Through I hadn’t played chess in over a year, I decided to enter this year’s office G15 tournament. Not surprisingly, I finished last (in the A bracket) with only a single draw in my column after 10 games. A couple games I lost quickly, but for most of them, I kept it close until I lost my patience and tried to make things happen.
The exception was this game (interactive player) in which I was a piece up as White, but ran out of time. In the first shown position I’ve already given Black the advantage with some minor mistakes, but he let me back in with Qd6. That allowed me to force his bishop back with f4 and then to fork the bishop and queen with e5 (second position). I got a bishop for two central pawns, and the computer rates the game as even. Black should have pushed his pawn to d3 with a discovered attack on my rook.
Black made good use of his passed center pawns, but ran out of steam when I seemed to have them immobilized (third diagram). Qd4 might have been a good move to try to kick my blockading queen and get his pawns moving again. Instead he tried some flank attacks with his rooks. Meanwhile I pushed my b pawn to remove his c pawn that was anchoring the central pawns and then I was able to put my extra piece to use and capture his menacing pawns.
After that, it was obvious I was going to run out of time, so Black played safe moves while I pointlessly made small gains, though I didn’t record the moves after the final shown position.