Some time ago I raised the question ‘what is your ideal game?’ I favored short and decisive games. Of course I wasn’t too serious. 

Winning a game without too many mistakes is my ideal. Preferably I dont give my opponent any chances and try to squeeze him. A game I played with white in our club championship comes close to this ideal. 

In the past I did not bother too much about analyzing my own games. I don’t know exactly why. Was I lazy? Or is it the feeling of disgust about the many mistakes I made (and still make)? Anyhow nowadays with the computer even players like me have the help of a ‘grandmaster’ and we patzers can try to make some sense out of what we have done and hopefully learn something from it.

Some remarks about the game
Enough said. Let’s go to the game. First something about the opening. See the diagram. This is called the triangle set-up in the Catalan. It is a slightly passive set-up for black, but certainly playable. Usually white will castle in this position. Play might continue:

6. 0-0 Bd6 This seems to be a good plan. Black has strengthened his pawn on d5 and now tries to play the freeing move e6-e5. According to Victor Bologan in The powerful Catalan the best move for white is now 7. Nfd2! The idea behind this move is to play the queen’s knight to it’s most active square on c3 and then push for e2-e4.

Our game went a bit different. White is a somewhat wary of the unprotected pawn on c4 and plays an early Qc2. Not a great move, but probably good enough for a slight edge. After this we get a mix of a Catalan and a Bogo Indian defense. From the diagram play went 6. Qc2 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Qa5. Better would have been to withdraw the bishop to e7 (most common) or d6. 7. … Qa5 hasn’t been played on a higher level.

I am most proud of the neat pawn break in the center (20. d5). Although not decisive, it paved the way for my victory. See the game for yourself.

What’s there to say? Except for some inaccuracies in opening and early middle game, I played the latter part of the game quite well. For the first time I went home with a very good feeling about my play. Next time you will see some examples that gave me a rather unpleasant feeling.