Reflections: 04/01/2011

I can't say this was my best game on Chess.com. However it was definitely one of the most pleasing wins I have had since I started playing on Chess.com three months ago. It was Sicilian Najdorf (which reminds me of Pradeep Paranjape), and I was playing white against C Arindam from India. Here's how it went:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Be2 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. f4 b5 11. Rae1 Qc7 12. Kh1 Bb7 13. Bf3 Rfe8

At this point I thought for about 6 minutes in this 10 minute blitz. Just like my old days - during my tournament years, I would frequently spend an hour thinking 2 or 3 moves at the start of middle game! After long thought, I played

14. e5

When I get computer analysis of the game tomorrow, I will know whether this was a correct move. Although not sure of the merit of the move, I took the risk with it. And the game continued -

14. ... dxe5 15. fxe5 Bxf3 16. Nxf3 Nd5 17. Nxd5 exd5 18. Qxd5 Bxg5 19. Nxg5 Nxe5

I had not analyzed the position till here, when I played 14. e5. However, we had reached this position, and it allowed me to play an exchange sac with

20. Rxe5