i did an engine assisted analysis of my best game so far with this fake brains engine which i've been trying to beat for like 2 weeks without success
[Event "Local Event"]
[Site "Local Site"]
[Date "2019.03.21"]
[Round "1"]
[White "shimao"]
[Black "Lc0 v0.22.0-dev"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B18"]
[Time "17:05:00"]
[PlyCount "68"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6
{ up to move 5 -- by the book. this is the only opening i know }
6. Bd3 Qxd4 { first non-book move and i make a mistake, because i didn't notice queen captures pawn.
i didn't want to move knight because bad past experiences of king side pawns being stuck the entire game, but that's the move the engine suggests }
7. Nf3 {engine suggests e2 as better move, which makes sense since i don't run into that knight-blocks pawn problem again} Qd5
8. O-O Nd7 { engine says Bxd3 would be better, but i don't really see why. i guess my way i end up with an isolated pawn on d file, which is considered worse }
9. Bxg6 hxg6 10. Qxd5 {i decided to exchange queens because i felt like black could start an attack with that rook on h file and that queen.
engine suggests Qe2 instead, which allows me to push my c pawn and push away the black queen. i guess that kind of makes sense} cxd5
11. Bf4 e6 12. Rac1 {i decided to move my rook behind the c pawn to prepare pushing c and exchanging black's d pawn, because black's pawns were starting to cramp up my position
also as you'll see, the next few moves of the end of the game are me attempting to move my second rook to the open c file and give check to black, and black trying to stop me
engine suggests rook to d file as slightly better alternative -- i don't get it} Ngf6
13. c4 dxc4 14. Rxc4 Nd5 15. Ne2 {I made this move to defend bishop on f4. the main reasons for this is that knight on g3 didn't seem to be doing much --
if black pushed f5 i couldn't take, and h5 is also a pointless square to be defending, so i moved the knight.
on the other hand, i thought moving the bishop was a bad idea because black might push pawn to e5, really cramping my position.
if i moved my bishop to e3 as suggested by engine, i wouldn't be able to take pawn as black is defending it with knight on d7} Nxf4
16. Nxf4 Bd6 17. g3 Ke7 {this was basically my last chance to move my second rook to c file. i didn't because if bishop captures on f4 then if i continue with my attack (Rc8) then there is no way to capture back. if i capture bishop back with rook, then black can push f pawn and harass me, so it didn't seem worth it
in fact even in the engine suggested line the rook attack never happens because black has enough time to move his king to avoid it
in the actual game black moves king to avoid, but amusingly in this line engine says Nb6 is better. i don't understand}
18. Re1 {i moved took to e file because that's where black king was, and i already had another piece attacking the pawn in front of the king, so i thought maybe something could happen there
however engine suggests rook to c file instead, which i'm not sure what's the point of anymore now that black king has already moved out of the way} Rac8
19. b3 {i moved pawn to defend rook. engine suggests Rxc4 to check black king. i missed this because i thought pawn would simply capture, but that pawn was pinned by the rook i'd just moved to e file.
in the engine line the king is forced to move back to 8th rank, white initiates exchange of rooks. no immediate difference in terms of material, in my game i end up with a hard to defend pawn on c file} Rxc4
20. bxc4 Rc8 21. Re4 Nf6 22. Rd4 Rc5 {i was surprised why black didn't push e pawn and fork my rook and knight. tbh i didn't notice this fork until next move. however i just realized it's probably not a real threat as i can move rook to e file and pin the pawn}
23. Nd2 Ra5 24. Nd3 {engine says this is a mistake and c5 is better. i don't get why black wouldn't just capture the pawn in that case. (well i just went and watched the engine line and in that case rooks are exchanged and the pawn is captured, but at least my position is less cramped)} e5
25. Rh4 Rxa2 26. c5 Rxd2 27. cxd6+ Kxd6 28. Nc1 Kc5 {well this is hilarious. Nc1 allows black to fork my king and knight, engine says this is a blunder, which is it.
instead of taking advantage of this, black moves his king to c5, allowing me to fork the king and rook. , which i somehow don't notice.
the same forks present themselves for the next 2 turns, and neither of us notice. i actually miss another rook-king fork for another two moves}
29. f4 e4 30. g4 Nd5 31. g5 Kd4 32. Rh3 Nxf4 33. Rg3 e3 34. Kf1 Rd1# 0-1