Getting Active

IN round eight at Mariánské Lázně I played too passively, miscalculated a combination and lost without putting up much of a fight.

Here I want to see how Black could have improved in the opening, but the whole game can be seen at ML 8.

It began as a Modern Defence with colours reversed, became a reversed Pribyl and ended as a reversed Pirc, in each case with White having an extra tempo.

After 1.g3 e5 2.Bg2 d5 3.d3 Nf6 the most-popular move is 4.Nf3, but my opponent played the Pribyl-like 4.c3.

My main analysis engines Stockfish14.1. and Komodo12.1.1 like 4...Bd6!?, but I chose the marginally more popular 4...Be7.

The game continued 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Qc2 a5 7.0-0 0-0, reaching the same position as in my round-seven game but with colours reversed.

Position after 7...0-0 in round eight

Position after 7...Qc7 in round seven

My round-eight game continued 8.e4 Re8 9.h3 h6 10.Re1, at which point I played 10...Bf8, a standard idea in such positions.

However, although 10...Bf8 is Stockfish14.1's second choice, the engines prefer 10...d4!?, meeting 11.cxd4 with 11...exd4.

After the game's 10...Bf8 my opponent played 11.Nbd2, when 11...Be6 is OK but the engines again prefer ...d4!?

The game carried on 12.b3 Qd7 13.Kh2 Rad8 14.Bb2.

How should Black continue?

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I played 14...g6?, when White eventually gained an initiative based on the weakness of e5 after 15.exd5 Bxd5 16.Ne4 Bg7 17.Rad1 b6 18.c4!? Nb4? 19.Qb1 (the engines' 19.Qe2 seems even stronger).

Black would have been equal, but no more, after 18...Bxe4 19.dxe4 Qe7.

Going back to the last diagram, 14...d4 15.cxd4 exd4 is also equal, according to the engines, but they reckon 14...dxe4 15.dxe4 Bc5 is at least slightly better for Black.

A likely continuation is 16.Rad1 Qd3 17.Qxd3 Rxd3 18.Bf1 Rd7, when Black is more active.

CONCLUSION: if a player fails to grab the initiative when it is available there is a very real danger the initiative will pass to the opponent.