Four Knights Scotch | Chess Cat FIGHT! 😹
#fourknights #scotch #continuity
This was a very fun game against a new friend on chess.com. As they also use a cat avatar, I know that they are a man of good taste and style!
They had White and they initially led with the Vienna (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3). Against this, I usually play the Falkbeer (2... Nf6), baiting White to play the Vienna Gambit, and then hoping to enter the Main Line. Black has an advantage in the Main Line and at the beginner-intermediate level, I suspect that I have more experience than many in the Main Line - for instance, this game against another subscriber, "You Dare Use My Own Spells Against Me!".
However, White avoids this by developing their other knight and we enter the Four Knights (3. Nf3 Nc6) and then White opts to play the Scotch Variation (4. d4) and I accept (4... exd4)!
After trading in the centre ala, the Scotch, I develop my bishop (5... Bc5) with the longer-term view of placing pressure on White's f-pawn and the f2 square. White opts to trade another set of knights (6. Nxc6 bxc6) and we are finally out of book moves.
White plays an aggressive approach with (7. Bg5), but I knew that this was fine so I short castle. This gives me just enough time for the impending (8. e5), with White "placing pressure on the pinned piece", my knight in this case, which is ostensibly pinned to my queen. However, this is an illusion as with the semi-opened e-file from the exchange earlier in the Scotch, either my rook or queen on the e-file counter-pins the e-pawn to White's king.
White now makes their first mistake of the game with (9. Be2), breaking the pin, but hanging their e-pawn in the process - captures (9... Qxe5)! Interestingly, this capture psychologically broke White's resolve to attack, and they withdrew their bishop (10. Bd2) which was a mistake, though I miss the immediate powerful attack I had available with Ng4, placing winning pressure on f2. I play more slowly, White castles kingside, and we trade a couple more pieces.
On move 12, I decided to launch an aggressive and unbalanced attack of my own, again, Ng4! With White having castled, there is now an immediate checkmate threat on h2. White can defend against this without much difficulty, but my plan was to keep up the pressure. White blocks the mating attack with (13. Ng3), and the concept to keep in mind is that the knight is "pinned" to the h2 square.
Pinned? Place pressure on the pinned piece! I played (13... h5) with a plan for h4 to remove the knight. White attempts to attack my queen with bishop and then on move 15, White makes a blunder! One of the challenges of playing daily games is to maintain continuity between moves! It's easy to forget plans and tactics between moves. I suspect that this is what happened for my opponent with (15. Nxh5). They decided to launch an attack with that knight, but lost sight of the continuity that that knight was pinned to the h2 square. So, (15... Qxh2#)! GG!
The big takeaway from this game is two-fold. Maintaining threats against the opponent's king can be an effective tactic, even when the moves are not necessarily the most accurate. And secondly, spend extra care with the continuity between moves in daily games!
