Share your games!

Narz · Aug 1, 2008

Congrats & glad you joined. I'd say correspondence has done alot more for my game than blitz has. I played blitz heavily for many years with very little improvement in rating. Blitz encourages superficial calculation & unless you analyze your games you may never even know where you went wrong (or worse, you may never know how you're opponent could have defended better & get false confidence).

Blitz is definitely fun though but it shouldn't be the "main course" of your chess experience.

I plan to start another CFC Chess Tourney soon & you're welcome to join.

Riffraff · Aug 1, 2008

Narz said:
Congrats & glad you joined. I'd say correspondence has done alot more for my game than blitz has. I played blitz heavily for many years with very little improvement in rating. Blitz encourages superficial calculation & unless you analyze your games you may never even know where you went wrong (or worse, you may never know how you're opponent could have defended better & get false confidence).

Blitz is definitely fun though but it shouldn't be the "main course" of your chess experience.

I plan to start another CFC Chess Tourney soon & you're welcome to join.

Thanks for the advice, I've started some correspondance games now, see how that goes..

Tourney definately sounds fun, at worst I'll give you all a nice confidence boost

Mehmed100 · Aug 1, 2008

Just remember to move and not lose on time! :lol:

It happens way too often to me. Even in correspondence you can't take forever.

Riffraff · Aug 2, 2008

Mehmed100 said:
Just remember to move and not lose on time!
It happens way too often to me. Even in correspondence you can't take forever.

I'm still full of the beginners enthuiasm, although I imagine that it can happen easily especially with a 1 day limit...

Narz · Aug 2, 2008

Beginners enthusiasm is great. With it you can improve very fast. Within 3-4 months of starting to play I could beat guys 3 out of 4 who were beating me 4 out of 4 when I first started (though the best kid in my small college I couldn't beat even once for over a year).

Riffraff · Sep 15, 2008

Was quite close to beating a player with a 2000 rating today although he did give me 2 free moves to start with. Still think I played quite a few solid moves up until I simply gifted him my bishop and thus the match. Game was live with 15 mins + 10 sec.

Looking at it again, I think rook g3 then rook h3 might have been the way to victory ..

linky

Panzar75 · Sep 17, 2008

You played well.

After 10. 0-0 you played the move Nh5, why did you play that move and what other moves did you consider?

I don't see a situation where you get to play Rg3-h3 and I'm not sure it would be that special. There is an interesting alternative at move 23 though, after he played Qh2. Can you see what I mean?

Riffraff · Sep 18, 2008

Panzar75 said:
You played well.

Thank you

After 10. 0-0 you played the move Nh5, why did you play that move and what other moves did you consider?

Well the general plan was a quick rush to his king as 2 of his light figures were unavaible on the kingside due to the interlocked pawns blocking any reasonable path. First threat would be to the a3 pawn with queen on the b-file.

With that in mind I didn't see many alternatives, as the knight was blocking bishop and queen and had nowhere else to go (g4?).

I don't see a situation where you get to play Rg3-h3 and I'm not sure it would be that special. There is an interesting alternative at move 23 though, after he played Qh2. Can you see what I mean?

Agreed on the first part after reconsidering the position. At move 23 I'm sure that rook to g6 instead of g7 would have been a better choice as it adds mobility but I don't think that's what you have in mind..

edit: now I see it, bf3 !

Cheers for looking at the match!

Panzar75 · Sep 18, 2008

Well the general plan was a quick rush to his king as 2 of his light figures were unavaible on the kingside due to the interlocked pawns blocking any reasonable path. First threat would be to the a3 pawn with queen on the b-file.

With that in mind I didn't see many alternatives, as the knight was blocking bishop and queen and had nowhere else to go (g4?).

Your thinking is not bad. However I cannot see any way to make meaningful progress on the kingside. The problem is that even if two of his pieces are blocked from the kingside your two pieces on the e- and f-files aren't really in a position to attack anytime soon. There is no obvious attack so what do you do then? Develop your remaining pieces to join the game of course!

There are several good developing moves available. Take another look and see if you can't tell which ones I'm talking about.

now I see it, bf3 !

It's not easy to see, especially during a 15 minute game. But when you look at it for a while it turns out to be brutally strong. Seems like it just wins. For example; 23...Bf3 24. Ra2 Rg4 (Rg6 is also good but not as strong) 25. g3 Rag8 26. Kf2 R8g6 27. Ke1 Rxg3 28. Ne2 Rg2 29. Qh3 Rh6 30. Qc8+ Kg7 and it's completely over.

Riffraff · Sep 19, 2008

Panzar75 said:
Your thinking is not bad. However I cannot see any way to make meaningful progress on the kingside. The problem is that even if two of his pieces are blocked from the kingside your two pieces on the e- and f-files aren't really in a position to attack anytime soon. There is no obvious attack so what do you do then? Develop your remaining pieces to join the game of course!

There are several good developing moves available. Take another look and see if you can't tell which ones I'm talking about.

I would say that bishop a6 is a strong move, as it pins down his knight and he doesnt have any pieces to cover that diagonal. I was quite fixated on attacking him at h3 (which i called a3 in the last post mistakedly) though so I didnt consider it at the time.

Can't really see another move of the quality though (perhaps rb8).

It's not easy to see, especially during a 15 minute game. But when you look at it for a while it turns out to be brutally strong. Seems like it just wins. For example; 23...Bf3 24. Ra2 Rg4 (Rg6 is also good but not as strong) 25. g3 Rag8 26. Kf2 R8g6 27. Ke1 Rxg3 28. Ne2 Rg2 29. Qh3 Rh6 30. Qc8+ Kg7 and it's completely over.

I'm not sure if I would have gotten through as smoothly, but the position sure would have been nice

Panzar75 · Sep 19, 2008

I would say that bishop a6 is a strong move, as it pins down his knight and he doesnt have any pieces to cover that diagonal...
Can't really see another move of the quality though (perhaps rb8).

Ba6 is indeed a good move. Not only does it pin his knight on a good diagonal but it also help clear the back rank for your rooks to operate. Rb8 is another possibility. Unfortunately because of the strong reply b4 it's not as good in this specific position. The two other moves to consider are Qd7 simply to get the queen off the back rank and a5 to then play Ba6 and Rb8. All of these moves are significantly better than Nh5 which does not develop and does not accomplish much of anything.

I plugged in the computer and it thinks a5 is best at -0.68 (6/15 depth) it then wants to follow up with Ba6, Qd7 and Rfb8. Anyway, the lesson for today is when you don't see how the attack is going to work you should probably develop the rest of your pieces before you continue the attack.

Riffraff · Sep 21, 2008

Panzar75 said:
Ba6 is indeed a good move. Not only does it pin his knight on a good diagonal but it also help clear the back rank for your rooks to operate. Rb8 is another possibility. Unfortunately because of the strong reply b4 it's not as good in this specific position. The two other moves to consider are Qd7 simply to get the queen off the back rank and a5 to then play Ba6 and Rb8. All of these moves are significantly better than Nh5 which does not develop and does not accomplish much of anything.

I plugged in the computer and it thinks a5 is best at -0.68 (6/15 depth) it then wants to follow up with Ba6, Qd7 and Rfb8. Anyway, the lesson for today is when you don't see how the attack is going to work you should probably develop the rest of your pieces before you continue the attack.

Really, thanks alot for your effort taken towards improving my game - it's been very helpful. Hopefully you wont regret it, if our paths cross in the upcoming CFC tournament

.

Narz · Sep 25, 2008

Interesting game against a fellow by the (user)name of RedWings.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=8146384

PGN :

[Event "1800+ Quad"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.07.26"]
[Round "1"]
[White "RedWings"]
[Black "Narz"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2209"]
[BlackElo "2047"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 f5 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. O-O Bd6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. c5 Bc7 9. b4 Ne4 10. Bb2 Nd7 11. a4 g5 12. a5 g4 13. Nd2 Bxh2+ 14. Kxh2 Qh4+ 15. Kg1 Rf6 16. Ndxe4 dxe4 17. Nxe4 Rh6 18. f3 fxe4 19. fxg4 exd3 20. Rf4 Qh1+ 21. Kf2 Qxd1 22. Rxd1 Nf8 23. Rxd3 Ng6 24. Rf3 Bd7 25. Rh3 Rf8+ 26. Kg3 Rxh3+ 27. gxh3 Rf1 28. Ra3 Kf7 29. a6 bxa6 30. Rxa6 Rb1 31. Rxa7 Ke7 32. b5 Kd8 33. bxc6 Bxc6 34. Bc3 Rg1+ 35. Kf2 Rg2+ 36. Kf1 Rg3 37. Rxh7 Rxe3 38. Bd2 Rd3 39. Bg5+ Kc8 40. Rg7 Nf4 41. Rg8+ Kb7 42. Rg7+ Ka6 43. Bxf4 Rf3+ 44. Ke2 Rxf4 45. Re7 Rxd4 46. Rxe6 Kb5 47. g5 Kxc5 48. g6 Rd6 49. Rxd6 Kxd6 50. h4 Ke6 1/2-1/2

I had what I thought was a pretty nice sacrifice on move 13. Before I made it I found it somewhat hard to believe it was really sound (since we were just a move or two out of the opening book) but I couldn't see anything wrong with it so I went ahead.

After that though I don't think I played as well as I could of. I probably shouldn't have exchanged queens. My somewhat cramped position & lack of development gave my opponent good counterplay & he ended up drawing me (and actually I think, with better play at the end he probably should've been able to beat me).

I think we both made some significant (though perhaps subtle) errors in this game, comments welcome.

Panzar75 · Sep 25, 2008

12. a5 <--- What on earth is this?? Until this move this guy looked somewhat competent. He should look up the minority attack in a dictionary and then stand in the corner for the rest of the day. Not to mention it allows the sacriface on h2, Ne2 seems to be better so that after g4 Nd2 Bxh2 Kxh2 Qh5+ Kg1 Rf6 there is g3 and Nf4 to defend agaist black doubling on the h-file. I looked about thus far and then checked the time controls expecting 15-30 minutes but 1 move in 3 days? This is a critical position and you need to invest enough time to make sure you can handle g4.

After g4 white needs to try Ne1 so that he can play Bxh2+ Kxh2 Qh4+ Kg1 Rf6 Nxe4 dxe4 g3 Qh3 Ng2 Rh6 Nh4 exd3 with a better position for black but perhaps not winning. Either way, this is the best white can do after the move a5 which is horrible on so many levels.

13...Bxh2+ ! It is indeed an excellent sacrifice. White is in big trouble now.

15...Rf6 white's best hope is to sack the exchange not to be immediately mated with 16. Nf3 gxf3 Qxf3 Nd2 Qf4 Qxf4 exf4 Nxf1 Rxf1 and with this time control and the current scope of white's pieces black is winning for sure.

After 16. Ndxe4 it is black's turn to invest some time. There could be a potentially game altering difference between capturing with the d-pawn and capturing with the f-pawn. It's not easy at first glance to see which is better. Time to buckle down and calculate. (You already know you made the wrong capture, right?) fxe4 opens the rook down the f-file. Could be a big factor or it could be unimportant. As it turns out it allows white's best defence. 16...dxe4 Re1 Rh6 Kf1 exd3 Qxd3 Qh1+ Ke2 Qxg2 and while black is much better white is alive and kicking unlike after fxe4 where Re1 is met with Qxf2 Kh2 Rh6#.

Slightly better than 19... exd3 is Qh2+ Kf2 Rf6+ Ke1 and then exd3 with very little in the way of counterplay for white. The computer would have kept the queens on with 20...Nf6 which is better by about half a pawns margin. The issue is really if you think your practical chances of winning is better with the attack that is going on right now or in the endgame piece up for what will be 2 pawns. Either is fine really, I am unsure as to how I would have played it.

22...Nf8 surprised me. If your plan is to win the endgame with exchanging queens why did you not play Rf6 exchanging another pair of rooks? This way you also get the knight to the f6 square which looks way hotter than f8 or g6. I'm really puzzled by this move as it looks completely wrong. Could be this was your last chance for a decisive advantage.

28...Kf7 You allow a7 for some reason. Now it's a whole different ballgame. Instead of passive pieces white gets active. Ask Garri Kasparov what he thinks about active pieces. He did not mind sacrificing a few pawns or even a piece for activity and you not only gave it away for free but also threw in a pawn to boot.

I didn't see any point where you were losing though. Just too bad you couldn't capitalize on your fine position in the middlegame.

Narz · Sep 26, 2008

Panzar75 said:
22...Nf8 surprised me. If your plan is to win the endgame with exchanging queens why did you not play Rf6 exchanging another pair of rooks? This way you also get the knight to the f6 square which looks way hotter than f8 or g6. I'm really puzzled by this move as it looks completely wrong. Could be this was your last chance for a decisive advantage.

I guess I didn't want to exchange rooks because I felt it would fix his pawns. :undecide:

And Nf6 gets pawn forked. Looking back I probably should have just traded rooks too, I was trying to de-awkwardize my pieces but with a piece up it wouldn't have been as important & actually they ended up pretty akward anyway (and I ended up trading rooks & fixing white's pawns anyway too :blush:

).

Panzar75 said:
28...Kf7 You allow a7 for some reason. Now it's a whole different ballgame. Instead of passive pieces white gets active. Ask Garri Kasparov what he thinks about active pieces. He did not mind sacrificing a few pawns or even a piece for activity and you not only gave it away for free but also threw in a pawn to boot.

Yeah, that was my fatal mistake I think. I think I simply missed the thread of a6. After I played it instead I think white's position is almost completely dead. Well, I'm confident I wouldn't make a similar mistake again anyway.

Panzar75 said:
I didn't see any point where you were losing though. Just too bad you couldn't capitalize on your fine position in the middlegame.

Well, I worried when he had 4 pawns for my bishop that he might have been able to queen but I think I played my cards well at the very end in order to draw (though of course if I would have played better earlier I would have gotten a win).

Thanks, as always, for your tireless analysis! :hatsoff:

Panzar75 · Sep 26, 2008

I guess I didn't want to exchange rooks because I felt it would fix his pawns. And Nf6 gets pawn forked. Looking back I probably should have just traded rooks too, I was trying to de-awkwardize my pieces but with a piece up it wouldn't have been as important & actually they ended up pretty akward anyway (and I ended up trading rooks & fixing white's pawns anyway too ).

I meant Nf6 after Rf6 and trading rooks of course. As for fixing his pawn structure, yeah, I guess. You can't have everything. 22...Rf6 g3 Rxf4+ gxf4 Nf6 g5 Nd5

The knight on d5 is very good. The white rook has few open lines. I doubt the pawn on b4 can be saved. I didn't see this position before move 22 but just rejected Nf8 out of principle. It looks wrong; it has no good squares to go to from g6 and blocks in the rook.

Narz · Sep 26, 2008

Yeah, thanks again Panz. I'm going to really try to take my time in games against high rated players (and play fewer games in general - at my peak I had something like sxiteen games going on chess.com, five going on facebook's chess.com applet, two on queenalice & one coorespondence game with a friend from college (another one in which I started off strong but now looks like it may wind down to a draw). :crazyeye:

On that note I am totally overwhelmed in my current game (in another tourney) against col (remember everyone it's current so don't comment at all on it now!!) so I'm going to look at it on a real board and wait a few days before I make my next move. It doesn't seem I'm in too much hot water yet (though I may well be) but it's definitely one of those games where there's alot of room for error.

bathsheba666 · Oct 25, 2008

I am reliably erratic in my games, but I quite enjoyed this attack, (although ignoring what preceded):

[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.10.22"]
[Round "1"]
[White "bathsheba666"]
[Black "akbad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1548"]
[BlackElo "1493"]
[TimeControl "1 in 7 days"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qe7 3. Nc3 c6 4. Bc4 b5 5. Bb3 a5 6. a3 Bb7 7. d3 a4 8. Ba2 b4 9. axb4 Na6 10. Nxa4 d5 11. exd5 Qxb4+ 12. Nc3 cxd5 13. Nxe5 Be7 14. O-O Qb6 15. Bxd5 Bxd5 16. Nxd5 Qd6 17. Qf3 Qxe5 18. Nxe7 Nxe7 19. Qxa8+ Nb8 20. Bd2 O-O 21. Bb4 Nbc6 22. Qxf8+ Kxf8 23. Ra8+ Nb8 24. Re1 Qxe1+ 25. Bxe1 Nec6 26. Bb4+ Ke8 27. Bd6 Kd7 28. Bxb8 Ke6 29. Ra6 Kd5 30. c4+ Kd4 31. Rxc6 Kxd3 32. c5 Kc4 33. Ba7 Kb5 34. Rd6 1-0

For an illustration of the erraticism, here's an earlier game from Chess.com, for your amusement:

[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.09.20"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kinyo87"]
[Black "bathsheba666"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "879"]
[BlackElo "1202"]
[TimeControl "1 in 5 days"]

1. e4 c5 2. Qf3 a6 3. Bc4 b5 4. Qxf7# 1-0

And here are my opponent's messages, to comfort me in this hour of darkness:

Kinyo87: Dont brnig out the tower

Kinyo87: HAHAHAHAHA
Kinyo87: Stick to soccer

Mehmed100 · Oct 25, 2008

Don't worry, I lost to an easy trap in 6 moves once. xD

The odd thing was that the game was rather recent...

Panzar75 · Oct 28, 2008

Here is my latest game. I play badly as usual and it's completely lost about halfway into the game. Had it been a normal game I might very well have given up after being a whole piece down. But this was a team game so I kept playing.

The game turned out to be an example of the fact that you should probably not resign to early. Just because your opponent is higher rated than you and have many many different ways of winning he will every now and then inexplicably find a way to complicate things.

I'm white in this game. The overall match ended in a 7-1 defeat but then they were rated 400 points higher than us on average.

Spoiler :

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