Chess Openings from RMC Tournament

Lets review the openings from my most recent tournament appearance and try to learn how to improve them.

Chess Tournament: Rocky Mountain Championship
Format: Swiss System
Time format: 40m d5
Section: U1600
Points/Total: 1.5/4
Current rating: 1160
Exp. Rating: 1199

Game 1

my pieces: black result: loss opponent rating: 1419

My opponent started with the English opening which transposed to the Slav Exchange variation. Believe it or not, I made small improvements on my response to this opening from Game 4 of the MLK tournament. Still, I managed to make mistakes by move 6 and when my opponent didn’t capitalize on it, I made another mistake on move 8 that forced me to trade Queens and be down a minor piece - which is bad. I managed to get my piece back but I wasn’t able to convert the position to a winning or equalizing one.

Here’s the mistake:

The problem was that after white played 6.Qb3 I forgot my white Bishop was defending b7 so I played 6. .. Qd7 to protect the pawn on b7. It’s a horrible square for my Queen, vulnerable to attacks from white’s Knight (eventually when it gets developed), blocking my Bishop, and not having good squares to move to other than maybe back to d8. The correct move is 6. .. Nc6, developing my Knight and attacking white’s central pawn on d4. Then I have time to open my position a bit and develop my Bishop and castle - e6,Be2,O-O.

Game 2

my pieces: white result: loss opponent rating: Unrated

This one was a tough one to allow because my opponent played the Caro-Kann defense (2. .. c6) which I should be prepared for because it’s what I play most times.

Caro-Kann Defense: Advance, Botvinnik-Carls Defense:

I’m used to playing Bf5 with Black, so getting the c pawn pushed I wasn’t prepared for. I had to spend a lot of time calculating the opening. I ended up losing on time.

The improvement for this opening is to develop my Knight to 4. Nf3 and then take the c pawn off the board - 4. dxc5. This will give me a small advantage and allow for a slightly quicker development and castling - Be3, Bb5, O-O.

Game 3

my pieces: black result: draw opponent rating: 1317

I think I played my opening well. Against my Caro-Kann, my opponent went for the Tal variation. There are some traps with this opening that you could fall into if you’re not familiar with it, but I am slightly familiar with it. I responded with 4. .. h5 although 4. .. h6 is good but I think it allows white to expand on the King side and I took my chances with the alternative.

Caro-Kann Defense: Advance, Tal Variation:

The interesting thing about this game is that I was winning. I felt my opponents chances of attack were slim and I had a lot of space for my pieces. I didn’t hang anything.

However, in the spirit of improving openings. I do have a better move later on. Instead of 7. .. Bg4 I should have stuck to Caro-Kann principles and struck in the center with c5. I think it offers black the best chance at an advantage by attacking the d4 pawn and allowing me to develop my Knight and Bishop towards the center.

Game 4

my pieces: white result: win opponent rating: 1394

My last game of the day and my only win. I was exhausted and so was my opponent. We started with a Sicilian and although I’ve been trying to learn this opening better with white my mind went blank so I went for the good old Alapin again - if you read my MLK Tournament post about Game 1.

So 2. c3. When white plays d5 I can take and still have some support for when I decide to play d4.

Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation, 2. .. d5:

The improvement for this game comes at around move 5 when black attacks/pins my Knight, the plan should be to attack the Bishop with h3 in the position below rather than attacking the Queen right away with c4. It tries to remove the attacker on the King side and lets me develop the rest of my pieces - O-O, Be3, and Nc3 can be done after trading the center pawn which black usually goes for in this position.

Summary

Once again, another excellent experience. I got to try my openings and now I get to learn and improve.

My draw was a bit bittersweet because I was winning the game. I will have a small post on that later this week.

Even though I lost two games, I expect my rating to increase based on my draw/win being against higher rated opponents.