Preparation Works - 2
2026-03-16T11:35:50+00:00
The league had reached the last round in the 1st week of March 2026. And our team had a chance to finish on the podium. It added to the excitement and also a bit of pressure.
Once again I went on a journey to discover my opponent's choices in the opening. He seem to mostly prefer playing the Scandi d5 with modern Nf6 variation. And, I looked at many variations and was suprised that white does not get much. I looked at Bb5+ and was most excited by this variation. One of my team-mates was kind of enough to share his notes too.
The other option I explored was to play 1. b4, which had already given me 2 wins. Then, I thought why not play c4! He has faced c4 only once and against d4 he goes for g6/Nf6 setup. I looked at Botvinik setup in c4 and it could be played against g6/Nf6/d6 setups. And I eventually got this position in the game and played the thematic f4! But, he immediately punished me and I realized h3 should have been played before going for f4. But, my reaction Rfe1 was bad. But, he misplayed his advantage and I saw this variation Bg5 and Nf4. And, slowly I was able to come back in the game. There is a dip in the end where we both blundered with 38. Qe6 Nb6 The evaluation went from -7.6 (Qe6) to +6.9(Nb6). Phew!! The luck favored me. And, eventually I was able to mate him.
Here is the chart which captures the game flow -
Preparation works! The Game