A simple and clear reaction

In our club, I played yesterday a great Paleface against a junior. Not a junior in the sense that he is new in chess. No, junior in the sense of still being young, not crippled with traditionals fears and ideas that older people are suffering from. Junior, in the sense of being open to new ideas. Anyway, he was just back from Maribor (Slovenia ), where he participated in the world youth championship.  So I realised I was not playing against mr Nobody.

I opened with 1.d4, as always. He replied Nf6. Then I gave it a few minutes or so of thought, giving him the impression I wanted to experiment something, and played 2.f3. His facial reaction was simple and clear, a sign of unbelieve ( After the game he said he could not believe his eyes after my first move - this could not be a serious move. But he admitted my opening had worked out ! ). The game continued as follows :

Guido De Bouver - Karsten Verhasselt
1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 e6 3.e4 b6 4.Be3 Bb7 5.Nc3 d5 6.e5 Nfd7 7.f4 c5 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.Be2
Now my young opponent played 9...g6 (diagram). He said he wanted to stop the advance of the f pawn - guess the remainder of the game proves this was not the right recipe to do so

10.00 a6
A logical move after g6, preparing for king side fianchetto

11.Qe1 Be7 (?) 12.Qg3 c4(?!)
Intending the win space on the queenside, and follow up b5.

13.f5 (!) (diagram)

13...gxf5 14.Qg7 Rf8 15.Bh6 Qc7 16.Qxh7 000 17.Bxf8 Rxf8 (diagram)

A very wild and complicated game followed, leading only to a draw as the combinational skills of my young opponent proved too strong.

So, surprise your opponent as early as move 2 - play the paleface and get a clear advantage ! Guess that was the only way for me to draw this promising junior...