Alizza Clare Marie M.
Tangliben PE 2 - SDE – [1st] AY 2020-2021
Alyssa Punzalan
Alizza Tangliben
This was my first game in the class tournament. My
strategy was to play defensively until I saw a
situation that I can take advantage of. 1.e4 e5 2.g3
c5 Her first move was quite typical so I just reacted
by also trying to put my pawn at the center. I was
expecting her to move a pawn to d4 or somewhere
close to the middle because it was what was taught
in class (control the center) but she moved g3
instead but I still tried to gain control of the center,
while exercising caution with c5. 3.b3 d6 4.Bb2 Nf6
the bishop move did not pose a real threat because
my pawn was protected so I just developed my
knight, posing a threat to her pawn. 5.Nc3 Nc6
6.Qe2 d5 She reacted to the threat by protecting her
pawn with a knight. 7. O-O-O Bg4 I noticed that the
queen was left vulnerable, so I decided to attack the
queen to add pressure. 8.f3 Bh5 9.g4 Bg6 It seems I
did not think it through because it cost me a couple
moves trying to protect the bishop. By this point I
was nervous because I noticed my pieces were
barely developed and are still blocked or in positions
where they could not make productive moves.
10.Qd3 d4 11.Kb5 Kb4 I recovered by invading the
enemy’s space and posing a threat to her queen
again. 12.Kb1 Nxd3 13.Bxd3 Qd7 I’m not sure what
she was thinking but I think that she overlooked the
threat to her queen and was thinking about a
possible check if I ate the pawn so she adjusted her
king. I knew that my knight would be eaten by the
bishop but it was a good sacrifice because the queen
has much higher value. 14.Ne2 a6 15.Na3 Bd6 I
figured that it was about time that I castled or at
least make way for castling because I didn’t want my
king unprotected. 16.f4 Bxe4 17.fxe5 Bxh1 Than I
saw an opportunity that I could take advantage of.
No matter how the next few steps turned out, I
would still benefit by at least 1 point and I decided
to take the trade. I turned out well for me because
my opponent was not able to spot that her rook was
under attack and so I ended up taking a more
powerful piece from her. 18.exd6 Bf3 19.c3 Bxg4 I
noticed multiple pieces that were somewhat
vulnerable so I decided to start orchestrating an
GAME 1
attack on the knight and/or rook but her bishops
were in the way. 20.cxd4 cxd4 21.Bxd4 Qxd6 22.Rc1
Bxe2 23.Bxe2 Qxd4 24.Kc4 O-O So I made a move on
the pieces that were in the way. I had thought about
the possible moves that would happen next and in
all instances that I could think of, I would get at least
3 points more than her. 25.Rg1 Qxg1+ The play
turned out better for me than what I had planned
because my opponent failed to protect her pieces,
not to mention put them under threat. I ended up
capturing more powerful pieces and also making a
check. 26.Bb2 Qxh2 27.Bd3 Rad8 28.Kc2 b5 29.Ne5
Qxe5 30.a4 bxa4 31.bxa4 Qg3 32.Bxa6 Qg2 33.Kb3
Qxd2 By this time, there were many vulnerable
pieces so I just acted on them while trying to
develop my remaining pawns and my opponent
decided to capture them and I was capturing her
pieces too. 34.Kc4 Qe2+ 35.Kb4 Qxa6 I checked her
king and she could only make 2 moves and she chose
the one that allowed me to capture her bishop
because if she made the other one, I would be able
to checkmate her king immediately with Rd3. 36.Ka3
Rd4 37.Kb3 Rc8 38.a5 Qxa5 39. Bb2 Rd3 40. Kb1
Rd1+ 41.Kb2 Rdc1 42.Kb3 Rb8# From here on the
goal was to block the kings exits to achieve a
checkmate. I trapped the king using two rooks and a
queen on the right side of the board (a,b,c). Upon
analyzing I would have been able to checkmate the
king with much less moves. After the 35th turn, I
could’ve just moved the rook to b8 and capture the
pawn with queen. Nonetheless, I was still able to
win the match. What really stuck to me in this match
was I could win if I really try to adhere to the
principles of chess the best that I could, and make
less errors than my opponent. I also found out how
powerful it is to stop and think about what your next
move will be.