Hello, another first timer here. I do this in hopes of soliciting feedback from more seasoned players. I'll begin with my game from today, an interesting battle between knights and bishops over control of the center, in particular the d5 square:



Upon annotating the game, I found some blunders by both sides, and I feel that black could have rightfully won this game, I was happy to escape with a draw.

A win. This game is a perfect example of the psychological problems of chess. It wasn't until I went over the game, analyzing it by hand and then with a computer did I realize that my position was much stronger than I thought. I hesitated on taking d6 and some other moves because of a fear of the black attack. There were many better moves missed by both sides, and I learned a lot from this game about LOOKING AT THE BOARD, NOT THE PERSON. This is a big problem for me already. I play better against much higher rated opponents, and have a fear of playing some people that I play on a regular basis because they know my style very well.

Here I thought I was losing until QxQ, when in reality, the position was in my favor virtually the entire game after the opening. But that open b-file to my king was certainly intimidating!

ok, I think I could probably analyze the second game for hours with you.

So here are my questions.

1. Why not move the knight back on move 12?

Moving it to e2 seems safe, and even saccing it on d5 for the C pawn seems better than Bd4 to me.

2. On move 14, what moves did you consider?

I think you gave him too much activity and missed out on a chance to win a pawn. If you don't mind no computer analysis. I prefer that you would have done none in the first place, but since you already have. Usually you exhaust human analysis first.

3. Why not 36. Kxd5??

Thanks and pretty good game there. I want to look at the first one later if I have time.

Jesse

Ok, looked at it.

That game is worth looking at too sir,

Did both of these games happen on FICS? and if so, are they still in your history or journal?

If your interested maybe we can pow wow about them.

Yes, they were both on FICS as well as my autosave on Babas. All my games are stored on my comp which I can examine on server anytime. Let me know a time that works for you and I'll let you know if I can make it. Thanks for the offer of help!

One of two games played against this opponent back to back. Both were 30 0 games. I felt like I played the opening and middle better, but both games I made awful blunders which threw away my endgame chances. Annotation by myself unassisted below.



[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2008.12.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Whis"]
[Black "Piku"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1569"]
[BlackElo "1745"]
[ECO "D53"]
[TimeControl "1200"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3 {Queen's Gambit Declined.} c6
{A sort of pseudo-slav move.} 6. a3 {To prevent complications after 7. e3 Bb4
8. ... Qa5. I tend to avoid those types of lines.} O-O 7. e3 Nbd7 8. Qc2
{Setting up for the typical e4 push.} h6 9. Bxf6 {Black's knight was better
than white's bad bishop. In addition, if white plays c5, black's dark bishop
will have limited scope of movement. This would probably be preceded by b4.}
Nxf6 10. Bd3 dxc4 11. Bxc4 Nd5 {This move is probably a little hasty. The
knight can be kicked off of the outpost. White has several choices: e4, NxN
and O-O. I rejected e4 immediately when after 12. e4 Nf4 O-O Bh4 followed by
Qg5 black has some kingside possibilities. NxN is bad because after exd5 his
light bishop is freed, e4 is prevented and white loses a tempo moving the
bishop. Thus I played O-O prior to beginning central operations.} 12. O-O
Nxc3 {I think this is also a strategically poor move by black. The knight
was black's only active piece. After the exchange white's pieces are better
positioned.} 13. Qxc3 $2 {Probably better was to take with the b pawn, and
use the rook to pressure the b file. I felt that the rook pawn would be
vulnerable if left alone, so I took with the queen. This move had
ramifications later in the game.} Bd7 {Black spends several moves
reorganizing his pieces.} 14. e4 Rc8 15. b4 {In order to allow the queen's
rook to get into the game.} Bf6 16. e5 {Although this creates a backward pawn
on d4, I felt I could sufficiently protect (overprotect) it.} Be7 17. Rad1
{Continuing to build central pressure and minimize the scope of the black
pieces.} Qb6 18. Kh1 {In retrospect, probably unnecessary. White had ideas
of f4 and Rf3-g3 with strong kingside possiblities.} Rfd8 19. Rfe1 Be8 20.
Re4 {With plans for Rg4, Qd2 etc. Unfortunately these never get off the
ground. At this point white's plan is to use the d4 pawn as a sort of bait
with which to occupy the entire black army, then quickly shift over to the
kingside for attack. As it turns out, black is able to create a weakness and
break through in the center.} c5 21. bxc5 {As cxb4 would be unallowable.}
Bxc5 $1 {This move I did not see coming. In placing my rook on e4, I
inadvertently left my d1 rook undefended and pinned by a pawn.} 22. Rde1 Bxa3
{Black breaks through, and the c8 and d8 rooks become very strong very
quickly.} 23. Qxa3 {White seeks to simplify and attempt to regain the
initiative.} Rxc4 24. Qe7 Qc7 {Here as white I desperately searched for a
possible continuation on the kingside, but time trouble was beginning to
creep in. I began to play for a draw.} 25. Qxc7 Rxc7 26. Ra1 a6 27. h4
{Creating luft, and beginning the process of putting the pieces on dark
squares to avoid blacks bishop.} Rdc8 28. Ree1 Bc6 29. Kh2 Bd5 30. Ng1
{Black's bishop cannot be allowed to remain on d5. The knight is bound for
Nf3-g1-e2-(c3 or f4 depending).} Rc4 31. Ne2 f6 {An error by black. Here
black is opening up a file for white's e1 rook and breaking up his kingside
pawn structure.} 32. exf6 gxf6 33. Rad1 {To allow Nf4.} Kf7 $1 {An excellent
positional move that prevents Rxe6 or Re7, and places the king closer to the
center.} 34. Nf4 {Still trying to trade pieces to try for a drawn rook
ending.} Rd8 35. Nxd5 Rxd5 36. Rb1 {Offering an exchange of pawns.} b5
{Naturally black does not accept the ludicrous exchange!} 37. Ra1 Ra4 38.
Rxa4 {Probably best would have been Rd1 where after RxR RxR white retains
pressure. If Rxp RxR RxR Rd7+ Kg6 Re7 white is still alive.} bxa4 39. Ra1
Rxd4 40. g3 Kg6 41. Kg2 {Keeping the kings in opposition.} e5 42. Kf3 f5
{Here I was a bit confused. I had expected black to march his king over to
the queenside and push the a-pawns.} 43. Ke3 Kf6 44. f4 {If pxp KxR, etc.
White hopes for pxp Kxp and some possibilities with the black king in the
center. (These types of endings are one of my main weaknesses).} Rb4 45.
fxe5+ Kxe5 46. Ra3 $4 {Crafty (score -11.17 at depth 12) thinks this is a
blunder} Rb3+ {Whis resigns. I was relatively proud of containing my much
higher rated opponents pieces in the opening and middlegame. However, the
transition from middle to endgame could have been played better by both
sides, and a terrible blunder left all my effort for nothing. This game was
a learning experience.} 0-1

Hello

The analysis I think is better than I would do on my own work. The only problem is the wording mixed in with the notation for some reason, and messed up my syldexia. I fixed to so I can read it and comment better. Notation is below, your wording is untouched. I will place my remarks below yours.

---------------------------------------------------

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3

{Queen's Gambit Declined.}

I would worry less about openings and more about logical moves. (This is new advice from someone I spoke to recently.)

.. c6

{A sort of pseudo-slav move.}
I would imagine it would be more of a regular slav move. What makes it Pseudo?:-)


6. a3

{To prevent complications after 7. e3 Bb4 8. ... Qa5. I tend to avoid those types of lines.}
Point 1: This may have been mentioned before but to get better you want to learn real openings and go in to them even if they hurt.

Point 2: If you think about this position logically, you wouldn't be thinking about this line. In the opening Tempo is very important and him playing Bb4 after playing Be7 would be silly. Basically admitting that Be7 in the first place was a mistake. For example: He could have went 4. .. Nbd7, which is a "sound" opening trap. You should have questions about it, try figuring it out. Give yourself about 30 minutes, if you can't finger it out ask here. The real strength in this move is it develops a piece and namely a knight and holds off developing the bishop a move to see if you want to go into the Bb4 ideas. It's much better in this case. Granted this might be trivial, but it's very important to notice small things like this. YOUR development and YOUR plans are more important than his. Unless he has real threats against you.

..o-o 7. e3 Nbd7 8. Qc2

{Setting up for the typical e4 push.}

..h6 9. Bxf6

{Black's knight was better than white's bad bishop. In addition, if white plays c5, black's dark bishop
will have limited scope of movement. This would probably be preceded by b4.}

I don't know if I would agree that the knight was better, but to trade here could have been thought on more. It's probably correct because usually when you play Bg5 you are set out to take the knight when challenged. The thought that the bishop was "worse" than the knight in that position is probably incorrect. In my opinion, you are the one with space advantage so you are the one that does not want to trade. Possible Bh4 was better, several factors are in on this. One of them is he is castled and you are not. Making the decision to chase you with g5 a little crazy.

..Nxf6 10. Bd3 dxc4 11. Bxc4 Nd5

{This move is probably a little hasty. The
knight can be kicked off of the outpost. White has several choices: e4, NxN
and O-O. I rejected e4 immediately when after 12. e4 Nf4 O-O Bh4 followed by
Qg5 black has some kingside possibilities. NxN is bad because after exd5 his
light bishop is freed, e4 is prevented and white loses a tempo moving the
bishop. Thus I played O-O prior to beginning central operations.}

Not hasty, just not good. 11. .. c5 is better here in my opinion. Black may win this position but he seemed to play poorly in the opening and wait for you to make a mistake. Which worked, so he learns nothing.

12. O-O Nxc3

{I think this is also a strategically poor move by black. The knight
was black's only active piece. After the exchange white's pieces are better
positioned.}

I completely agree with this. Again 12. .. c5 here may have been better.

13. Qxc3

{Probably better was to take with the b pawn, and
use the rook to pressure the b file. I felt that the rook pawn would be
vulnerable if left alone, so I took with the queen. This move had
ramifications later in the game.}

The move you said is probably better. I think that something you should be thinking about is where your pieces belong. One thought is: Where do your rooks belong?

.. Bd7

{Black spends several moves reorganizing his pieces.}

Poorly Organizing his pieces. Remember, he wants to fight for the center. He is not doing this, your gaining in power.

14. e4 Rc8 15. b4

{In order to allow the queen's rook to get into the game.}

This move probably deserves an exclam if it were not for your move 16.

..Bf6 16. e5

{Although this creates a backward pawn on d4, I felt I could sufficiently protect (overprotect) it.}

This I feel is a bad move. Because your wasting time and giving him ground. Think about it this way. YOU want control of the center. So where is that? e4 d4 e5 d5, right? Well a move ago it was white who had control over these squares. Moving to e5 might seem like an aggressive move to push him back but it gives black the d5 square in return for your aggressive intentions. You might gain space in return, but I don't think it deserves the weaknesses you created in your own camp. A much better move would have been to play Rfe1. Also look at the pawn structure. VERY important. This is actually a Caro/Slav pawn structure. More specifically a Slav pawn structure, which you kind of denoted in the beginning. So what you want to know is: What are the plans in this pawn structure. What you might find out is one of the plans are to push the d5 pawn to break open blacks center. You just ruined that possible plan. I am still reading and learning about this so I am no expert by no means on the subject of pawn structures. But simple ideas like that could help in the long run to tell you when certain pawn moves are bad. From the book I am "trying" to battle through the main example of this plan is played by Spassky. He is a very good person to learn from, so one of my suggestions might be to search for games played in this pawn structure in a database. If you have Chessbase 8 or higher you can do searches on pawn structures. Just do the search, and place the pawns on the squares you would see them in the structure. "JUST THE PAWNS". You might have to monkey with the positioning of the pawns, like placing the a3 pawn back on a2, or placing the h6 pawn back on h7. Minor things. And just do a search on the pawn structure. Look for "Spassky" games first. Then look for games by players above 2600. If you do this and have questions about the games feel free to send me a message and we can discuss it.

..Be7 17. Rad1

{Continuing to build central pressure and minimize the scope of the black
pieces.}

..Qb6 18. Kh1

{In retrospect, probably unnecessary. White had ideas of f4 and Rf3-g3 with strong kingside possiblities.}

In this position yeah unnecessary. Funny enough but because of your "e5" and ideas of f4 and Re4. The best move could be Nd2-e4. Take a look at that possibility and see if it looks good to you. Knights are great attackers in closed positions. Never take your eyes off of them. (Watch all your pieces of course.)

..Rfd8 19. Rfe1 Be8 20. Re4

{With plans for Rg4, Qd2 etc. Unfortunately these never get off the
ground. At this point white's plan is to use the d4 pawn as a sort of bait
with which to occupy the entire black army, then quickly shift over to the
kingside for attack. As it turns out, black is able to create a weakness and
break through in the center.}

In retro: You should think of it this way. Was it black or white who created the weaknesses in the current position?

Every move creates a weakness, it's up to the player to decide what and where to create those weaknesses. If you start creating less weaknesses, as you get stronger you will find out how your opponent will "Create" weaknesses against you.


I will stop the analysis here. I thought the rest of the game was interesting and the analysis was great, but I also think this is where you would learn the most at this time.

Hope I helped, and remember this is just my opinion. I suggest getting more opinions to supplement the possibilities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.. c5 21. bxc5

{As cxb4 would be unallowable.}

..Bxc5

{This move I did not see coming. In placing my rook on e4, I
inadvertently left my d1 rook undefended and pinned by a pawn.}

22. Rde1 Bxa3


{Black breaks through, and the c8 and d8 rooks become very strong very
quickly.}

23. Qxa3

{White seeks to simplify and attempt to regain the
initiative.}

..Rxc4 24. Qe7 Qc7

{Here as white I desperately searched for a
possible continuation on the kingside, but time trouble was beginning to
creep in. I began to play for a draw.}

25. Qxc7 Rxc7 26. Ra1 a6 27. h4


{Creating luft, and beginning the process of putting the pieces on dark
squares to avoid blacks bishop.}

..Rdc8 28. Ree1 Bc6 29. Kh2 Bd5 30. Ng1


{Black's bishop cannot be allowed to remain on d5. The knight is bound for
Nf3-g1-e2-(c3 or f4 depending).}

..Rc4 31. Ne2 f6

{An error by black. Here black is opening up a file for white's e1 rook and breaking up his kingside
pawn structure.}

32. exf6 gxf6 33. Rad1

{To allow Nf4.}

..Kf7

{An excellent positional move that prevents Rxe6 or Re7, and places the king closer to the
center.}

34. Nf4

{Still trying to trade pieces to try for a drawn rook ending.}

..Rd8 35. Nxd5 Rxd5 36. Rb1

{Offering an exchange of pawns.}

b5

{Naturally black does not accept the ludicrous exchange!}

37. Ra1 Ra4 38. Rxa4

{Probably best would have been Rd1 where after RxR RxR white retains
pressure. If Rxp RxR RxR Rd7+ Kg6 Re7 white is still alive.}

bxa4 39. Ra1 Rxd4 40. g3 Kg6 41. Kg2

{Keeping the kings in opposition.}

..e5 42. Kf3 f5


{Here I was a bit confused. I had expected black to march his king over to
the queenside and push the a-pawns.}

43. Ke3 Kf6 44. f4

{If pxp KxR, etc. White hopes for pxp Kxp and some possibilities with the black king in the
center. (These types of endings are one of my main weaknesses).}

..Rb4 45. fxe5+ Kxe5 46. Ra3

{Crafty (score -11.17 at depth 12) thinks this is a
blunder}

..Rb3+ {Whis resigns. I was relatively proud of containing my much
higher rated opponents pieces in the opening and middlegame. However, the
transition from middle to endgame could have been played better by both
sides, and a terrible blunder left all my effort for nothing. This game was
a learning experience.} 0-1

It's great you annotate your games. Unfortunately I don't have time to go over this one. However I do have a suggestion regarding how you actually post them. The format you used to write the last one is a lot more comfortable for others to read within the forum than in the previous posted game, however the previous one is very neat as one can just copy paste it into a pgn reader like chessbase or something and read the annotations from there which I personally find the most convenient way to do it. So what you could do is to post the game both ways. What I mean by that is you could use the hide feature for the copy pasted pgn and it would look pretty much like this.
To use the hide feature type [.hide.] YOUR TEXT [./hide.] without dots

YOUR ANNOTATIONS MADE EASY TO READ IN THE FORUM

Hidden Text Below - [Show it] - [Hide it Again]

Happy new year!

cheers

Thank you for the excellent food for thought. I'll set up a board and take a look at your ideas. Armis, I usually annotate my games in babas, and just copy and paste the Pgn in the forum so people could just load it up in their interface. I'll separate it out next time!

Here is the 2nd game I played against Piku on FICS. I tried to make my notes easier to read on the forum this time. For a second time in a row, a gross blunder in the middle-endgame transition lead to instant loss. I hope I don't make a habit of this!



[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2008.12.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Piku"]
[Black "Whis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1749"]
[BlackElo "1563"]
[ECO "B06"]
[TimeControl "1200"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. c4

{After the previous game, white makes sure to grab
space early!}

d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bd3 c6 6. Nge2

{Not being completely familiar with white's opening, this move struck me as strange, I thought the knight
would be better at f3, as black's e5 square tends to be important in the
modern defense.}

Bg4 7. f3 {White is wasting no time rushing his pawns forward. But this move also creates a weakness in the king pawns.}

Bd7 8. Be3

{Given the aggressive way with which white has played the opening, more in line with his opening so far would be Bg5.}

O-O 9. O-O e5

{Gaining some space, creating a support point at f4, etc.}

10. dxe5

{Here I expected the opponent to push the pawn to d5 instead of the capture at e5, leaving black
with a King's Indian style game.}

dxe5 11. Qc2

{To allow Rd1.}

Be6

{Freeing up the d-file and aiming both bishops at the queenside.}

12. Rad1 Qc7

{Multi-purpose move. a) Defends e5. b) Prepares R(f)d8. c) Prepares
defense of c6 to allow b6 followed by c5.}

13. b4

{Presumably to play b5, exchanging the c6 pawn to allow the knight to infiltrate.}

Nbd7

{Possibly going to c5, but also in support of the f6 knight. Black is trying to reduce
the scope of White's dark bishop which is acting as his strongest piece.}

14. c5

{Prevents b6, but also shuts in the dark bishop. Now that the center
situation is more clear, Black begins to shift plans to take advantage of the
White's weakened king position. The main idea is to play the knight to f4,
the queen to e7, and sacrifice the light bishop on either h3 or g2 in order
to pry open the king's defenses.}

Nh5 15. a4 Nf4 16. Nxf4 exf4 17. Bf2

{Black dark bishop comes to life and the pawn on f4 can be supported and become a
thorn in white's position.}

Ne5

{Attempting to trade of to eliminate the bishop pair as the ending would favor bishops over knights at this point.}

18. Be2 Rad8 19. Rxd8 Rxd8 20. Rd1 Rxd1+ 21. Nxd1

{QxR makes more sense. White loses a tempo bringing the knight back up after putting it on the first
rank.}

h6

{Buying some clock time (waiting) and preparing g5.}

22. Qd2

{Good positional move which takes control of the open file and attacks f4.}

g5 23. b5 Nc4

{Still trying to trade the piece. Also allows Qa5 to trade queens.
White's queen is in a more active position.}

24. Qb4 cxb5 25. axb5 Qa5 26. Be1

{To bring the bishop closer to the action after QxQ.}

Bd4+

{In between move that puts blacks bishop on the diagonal attack the pawns. Also allows
Ne3 potentially.}

27. Kf1 Qxb4 28. Bxb4 f5??

{Blunder of the game. I didn't have much time to think about the position and made an absolutely awful move.
Possibly better is Ne3+ creating a passed pawn or Na4 forcing c6 and the
exchange of pawns which after Be5 black should have no problem winning the
other pawn while having a passed pawn on the a file.}

29. exf5 Bxf5??

{Losing outright, Black let's a piece hang. Poor Black.}

30. Bxc4+ Kg7

{Black plays on for a while to get some endgame practice and see if he can
force a draw, but White's knight eats him alive.}

31. Bc3 Bxc3 32. Nxc3 Bd7 33. Kf2 Kf6 34. Bd5 Be8 35. Bxb7 Ke5 36. b6 axb6 37. cxb6 Kd6 38. Be4 Kd7 39.
Nd5 Kc8 40. Nf6 Bb5 41. Ng8 h5 42. Nf6 h4 43. Nh7 Kb8 44. Nxg5 Ba6 45. Ne6
Bb7 46. Bxb7 Kxb7 47. Nxf4 Kxb6 48. Ng6 Kc5 49. Ke3 Kd6 50. Nxh4 Ke5 51. g4

{Whis resigns. Once again I felt I had a perfectly playable position, not
winning by any stretch, but at least equal, and blundered in the
middle-endgame transition. Hopefully this doesn't become a habit. Two
things to consider to help with this problem: Longer time controls and
thinking faster! Overall relatively pleased with play against an opponent
rated 180 points higher.} 1-0

Hi,

You know, I think I am becoming a fan of yours. I am loving the fact that you annotate very well, and that you don't give up in a losing position. It is kind of inspiring. Don't lose those traits if you can help it.

So on to the comment I would like to make for you.

I noticed this comment and the end of the game:

Once again I felt I had a perfectly playable position, not
winning by any stretch, but at least equal, and blundered in the
middle-endgame transition. Hopefully this doesn't become a habit. Two
things to consider to help with this problem: Longer time controls and
thinking faster! Overall relatively pleased with play against an opponent
rated 180 points higher.----

First: time.

Time is a problem for a lot of "REAL" chessplayers. They either play too fast or play too slow. Some get great time management. What I suggest is play both blitz and standard time controls. For blitz come up with candidate moves and choose the best one quickly of course. If you have minutes left feel free to flag positions in your head and analyze outcomes. For standard you want to practice either Silman's Method or Kotov's method. Possible to do both but when learning I would pick one and stick to it.

Next what to play:

Blitz is for fun, time management and getting use to opening positions. If you have a set opening set up use blitz to get use to the positions faster. Time control that is preferred is 5 minutes per side. This will help you think in time pressure. In tournaments you play and write moves down, and when the clock reaches 5 minutes you don't have to write moves down. So in essence, 5 minute blitz is training for that phase of the game. Make sence?

Standard is for learning chess and playing for real. You learn to analyze and plan. The preferred time for this is anything over 60 minutes.

Aside from that I would play at least 1 game a week where the game is 60 minutes or higher. I tend to play at least 5 games per week as I have a lot of time. The rest is all fun. 15 0, 20 0, 5 0.

Next is analysis suggestions:

1.
Silman's method is to break down the position according to imbalances learn the true plans of the position based on those imbalances and then choose candidate moves. The imbalances of the position will dictate when and where and how to calculate a position. Patience and practice is the way to do this one.

2.
Kotov's Method is basically to Tree. You consciously think out 3-5 candidate moves by either osmosis like most people or by Silman's Method. Then you prioritize them in order of importance and keep track of which ones are which. Then you systematically analyze every move. I consider this one harder because it to me it takes a lot of concentration. I think Kotov Expects you to know when heavy calculation is, where as Silman tells you where. This is why both Methods work together. If you know when to calculate then that is where Kotov comes in, whereas if you don't have to calculate much then all you need is to know the plan and produce it.

3.
I have another suggestion but it consists of another book that teaches you how to analyze a position. It's a chess pocket book by Lev Alburt that is suppose to be apart of the Comprehensive Chess Course. The book it's self is pretty golden, I would consider getting it just for the advice in the beginning of the book if not for the positions it shows you. I forget the exact name I am sorry, but it's called the chess pocket book or 300 essential positions in chess. It's very small and has a picture of Lev Alburt and a woman on the front cover.

-----------------------------

Lastly:

There was a few strange moves in this game would you like me to comment on it?

Hope this helps in any way,

Jesse

Thanks again for replying. Of course I would like to hear your thoughts about the strange moves, from both sides. As far as Silman vs Kotov's methods. I tend to use a bit of both. I have read several of Silman's books, most recently "The Amateur Mind" and "How to Reasses Your Chess". Funnily enough you mention Kotov, I am halfway through "Think Like a Grandmaster", but this book is challenging, and I spend well over an hour on each position (set up real board) working firstly on candidate moves, and then on analysis (strictly in the mind, without moving the pieces), then I write all my lines down on paper before comparing them with the book. I am hitting about 80-90% of the candidate moves, but my calculation is weak, and only can go 4-5 moves deep in any particular line before my vision of what the board will look like becomes foggy and unreliable. Also, calculation takes me a very long time, and I commit Kotov's sin of repeating lines over and over to "double check" them which is a sign of a lack of confidence in your calculation. He recommends only analyzing a line once and if you make a mistake, you suffer the consequences and learn from it. But my will to win is too high to allow me to do that! Another method I like is to cover up a game score and go line by line guessing the moves. This is also recommend by lots of masters, and I found works very well for me. Funny enough I miss the most moves during the "book" part of the game because of my general weakness in opening play.

Another bit of advice I am looking for regards openings. I have read several places and heard from people that best is to have a general knowledge of most openings and specialize in 4-5, ie a few for each color, maybe a black defense for e4, one for d5 and a few white openings, some positional, some tactical, etc. For the life of me I cannot decide on a type of opening to learn. I've been working a bit with this Chess Positional Trainer (also for the tactical training - good stuff), and I think best for my style of play - as you can see I tend to play very cautious, slow chess - I want to play in a way like Petrosian, in a slow, constricting style. I haven't found an opening repertoire yet, and still play all sorts, some I know fairly well, some not at all, but I play everything. Oddly enough my quickest wins have been with gambit-style fire and brimstone openings, like King's Gambit, Scotch, and Scandinavian as black. But good players usually slaughter me with tactics. So the question is: Is it better to play to your strengths, ie slow positional play? Or to brush up on your weaknesses by focusing on learning openings emphasizing your weaknesses in order to become a better all around player?

Another game against my e-friend Rookcheck. Afterwords he accused me of selling my soul to the devil. I made a complete mess of the opening, but came back and found a nice mate in 4 after he blundered. Annotation to follow later.



[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.01.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Whis"]
[Black "rookcheck"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1562"]
[BlackElo "1674"]
[ECO "A56"]
[TimeControl "1200"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5

{The first time this particular opponent has played
Benoni against me. I'm not too familiar with the Benoni Defense, but from
what I've seen of it, I might learn it myself for black!}

e5 4. Nc3 d6 5. e4 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bg5

{The first mistake of the game for White. To be honest
I am fairly impressed that I managed to remember 6 moves deep an opening line
I have never played before. This move is poor in that it sets up the
exchange of White's good bishop for Black's bad piece.}

Ne8

{To prepare f5.}

8. Bxe7?

{As stated before, a bad move strategically. White gets pushed
onto the defensive as a result.}

Qxe7 9. a3

{Along with b4, Qa4, Rb1 and Nb5, setting up for a fairly typical queenside push.}

f5

{While Black works the opposite wing as a result of the closed center.}

10. Bd3

{Probably better was to take the f pawn. Now black closes off the kingside to White's pieces,
leaving no safe place for the White king.}

f4 11. Qc2

{Attempting to leave Black confused as to which side White will castle on. Also, I was
entertaining thoughts of some kind of sacrifice on f4 that would open up the
b1-h7 diagonal. The White queen also defends the knight to allow b4.}

Nd7

{I thought headed for b6, but apparently not.}

12. b4 b6 13. g3

{So black is playing to keep the queenside closed. As a result, I decide as White that I
will leave my king in the center, play my rooks on the kingside along the
g-file and attempt counterplay on the kingside. However, after fxg3 the
knight on f3 is hanging. I noticed this straight away, but black refused to
make the pawn exchange, allowing me to defend the piece in a few moves.}

g5?

{Black appears to have plenty of defensive resources, but I give this move
a '?' just for "gut feeling" reasons. This is a move that I would welcome
feedback on.}

14. h4

{Intending gxh4 Nxh4 with Nf5 to follow. If g4, then Ng5 with Ne6 to follow.}

h6

{Black gives White the open file he's been waiting for.}

15. hxg5 hxg5 16. O-O-O

{Kd2 and Ke2 were rejected because the king then blocks the queens access to the kingside and weaken even more the
knight on f3 as well as the pawn on f2.}

Rf7 17. Rh5

{Nipping at the pawn on g5 in order to buy some tempos.}

Rg7 18. Rdh1 Ndf6

{Intending Nf6-g4 I presume.}

19. Rh8+

{Beginning the slow, tedious process of knitting in the Black king.}

Kf7 20. Qd1

{Giving the queen access to the diagonal as well as h1 if needed. White is starting to piece together an attack, but black still
has adequate defense.}

Bg4

{Pinning the knight.}

21. Be2

{The knight on f3 is waiting for the right time to pounce on g5.}

Rg8

{By trading off the rooks, Black gains some space for his king, but his other rook is currently shut out
of the action, while White has a second rook on h1 as well as a queen which
can enter the kingside as well. Thus exchanging favors White.}

22. Rxg8 Kxg8

{If Nxg8, then Nxg5+ QxN BxB with Rh5 to follow.}

23. Nxg5 Bxe2

{After this move, the game looks to be headed for a draw.}

24. Qxe2

{White can breathe again.}

Ng7

{Not sure what the aim of this move is. The knight doesn't seem to serve any purpose on g7.}

25. g4!

{The only move I am proud of as White in this game. White is effectively shutting Black's piece out of the
kingside while retaining control of the h file. After f3, the weak pawn on e4 is covered, and the c3 knight can become more active at b5.}

Nd7

{Transferring to queenside, with discovered attack on g5.}

26. Nh3

{At first glance a strange move. Blocking the h file etc. The plan here is f3, then
Qg2 and g5.}

Kf7

{Clearing a lane for the rook.}

27. f3 Rh8

{Finally, all the tactics training pays off!}

28. Ng5+

{After QxN RxR, Black is still alive.}

Kg8

{The death knell. For the first time in my brief chess career, I see the
entire mating line from here. I am happy to have found this. All the
puzzles must be paying off.}

29. Rxh8+ Kxh8 30. Qh2+ Kg8 31. Qh7+ Kf8 32. Qh8#

{I felt like this game was a validation of my resolve and studies, and a good "come from behind" type victory after making what I felt was a blunder in the opening. rookcheck checkmated} 1-0

Played at the local chess club today for the first time. Played a 935 twice (2 easy wins), a 1235 twice (1 loss due to blunder, 1 win), and a 1600 twice (1 hard fought close loss, 1 slaughter). I get a feeling my USCF rating would be somewhere in the 1400-1500 range. Granted, these were 10 0 & 15 0 games, but I play much much better when I have time to think. Hopefully someday in the next year I'll be able to afford to join USCF and play my first tourney. The guys there seemed to think I was good to go and play, but I want to be competitive if I play a tourney, maybe 1700-1800. Currently I am gaining around 50 points a month on my FICS account, so maybe next Christmas I'll try if I can afford it. Still frustrated at my 2 losses to 1600, both by the same move due to the same stupid mistake in the opening (modern/English style), playing my bishop to e6 and allowing the capture doubling my pawns and destroying my king safety. Lesson learned.

To answer your question about openings:

I do not know the best way to handle that. Some say you should look at it the way you said and know a little about everything and have pet lines. Others believe you should never study opening lines until you are roughly 2000. I like to go in the middle of that and suggest according to YOUR ideal training.

What that means is, you know what you are willing to do, and how much you are willing to put into a day of chess study. So when you assess your needs as a student you need to think of that. Are you someone who wants to take chess seriously enough to master the game and further? If this is true you probably want to take the second suggestion. Learn opening play after 2000. What you do in this is probably experiment with several first opening moves and attempt to learn from all sides of the board before committing time to opening theory. Try to figure out what masters do in the openings rather than get use to mindless opening theory, which is what most people tend to do when they are sub 2000. Myself included in those ranks.

Now if you are not someone who is planning to just go out and master this game, but think that it is more logical to set the goal of say 1800-2000 and then higher, I would probably recommend a starting system which the provizo that if you learn it you are flexible. The problem with most people and learning systematic play is that when they learn this "System" they depend on it for the rest of their lives to get them out of the opening. This is bad chess and I don't like it, but to each his own.

Some suggestions for you: You want to learn an opening idea that will squeeze your opponent but you also like to play aggressive tactics from time to time:

Well the thing about openings is the misconception that 1. d4 is slow and methodical. Sometime check out games by Frank J Marshall and Mikhail Tal. Both played 1. d4 with aggression in mind I will say that. The difference between 1. d4 and 1. e4 is type of developments and when the attacks come. I believe the saying is that 1. e4 is quick and can peter out fast. Where as 1. d4 is slower to build and can be more powerful. That could be wrong but you can decide that.

One of the best systems I can offer you which not only can transpose but I personally believe can probably even teach you something is called the Zukortort system of the Colle opening. Not sure on the exact spelling, but this site and several others have been advertising this system in a book called "Nuke 'Em" which is probably just as good as any book.

For black in theory you can play this as well, but I don't suggest it because it does not "TEACH" you anything. I think black "could" be harder for me to help because I play sicilian ideas and always have, never really strayed. For 1. d4 players I am pretty consistant on played Nf6 with e6, depending on what white does. (One example is I am willing to go for 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 c5 as black, because it prompts white into taking on f6. This gives an interesting imbalance that I am trying to figure out.)

So my general beginning suggestion is something like the "Caro Kahn" or Center counter defense. And when you get into these always make sure that you do this to learn chess. Not become dependent on these openings.

Hope this helps,