The Dutch defense, a grand recovery, and a smothered mate
This game went very poorly in the middle for me, but a centralized knight allowed for the most awesome mate tactic….the smother. It’s funny how easily my eyes see it now after so many tactics, but it takes a good 5 move calculation and watching what squares he is covering. This actually brought my time pretty low. I see how games can go 2+ hours if people are truly calculating their way around tough spots
Here’s something I have been wanting to incorporate into my analysis. Usually one of us goes off book pretty soon, so I will take the highest rated game before we go off book and post it. This is a loss by Ivanchuck using my Dutch opening. Of course white is using a London System opening, but I find that kingside rookpawn push to be pretty intense.
Finally, although we are moving away from opening focus, I think basic videos going over the main themes of common openings will serve to keep these points in mind as I play. Here is a great video on the dutch as well as a video on the stonewall dutch, really the only commonly played variation today.
Posted on December 29th, 2014
Endgame skills rule the day
Another game with a middle game change in lead and a win in the endgame. And again, sound opening principles is serving me more than memorizing openings. Especially when his 2nd move is out of my master game database. I need to focus on seeing when pieces are pulling double duty defending multiple spots because when the opponent calls out one of those defenses with a trade, I am unable to defend all the other pieces. And as always, blundering loses the game.
Posted on December 27th, 2014
An English romp
Sticking with the theme of offbeat openings, I chose the English. An early blunder, which was not as bad as it seemed, added an element of tempo to my game, trying to make up a lost piece by capitalizing on other advantages. Overall, a good game at the 1500 range. Looking at our breakdown, It’s clear that mistakes and blunders rule the game.
Posted on December 26th, 2014
Pins and a crumpled defense
I don’t post enough losses I think. This one was a great example of an unsound attack. His king was better protected and I was unable to do anything before he coordinated a big attack. I have troubles with pins and knowing when to dissolve them with a rook-pawn vs. maintain them to keep my kingside strong.
Posted on December 23rd, 2014
Two offbeat openings won in the middle game
I have been sucked into openings recently, which is always a bad thing. I really don’t understand the positions 10 or so moves into a master game. I do understand open center battles, and I naturally tend to build them. So for these two games, I came out with offbeat opening I rarely use. I understand the general ideas about how to get to the center, so I thought I’d try them. Thankfully my opponents both moved their rook-pawns, something I honestly don’t understand.
The first game is a clear example of why you don’t block your King with your Queen on an open file. Pinss (I think I say skewers in the notes on the game, which is wrong) and discovered attacks are devastating. The second game is clearly just a misjudging of protection of pawns, leading to a huge and unstoppable central majority. Couple that with a poor choice to trade away while down pawns, and it becomes a clear victory
Posted on December 18th, 2014
An Instructive Loss
What started with a better opening and a tactical pawn grab, deteriorated into a blown position. He had ~20mins left. I would have benefitted from 30 more minutes to calculate out the position on the kingside and maybe I would have won. Great game though. And the new Lichess analysis looks nice. I can see where I need to practice. Apparently it’s middle game tactics.
Posted on December 14th, 2014
Meeting the Italian with a Piano
The old Giuoco Piano. Seriously. It’s like the oldest opening. I think that the main theme of classic open games came to life. Center control, getting a passed pawn. In the end, my opponent made a very poor tactical move. He was playing down from the beginning, although I missed a few chances to break it open. Interestingly, for an open game, we played pretty well. One of his blunders was at the end after his painful one, so I don’t count it. Therefore we each made 5 objectively poor moves. The difference is that he had a mistake and a blunder for my two inaccuracies. Also, whenever I see that spike of one move then another (in this case two mistakes) it’s generally a time he hung a piece or would have lost an exchange…but I missed it completely, no harm no foul (and sometimes a better spot for him if he moves out of the poor position into a great one).
Posted on October 27th, 2014
An open game
I have been moving away from the more closed London Style games recently towards open e4 games. I feel like my tactic training is more suited for those styles. ChessTempo has me at a 1650 level…not sure how accurate that is, but my chess.com score is doing well with this open game and sicilian defense. As usual I took much more time than him. But we had a good chat about Bangladesh!
Advantage Chart
Move Report
Posted on September 1st, 2014
On a Tear!
It’s been a while since my last analysis. School has picked back up. Ironically, I am 4-0 in the recent week as I’ve found some free time for long games and they’ve all gone swimmingly! Here’s a recent one that is short, but highlights a great tactical motif and some analysis of a non-standard Sicilian opening. I made a few mistakes, none capitalized, but thankfully I saw his blunder and took advantage of it.
Advantage chart
Move report
Posted on July 6th, 2014
Winning with the Ruy
Finally played a long game. It’s been busy. I decided to try an e4 opening, which went decent. It got tactical quick, but despite one poor move losing the exchange, I was able to play decent. I had a hard time forming plans since it went from one tactic to the next. The mate was a good amateur sacrifice. He didn’t put enough thought into his move around a weak King.
Advantage Chart
Move Report
Posted on May 26th, 2014