How to exploit your opponent's time trouble · Road to GM, Game 194

Some games are decided not by chess skill, but by errors of judgement which seem incomprehensible afterwards.

I made a practical mistake of trying to exploit my opponent’s time trouble issues by playing quickly, tactically, and trying to complicate the position to make him blunder. The exact opposite happened instead. My moves were bad, I made mistakes, and I caught up in time trouble, wasting too much time on my moves because the position got harder and harder to play.

When your opponent is low on time and the position is still complex and relatively calm, you have to play good, solid moves which don’t make your position worse and which force your opponent to come up with a plan of his own. You shouldn’t do what I did - play a move which is easy to calculate, giving your opponent something to focus on instead of spreading his attention to the entire board.

Ciutat de Barcelona 2021, Round 9
Tomic S. (1927) - Serrano V. (1939)
London System

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 Bg7 5. h4 h5 6. Be2 a6 7. Qd2 b6 8. Nf3 Bb7 9. Ne5 c5 10. Bf3 Ne4 11. Nxe4 dxe4 12. Be2 cxd4 13. exd4 Nc6 14. Nxc6 Bxc6 15. Be3 Bb7 16. Rd1 e6 17. c3 Bf6 18. g3 b5 19. Bf1 Rc8 20. a3 Be7 21. Rg1 Qd7 22. Bg5 f6 23. Be3 Bd5 24. Rc1 Kf7 25. Be2 Rc6 26. a4 bxa4 27. Qc2 Qb7 28. Qxa4 Qxb2 29. c4 Rhc8 30. Kf1 Rb6 31. Rc2 Qb4 32. Ra2 Bxc4 33. Qxb4 Bxb4 34. Bxc4 Rxc4 35. Kg2 Rd6 36. Rb1 a5 37. Ra4 Rc2 38. Rd1 e5 39. d5 Bc5 40. Rxe4 Bxe3 41. Rxe3 Rc5 42. Rb3 Rdxd5 43. Rb7+ Ke6 44. Ra1 Rd2 45. Ra3 Rdd5 46. Ra7 e4 47. Re3 Kf5 48. f3 Re5 49. Rf7 Rc6 50. Ra7 exf3+ 51. Rxf3+ Ke6 52. Rg7 Rc2+ 53. Kg1


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