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[fen ""]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. h4 Qa5 13. h5 Nxh5 14. g4 Nf6 15. Bh6 Bxh6 16. Qxh6 Rxc3 17. bxc3 Qxc3 18. Nf5 Bxf5 19. gxf5 Nc4 20. Bxc4 Qxc4 21. fxg6 fxg6 22. Rdg1 Kf7 23. Rh4 Rc8 24. Rh2 Qc3 25. Rgh1 Rc4 26. Qf4 h5 27. Rg2 Qa1+ 28. Kd2 Qxh1

  1. I had seen the 16. ... Rxc3 sacrifice before but I thought that somehow I could manage.

  2. The idea of 18. Nf5 was to threaten mate and create weaknesses. If 18... gxf5, then the idea is to bring the rook to g1 and slowly create problems for Black.

    1. Rg2 is my mistake where I lost the rook on h1.

  4. Other than these mistakes. what went wrong theoretically? I like the Yugoslav attack against the Dragon.

Ola Ström
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Club Player
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1 Answers1

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For starters, 13.Kb1 is considered the main line and scores at 73% to only 51% for 13.h5.

In general, I do not think it is very good to ever allow the Rc3 exchange sac there. In the main line, 13.Kb1 Nc3 14.Bc4 Rc4 15.g4 Rfc8, Karpov already would play 16.Nde2 there (or a very similar position), and he won some great games.

19.gf was already a big mistake since now you never have g5 moving the N off f6. It is clear that after 18...Bf5, you were not going to win down the g-file, so you have to look at the position anew.

Lastly, I think there is a very great possibility you were playing a computer. Every move was the Stockfish's first choice, even the positionally odd 26...h5. While I can see its point now, I doubt any human would play that.

PhishMaster
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    Great answer but what is so odd about 26. ...h5? White is threatening to win a pawn and it is the most sensible move for Black to play to defend it. – Maths64 Nov 04 '19 at 19:00
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    @Maths64 Moving pawns around your king when it could be attacked should always be played with extreme care. To be honest, I did not notice the threat since I was looking at it quickly, which is part of it, but my initial reaction would still be Ke8. Now, white cannot take on h7 due to mate on c2, and you are totally safe without even calculating. – PhishMaster Nov 04 '19 at 19:07
  • I disagree with the suggestion of "Black was a computer". He didn't make any unnatural moves. He was just a skilled player who knew what he was doing – David Nov 05 '19 at 07:48
  • @David I have to disagree, and here is why: Even THE most skilled player we have, Magnus Carlsen, only matches up to the computer about 70-80% at best (and Tactical Analysis includes more than just the top move in determining this percentage), so the odds of a random player playing more than 12 moves out of book matching Stockfish are incredibly remote, even if every move is natural. There were more other natural moves that he did not play than he did. – PhishMaster Nov 05 '19 at 11:35
  • You are using general statistics to infer conclusions in a very particular situation. The moves Black has to make are not "random moves". They are thematic moves in a typical position resulting from a well-known opening – David Nov 05 '19 at 14:41
  • Yes. I was playing from white against an Engine. I wanted to get tough challenge. So I played Man vs Machine. Still any one could elaborate the answer more so that we can learn many theoretical lines. – Club Player Nov 05 '19 at 15:18
  • @David, it is an accepted practice, and when you string together enough random, even thematic, moves, there is something there. Numbers are random, yet try stringing 6 together to win the lottery. At a certain point, even with thematic moves, because there are still many choices, it is no longer just luck. I suspect that short of you seeing someone cheat with your own eyes, you are the type to never believe it. Lastly, I said " there is a very great possibility", oh, and I was right. – PhishMaster Nov 05 '19 at 16:26
  • @ClubPlayer Your question was about what you did wrong, not about getting a bunch of theory, which is definitely not practical for this forum. What you are asking for is probably its own chapter in a Dragon book. It is way too much to cover here. – PhishMaster Nov 05 '19 at 16:28