as Queen and Rook vs Two Rooks and a Bishop is only a small material advantage (I suppose I still have the two pawns and an ongoing attack but still) (21.Rxf8+ Qxf8 and now instead of the prosaic queen capture I was going to play  22.e7! targetting the potentially loose rook on c8. 22.e7! would have probably been the nicest move in the game  22...Qxh6 (22...Qe8 doesn't work  23.Qe6+ forces mate ) 23.Qxc8+ Kg7 24.Qxh8+ Kxh8 25.e8=Q+ Kg7 and the computer finds a way to force mate but I would have just played  26.Qxa8 and now that Black's a rook behind resignation is a more reasonable option! ) 1-0