Game Analysis #4: Buckling Under Pressure

Final position, 1/2-1/2

I'm going to show you how easy it is to get overwhelmed by your nerves and let a win slip from your fingers. In one of my earlier online games, I played an Alekhine Defense but it didn't went the usual or the mainline variation so I kind of had to improvise since I didn't know other variations of the Alekhine back then and probably even now, although it does help knowing the basic principles of chess but let's face it, nowadays, with all the help from computers, being unprepared in a certain opening could mean the end for you. In any case, I was slightly worse after the opening but my opponent didn't keep up the initiative and I was somewhat able to wiggle my way out of it.



My opponent was able to gain some space from the opening and a lot of my pieces were misplaced so he could have taken advantage of that and kept pushing but he wasn't as aggressive and I was able to escape being cramped. The next few moves were simply trying to get myself out of the bind that I was in although my opponent didn't exploit the weaknesses of my position, he even blundered and I was able to win a piece.



When I finally completed my development, I started to feel comfortable about my position although I still had to watch out for his outside passed pawn. That being his biggest advantage in the position as well as the space, he transferred several of his pieces to the queenside perhaps in order to push his passed pawn. However, I wasn't going to allow him to prance about and have his way so I had to try and make things difficult.



In the process, I wasted a few moves, having no idea what plan I should execute so I attempted to just simplify the position. I was able to do so however, things weren't as simple afterwards.



Even though I already had a good advantage coming into the endgame, I lost my footing and I blundered my piece back so we were almost equal although we both made mistakes in the latter part of the game. I was panicking and I just wanted to make things easier so I aimed to exchange most of the pieces left on the board so that it would just be the pawns. I was able to bring it down to a bishop and three pawns versus a knight.



However, even with such an advantage, the game still ended in a draw.


Lesson learned, never try to complicate things and never buckle under pressure. Just keep calm and analyze the position with a clear mind. This also applies for over the board games maybe even more so than online games because the pressure that you feel when you're in a tournament is greater than when you're just sitting at home and playing on your computer. It would help if you could find something that would help you focus and keep your composure.