Blitz Chess #2: Sicilian Defense, McDonnell Attack - The Move d5

This is one of the more recent blitz games that I have played and I want to show it because I found certain parts of it very interesting especially since I haven't really done well in blitz chess for the past couple of years. I have only been playing bullet games most of the time so the mindset that is needed to play in a blitz game has become rusty for me and I didn't know how to get back into the groove of blitz. However, with some of my recent blitz games, including this one, I feel like I've gotten a better feel of it.

Since I've been used to bullet being a game of instinct or intuition which often translates into making your moves as quickly as possible even to the point that you're already pre-moving, having more time to think is something that has become somewhat foreign to me. But I found that it's actually a great thing to have especially if you want to take time to look at the position and consider your options before making your move. And in this game, I think it's evident, at least from my perspective, that taking time to think has benefited my chess. I'll paste the full annotation of the game here for your perusal:

As always, I played the Sicilian defense even though it's not necessarily the usual lines or move orders I am used to, but I would like to encounter something new once in a while and so for a change, I got something different. It's called the McDonnell attack apparently. White plays f4 avoiding the center and developing his pieces naturally. However, I think it gives Black time to develop and even take the initiative from White.

At move 7, I already made the move d5 which is usually something that White must contest and at all costs, prevent Black from doing without being prepared because it opens Black position to so many possibilities for launching an attack. This is what I meant when I said that White yields the initiative and, to a certain extent, the center to Black because from this point, Black is clearly better. Although, White could have tried with e5 pushing the knight away and giving themselves space to breathe but with their last move, Nbd2, White basically gives up the center and the initiative.

Personally, I was expecting something along the lines of e5 and play continues in its natural course as I have always encountered. I was thinking of several ways to respond but then when White made that Nbd2 move, I was thrilled and leapt on the chance to make my position better. Now, I also made some inaccurate moves but I felt at the time that my position was comfortable and I just needed to finish my development before going on the offensive.

Play continued. My opponent and I both made inaccurate moves but nothing to substantial that would tip the scales on the other side, until we reach moves 20 and 21 wherein the scales tipped greatly in my favor and Black was in a completely dominant position. Naturally, White would love to launch an attack against my weak king on the queenside especially with a lack of pawns for defense but White wasn't prepared. White's pieces were on the wrong side of the board for that. If the knights and rooks were barrelling down on my king's open position, then I had all the reason to be scared but that wasn't the case. White needed more time which I wasn't going to give them.

After a few more moves and exchanges, White overlooked an attack against his rook and resigned right after. The fact of the matter was my pieces were more active and better placed than White's. I was ahead on tempo as well as on the clock and that contributed to White's demise. Admittedly, if White had been more active and seized control over the center and tempo, it would have been a difficult fight for me and I would have gone a different route. It's probably not going to be that bad for me, but it would have been worse than what I had gotten.

Also, one of the reasons I wanted to share this was because I was pretty happy about making the move d5. I have been taking courses on Chessable and one of the main themes I've seen in many of these types of openings was the move d5. When you make a perfectly timed d5, it would mean a whole world of difference for the outcome of your game and in here, I think that was the case. Of course, it would have definitely turned out different if my opponent had gone e5 because I would then have to reroute my knight and go about developing my pieces in a roundabout way while parrying White's attacks, but still I just loved that I was able to put what I learned into practice.