Lichess lonewolf S40 round 1: My first Lonewolf season

Introduction

Hi everyone!
This is the first blog I have ever written, and also the first in a series of weekly blogs I will be writing covering my games in the lonewolf league.

All my annotated Lonewolf games can be found here.

with all that out of the way, lets jump right in.

Lonewolf round 1: Black vs Sooneroo ( 2273 )

I was playing up with black in the first round, so I decided to prepare for the game a bit. I spent about an hour combined looking through my opponent's games.
When it came time for the game My opponent started with 1.c4 which I expected, and I responded with 1...e6.
now already I have messed up. I had prepared 1...c6 for this game based on the game my opponent played in the last round of the previous season, but I played the usual e6 I play out of habit. It took me until 3 moves later to realize what I had done.

Although I do usually play this against the english, I did not remember the lines and ideas that well, because it had been a while since I had revised my repertoire. I had no choice but to play the position based on whatever I remembered from my file, which wasn't much.
the game started- 1.c4 e6, 2.g3 d5, 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3

in this position, I spent about 10 minutes on deciding whether I should take on c4 or play more solid with c6-Bd6-Nbd7, or push d4 to try and gain space. This bad time management will come back to bite me.
In the end, I decided to play 4...dxc4 because I thought c6 was too passive and d4 too risky.

the game continued: 4...dxc4, 5.0-0 Be7 6.Qc2 0-0 7.Qxc4 c5 8.d4

here I spent 15(!) of my remaining 20 or so minutes, because I am met with an option of either playing Nc6 dxc5 e5 followed by Be6, or to capture on d4.

I also considered the move 8...b5!? which although I did not end up going for in the game, I spent quite a bit of time on it. The main idea of b5 was to try and develop the light squared bishop, but I rejected it because I saw that after Qxb5 Ba6 Qa4 Bxe2 Re1, white's light squared bishop is quite strong and my rook is very close to getting trapped, and after Qxb5 Bd7-c6, I felt that I do not have enough compensation for the pawn.

In the end, I went for the Nc6-e5-Be6 idea instead, but I was now down to just 7 minutes.

the game continued: 8...Nc6 9.dxc5 e5 10.Nc3 Be6 11.Qa4 Bxc5 12.Bg5 Be7 13.a3

here, I spent a few more minutes on deciding what to do next, thinking down to 2 minutes. The best way forward was to play Qb6 and put a rook on d8, which in hindsight, should not have been difficult to spot. I opted for 13...Nd5, hoping to trade some pieces into an equal endgame.
After 14.Nxd5 Bxd5 15.Rfd1, I had only one continuation which holds the draw, which was 15...Bxg5 16.Nxg5 Nd4! which threatens to trap white's queen with Bb3!, forcing white to trade their very strong light squared bishop.
I did not see this and played 15...e4?

Now, white simply played 16.Bxe7 Nxe7 17.Ng5! and suddenly my e4 pawn is undefendable ( f5 is met by Ne6! ).

after thinking down to just 23 seconds, I decided to play 17...e3. my opponent responded with 18.fxe3? after which, although it is still better for white, both me and the engine thought that 18.f4! was much clearer.
After 18.fxe3, the game continued 18...Qb6 19.Qd4.

this was my last chance to try and draw the game. here, Qxd4 goes into a pawn down, but holdable endgame. I instead went for 19...Qg6? which simply allows my opponent to win a second pawn with 20.Bxd5 Qxg5 21.Bxb7 Rb1 22.Bf3
at this point, I am down 2 pawns and playing on increment. with 5 seconds on my clock I play 22..Nf5?!, and my opponent quickly plays 23.Qf4! which forces the trade of queens.

we played on for a few more moves, but my opponent converted flawlessly, bringing the rooks onto the 7th and simply overwhelming my king. I resigned soon after.

current score: 0/1

Key takeaway

After analyzing my game, I have come to the conclusion that the main reason I lost this game was Bad time management.
I spent too much time on non-critical moves, which lead to me not having enough time in the critical moments.
Even if I am out of book, I am able to play good enough moves in the opening based solely on my experience, and I shouldn't spend more than a few minutes in the early opening.

That is all!

Thank you for reading this blog!

look out for the recap of The *Candidates *Candidudes next week!

Unfortunately, I will not be doing weekly recaps the 4545 league due to time constraints, but I will continue with my lonewolf recaps.

please leave any feedback you have in the comments!