Also, that was a beautiful queen trap. This is seriously a really beautiful game to look at.

Thanks!

Ke2!? You're fucking nuts. I thought you said you were nervous about this game

Oh, I was extremely nervous, but Ke2 was perfectly rational. Let's go through the possible variants:

  6. Bd2 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 Nde7 8. d5 Nb8 d6 9. Nc3 d6 10. exd6 cxd6 11. dxe6 Bxe6

yields me a mess of a situation where neither side has a good position, but black might be able to capitalise on it better. I'm not taking those chances.

  6. Nbd2 Nde7 7. a3 Bxd2 8. Qxd2 d7 9. Qc3 dxe5 10. dxe5 b6 11. d3 Bb7

this is the kind of position where everything feels like a blunder. Almost all fields are either defended or can be defended if provoked. It basically punishes you for trying to disturb the system and it's move 12.

  6. Nfd2 Nde7 7. a3 Bxd2+

Now it doesn't even matter if I'll capture it with my knight, bishop or queen. No matter what happens, I'm woefully underdeveloped when compared to black… and it only has a pair of knights out and primed kingside castling.

About nervousness: I've done pretty much those exact calculations right there. Every classical response to this position felt bad, so I started looking at something unconventional. Almost everything that I predicted as a consequence of Ke2 looked better than the above variants. The mind can do amazing things when you feel like you are cornered.