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[Narz]

Here's a somewhat disappointing game I just completed. I completely overlooked 33. e4 and had to settle for a draw.

http://www.queenalice.com/game.php?id=338340

I felt like I had a fairly substantial lead in development but proven unable to turn it into anything.

 

[Panzar75]

Interesting opening sequence. It turned into a French defence where the Bishop doesn't belong on g2 as far as I know, and with the problem Bishop outside the pawn chain to boot. Looks to me as the opening was a small failure for white.

The move 7. b3 is a complete mystery to me. An attempt to fianchetto the other Bishop as well? If so, not a good idea in this position (as well as most positions in fact).

I would most likely have castled before starting pushing pawns in the center as the catious general I am.

After 11. a3 I'm starting to lose confidence in white's play. What's the setup on the Queenside supposed to do? I guess he was worried about d4 but you are as you said getting rather far ahead in development. And after say, Re1, d4, b5, dxc3, Nc4 white has no problems.

After losing too many games due to overly passive moves even I can see that 18. Bh1 can't be good. In response to g5 white can play f4. In fact, he can do so right away.

The move 18. g5 Looks dangerous, chasing the Knight from the rim and weakening your King to boot. e3 seems to be a good move or some Rook move. Then again, I guess you're better than I at speculative attacks. I'm more of a positional player.

25. Qxa7 and 26. Qxa7 seems to be a free pawn. We like to eat pawns. They are yummy.

28. g4 is a decisive mistake, with the Bishop in play it should be all over. It isn't easy to see but 32... Rd8 (cutting off the King's escape) wins immediately. The threat is Qh3+, Kf2, Qg2+, Ke3, Qg3# there is no defence.

Missing e4 is not such a major problem. You're still much better. You should probably try to activate the Rook in some way. Re8 seems to be the computer's favourite with -4.30 or so. There are in fact a bunch of possible plans as white seems to lack any form of counterplay. For instance, a6 (threatning Bb5) a4, Bxa4, Rxa4, b5 looks interesting. Also, it seems very likely you will have a perpetual check if things after all went badly.

 

[Narz]

32. Rd8 yeah. I wimped out and got afraid somehow could force me to trade down though & win. I like mating attacks but get kind of nervous about long king hunts especially when I think my opponent can manage to trade and leave me lost.

As for g5, I was pretty certain it was a mistake just after I made it. Got a little restless & wanted to punish white's poor development a bit too much and ended up weakening my own position.

 

[Narz]

Pretty pleased with this one (which clinched my tournament win for tehan's tourny, kinda feel for tehan though).

This one on the other hand... (don't comment on that one since it's still in progress... for a few more moves anyway)

 

[Panzar75]

This one on the other hand...

Yeah, he played well. Not much you could do. Only comment is why 12... Bxf4? It seems to make sense to just take the Knight with the Queen and let him win the pawn. Since you were up a pawn it's still even in material. After 12... Bxf4 you lose the exchange and any possibility to castle.

 

[Narz]

I thought I could trap his knght somehow & highly underestimated his attack in general. Also I feared w/ his bishop @ d6 I may have had trouble castling anyway.

 

[punkbass2000]

2 min/game + 2 sec/move
I'm black:

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Qxd4 Nc6
5. Bb5 a6
6. Bxc6 bxc6
7. Qc3 Nf6
8. Qxc6+ Bd7
9. Qc4 h6
10. 0-0 e6
11. e5 dxe5
12. Nxe5 Bb5
13. Qf4 Bd6
14. c4 Bxc4
15. Rd1 Qc7
16. Rxd6 Qxd6
17. Nxc4 Qd1#

That was a fun one, with an unexpected mate on the back rank.

Had 1:37 left on my clock to his 0:59

 

[Narz]

2 minute games are fun. He should've taken with the queen!

 

[Narz]

Here's one from an official recent tournament vs. an 1800something rated player.

I started off very strong (or rather my opponent made some serious mistakes) but then on move 18 I blundered a full piece, simply gave it right away. I never recovered from this though I believe I made a valiant effort to.

It was a long time control so I had no excuses for the mistakes I made. Was very instructive for me though. I tried to force some sort of draw but it didn't work out. I also was reminded why h3 is often far better than h4 as a defensive move.

[Event "Ventura chess club tournament"]
[Site "Ventura, CA"]
[Date "2008.03.25"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Narz (1475)"]
[Black "Will (18xx)"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2
Bxd2+ 8. Nbxd2 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Qb3 Be6 11. Qxb7 Ndb4 12. Bb5 O-O 13.
Bxc6 Rb8 14. Qxa7 Nc2+ 15. Ke2 Nxa1 16. Rxa1 Rxb2 17. Kf1 Qd6 18. Ne5?? Rxd2
19. Nf3 Bc4+ 20. Kg1 Rb2 21. Ne5 Qb4 22. h4? Bb5 23. Bd5 Qd2 24. Nxf7 Qxf2+
25. Kh1 Qxh4+ 26. Kg1 Qf2+ 27. Kh1 Bf1 28. Rxf1 Qxf1+ 29. Kh2 Qf4+ 30. Kh3
Qf5+ 0-1

Comments welcome.

 

[Panzar75]

I always play the Ruy Lopez so I'm not familiar with the position after 3. Bc4 but it seems like the first 9 moves are theory. 10... Be6 looks a little odd, just giving white a pawn. An alternative might be 10... Na5 11. Qa4+ Nc6 12. Qb5 allowing the Knight on d5 to move.

12... Bd5 is an improvement over castling; 13. 0-0 0-0 14. Bxc6 Nxc6 15. Qa6

14... Nc2+ is a simple counting error. Nxc6 nets a piece worth 3 points while Nc2+ nets a Rook for a piece which is 5-3= 2 points. I presume you could make the argument that after taking back the piece white is up 2 pawns for nothing much while at least after Nxa1 there is an imbalance. The problem is that the imbalance is very much in white's favour.

After the move 16... Rxb2 white's position is superior and probably winning already. The goal for white, I think, should be exchanging Queens, a pair of Rooks, and one minor piece to get two pieces against the Rook. If at all possible keeping the Bishop+Knight vs. Rook. With that in mind perhaps it makes less sense to retreat the King to a castled position unless forced to do so. It can really help out in the centre in the endgame. Also, with a Rook less the back rank is more vulnerable making it even less attractive to move the King back to f1 or g1.

My first impulse looking at this position was to centralize the Queen with Qc5 but since black can then take on a2 I would have to settle for Qa3. All exchanges are in principle good for white as you would get closer to the winning 2 pieces vs. Rook endgame, also the a-pawn gets stronger the less material there is on the board. A good way to play is therefore to centralize your pieces as much as possible as black must then decide whether to allow trades or accept inferior squares.

Notice that with Qa3 black could not have played 17. Qd6 which centralizes his Queen very nicely. But even now, white is still better perhaps still winning. All you have to do is to not lose a piece... After Ne5 the game is suddenly lost for white instead. Not only did black go from material down to material up, look at his pieces all centrally placed attacking everything in sight.

h4 does indeed look odd. I wouldn't think that anyone could see any attacking chances for white in this position. On h3 the pawn is at least protected.

Allowing black to take on f2 ends the game at once. A better line is 24. Bxf7+ Kh8 25. d5 protecting f2 with the Queen.

In summary you played well getting a winning position before blundering a piece and the game. It takes a whole lot of good moves in a row to win but only a single bad one to lose.

 

[Narz]

I always play the Ruy Lopez so I'm not familiar with the position after 3. Bc4 but it seems like the first 9 moves are theory. 10... Be6 looks a little odd, just giving white a pawn. An alternative might be 10... Na5 11. Qa4+ Nc6 12. Qb5 allowing the Knight on d5 to move.

Yeah, it was unexpected. The theory says either Na5 or N(c)e7

12... Bd5 is an improvement over castling; 13. 0-0 0-0 14. Bxc6 Nxc6 15. Qa6

14... Nc2+ is a simple counting error. Nxc6 nets a piece worth 3 points while Nc2+ nets a Rook for a piece which is 5-3= 2 points. I presume you could make the argument that after taking back the piece white is up 2 pawns for nothing much while at least after Nxa1 there is an imbalance. The problem is that the imbalance is very much in white's favour.

Yeah, when the smoke cleared after all this I felt pretty good.

After the move 16... Rxb2 white's position is superior and probably winning already. The goal for white, I think, should be exchanging Queens, a pair of Rooks, and one minor piece to get two pieces against the Rook. If at all possible keeping the Bishop+Knight vs. Rook. With that in mind perhaps it makes less sense to retreat the King to a castled position unless forced to do so. It can really help out in the centre in the endgame. Also, with a Rook less the back rank is more vulnerable making it even less attractive to move the King back to f1 or g1.

My first impulse looking at this position was to centralize the Queen with Qc5 but since black can then take on a2 I would have to settle for Qa3. All exchanges are in principle good for white as you would get closer to the winning 2 pieces vs. Rook endgame, also the a-pawn gets stronger the less material there is on the board. A good way to play is therefore to centralize your pieces as much as possible as black must then decide whether to allow trades or accept inferior squares.

Notice that with Qa3 black could not have played 17. Qd6 which centralizes his Queen very nicely. But even now, white is still better perhaps still winning. All you have to do is to not lose a piece... After Ne5 the game is suddenly lost for white instead. Not only did black go from material down to material up, look at his pieces all centrally placed attacking everything in sight.

I considered Qa3 for a long time before I played Kf1. I just got overly fearful of the bishop check even though it didn't appear to lead to anything decisive. In retrospect I can see I was too passive.

h4 does indeed look odd. I wouldn't think that anyone could see any attacking chances for white in this position. On h3 the pawn is at least protected.

Yep, I learned the hard way.

Allowing black to take on f2 ends the game at once. A better line is 24. Bxf7+ Kh8 25. d5 protecting f2 with the Queen.

I suppose, yeah. I was obsessed with wanting a draw and miscalculated. Would I have been able to get one if my pawn was on h3 instead of h4?

In summary you played well getting a winning position before blundering a piece and the game. It takes a whole lot of good moves in a row to win but only a single bad one to lose.

Indeed!

Thanks for your analysis!

 

[Panzar75]

Would I have been able to get [a draw] if my pawn was on h3 instead of h4?

With best play from black, unlikely. But then again black often did not play the best moves during the game. From a practical standpoint I'd say you would have had a decent chance to draw.

 

[Tomoyo]

So I finished my first game of blindfold chess a few days ago. This transcript is reconstructed a few days later, and there might be a few parts where two moves are in reverse order. I did have the advantage of playing in the dark (the game was played in a dark hotel room as we were going to sleep -- my opponents were friends/schoolmates/roommates at the science research competition we attended/competed in a few days ago), which helped.

I wasn't very happy to see the French as that seemed like it would make the game longer and more strategic. I also kept forgetting about the bishop c8 and had to keep reminding myself it was there, and when I played 27. Qf3, it was to my surprise that it was indeed, checkmate. I had forgotten about the pawn on h5...

Well, it was fun. If I got better at blindfold chess, I could make people really impressed.

White: Me
Black: Them

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 b6
4. Nf3 Nc6
5. e5 Bb7
6. Bd3 Nge7
7. O-O Nf5
8. Bxf5 exf5
9. Bg5 f6
10. exf6 gxf6
11. Re1+ Kf7
12. Nh4 fxg5
13. Qh5+ Kf6
14. f4 gxh4
15. Qg5+ Kf7
16. Qxf5+ Qf6
17. Qxd5+ Kg6
18. Re6 Nb4
19. Rxf6+ Kxf6
20. Qxb7 Bd6
21. Re1 Rag8
22. Ne4+ Ke7
23. Ng5+ Kf6
24. Re6+ Kf5
25. Qe4+ Kg4
26. h3+ Kh5
27. Qf3#

 

[Narz]

Well, it was fun. If I got better at blindfold chess, I could make people really impressed.

Are you kidding? I'm very impressed already. My head starts going murky about move 5 or 6 generally. If you ever want to meet up in NY sometime you'll have to teach me that!

 

[Panzar75]

I too am very impressed by that game. I can usually follow an opening for 15 moves or so but there is no way I could play a full game.

 

[Narz]

This may well be one of the best games I ever played ("the best" I was thinking, while I was playing it).

Up until I let myself get checkmated that is!

[Event "VCCC Tourney"]
[Site "Ventura, CA"]
[Date "2008.04.15"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Narz"]
[Black "Chuck"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "1475"]
[BlackElo "1800"]
[Annotator ",Narz"]
[TimeControl "110 minutes"]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 e6 6. Be2 cxd4 7. cxd4 Be7 8. Nc3 Qd8 9. Bf4 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Rc1 a6 [I felt like I had a slight edge out of the opening but nothing to write home about, I debated for awhile about my next move before making it]

12. Qd2 Bd7 13. Ne5 Nd5 [was a bit surprised by this move, I thought that after the smoked cleared I had a small edge]

14. Nxd5 exd5 15. Nxd7 Qxd7 16. Bf3 [almost played R(f)e1 here which would've sunk me right away - 16. ... Bb4! I was taking my time though and taking quick walks/runs outside every three or four moves which definitely aided my concentration]

Bf6 17. Be3 b6 [Perhaps he saw me eying the possibility of putting my rook on c5. Still, this didn't strike me as the finest move]

18. Rc3 Na5 19. b3 [preventing Nc4]

Be7 20. Qc2 Rac8 21. Rc1 Rxc3 22. Qxc3 Qe6 [I was feeling very happy with my game at this point!]

23. Qc7 Bd6 [if Qxb6 then Bxh2+ and I lose the queen]

24. Qa7 f5 [surprising, I was expecting b5]

25. Qxa6 Ba3 26. Re1 Bb4 [was thinking he might do this, was happy to see it, I will another pawn]

27. Bd2 Qd6 28. Bxd5+ Kh8 29. Bxb4 Qxb4 30. Rd1 Re8 31. g3 [better safe than sorry!]

h6 32. Rc1 [was sacrificing this pawn a mistake? I had to activate my pieces somehow]

Qxd4 33. Bf3 [an immediate 33. Rc8 would've been very bad]

Qd2 34. Rc8 Qe1+ 35. Kg2 Kh7 [my opponent played this all very well, IMO, I gave him alot of opportunity to go wrong but he took none of it!]

36. Rxe8 Qxe8 37. Qxb6 Qe5 38. Bh5 [an irresistible threat so I thought, he'd have to block with the queen, allowing me to trade and then win the grim knight on the rim, I was wrong]

Qe4+ 39. Kh3 Nc6 [Noooo! I completely overlooked this, I didn't want the knight to get back in the game!]

40. Qe3 Qb1 41. Bf3 [protecting against Qf1+ with g5 mate to follow] Nb4 42. a4 Qf1+ 43. Bg2 Qd1 44. Qc5 [For some reason I judged this equal to Kf4, both double attacking knight & pawn. I choose the c5 square because I preferred it aesthetically.

]

Qg4# 0-1

And there you have it. One of my finer performances ruined by a simple oversight. It gives me a modicum of comfort that the same thing happened recently to Kramnik.

These long games are really good for me though. Too much speed chess has given me itchy trigger fingers and these longer time controls (110 minutes per side) really helps me relax and make the best moves. This blunder has helped me realize I need to keep playing longer time controls and double checking all my moves (instead of getting caught up in my own plans and neglecting reality).

Further comments welcome. I'm going to analyze it with an engine myself now but I like to go over my own thought process first.

 

[Panzar75]

... 11. Rc1 a6 [I felt like I had a slight edge out of the opening but nothing to write home about, I debated for awhile about my next move before making it]

I thought about it for a while also and came up with a3 followed by Qd3. I would probably not have found Qd2, a fine move according to the computer but to me it seems to do nothing much other than connect the rooks. On d3 the Queen keeps an eye on such important squares as c4, e4 and h7 as well as protecting the knight on f3 letting the bishop on e2 move if black plays Bb7. Loose ideas for the future might include Ng5, Ne4 to challenge the Knight on f6, Rc3-g3 or h3, Bd1-c2. All those moves probably won't work but these are some ideas that comes to my mind thinking about the position. The IQP (isolated Queen pawn) position does sort of encourage you to play an attacking game lest you are left with an endgame with a weak isolated pawn. Qd2 just seems to me to be more solid than attacking.

... 13. Ne5 Nd5 [was a bit surprised by this move, I thought that after the smoked cleared I had a small edge] 14. Nxd5 exd5

There is no need to immediately exchange the knight on e5. I will admit my first impulse also was to exchage the knight but with a minute of thought there are compelling reasons not to. First the knight is well placed there for the attack. Second in an IQP you should try not to exchange to many pieces as the less material on the board the more the isolated pawn becomes a weakness. Thirdly black would not benefit from making the trade on e5 himself as white can recapture with the pawn straigthen out his pawn chain giving black the weak isolated pawn. Improving the bishop on e2 or the rook on f1 seems like good alternatives.

17. Be3 b6 [Perhaps he saw me eying the possibility of putting my rook on c5. Still, this didn't strike me as the finest move]

Put yourself in black's place. Let's say we skip a move (Kh8 if you need a move) and then white plays Rc5. How do you respond? Try making 2-3 moves more if you can. Do you like black's position?

18. Rc3 Na5 19. b3 [preventing Nc4] Be7 20. Qc2 Rac8 21. Rc1 Rxc3 22. Qxc3 Qe6 [I was feeling very happy with my game at this point!]

As well you should. Black allowed you to completely dominate the c-file and the the game. Looks like you might win a pawn here as well. I did not see the computer move b4, Nc4, Bxd5 alternatively b4, Nb7, Qb3, Rd8, Rc7, Rd7, Rxd7, Qxd7, Bxd5 My choice was Be2, Ra8, Bd3 with an excellent position. Your move was also good.

... 25. Qxa6 Ba3

Here you have the cute move Qb5 improving the Queen's position (took me a moment to spot the tactic). My instinct was to keep the Rook on the c-file but the computer seems to think moving it from the file is no big deal in this position.

I could not have resisted the urge to return the Queen in play with 30. Qe2 threatning Qe7. The Queen is not a happy camper on a6. She wants to be in the center.

31. g3 [better safe than sorry!]

To play g3 or h3? Somehow I always seem to chose the wrong pawn to advance. In this position with the bishop, g3 seems to make sense.

32. Rc1 [was sacrificing this pawn a mistake? I had to activate my pieces somehow]

Yes. Why would you play Rd1 and then Rc1 just a move later? The rook is already activated! How much more active then supporting your passed pawn can it get? If you are looking for moves see my comment on the unhappy Queen above. Alternatively move the bishop and queen your pawn. Not only does it give a (strong passed) pawn back but it also activates black's queen and position.

38. Bh5 [an irresistible threat so I thought, he'd have to block with the queen, allowing me to trade and then win the grim knight on the rim, I was wrong]

You are clearly winning. The only thing you need to do now is not to lose. I would advice reading this if you haven't already. Don't get turned off by terms as novice and beginner, it's instructive. Still, no particular damage done even if black is getting more and more play where he was completely dead before. When this much ahead you need only to ensure your King's saftey and the game wins itself. Therefore you should have kept the King on g2 and the bishop guarding the diagonal. There was simply nothing black could do unless you opened up your King's position voluntary.

Look at the position after move 37. The black knight cannot move anywhere. The Queen must guard the knight and can't move unless shuffled betwen e5 and c3. The King cannot be activated and the pawns cannot move leaving the King exposed. What is black to do? There is simply nothing black can do unless you help him. Next time you're this much ahead make sure your #1 priority is King saftey. You may or may not have a nice tactic but if you just protect your King you win whether the tactic works or not. All in all a good game considering the rating difference.

 

[Narz]

Thanks Panz! I will read that article you linked me to and check out your analysis.

You feeling better I hope?

 

[Panzar75]

You feeling better I hope?

Yes, it seems like the Streptococcus is gone this time. A little bit of coughing and sore throat but I'm back to work so not to bad.

 

[Panzar75]

I have decided to participate in the Swedish championship this summer. I will take a few days vacation and stay at a hotel for 7 nights. It's expensive but I decided I should get to play in "SM" at least one time in my life. I will participate in class III which is nothing to write home about but I will get to play 7 games with 2 time controls at 40 and 60 moves for a total of 3,5 hours per game and player. I expect to have Internet access down there and will share the games with you if possible.

There are a couple of players from my club participating and the highest rated one will play in "Mästere Elit" which is the group just under the top group with all GM's and such. (He has played in the highest group occasionally in previous years.)

The championship will start june 28 and continue through july 13 although I'm only playing the first week. I just ordered a laptop so I can analyze my games at the hotel room. Since I cannot restrain myself I thought $100 for a slightly better processor is certainly worth it" and "$200 for a battery twice as good seems like a good idea" and after adding a bit here and there I ended up with a laptop costing me $2500. It's actually way better than my stationary computer.

After adding lost income, expenses and the laptop I calculated each one of the 7 games will cost me approximately $600. I had better not make any easy mistakes... for that prize I want 7 little masterpieces for sure!