Lichess4545 Game Analysis 5

This is game three from the 4545 League. My team is doing well despite my best efforts. Yep, another loss. Yeesh. My team had won the match at this point so the pressure was off. I still tried to win but ended up resigning in under 25 moves. I dropped a pawn (yet again, I saw it 10 seconds after I played it...) and then missed a tactic and mis-played another thing. Rough. Just not seeing stuff really well and I'm not being completely careful.

https://lichess.org/Odq3HLPv

I was the black pieces and my engine-less comments follow.

My Comments

(1) I decided to play the sicilian. I almost never play it so I decided to go for it in case my opponent had any prep for me.

(2) d4? what the hell...oh yeah the smith-morra gambit. Didn't expect this in game. So I take the center pawn with my c-pawn.

(3) White plays natural move, I try to defend the pawn although it has 2 attackers on it. Nc6 seems like best move though.

(4) We trade, which I obviously saw, and white has his queen in the middle of the board which I thought wasn't great since I could set up so I could develop with tempo on it

(5) Qxd4 and white's best piece is in the middle. 5. ...Nf6 6. e5 so I play slow with d6 to set up e5

(6) Nc3 makes sense. Black plays e5 but what about Nf6. It develops and helps guard d5 which is made very weak after my game-move of 6. ...e5. My pawn move allows more development from white with a check.

(8) Qd5 threatening b7. I remember seeing some bad lines for black like 8. ...b6? 9. Bxd7 Kxd7 (Qxd7 10. Qxa8+) 10. Qxf7+. If 8. ...Nf6 9. Qxb7  As for ...a6, well, maybe a6 is the move here.

(9) I don't remember if I spot the very simple 10. Bxa7 threat yet but I get tempo on the queen for a move...finally. I thought Qxd4 was bad for white on move 5 but I couldn't get tempo on it until move 9.

(10) I play Be7 and immediately see the dropped pawn. Not seeing stuff well. At least it's only an a-pawn so it could be worse but I don't play well the rest of the game. I don't think my mind was in it.

(11) Annoying that Bxa7 comes with tempo too. Makes 8. ...a6 seem like the better move even moreso, since my rook would have still been on a8. I try to get my rook slightly more active at least and maybe I have a b6 bishop trap later...

(13) Rd8 and I play Qa5 figuring he'd just move his bishop back to e3 but I miss the intermezzo

(15) ...Bd8 saves? It's passive but it's something.

(16) ...Bd8 again woulda been "okay", but instead, I don't really calculate the simplest intermezzo tactic ever. I was just thinking very straightforward to trade on e3: 16. ...Bxe3 17. Bxe3, then I can defend Ne7+ with Re8 or something. But I miss it.

(17) Duh. White simply inserts Ne7+. Oh well.

(18) Missed a small tactic which I saw right after yet again. I could at least do the desperado tactic and give up my bishop for a pawn with 18. ...Bxf2+ 19. Kxf2 Qc5+ and play for f5 trying to break it open and see what happens for a few more moves.

(19) I'm down the exchange and a pawn. I play on slightly longer but it's resignable.

Conclusions
I think I was losing sight of "what my opponent might play" in this game, I would look one move ahead but not really analyze the position after that. I have to take the extra 5 seconds to envision the board right after my moves, my candidate moves, what I should do to save a pawn, what's being attacked, etc. It only requires a few extra seconds of double-checking the board and taking stock of things. Even if things seem dangerous for my opponent (like them having their queen in the middle) I can't stop calculating and analyzing and assuming things are where I think they are. White was able to stay safe and develop with threats throughout the game.


ANALYSIS WITH ENGINE HELP

(4) I guess this is a bit of a "trap" without actually winning a piece or pawn but my natural Nxd4 gives white a big advantage of +0.1 to +0.7. So that's a must-know in the smith-morra. Play 4. ...Nf6 and allow white to trade knights on c6 if they want since black will take back bxc6 with lotsa center pawns.

(6) My analysis was correct that Nf6 is best here.

(8) Engine likes Rb8. 8. ...a6 is bad because 9. Bc4 Be6 10. Qxb7 Bxc4? 11. Qc6+

(10) ...a6 now is fine. (only a +1.5 adv)

(13) I saw the b6 idea earlier (see analysis) but didn't play it. I think because I saw 13. ...b6 14. Bxd7 Qxd7 15. Bxb6. Buuut 14. ...Nxd7 works. I don't think I saw the backwards knight move that'd allow my queen to continue guarding b6. 13. ...b6 14. Bxd7 Nxd7 15. Nd5 Ra8 and eval still only says ~+1.1

As expected, this game was all white. I never had an initiative then dropped the pawn and white had an easy straightforward game as I couldn't find any good complications. Not a good effort.