Hi All,
just wanted to let you know that yesterday I was able to draw in a simultanous tournament played by the German GM Niclas Huschenbeth against 17 members of our chessclub. Our club has this year its 100 year anniversary, so they have organized this nice simul on Lichess.
You can see the event here: https://lichess.org/simul/Lwc7yDCD
The time mode was classic, 30+30 with Huschenbeth having 45+30.
I had played a solid Caro-Cann defense. Fortunately Huschenbeth stayed on one of the main lines which I was prepared for.
Position after 6.h4
When I played 10...Qc7, Huschenbeth was surprised (he had streamed the event on Twitch and Youtube) that this was played before d6. I had previously always played d6 in this variant as well, but Stockfish had suggested the move in my preparation. I like it because it prevents White playing Bf4!
10 moves later, after my last move 20...Ne5 (where Huschi in the Stream said it is a good move) White should continue with Qe4 (Stockfish gives the position a +0,3 advantage for White), he instead played Bf4 after which the White advantage is lost, according to the Engine.
Please note the the pawn on c4 is not hanging, because after 21.Bf4 Qc4x 22.Be5x Qc2x+ 23.Rc2x with check and I would lose a piece.
After I unpinned with 21...Qc5 22.Nb3 Qc6 Huschi made again a mistake with 23.f3 (g2 was hanging). He considered his positions as a bit shaky :)
But instead Nc4x I first wanted to exchange the rooks with Rd2x after which White took back with the Knight and c4 was defended again. Stupid. After that my advantage was completely lost.
Here instead of the suggested Bh6x White went with 26.Nd6+ for the quality (Rd6x is a must because otherwise my Knight on d3 is gone) but I fortunately found the best continuation...
and after 26...Rd6x 27.Bd6x Nb2x I have enough compensation for the quality because also c4 will fall (both c4 and Bd6 are hanging now). Huschenbeth was not very happy with his position as you could see from his face 😃.
A couple of moves later - the Queens and Bishops are off in the meantime - I gained another pawn with this fork.
Although the Engine sees a clear advantage for White (+1,0), Huschenbeth accepted my draw offer in this final position and in the Stream he mentioned he is quite happy with the draw.
Maybe I could have played on with currently 3 pawns for the exchange, but I didn´t want to take the risk to blunder, also I am not such a fan of endgames😃.
You can follow the game here.
Would you have continued??
At the end he had won 14 out of 17 games, the draw and he lost 2!
Here the video stream:
