Amator Cup Rd4 2012-11

I lost embarassingly quickly within a few minutes of the start of the round to a simple tactical oversight. Now I am at a modest 2.5/4.

At the end of Rd3 the standings were

• Katona,J       1.5
• Bodgrogi,M  0.5
• Zilahi,G           2
• Nagy,L          1
• Yip,M           2.5
• Bodgrogi,L    2.5
• Szili,A             0
• Szkabey,G      1
• Czibulka,Z      2
• Molnar,L        2

 

When I left

• Bodrogi,L had a very good position against Szlabey,G
• Katona had Q+N vs Nagy,L's Q+B in a good N vs bad B almost ending.
• Szili,A had R vs the B+N of Molnar in a compex ending.

Here's my game.
Warning!! It's painful to go through.

Czibulka,Z (2053) - Yip,M (2085)
1.d4 d6 2.g3 e5[A41]

Amator Cup (4), 19.11.2012
An early queenless game has arisen where white has given up the bishop pair to compromise black's kingside pawns. How do you assess the position. White should black do? This is more a question of understanding than anything else. I was not sharp in this game. Can you do better?

Black to Play

 

 

 

Critical Position 2
Black has fallen asleep. What about you? White is on the move-what should white do?

 

White to Play

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSIONS
I first felt a bit disgusted but the routine after losing a game must be to take an objective look at the game to see what really happened.

• The Bxh6 plan took me by surprise but should not have caused any problems.
• 13...a5 was a bit casual and caused by my superficial knowledge of the 2.g3 queenless game. Now I am more familiar with the specific ideas, and the necessity of black to find and active defence before white can settle in with Be4/Nf5 or Bf5 etc. Play changed from quiet building to concrete considerations without my noticing. This was the real cause of the loss.
• 16...Be7?? Here the inexplicable needs explaining as this is just not an acceptable blunder. I just did not use any kind of hard thought to figure out what my opponent was up to. This is a breakdown of self-discipline rather than lack of tactical ability.

So the real causes of the loss have been dug out and improvements found and documented. The knowledge gap is filled. Now it is time to reapply myself for the remainder of the tournament.