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.