Bird’s Opening (6), trading into a draw

Today’s blog entry is from round 1 of our chess club’s weekly tournament. I trotted out my Bird’s Opening and when my opponent immediately went out of book, we started playing chess. We maneuvered, each looking for a weakness to attack. When none appeared and our piece count was down, he offered and I accepted a draw.

 Move #20 again shows how my weak calculation skills harm a game. Miscalculation of this sequence took the game from a plus score to a minus one.