Sometimes you just get lucky

Lately, I've been trying to work on some of the more strategic, positional aspects of the game. While the typical guidance for my level is to focus primarily on tactics and endgames, I'm choosing to focus on the middlegame primarily. Now why is this? The main reason is because I've identified this as a clear weakness after taking a holistic view of my OTB games to date. I found it very common for me to go for an incorrect plan in quiet positions, consistently leading to worse or (according to an engine) lost position from a strategic lens. So I've been working through Chess Strategy for Club Players. The most recent chapter that I completed was a chapter on weak pawns, and during the game I'm going to show today, I thought I was applying that principle. I was wrong.

C.C. vs. Mike (July 2026)

It's the start of a fresh tournament for me (I ended up not being able to play the last round of my last tournament)! This one is exciting because it's the first tournament where I'm being paired at my higher rating, which means I'll mostly likely have to play down in my round, giving me decent odds to start off strong. As a reminder, these recaps generally are typically for my weekly tournament, which is an U1800 section, playing one game of 90+30 each week for 6 weeks. There is no option for me to play in the Open section of this tournament until I gain some more ratings, and even then, I may not immediately try to do so as I'd prefer to build up my ability to be consistent in winning games against lower rated opponents.

Let's get into the game!

1. c4 g6 2. g3 Bg7 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 O-O 5. O-O d6 6. Nc3 e5 7. d3 c6 8. Bg5

A fairly normal opening so far. I've mentioned in the past that I need to work on seriously looking at openings from the Black side, so I don't really know any theory here. I'm just trying to play some sensible moves.

8...Re8!?
A bit of a premature move. It's not clear at this point where I want my rook to be, so it would make more sense to develop elsewhere.

9. Qc1
A bit of a strange move to me at the time. I think 9. Qd2 was probably more accurate to connect the rooks.

9...Nbd7
Also inaccurate, blocking in the bishop. There's no rush to deal with the pinned knight, so there's time for 9... Be6 here.

10. Rb1 Nc5 11. b4 Ne6 12. Bd2 Bd7 13. a4 Qc7 14. b5 Rac8

Around here, I was wondering if White was getting themselves a bit overextended. It didn't feel to me that they had enough strength on the queenside to create real problems for me. That being said, I have no immediate ways of making threats against the a4 pawn.

15. Qa3 Nc5 16. a5 e4!
I likely thought way too long on this move (not exactly sure how long, I forgot to write the times down on my scoresheet), but there's a lot to consider. The pawn structure may transform. The bishop has access to f4 where it can pressure my d6 pawn. White can capture, not capture, etc. Ultimately, I deemed that the resulting positions from the lines that I had calculated to be good for me.

17. Ne1 exd3 18. Nxd3 Nxd3 19. exd3

At this point, I was really happy with how the game was going. I had achieved a goal of creating a weakness in my opponents camp. However, not all weaknesses are created equal, and what I failed to consider in the moment was that a weakness is only a weakness if it can be easily exploited. Furthermore, I significantly underestimated the potential of White's ideas on the queenside which can create much larger issues for me.

19... Bf5
Trying to move forward with my plan of attacking the weakness.

20. Nd1
This move further made me think my position was quite good as this felt like a step backward for White.

20... Ng4 21. Ne3 Nxe3 22. Bxe3
And here is where I realized I might have some problems. I don't really have a good way of getting at that pawn and White is going to play a6 soon.

23...Re7
I see that the white rook is coming to b7 in the future, so I'm hoping to cover the 7th rank.

23. bxc6 bxc6 24. a6
There's a6!

24... c5
Hoping to blunt the bishop from supporting the attack on a7. Not an accurate move, but it makes my opponent's conversion a bit less simple.

25. Rb7 Qd8

From a strategic standpoint, this is completely busted. But it's even material, so I need to make it as difficult as I can for my opponent to prove it. So while White was trying to figure out how to win, I was trying to figure out how I could create some counterplay. I assumed at this point that my best shot would be to try to get something going down the e-file. Potentially sacrificing an exchange on e3 and playing on the dark squares around my opponents king.

26. Rfb1 Qe8
Setting my potential plan.

27. Rxe7 Qxe7 28. Rb7 Rc7?
This move basically loses on the spot. See if you can find the winning move for white!

29. Qb3?
They didn't find it.

29...Bf6
A multipurposed move. Making a square for my king while also having Bd8 as an option in the future.

30. h3
I assume White was seeing some ghosts down the e-file. I assume they wanted to play something like Bh6, but Qe1+ could pose some problems as a response.

30... Kg7 31. Rxc7 Qxc7 32. Qb7 Bd8
This is what I had been planning with Bf6. I didn't see this exact line since I didn't consider h3 for White, but the idea was there.

33. Qb3?

And Black is suddenly out of danger. At this point, psychologically, I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief. I considered myself fairly lucky to have almost equalized after being under the immense pressure.

Furthermore, and I'm not proud of this, admittedly there's a bit of an "ignorance is bliss" phenomenon happening. Throughout the game, I didn't find any clear wins for my opponent, so I was actually assuming that my position wasn't as bad as it really was. I figured it was losing, but I was thinking the engine might say +2 for white rather than +4. Because of that, I think it was much easier for me to transition into "how am I going to win this game?" mode than it otherwise would have been.

33... Qb6 34. Qxb6?
Completely equalizing the game. Black is slightly better.

34... Bxb6 35. Bf1 Kf6 36. Kg2? Bc8!

White got a little careless here, and now I'm winning a pawn.

37. Kf3 Bxa6 38. h4 h5 39. Bg5+ Ke6 40. Ke3 Bb7 41. Bh3+ f5 42. Bf1 d5
Upon analyzing, this move doesn't equalize the the game, but it's not accurate. My idea was to try to create a more easily attackable weakness on c4 while also potentially giving my king an avenue to invade via e3. The top line of the engine (found in the analysis board) plays this position much more slowly.

43. Be2 dxc4 44. dxc4 Ba5 45. Bd3 Bc3 46. Bc2 Bc6 47. Bb3 a5 48. Kd3 Bd4 49. Ke2 a4 50. Ba2 Be4 51. Bc1 Bc2 52. Bd2 Bb2
Much of this is me advancing my pawn and using my bishops to remove squares from the White king.

53. Ba5 Ke5
When playing this move, I had essentially calculated the remainder of the game.

54. Kd2 Bb3 55. Bxb3 axb3 56. Bc3+ Bxc3+ 57. Kxc3 b2 58. Kxb2 Ke4 59. Kc3 Kf3 60. Kb3 Kxf2 61. Ka4 Kxg3 62. Kb5 f4 1-0

Takeaways!

As I've already mentioned, I feel like I got extremely lucky to come out of this one with a win, but sometimes a little luck is all your need. I definitely still have much to learn about positional play and am planning to continue working on that before my next game.