Checked Premise

Finally had a chance to play as black! Seriously, I’ve played like 10 games as white. This game was pretty straightforward. There is a great queen sac for a pawn, and even after some poor trading (still keep doing this), we had an even endgame. Instead of drawing, I thought I had him in a zugzwang…turns out I was the one forced to move and lose. No time chart since Lichess was having trouble connecting, so I played on chess.com. My one blunder was because I thought the board was telling me I had a chance to break; in reality, it was saying “even though you’re a pawn down from dumb trading, you can still take a draw. So do so!"

Advantage chart

Move report

Here’s game 2 of the book "Play the London System" by Lakdawala. I think it’s interesting how sure he was of b4, but it’s clearly a big blunder. Anyways, much better than my gameplay. Here’s his summary after the game.

Summary:

When black plays …Bd6 and swaps bishops on f4, white retains a bind due to his control on e5. But in this game, white mistimed it as black could have played …Qd6 double attacking f4 and the check on b4. This would have forced Qd2 with an equal position. A good point to remember is: it’s always ok to play Bg3 when faced with …Bd6, but leaving your bishop on f4 is only good if you are sure you can deal with the …Qd6 double attack trick from Black

I was thrown off my game. After enjoying relative success with the London, I faced an opponent who dangled a carrot, and I bit, effectively destroying my opening structure and strategy. That said, the one pawn advantage, coupled with our relatively equal tactical ability, led to a blunderful exposition.

Here’s the game on Lichess

After some consideration, it seems the most important criteria were development and space. Global quality is always important. Only one move answers all 3. Despite my fear of Nh5, I think there is legitimate compensation and the better move gives me decisive advantages in space and development. My fear of him employing an equalizing tactic to remove my thematic bishop forgets that if he does so, he will be positionally much worse off. Below is our current position and the process of decision making. Because it was still in the opening, some parts seem forced, but it was a good exercise to go through.

• Threat analysis
  • Checks
    • none
  • Captures
    • none
  • Pressure/tension
    • c5 - c3 cxd4 cxd4 e5? dxe5 dxe5 Bxe5! Nxe5 Qxd8 Kxd8Nxe5 +/-
    • e5 - dxe5 dxe5 Nxe5 +/-
    • g5 - Bxg5 +/-
    • Nd5 - Bg3 with subsequent challenges to that misplaced knight (e4 or c4)
    • Nd4 - Nd2 Nxd2 Qxd2 +/= 3 developed pieces for 1, with more central activity and maintained my key bishop. My queen has to move to get onto her battery square, but that’s ok
    • Nh5! - Bg3 Nxg3 hxg3 or Bd2 loses the initiative. Am I willing to trade my thematic bishop for a knight and a very active queen square that pins the black queen? 4. e3 Nh5 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 g5 7. Nfd2 gxh4 8. Qxh5
  • Vision for opponent
    • Kingside - g6 Bg7 O-O Normal development. Getting my bishop to e2 would be advantageous against a fianchettoed kingside
    • Center - e5 d6 Bb4 O-O - pretty limiting for his LS Bishop
    • Queenside - unsure now
• Long version of positional evaluation
  • Space
    • White controls/contests
      • controls e5 - 4
      • controls g5 - 2
    • Black controls/contests
      • controls e4 - 2
    • Space advantage: white
    • Goal: control/contest new square in energy camp. Coordinate pieces. Improve pawn structure
    • Potential solutions
      • c3
        • controls b5
        • opens line of development for LS bishop
        • increases bishops global and local quality
  • Development
    • Currently equal
    • Potential advantage: white (black needs an extra move to free up both bishops
    • Advantage white
    • Goal: increase advantage
    • Potential solutions
      • Nc3 - blocks c-pawn
      • Nd2 - blocks queen
      • Qd2 - increases quality of queen and DS bishop. Tactical threat with Ne4
      • Qd3 - Increases quality of queen
      • c3 - increases quality of pawn structure
      • e3 - increases potential advantage in development for LS bishop
      • g3 - increases potential advantage in development for LS bishop
  • Quality
    • Global
      • Pawn structure
        • Closed
        • LS diagonal can be opened for me
        • DS bishop outside structure
        • Bad for his DS bishop
      • Pieces each side owns
        • too early, but mine fit structure (its a system)
      • Requirements for position
        • open LS diagonals
        • Centralize queen-knight
      • Potential solutions (only pawn moves)
        • c3 - creates central-pointing pawn chain
        • e3 - better for global quality of bishop
        • g3 - weakens kingside unless willing to commit to fianchetto
        • h5 - protects DS bishop, increasing its global quality
    • Local
      • Knights - he has the advantage with two centralized knights
      • Bishops - mine are better now and potentially much better
      • Queen - mine is more mobile
      • Rooks - equal
      • Advantage me
      • Potential solutions
        • Nbd2 - centralizes and develops knight
    • Material
      • Equal
    • Choosing the move
      • Maximum # of criteria answered 3
      • Discard all with less than two answered leaves c3, e3, g3
      • None are urgent
      • Ignoring material
      • only e3 answers 3 criteria, all important

I came across the book "Play the London System" by Lakdawala. It’s tough to follow the game in a book, so I want to put the games in a PGN editor and have them to go through.

Advantage chart

Move report

I am trying a new learning system. I will play a correspondence style game against the level 1 Stockfish engine on Lichess. My goal is to work through "The Process of Decision Making in Chess: Volume 1 Mastering the Theory" by Philip Ochman. I came across this book near the beginning of my chess journey, but as my tactical skill was still utter crap, it ended up making me play worse. This plus Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess" had me trying high level strategy before I learned not to hang pieces.

The goal here is to go through the process of each move that's not a continuation of a tactic. If I beat level 1, I will work my way up to the 2300 level 8 engine.

I am choosing the London System because that's what I've been working on. I don't know openings too well, so as long as I play the themes of the system I should do fine (besides all the other reasons I might do poorly).

Here's a link to the game:
http://en.lichess.org/hDOwUWCr96uo

After such an accurate game with the London System last time, and a few blitz games to see it in action (of which I lost many on FICS) I felt like I should give it some more slow-play time. In conversation with Reddit chess players, they seemed to think that I was only so accurate because I was up early. That seems disingenuous. As you can see in this game, despite being up the entire game, and up substantially by about 1/3 of the way into the game, I managed to make all my inaccuracies, mistakes, and blunders after move 21. This is more par for the course: making poor (risky) choices because if the opponent responds poorly, I can capitalize and win very quickly, or even if he plays well, I can regroup and still be up by a wide margin. Sadly, I wish this were the case for all my blunders. Specifically, move 35 trades my rook, knight, and pawn for a rook. I wasn’t gambling; I thought I had him!

It seems that many students go through system openings. I explored the King’s Indian Attack for a while, and while it allowed for a good king defense, I always felt cramped and wanted to trade, usually to my deficit. The London System gets my minor pieces developed and seems to punish trades with even better positions. My bishops are on great diagonals, and my rooks can support pawn storms from either side. I have seen a few videos on the opening system, but I found this playlist and after 1 video, I think I will devote a good chunk of game play working on this system. It complements my more traditional e4 set.

Here’s my most recent game, only my 3rd try with the opening. I won one quick due to a hung queen, and lost one due to a blundered endgame, but this one seems most instructive. Notice in the graphs that I made 1 inaccuracy, no mistakes, and no blunders!

Before you start! See if you can solve the 3 puzzles at the end. The answer is in the game.

My focus in this game was not to trade frivolously, and not to play hope chess. My goal was only to trade if I at least gained a minor piece, until the endgame, when I would trade only if it didn’t allow him to recapture and force my next move. As for that goal, I think I did quite well. I did play a bit of hope chess, but luckily he either didn’t capitalize or it didn’t cost me too much. His game went down hill after move 19, and I managed not to give it back to him.

We also had a fun chat in the sidebar about the game time. He was frustrated at how long the game was (though he accepted the limits). I think he thought that 30|1 meant 1 minute is added per move? He made it seem like that addition would make the game go on too long. Or he thought we were playing 30 seconds plus 1 second? Anyway, to improve, I need to keep playing this slow game and really understanding what I’m doing. I also hate lost games due to the opponent just moving around, so the 1 second assures I can claim a draw in those situations.

Finally, below are 3 positions. The correct move is the same in all. I missed it each time in game.