Hi

Very nice game! Bh3! cheeky but creative. You managed to make his bishop bad and it was never in the game. It was like you had an extra piece. Your decision to go into the ending with opposite coloured bishops was obviously the correct one and the way you kept whites counterplay to a harmless minimum was a joy to watch.

Just a few points on the production quality. Sound was fine but you speak a bit too quickly at times and mumble a bit which meant some of the commentary was disjointed. A bit slower and louder please. I know it's difficult but I suggest you imagine you are broadcasting to an audiance and project your voice a bit. Also on some of the side variations it's not always clear when your going into a side variation and when your returning to the main line. What's needed is punctuation in the commentary. You do this sometimes but on other occasions you seam to get lost in the line and then move back quickly to the main one.

At points I was wondering where I was as it was too quick. Partly cos I'm a patzer of course! Perhaps this was because, as you said, you didn't have much time to prepare. Clear announcements like 'Ok we've looked at that line with c5 lets go back to the game after I played Qd6'. Then allow the the watcher to gather their thoughts 'Ok here we are again back to the game position and I'm considering my options'. Just a few suggestions. I hope you don't mind but little things like this improve the quality of the presentation and makes the chess the main attraction ? Hence I've rated you 4 (great). Better production and a 5 (amazing)!

The chess tho is first class. Please keep them coming. I thought you said that was a slow positional win? Compared to some of the boring drudge I've seen that was an electric minature brilliancy! Any games where your opponents hit you with real counterplay?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the game and you're right that it was a bit one-sided. It's just last season as a whole was a bit one-sided but I'll try find something a bit closer for my next attempt. I think next time I will prepare what I'm going to say in advance perhaps with some notes by my side. In the past my videos have just been 10 minutes rereading the analysis I put down when storing my game on my computer, although I do spend my time then. Hopefully this will mean less on-the-spot thinking, which is normally when I start muttering quickly and quietly as my mouth tries to catch up with my thoughts! I appriciate the advice, especially as I have to give my first presentation at work in a month's time :-S.

Ian

thx for taking my advice in good heart. One way is to go thro the vid beforehand and do a dry run. Bit like a rehearsal you know. Then the thoughts are really fresh in your head And try to stick to only a couple of alternative lines. leaves more for us patzers to criicise 'he should have played etc'

Oh Ian

Good luck with the presentation. I'd rather face a mating attack.

There was a point where you played Qb5 to guard your pawn and attack his king head on. This was good, but I would have at least considered just letting him snap off that pawn. It might be less positional, but it really opens up the line straight to his king. You play a rook in front of his queen, and have the file to really crush him with your heavy pieces. At first I thought you should go with the a-rook, just letting him take the a-pawn too, if he was greedy. That would obviously let you play your new b-rook back to the a-file, and then move the e-rook to the b-file, and THEN move your queen over to attack right in front of him. I'd say there's got to be some kind of mating net with that triplet, not to mention your awesome bishop, which is cutting into his position.

Of course, your move with the queen wasn't bad either. It sets up the obvious move Ba3, setting up a mating possibility, and creating another little mating net in a way. I don't see one right away, but probably you'd have a way to make one.

I'm also wondering about lashing out with an a- or b-pawn push. Those are probably less good than the other moves, though. It appears like the center is a little bit more stable, so making a wing-move isn't too bad for you (especially because there's no easy way for him to get his bishop into the defense of his king), but it just seems incredibly slow. If he did not take the b-pawn, which he shouldn't because it looks suicidal to me, you would then get in the rook move to attack his queen, and double your rooks on the e-file. Not only that, but also you would still have the queen move, and while your queen and bishop are eviscerating his king, your rooks can cut the board completely in half. His bishop would be even less likely to get into the game so that he can hang onto the e2 square for dear life, but if he's not careful, you might have the rook to e1, and cause him to lose a rook or bishop for fear of simply getting mated. Your position had a lot of potential, and he had possibly the worst bishop I've ever seen. Good game.

Edit: I had a stupidly-worded sentence cause I'm exhausted. I've fixed that and added a little analysis to the end of the post.