Blitz Chess #16: Experimenting on the Openings I Use Most

I wanted to experiment on the opening I have been using a lot lately so that I can find improvements on how to play it. I've been playing the Reti with a very passive setup because I feel that it is somewhat flexible which means, no matter what my opponent's response will be, the setup will still hold. It's not perfect by any means but that's why I'm testing out what kind of positions I will encounter.

In this case I went with an early bishop instead of my usual knights on f3 and d2 setup. I just felt that changing it up might lead to better results. My opponent locked his light squared bishop out of the pawn chain which should have signaled to me that he wanted to exchange that bishop right away. And he did and I doubled my pawns.

Being saddled with doubled pawns in front of my king was completely fine. I think where things started to go awry for me was when my opponent played h5 and I tried to be fancy by not taking it with my queen and instead, exploiting a tactic in the center wherein his pawn is pinned to the king and so I was able to take it with my bishop.

However, I didn't realize that having done that would leave my king exposed and so he took advantage of that weakness in my position and grabbed one of my doubled pawns. Then, I exchanged my bishop for his knight just to reduce some of the pressure on my g-pawn. That also gave me time to recuperate and consolidate my king's position.

He continued to add pressure on the pawn but thankfully, I had enough pieces to cover it. In the end, he gave up because there wasn't really any clear advantage from his attacking my pawn structure. I was able to defend and the attack dissipated. Furthermore, I could simply activate all of my pieces so that I can launch a counterattack.

My king was still in a precarious position but tenable at that point. And I was able to whittle down his position after securing my king. It was an interesting game and surely the information I gained from going on a different route using this opening will help me get better results later on. Here's an annotated version of the game for your reference: