The second game was from this evening. I win this game with my old friend the Ruy Lopez! It was a bit of a back and forth affair with both me and my opponent having chances to win. At one point my stunted queenside development finally catches up to me and my opponent should have won. I hang around with the slightest inclination that he wasn't sure how to proceed in the endgame and sure enough he lets me back in the game and I am able to steal a win! I tend to steal a lot of wins from people by just hanging around. ??
Here is the first game..the loss:
And here is tonight's game...the win:
Have a great Saturday!
I went quickly over the games and I guess I have only one advise to you and your opponents namely endgames and tactics.
ReplyDeleteWhat are these tactics and endgames that you speak of?
ReplyDeleteGonna be a little harsch, please forgive me for that. Those are the areas you have to study or take special attention to. Openings you know, or atleast the moves (am in the same bed ill).
ReplyDeleteI think you will take a big step forward if you give those areas a great deal of your attention. Learning endgames will also learn you to combinate and play with little amount of pieces on the board.
Hey Chesstiger,
ReplyDeleteI was being sarcastic. All I practice and study are tactics and endgames. (with some Styoko exercises thrown in to work on middle game and thought process)
I do so very little opening study it isn't even funny. I haven't purchased an opening book in two years and haven't bothered to memorize more than the first 3 moves of any opening. All I do is check out the opening with a database in my post game analysis. That is ALL the opening study I am doing right now.
I actually think I need to work on my thought process to make better use of the tactics and endings I am studying. Seriously, all I do is tactics and endings.
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ReplyDeleteAnd even though I am NOT as good of a chess player as you are yet, I have improved from a 900 rating on ICC to just over 1400 ICC in just under 4 years. I am pretty happy with that. I want to continue to improve and know that I need to continue to improve and I will continue to improve.
ReplyDeleteAs the better player you should strive to make more specific comments such as: "look at middle game exchange tactics", "check out using your king in the endgame", etc. etc.
But when you just say work on tactics and endgames, well, that comes off as a bit condescending and I KNOW you mean well.
I would rather hear you criticize one specific move I made in a game and tell me your thoughts for a better choice. That would be helpful and get me thinking. Again, just saying tactics and endgames does nothing for me. As I know I need to keep working on those two areas. If I haven't figured that out by now it might be time for me to give up the game. :)
I hope my blog post Prodigal pawn asks helps a bit more then my first comment. If not then please let me know.
ReplyDeleteHey Chesstiger!
ReplyDeleteThe blog post was awesome. And I think I got the test position correct. :)
Hey TommyG,
ReplyDeleteCouple quick comments, may look at the games a bit more closely later on...
In the first one, to me losses like that are acceptable every once in a while - you have to learn what kind of sacrifices work and what doesn't. That one was doomed from the start, but as long as you learn from it that's ok :)
For the second one, I think what ChessTiger was referring to as far as tactics is:
#1) You could have won a piece after 13 ... Nh5. Where can that knight retreat to? (Ans: nowhere) - a g4 push will win it. The computer likes playing d5 first, as that pushes the other knight back to b8 - without that there's eventually a fork on d3 that gets him back an exchange.
#2) Do you even realize that 26. Bb3+ simply dropped a piece? You didn't mention it in your notes - the Nf3 isn't defended any more, and forcing his king to move just allows him to guard the rook. You have to play 24. Nxd2 there, rook on the 7th or not.
(In this case, it doesn't even matter as you can immediately just play Re2 and it's no longer a problem.)
Barring that, 26. Rd4 at least doesn't lose a piece (his rook isn't defended here, so there's no time to play BxN - he has to take care of the rook first).
One thing: In both games you seem to have "overrating a check" syndrome (Nf2+ and Bb3+) - make sure they actually do something for you - both of those were fairly bad errors. :)
Later!
Hi Jabari,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and the comments!
Yeah I do get a little check heavy. I find when I am concentrating on tactics in practice and study that sometimes I look too optimistically for them in my games.
However 26. Bb3+ doesn't lose a piece IF I had played Nxd2 followed by Re3. Which I didn't!! So the check is okay there. But the Nf2+ you refer to wasn't so good. :)
Hi Tommy G,
ReplyDeleteOn the game you lost I think you hit it right on the head knowing you attacked too quickly.
As Silman says, your space advantage is permanent and you can take your time to get your pieces into the right positions before attacking. Especially the Rooks. Then you can open lines and invade more powerfully. In your game you seemed to have the opportunity to threaten on both K & Q side which probably would have won the game. It also would have made Whites counterplay in the center tougher as that only would've opened up lines more. If you get a chance check out Reshevsky-Fischer Game 7 in their 1961 match where Reshevsky sets up a good attack.
Tactically, a minor point would've been it might have been better with the Queen behind the Bishop on the a8 diagonal. That probably would've put a lot more long term pressure on, save an eventual tempo and keep better control of the White squares.
Hey Chess Clues!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. I HAVE been going on the attack a bit too quickly lately. It is like I get excited by the possibility of tactics and then go off all half-cocked without really looking at the position.
I like the idea of the queen behind the bishop. I have seen Karpov do that in a few games. I will be sure to check out the Reshevsky Fischer game!
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ReplyDelete