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Maroczy bind position

I am going to add some analysis to explain my moves

2. ...a6, this move comes from the najdorf variation, but the idea is deep, it prevents the knight on d4 and c3 as well as the bishop to land on b5, and later moves into a minority attack fracturing whites pawns. This all makes sense if we play an open variation of the siclian.

3. c4 By playing this move I decided that the best way to play the position is to control the center and bind us my opponents pieces. The maroczy bind allows for control of the center as well as a well placed knight.

3. ...d6 makes sense, its a fine line, although I find that e6 makes more sense here, to challenge whites control of the center. (here is a notable game http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1315128)

8. ...Bg5 I specifically did not reinforce my epawn with f3 like many english attacks or other batteries that you make with queen and bishop. the e pawn was not being attacked by the knight so I thought I could find a prime oppertunity to save it exactly for this moment, striking back with f4! This is where my instincts tell me to keep the bishop, where I might have a bad bishop, it holds together the position

10. Nxc6, I thought it was too early to break with the pawns, and I end up just losing pawns in the process if I wanted e4, so I thought it would be fine to just take the knight and just develop naturally in the position.

13. ...c5 I think this was trying to liberate space for the bishop, but I think this cost them control and didnt allow them to break my center control, and clearly the bishop if it were to move to b7 then try to take on e4 would lose tactically to Nxe4!

14. O-O stockfish claimed this was a bad move, I tend to disagree with the engine. this gives nice room to my rook for possible lift potential as well as protection for my king. where as I see blacks kingside is all jumbled up since his pieces are getting in the way of eachother.

15.Rxc3 if you take with the queen you drop the A pawn

16. Rf3 I was hoping to one day attack g3 and putting pressure on blacks kingside since they were clearly going to castle kingside.

16. ...d5? This break seemed a bit shaky. why not Bb7? the rook on b8 was just staring at a pawn wall doing nothing, my opponent could have even brought in the rook to d8 eventually and supported the break

17. cxd5 I took this direction because it puts the pawn on c5 en prise

18. I took with the bishop here for two reasons: it attacks the knight so they cannot castle and it connections my rooks nicely.

20. nice Zwischenzug right?

22. two attacks on the knight now, it needs to be defended

23. I think Bxe7 was inaccurate, now my opponent can build up pressure behind my bishop, it would have been more accurate for Rxe7 I think. (unless I don't see a tactic on the bishop :P)

25. I did this because of backrank pressures on my position. maybe I was too focused on one move, but I was really worried about moving my queen to a square that would allow for an eventual Qd1 and winning my rook.

31. I did not see this tactic at all. kudos for all those that caught it. I didnt even see the d7! tactic afterwards. some magnus carlsen stuff right there.

35. why not just trade off queens with a rook advantage? seemed good enough for me. Thats a 1200 endgame that i can win without too much effort.

37. a slick move to finish off the game easily.

38. nice try ;)

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