If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off.
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[Event "Waco, Texas"]
[Site "Lakeshore Baptist Church"]
[Date "2000.09.16"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Chairez, Carmen"]
[Black "Tia, Rudy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Carmen A. Chairez"]
[BlackElo "unknown"]
[ECO "B07"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "unknown"]
{ This was my third trip to Waco.|At this tournament, I was very fortunate
to come in first place.|The real excitement was to beat an expert for the
first time!|It is an honor for me to share this game with you. This is my
own annotation of the game and I do not provide detail analysis but general
concepts or my actual thoughts as I was playing. } 1. e4 { B07: Pirc Defence:
Miscellaneous Systems } 1... d6 2. d4 Nf6 { When Rudy moved his pawn to d6 and his
night to f6, his bishop on f8 is blocked and the Bishop cannot pin my knight.
Thus, these two moves allowed me to safely move my knight. } 3. Nc3 c6 4. Bd3 e5 { When e5 was made, I felt that Rudy was making too many pawn moves. Also,
with this move, I felt he wanted me to react. } 5. Nge2 { So, I continued to
develop my pieces by defending the d4 pawn. } 5... Bg4 6. f3 Bh5 7. Be3 Nbd7 8. Qd2 Qa5 { When this move was made, I thought that he wanted to trade off pawns by
exd4 and allow his Queen to move across the Kingside. Since I did not see any
real threats, I continued to develop. } 9. O-O { Now, I am fully developed (the
pieces are off the back rank and the rooks are connected.) } 9... Qb4 { When Rudy
made this move, I look for ways to trap his queen. So, I encouraged him to
take the b-pawn by making my next move! } 10. a3 Qa5 { He did not take the pawn
because his queen would have been trapped. Experienced players such as Rudy
are expected to see these moves. I was not discouraged. I continued to look
for other ways to improve my position at the same time attacking his queen. } 11. b4 { With this move, I chased the Queen from the Queenside to soften any
counterattacks because he has lost much time (tempos) by moving his Queen.
Also, this move discourages castling on the Queenside. He is not fully
developed. He needs to move his Bishop and then Castle. Thus, he is two moves
behind. } 11... Qc7 { When he made this move, I felt that I could pin his d6 pawn by
placing my Bishop on f4. } 12. Ng3 { Before I moved this knight, I wanted to
move the pawn to f4 to open the f-file for the rook but I did not want the
bishop on g4 to take my knight. I need many pieces to attack. So, I
encouraged the bishop to move. } 12... Bg6 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4 { The bishop is now
pinning the d6 pawn and it is on the diagonal for a potential attack on the
black queen. } 14... Be7 { Rudy continues to develop. Now, he needs to castle to
complete his development. The bishop move has me thinking that he wants to
castle on the kingside. When I moved my pawns (a3 and b4), I am basically
discouraging him to castle on the queenside. Thus, there was a high
probability that he was going to castle on the kingside. That is the reason
why pieces are aimed mostly on the kingside. Once he castles, then the attack
will go to the direction of the king. } 15. Rae1 { Now, the other rook seeks an
open file! The rook wants to get into the action! } 15... O-O { Finally, Rudy is
fully developed. } 16. Qf2 { This move is a precaution of preventing a check
from the b6 square by the black queen. Also, I had to be very careful not to
have my queen pinned by the bishop on the c5 square. My b4 pawn is preventing
that potential danger. My experienced chess buddies have a tendency to get
out of difficult situations by checking me and then moving out of trouble.
So, I did not want Rudy to get out of any situations with a check. I could
have moved my king but I wanted to have the queen with the rook on the
half-open file for added power. The king needs to be close to the center in
case it is needed later in the end game. } 16... Rfe8 { When Rudy moved his Rook from
the f-file, he allowed his f7 square to be weakened with less protection. To
me, this move was a major mistake. The g6 Bishop is protecting that square.
Also, the next problem is to find a way to move the f6 Knight. } 17. e5 { Let
the action begin! This move solves the two the problems. One to have the
knight move and secondly, to get rid of the bishop on g6. } 17... dxe5 18. dxe5 Nd5 { The Knight moved! Now, I shall proceed with the next problem. } 19. Nxd5 { The
knight on c3 was not doing anything and the Nd5 was attacking my f4 bishop.
So, I exchanged it. } 19... cxd5 20. Bxg6 { Now, the g6 Bishop is gone! } 20... fxg6 { Before
I proceeded with my plan, I evaluated the position again to find a better
move. I noticed that I could control the f7 square again with a pawn and
attack the queen at the same time. Believe me, I did not see the combination
this far but the potential of attacking his queen did cross my mind when Rudy
posted his queen on the c7 square (see my comment on the 11th move). } 21. e6 Bd6 { When he moved his bishop to d6, I had not seen this move. I examined it
and discovered that I could win a piece after exchanging the bishops. } 22. Bxd6 Qxd6 23. Qf7+ { The killer move! The game is now in its final stages. } 23... Kh8 24. exd7 { When I made this move, I thought about it very carefully. The
idea of winning comes across your mind, but many games are lost because you
have overlooked a move that allowed your opponent to checkmate you. I had an
option to capture with my Queen but I decided to increase the pressure on the
e8 square (pawn, Queen, and Rook). } 24... Rxe1 25. Rxe1 Rf8 { When he made this
move, I wanted to force his moves. My f2 square is open for a potential Qb6
check but he had to worry about his e8 square. His King being at h8 made it
possible for me to find a quick checkmate. Do not play with your opponent. Go
for the quick checkmate. Then, I discovered it was an outright blunder. So, I
continued to defeat him with the next move. } 26. Qxf8+ Qxf8 27. Re8 Kg8 28. d8=Q Kf7 { Actually, Rudy was forced to play the last few moves. If he takes
the rook on e8, I could have checkmated him when I took his queen. } 29. Rxf8+ 1-0