After a very successful start I was of course very happy, but also for me the phycological element started to kick in. As I was doing so well now, I didn't want to mess it up. Having said that I started against a lower rated player in round 4 where I was focusing more on not messing anything up than playing a fun and good game.
Game 4
I was playing the black pieces and we were starting off in a King's Indian. To be honest I need to still find a better fitting opening on d4, but until I have, the opening is serving me ok, I guess. In this game however it didn't really flow and had trouble getting my pieces to the right position. Actually, I was having issues even with figuring out what that right position was. In the below position I had just played Nh7, which was not good. When white plays Ne4, this will get me in trouble as I need to chase away the knight with d5, creating a weakness there. Luckily enough he played Bg3, leaving me some breathing room.
In the meantime, I started to find at least some fields for my pieces and created some room. I wasn't happy with the 2 isolated pawns on a and c, but the alternative would be that my pieces would be worse. Now I at least had some opportunities of moving my bishop and rook on the queenside. White was apparently ok with trading the white bishop, so he played a3. Bishop to b3 would have been better here.
After Nxc4, Qxc4 I decided to play g4, which was a mistake. I should have just sacrificed the pawn on c6 instead. by playing Be6. After trading queens and a rook, I will then end up with a bishop pair and active pieces, which should be enough compensation. So, after 23. a3, Nxc4 24. Qxc4, Be6 25. Qxc6, Rc8 26. Qd6, Qxd6 27. Rxd6, Bg8 28. Rxg6, Nxg6. White's bishop will now need to fight for room.
So much for the what ifs ;). I continued trying to create room for my pieces and get some sort of counter play on the king side. The only good thing was that things weren't getting worse, but my position did not improve either. In the below position I was again aiming to free up my position by playing Bd5, followed by Ne6/Nd7 and Rg8/Rf8.
This plan seemed to work to some extend as some pieces were traded and in the below position, I was finally able to free up my rook on a8. His knights on a4 and e1 were also not that active, so I figured by now I had a roughly equal position. However, with the king side fully open it's still far from comfortable. The engine sees Re8 as a missed opportunity to win material via 36. ..., Qxg3 37. Qxe6, Qxe3+ 38. Kh2, Qf4+ 39. Kh3, Qxc1 40. Nc5, Nxc5 41. Qf6+, Kg8. Although I did see Qxe3 of course, I was unable to calculate the full variant, which looked too tricky to me. Instead, I chose to play 36. ...., Re8 37. Qh4, Bg4 to somewhat isolate the queen.
As by now I was happy to at least get a draw it was my aim to get a repetition of moves. So in the below position I went for 43. ..., Qe3+ 44. Kh1, Kg6 45. Nd7, Nf2+ 46. Kh2, Ng4+.
Here we agreed upon a draw. I wasn't too happy with the result, but then again, I was happy that I was at least able to come back a bit and not loose, as I really didn't like my position throughout the game. Full game you can find here.
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