A Chess Game

I'm going to take a break from linguistics and post about chess this time. I enjoy playing chess games at chessworld.net. You can also access the site at letsplaychess.com. This is the shortest game I"ve every played on the site. I was white and my opponent was black. Here are the moves with my commentary.

1. d4 d5

At this stage we have a Double Queen Pawn Opening.

2. c4 Nf6

My second move is part of an opening known as the Queen's Gambit. I want black to take my pawn so that I can gain more control of the centre with e4. He doesn't take it, though, so this is known as the Queen's Gambit Declined.

3. Nc3 Bg4

Black's third move is unusual. Though my e-pawn is pinned (if I move it, I lose my queen), his bishop can be attacked easily. He brings out his bishop too early. A stronger move is e6, opening the diagonal for his dark-squared bishop and increasing his control of the centre. Also, by bringing out his bishop, the pawn on b7 is now undefended.

4. Qb3 e6

After moving my queen, the e-pawn is no longer pinned. My queen now attacks b7 and supports the c-pawn. Black is worried about his d-pawn which I'm attacking three times (queen, c- pawn and knight), so he decides to give it more support with his e-pawn. But b7 is undefended.

5. Qxb7 Nd7

I take the pawn. Black moves his knight so that his queen can defend his rook.

6. cxd5 exd5

I initiate the exchange with the intention of winning a pawn.

7. Nxd5 Qc8

Black wants to exchange queens. Since I'm on the offensive and my queen is clearly doing more than his, I don't want to exchange.

8. Nxc7+ Kd8

I put black in check. He loses his queen if she captures my knight, so he moves his king.

9. Qxa8 Nd5

Maybe black expects me to take his queen, but I make a better move. I take his rook. His queen can't move off the back rank because if she does, his king will be in check. I expect that his next move will be to capture my queen and then I'll capture his with my knight. But he moves his knight instead. This is a bad move because after I capture his queen with my queen and put him in check, he'll capture my queen and then I'll win his knight. A better move for him is to capture my queen.

10. Qxc8+ Kxc8

At this point black resigns. He knows that my next move will be Nxd5. At that stage I'll be up two pieces (two rooks vs. only one rook for him) and up three pawns, so he decides to concede.

Black makes a number of mistakes in this game but the worst one is probably 3... Bg4.