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Well, this is one of those typical moves you find easily when you have some experience with a certain type of position. I am certainly not a genius, but it was the first move that struck me.
I hope you don't mind me saying this, as it is not intended to be harmful in any way, but it seems to me that you don't have any deep understanding of this variation you are employing here. Disregarding of that strong Queen-move, you will usually put your white-squared Bishop on e6 or f5 where it is much more useful for attacking White's pawns on the queen side. On a6 it is just punching in the air.
I just can't say this too often: the Sicilian is a damn difficult opening. Play it only if you really have to.
 
Now that you point it out it seems extremely obvious & I have made similar moves in similar positions, something about the position, I think I was looking for more than just a strong center with equal material, I wanted to trap the white king in the center. For this reason my mind was fixated on moving the bishop out rather than trading queens.

I love the Sicilian. Playing ... e5 against strong players seems just as challenging. Plus who wants to play against the Ruy Lopez :ack: (not that I think it's necessarily better for white but I don't want to learn 20+ moves of theory). Pretty much everyone under 2000 plays the accelerated dragon wrong too or learns 8 or 9 moves of the c3-Sicilian, Grand Prix attack, close Sicilian etc.

I'm not offended at all though, my opening understanding in general is not particularly deep (sometimes I feel this way about all aspects of the game). Mostly I focus on tactics & when I can be bothered, endgames. Tactics are more important than openings at the sub-Expert level. Once I break expert I'll delve into openings more deeply.
 
A pretty easy win against an undefeated unrated with a 2089 provisional rating (probably will settle to 1600 or 1700 over time).

[Event "ATKM G-75"]
[Date "2011.01.06"]
[White "Norris, Tony"]
[Black "Suganob, Andrew"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "1918"]
[BlackElo "2089-P"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7 4. d4 d6 5. dxe5 Bg4? {why not dxe5 I'm not sure} 6. exd6 cxd6 7. O-O Bxf3 8. Qxf3 Ne5 9. Bb5+ Kf8 10. Qe2 h6 11. Nc3 Nf6 12. Bf4 g5
13. Bxe5 dxe5 14. Rfd1 Qb6 15. Nd5 Nxd5 16. exd5 Bd6 17. a4 a6 18. Bd3 Kg7 19.
Rab1 Raf8 20. Bf5 Qb4 21. c4 f6?? 22. Qh5 Rf7 23. Qg6+ Kf8 24. Be6 Rhh7 25. Bxf7 Rxf7 26. Qxh6+ Ke7 27. b3 b6 28. Rd3 b5 29. axb5 axb5 30. cxb5 Qe4 31. Qh3 g4 32. Qe3 Qf5 33. Ra1 Kf8 34. Qh6+ Kg8 35. Ra8+ Bf8 36. Rd1 Qc2 37. Qd2 Qxb3 38. d6 Kg7 39. d7 Bb4 40. Rg8+
1-0
 
Now that you point it out it seems extremely obvious & I have made similar moves in similar positions, something about the position, I think I was looking for more than just a strong center with equal material, I wanted to trap the white king in the center. For this reason my mind was fixated on moving the bishop out rather than trading queens.
That is my point exactly.
Usually, in the Siclian, you are striving to get counterplay against the queen side as well as the center. That is what the open c-file is for, you know.
Now I know perfectly well that sometimes you launch an attack against the white king when it is stranded in the centre or castled short. But that is the exceptions, and even more so in the Dragon given the poisiton of you dark square Bishop.
In your game, trapping the king in the centre is simply not possibly. Apart from it not being in danger, it can just escape with the moves Kf2, Re1 and Kg1. It costs a tempo compared to normal castling, but most of the time tempi are overrated anyway.
After 12...Qd5 you get more than "just a strong center with equal material", you get an advantage in space and structure which is close to being a won position.

I love the Sicilian. Playing ... e5 against strong players seems just as challenging. Plus who wants to play against the Ruy Lopez :ack: (not that I think it's necessarily better for white but I don't want to learn 20+ moves of theory). Pretty much everyone under 2000 plays the accelerated dragon wrong too or learns 8 or 9 moves of the c3-Sicilian, Grand Prix attack, close Sicilian etc.
I agree that the Sicilian is one of black's very best choices for winning. But it is one of the best for losing as well, hence the need to understand what you are doing in order to avoid life being nasty, short and brutish.
What I can't agree with though, is what you say about the Ruy Lopez. It is more the other way round; to play the Sicilian you need to be propped up well with theoretical knowledge while you can play a closed Ruy mainly by your intuition and general positional knowledge. As a matter of fact I have never ever lost a game with Black playing any variation of the closed Ruy while i can't unfortunately boast anything like that in regard to the Sicilian. When I prepared for the Norwegian Championship last summer, all I did to get a repertoire for black was to play through 5 games by Smyslov. When I decided to start playing Sicilian again later in the year, I spent some 120 hours with analytical work...

I'm not offended at all though, my opening understanding in general is not particularly deep (sometimes I feel this way about all aspects of the game). Mostly I focus on tactics & when I can be bothered, endgames. Tactics are more important than openings at the sub-Expert level. Once I break expert I'll delve into openings more deeply.
The different phases of the game are connected for sure. My approach to the opening is also not one of the specialist. I prefer to transfer the battle to the middle game where there is more possibilities for independent thinking. The problem is only that on the level I usually play, I will not get there unless my opening standard is up to scrutiny. Also, if I don't want to draw every game, I need to prepare some small surprises, like that one I recently posted. You'll see for yourself in a couple of years.
Anyway, like I said, I am intending to post some more heavy material here. Perhaps I should start a series about exactly the Sicilian...
 
I had him but threw it away :cry:

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bc4 Bc5
4.c3 Nf6
5.d4 exd4
6.cxd4 Bb4+
7.Nc3 O-O
8.e5 Ne4
9.Bd2 Nxd2
10.Qxd2 Re8
11.O-O d6
12.Ng5 Re7
13.Qd3 g6
14.Nd5 Bf5
15.Nf6+ Kg7
16.Qg3 Nxd4
17.h4 Be6
18.Bxe6 Ne2+

0-1
 
I just won a game by resignation on turn 8. My opponent made a mistake and he lost his queen. His follow-up move was to resign. While it appears that I had a positional advantage, he still had a chance.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=43021233


[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2011.01.11"]
[White "Methos_CFC"]
[Black "scscrafford"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1457"]
[BlackElo "1273"]
[TimeControl "1 in 1 day"]
[Termination "Methos_CFC won by resignation"]

1.d4 e6
2.c4 c5
3.d5 b6
4.Bf4 Bb7
5.Nc3 g6
6.Nf3 Nf6
7.e4 Qc7
8.Bxc7

1-0
 
I just lost a game against Narz as White. Not really sure how I wandered into his trap, I just didn't see it. Its refreshing to play against someone who knows what they're doing! I'd appreciate if someone could help me analyze this a bit.

1.d4 Nf6
2.Nf3 d5
3.N35 Nbd7
4.Bf4 g6
5.g3 Bg7
6.Qd2 N e4
7.Qe3 c5
8. Nxf7 Kxf7
9. Bh6 Qa5+
10.Nc3 cxd4
11. Qf4+ Ndf6
12.O-O-O dxc3
13. Bg2 Qxa2
14. bxc3 Qa1#
 
Hey Cheezy, a few thoughts

3. Ne5

On general principle it's better (usually) to bring out more pieces instead of moving the same piece twice in the opening.

6. Qd2

This allows me to gain time hitting the queen with my own knight (which also will have moved twice but hitting the queen makes this excusable). If you'd brought out the knight first (say to c3) I wouldn't be able to hit the queen with time because even if you brought it to d2 next move you could just exchange it with yours.

7. Qe3

This puts the f4-bishop in an awkward position where he doesn't have much mobility. Mobility is really important in general & especially for bishops.

8. Nxf7

The knight sac isn't dangerous here because your pieces can't get at my king as he's well protected.

9. Bh6 Qa5+

Another problem with the queen on e3 is that the bishop can't get back to attack the queen on d2, the knight on e4 prevents the white's queen from blocking.

After castling queenside black's attack is too strong to resist & after Bg2 (would've been a fine move earlier but the situation is too dire now) mate is inevitable because both black's c-pawn & knight in the center control white's king's escape square d2 so after Qxa2 neither taking the knight nor pawn can prevent mate on a1 (white can play Qxf6 to delay mate one extra move).
 
Hi everyone,

I ran into some cool tactics in my recent game. Feel free to point out better moves or tactics that we missed :)

Game 1:

1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 g6
3.Nc3 Bg7
4.e4 d6
5.Bd3 O-O
6.f4 e5
7.fxe5 dxe5
8.d5 c6
9.Nf3 Bg4
10.O-O Nh5
11.Be2 f5
12.Bg5 Qd7
13.h3 Bxf3
14.Bxf3 Nf4
15.Bxf4 exf4
16.exf5 Qxf5

I decided to try King's Indian Defense (with the sacred Wikipedia as guidance) and didn't really have a clear idea of what I was doing, except that my play is on the K-side.

17.Be4 Qg5
18.Rf3 Nd7
19.Qd2 Ne5
20.Rf2 Nxc4
21.Qe2 Ne3
22.dxc6 bxc6
23.Nd1 Bd4

At this point I began to feel optimistic since I was sensing that there are potential tactics in the air, with my strong Knight on e3 and a potential discovered pin on the white rook by my bishop.

24.Bxc6 Rac8
25.Be4 Rfe8
26.Qd3 Nf5

Setting a trap. I hoped that he would try to win a piece via 27. BxN QxB 28. QxB, since if he does I have a surprise waiting.

27.Bxf5 Re1+ (D)



Position after 27. ... Re1+

28.Kh2 gxf5

I didn't see much past 27. BxN Re1+, but it felt good since:

(a) my bishop is immune to capture after Re1+ (since the White Queen needs to guard the g3 square); and

(b) I remembered the beautiful 25. Re7+ in Kasparov's Immortal game, so I really wanted to play Re1+.

The hard part for me here is to find a way forward after that; I decided that I don't have any good moves apart from 28. ... gxf5.

Here I knew I had a very good position, but it wasn't crystal clear to me where the forced win is. If he moves his Rook (which he did), I can force mate or win his Queen (which actually happened). If he moves his Queen instead, say 29. Qf3, I was thinking of 29. ... BxR 30. QxB Rce8 to bring my last piece into the attack - White only has the Queen defending so I'm positive he would have to give up some material to survive.

29.Rf3 Bg1+
30.Kh1 Bf2+
31.Kh2 Bg3+
32.Rxg3 fxg3+
33.Qxg3 Rh1+

0-1

There's another lucky tactical shot where my opponent blundered the game away, will share that when it's over :)
 
Got lucky when my opponent erred in the opening.

1.e4 c5

Heart sank when I saw the Sicilian, to be honest. I don't know much theory.

2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 e5
6.Bb5+

My idea is to play Nf5 after Bd7. If he takes my bishop, I retake with the c-knight and put pressure on the d-pawn. In retrospect, he could've just played d5 after that and my knights would look awkward, so it wasn't really a good idea.

6. ... Bd7
7.Nf5 a6
8.Bxd7+ Qxd7
9.Bg5 Be7?

I think this is a losing blunder.

10.Nxg7+ Kf8
11.Bh6

Setting up a mating net.

11. ... Ne8??

Not sure if Black has any defense here, would appreciate your thoughts.

12.Ne6+ Kg8
13.Qg4+

1-0

Game's here.
 
Got lucky when my opponent erred in the opening.

1.e4 c5

Heart sank when I saw the Sicilian, to be honest. I don't know much theory.

2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 e5
6.Bb5+

My idea is to play Nf5 after Bd7. If he takes my bishop, I retake with the c-knight and put pressure on the d-pawn. In retrospect, he could've just played d5 after that and my knights would look awkward, so it wasn't really a good idea.

Game 2: If you mean 6. ... Bd7; 7. Nf5, Bxb5; 8. Nxb5, d5? that loses to 9. exd, Nxd5; 10. Qxd5! followed by a Knight check at c7.
 
Game 2: If you mean 6. ... Bd7; 7. Nf5, Bxb5; 8. Nxb5, d5? that loses to 9. exd, Nxd5; 10. Qxd5! followed by a Knight check at c7.

Thanks for pointing that out! Didn't see it - I have a problem with visualisation when analysing, still working on that :)
 
Rude as I am I'm skipping 54 pages of unread games to post my first (10-minutes live) game on Chess.com. I am playing white and while I got off to a bad start, I got off with a draw. Not too shabby considering how out of practice I am :lol:

Spoiler :
1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bb5 h6
4.Bxc6 dxc6
5.h4 Bd6
6.d4 Bg4
7.dxe5 Bb4+
8.c3 Qxd1+
9.Kxd1 Bc5
10.b4 Bxf2
11.Nd2 O-O-O
12.Ke2 Bg3
13.Nc4 Ne7
14.Ba3 Ng6
15.e6 fxe6
16.Rad1 Nf4+
17.Ke3 Nxg2+
18.Ke2 Nf4+
19.Ke3 Ng6
20.Rhg1 Bf4+
21.Kf2 Bh5
22.Bc1 Rxd1
23.Rxd1 Bxc1
24.Rxc1 Rf8
25.Nd2 Ne5
26.Ke3 Ng4+
27.Kd4 Rd8+
28.Kc5 Nf2
29.Rf1 Nd3+
30.Kc4 Nb2+
31.Kb3 Nd3
32.Nc4 a6
33.Nfe5 Nxe5
34.Nxe5 c5
35.bxc5 a5
36.a4 b6
37.cxb6 cxb6
38.Nc6 Rd2
39.Rf8+ Kb7
40.Nd8+ Kc7
41.Nxe6+ Kd7
42.Nxg7 Bg6
43.h5 Ke7
44.Ra8 Bf7+
45.c4 Rd3+
46.Kc2 Bxc4
47.Nf5+ Kf7
48.Ra7+ Kf6
49.Nxh6 Kg5
50.Nf5 Kxh5
51.Rh7+ Kg6
52.Rh6+ Kg5
53.Rxb6 Ra3
54.Nd6 Rxa4
55.Nxc4 Rxc4+
56.Kd3 Rb4
57.Rxb4 axb4
58.Kc4 b3
59.Kxb3 Kf4
60.Kc4 Kxe4
 
Tied for 2nd in the 86th annual Western Massachusetts Open. I lost the 3rd round against an expert in a bit of a tragic game where I was up a pawn the whole game but got in time trouble & blundered away at the end.

Here's my best game from the event, from the 5th & final round. Kind of a blowout really, he played terribly passively in the beginning.

[Event "Western Mass Open"]
[Date "2011.02.27"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Brancic, Alexsanda"]
[Black "Norris, Tony"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D45"]
[WhiteElo "1921"]
[BlackElo "1910"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. cxd5
exd5 7. Be2 Bd6 8. O-O O-O 9. a3 Qe7 10. Bd3 Ne4 11. Qe2 Ndf6 12. Bd2 Bg4 13.
Be1 Ng5 14. Qd1 Nxf3+ 15. gxf3 Bh3 16. Bd2 Ne4 17. f4 Bxf1 18. Bxf1 f5 19. Nxe4
fxe4 20. f3 Rf6 21. Be1 Re8 22. Kh1 Rg6 23. Bf2 Bxf4 24. Bg2 Bxe3 25. Bxe3 exf3
26. Bxf3 Qxe3 27. Bh5 Qe4+ 28. Bf3 Qh4 29. Qd2 Rge6 30. Kg2 Re3 31. Qf2 Qxf2+
32. Kxf2 Rd3 33. Rd1 Rxd1 34. Bxd1 Re4 35. h3 Rxd4 36. Be2 Rd2 37. b4 Ra2 38.
b5 c5 39. Ke1 Rxa3 40. Bg4 Kf7 41. Bc8 b6 42. Bb7 Ke6 43. Kd2 Ke5 44. Kc2 Rxh3
45. Bc8 Rg3 46. Kd2 c4 47. Kc2 Kd4 48. Bf5 Rg2+ 49. Kd1 Ke3 50. Bxh7 d4 51. Bg8
d3 52. Kc1 c3 53. Kb1 c2+ 54. Kb2 Kd2 55. Bd5 c1=Q+ 56. Kb3 Qc3+ 57. Ka2 Kc1+
58. Bxg2 Qb2# 0-1

He could have resigned a couple dozen moves earlier but chose to be stubborn as I had only a few minutes left. Just for the hell of it I wrote down all my moves up to mate anyway. I knew even if I got down to 5 seconds left I could easily win within the 5-second time delay.

I'll post my one loss shortly.
 
I'll post my one loss shortly.
Shortly my foot! :mad:

Anyway, I still don't have it (I remember putting it into the computer & analyzing it but I seem to have forgotten to save it with the others [maybe saved it in the wrong PGN by accident], I will try to find it or re-add it for my files though).

Here's a bizarre one. Absolutely no captures until move 27. After that it was over quite quickly (went on for about 10 more moves after I stopped recording due to time pressure).

[Event "W-field"]
[Date "2011.03.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Chatsky, Sam"]
[Black "Norris, Tony"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D45"]
[WhiteElo "1790"]
[BlackElo "1938"]

{599MB, Fritz11.ctg} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 Nf6 5. a3 Nbd7 6. Nc3
Bd6 7. b4 e5 8. c5 Bc7 9. h3 O-O 10. Be2 e4 11. Nd2 h6 12. a4 Nh7 13. Qb3 Ng5
14. Ba3 f5 15. h4 Ne6 16. g3 Nf6 17. Rb1 Ng4 18. Nd1 Qf6 19. Bb2 Bd7 20. Bf1
Be8 21. Bg2 Bh5 22. Rf1 Qg6 23. Bh1 Rae8 24. Rg1 Nh2 25. Nf1 Qg4 26. Qc2 Nf3+
27. Bxf3 exf3 28. Kd2 Nf4 29. Nh2 Qh3 30. gxf4 Qxh2 31. Rf1 Bxf4 32. Kd3 Bc7
0-1
 
16 g4 by white, I think (...f4 drops the e pawn, I can't see enough compensation, although not sure). White should have long castled at 17 and meet ng4 with rdf1. He got his bits in a tangle with the king stuck after Nd1. But nicely played.
 
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