White opened up with:
1. e4 e6
e6 has been my standard defensive reply as black. I usually follow up with a queenside fianchetto. It's not necessarily the strongest response, but I've found it to be very flexible as it's conservative with the pawn structure, and opens lines for development. I like having the queenside fianchetto with that bishop bearing down on the kingside. However, white surprised me by pushing the pawn early with:
2. e5...
Now I haven't studied the Scandanavian Opening in much depth, but this did seem to offer a similar opportunity, but I thought I would sneak in an extra attack first.
2. ... Nc6
3. d4 d6
4. Nf3 dxe5
White declined my pawn by developing his knight to add an extra defender, so I scooped up the pawn. His defending pawn was pinned to his queen - meaning that if he used it I could exchange queens and force him to lose castling rights.
5. Nxe5 Qxd4
He took the pawn back and I scooped up another one - my queen defended by my knight.
6. Nxc6 Qe4+
7. Be3 Qxc6
I could have taken his queen, but saw that I could get a free knight with a double attack.
8. Nc3 Bb4
He brought out his knight which allowed me to pin it to the king with my bishop. I don't like parting with my bishops, but the exchange (bishop-knight) is equal value plus I get to wreck his pawn structure.
9. Qd3 Nf6
10. a3 BxC3+
11. bxc3 O-O
I wasn't sure what he was up to bringing his queen out, so I figured I should get ready to castle. They often say to "castle early, castle often", but I've found that there tends to be an optimal time that comes at a critical point in the game to make that decision. He tried to kick my bishop with his a-pawn, so I took the knight and doubled his pawns.
12. f3 Nd5
13. Bd4 e5
14. Bxe5 Re8
White started his advance on the kingside. I didn't have strong move in mind, so I figured I would move my knight to the centre laying down some pressure. He moved his bishop which gave me an interesting opportunity. I advanced my e-pawn attacking it - offering it up for him to take which allowed me to pin his bishop with my rook.
15. f4 Nxf4
16. Qd4 Nxg2+
17. Bxg2 Qxg2
He made a mistake by advancing his f-pawn to protect the bishop and left it hanging for my knight to take. My knight then leapt to the attack to devastate the kingside structure. I lost it to the bishop but my queen had his back. White was left with a wreaked pawn structure and exposed king.
18. Rg1 Rxe5+
19. Qxe5 Qxg1+
He was hoping to take my queen, but by taking his bishop I put him in check forcing him to take with his queen off the same diagonal as his rook allowing me to take it.
20. Kd2 Qf2+
21. Qe2 Qf4+
22. Ke1 Bh3
I was close to getting licked. I had to put him in check and keep the initiative as he had a possible bank rank mater brewing on me. After a little dancing and getting my queen safe I could bring out my bishop - freeing my rook and blocking a potential escape square or two for the king.
23. Rb1 Qh4+
24. Kd2 Qg5+
25. Ke1 Qg1+
26. Kd2 Rd8+
He made a useless move with his rook. It would have been better to bring it up to his king for protection. I danced around a little more and pushed him into a skewer of the rook through the king. I was just about to take it, but noticed that I could bring my rook out which would force an exchange of that rook for his queen first. At this point he resigned.
This was definitely a stressful game. He made a couple of mistakes, I was able to use them to my advantage. I think in part that I got lucky that I didn't miss anything too significant. I definitely feel much more comfortable playing the quieter games, but this certainly was exciting!
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