Greetings to all chess fans. Wesley So is known to be a solid player but in blitz he can play aggressively as he has shown in his Immortal Blitz Game against Gary Kasparov. Today's game we're going to review is from the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament. He was playing black against former WC challenger Fabiano Caruana where he played aggressively all throughout.
The game started with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 c5 5. d5 b5
I play the Nimzo Indian as black but I haven't tried this line. It's similar to the Benko Gambit where the b5 pawn is sacrificed. But here, if White takes the b5 pawn then he will lose d5 so he declines. 6. e4 d6 7. Bd2 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 b4 9. Bd2 O-O 10. Ne2 exd5 11. cxd5 Nh5
White has the bishop pair but black has a pawn majority in the Queenside. White also has some weakened dark squares. 12. Qb3 f5
White's king is still in the center so Wesley sacrifices a pawn to open lines. 13. exf5 Nd7 14. g4 Ne5
Now Wesley offers the knight on h5 which Fabi accepts. 15. gxh5 c4!
White cannot take on b4, Nd3 forks the king and queen. 16. Qe3 Nd3+ 17. Kd1 Nxb2+ 18. Kc2 c3
White is a full piece up but his king is exposed. Black's immediate threat is Bxf5+ 19. Nd4 Qf6 20. Bc1 Bd7
After bringing the queen out, the bishop joins the fray, threatening Ba4+ 21. Bxb2 Rfe8 22. Qf2 Ba4+ 23. Kb1 Re1+!
Two piece down and Wesley offers the Rook! 24. Bc1 Rae8
White declines the Rook. Qxe1 is answered by Qxd4 and it's mate in seven moves. 25. Bb5 Rxh1 26. Bxa4?
The game was drawish up to this point. The correct move was to capture the Rook. 26. ...Ree1 27. Kc2 Rhf1
White has to give up his queen or lose the knight on d4. 28. Qxf1 Rxf1 29. Kd3 c2 30. Bxc2 Rxf3+ 31. Nxf3 Qc3+ 32. Ke2 Qxa1
A few moves later, it's black's queen against three minor pieces. Black can pick White's loose pawns and win the game. 33. Kd1 Qxa2 34. Nd2 a5 35. Bb3 Qa1 36. h6 a4 37. Bc2 b3 38. Nxb3 axb3 39. Bxb3 Qc3 40. Bc2 Qf3+ 41. Kd2 Qf4+ 42. Kd1 Qg4+ 43. Kd2 Qg5+ 44. Kd1 Qh5+ 45. Ke1 Qxh2 46. Bd2 gxh6 47. Bd3 h5 { Black wins. } 0-1
Game link: https://lichess.org/0zhlKs2x#0
