Fritz 5.32 loses a 5 minute blitz match to me!









Position after: 

(26) Olivera Jr,J - Fritz 5.32 [B00]
Level=Blitz:5'. Miami, 06.10.1999
[Jose Olivera Jr.]

10240kB, F5book.ctg. AST Advantage A bit of history is in order before you look at this game. I am not very good at 5 minute games. My rating at such games hovers somewhere between 1000-1200 so I mostly have fun with them and hope to just draw in them. But sometimes like in this game you are about to see, I get lucky :) 1.e4 Nc6 This move surprised me. I don't think I ever saw this before and in a five minute game, this could be trouble. After the game was over, I looked in Nunn's Chess Openings to see what the line was for this move and found in on page 123. 2.d4 d5 This line appears in Nunn's book. It seems that either e5 or Nc3 which I played are both playable. 3.Nc3 dxe4 Nunn's book suggests d5 here but since I don't know any better, I get greedy as usual. 4.Nxe4 Qxd4 5.Qxd4 Nxd4 Computers don't usually trade queens unless they feel that they are way ahead. When queens remain on the board, complications can arise so the computer being one pawn ahead trade queens to make things easier. Now I see an even bigger danger. c2 is not defended and it will create a knight fork! So I must defend c2 quick. 6.Bd3 Bf5 Just like a computer. Attack and attack. Computers need more variety in their games. :) 7.f3 0-0-0 8.Ne2 I want to get rid of that pesky knight. I did not expect that it would trade knights but it did. I figure that my king would still be somewhat safe and I create room to bring out the rook at h1. 8...Nxe2 9.Kxe2 e5 10.Be3 I bring out my bishop to where it can control some central square and it allows my rooks to link up with another. 10...Kb8 This was surprising. The king does not need to protect the pawn at a7 since if my bishop takes that pawn, it would be trapped by playing b6 and then I would have to trade bishop for pawn at some point although I would break down the black's king defense. 11.Rad1 Rooks belong best on open files and the d file is open because there are no pawns for either side along the d file. 11...Nf6 Not sure why the computer made this move. At this point, Fritz was under some time pressure and this might account for it's move. 12.Nxf6 Bxd3+ 13.Rxd3 Rxd3 This move is forced because if the computer takes time to capture the knight with the pawn, my rook would capture his rook and that is mate. 14.cxd3 I had the computer analyze this and I then realized that recapturing with the king was slightly better since I would have 2 pawns islands as opposed to 3. 14...gxf6 15.Rd1 Rg8 The computer goes after the unprotected pawn along the g file. I felt that the king should not defend it because it is already assisting with the defense of the d pawn. 16.g4 Bd6 Now I see a very subtle danger. The bishop attacks the pawn at h2 once it advances along the e file. Even though I would capture the e pawn if it advanced, I would lose the h pawn so I move it forward to take the target away and further strengthen the king side pawn advance. 17.h3 c6 18.b3 Once again, I keep my other pawn on a light colored square and thus safe for the moment from the dark colored bishop. The only problem might be that since my own bishop is also on a dark colored square, I might not be able to defend them later with my own bishop. 18...Bc7 I am not sure why the bishop retreated so I decide to advance my own bishop. 19.Bc5 Rd8 When I saw this, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. The rook and the pawn at f6 are on the same color as my bishop. Now I can regain the pawn that I have been down this whole match. 20.Be7 Rd4 21.Bxf6 Now material is even and so are the pawn islands. The only problem is that now my bishop is on a bad square since it has less influence over the center. 21...Kc8 22.Be7 Trying to get back some influence over the center. 22...Kd7 23.Bc5 Is it too much to ask for Fritz to miss this obvious threat? :) 23...Rd5 24.Bf2 Now I am on a slightly better square and defended by the king although it might not be a good idea for the king to have to defend 3 pieces at once. 24...a6 25.d4 I want to trade off pieces and go for win with my kingside pawns. 25...Bb6 Fritz realizes what I am up to and decides to be a spoil sport. 26.g5 I go for it. 26...Bxd4 27.Bxd4 exd4 oh oh..my pawn at g is not protected. 28.h4 c5 29.f4 This move strengths my pawns and keeps the rook from going to e5 where it would get control of the open e file. 29...b6 30.Kf3 I felt that I needed to defend the f pawn as well as centralize my king a bit. 30...d3 That d pawn is becoming a threat. Time to remove it. 31.Ke3 Ke6 32.Rxd3 Rxd3+ 33.Kxd3 Now it is a pawn ending. This is probably where I am weakest as you will soon see. 33...Kd5 34.h5 f5 35.g6 hxg6 I should have played h6 here since once i do, No power on earth can stop me from promoting to a queen but since I tend to think material wise, I take back with the h pawn and ruin what could have been a win on the board. 36.hxg6 [36.h6 b5 37.h7 c4+ 38.bxc4+ bxc4+ 39.Ke3 c3 40.h8Q c2 41.Qc3 Ke6 42.Qxc2 Ke7 43.Qa4 a5 44.Qxa5] 36...Ke6 37.g7 Kf7 38.g8Q+ Kxg8 39.Kc4 a5 40.Kd5 [40.Kb5 This move would have ended the match as the c pawn can not advance without being captured and now my king will gain both the b and a pawns allowing room for my a pawn to advance without impedence.] 40...Kf7 41.Ke5 Kg6 Here I win on time. But I could have won on the board if I had better endgame technique. Anyway, it was still fun to finally beat Fritz in a blitz game for once. 1-0

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