I'd like to start taking more time for analysis, so making a journal to post games seems to be the right thing to do. First, a bit about myself. I started playing chess in the Spring of 2007. I didn't have any serious experience with the game prior to that. I'm happy that I've kept playing for this long because, usually, I would have moved on to another fad by now. I think my biggest improvements came after practicing a lot of tactics on the chess tactics server and reading Discovering Chess Openings by John Emms. It's a great book on opening principles. I'm currently reading Emms' More Simple Chess which goes into basic ideas in the middlegame. My new goal for the next few months is to stop and recognize moments in a game where I need to carefully evaluate the position (find imbalances, identify weak/strong pieces) and develop small plans from there.

Here's the game from my latest video:



3. c3 I think the mainline is d4. I only play c3 after Nc6 and I guess my thought is to limit the knight and prepare d4 later. Funny because I'm normally will to play an open Sicilian structure after any other Black move.

4. Bb5 My idea was to limit Black's control of d4 by trading the light-square bishop (which cannot control d4) for a knight. I didn't notice at the time, but this also threatens e5 by removing the defender.

8. Nc4 I think this was best. I didn't see how I could maintain the knight on e5.

9. 0-0 0-0 I think White has the advantage in this position. Center is strong, knight on c4 looks good, smooth development of pieces. Black has doubled pawns and a very weak bishop.

10. Re1 The computer found a way to make use of the pawn fork on e5. The line is: 10. e5 Bxe5 11. Re1 d6 12. f4.

11. Be3 I think that the better square for the bishop was g5. Pinning the knight is a fine job for the moment. On e3, it sort of gums up the rook file. I should keep that rook open. I feel that this is the move where I lost the initiative.

13. exd5 Purposely opening my rook up.

14...Qd6 Getting away from my rook and threatening h7.

15. Nf3 Nf1 is safer and avoids...

15...Bg4 Devastating. Black has secured the advantage. White cannot effectively defend his knight while worrying about checkmate.

17. Bf4 The move which loses a piece. Probably Bd2 is the only square. The desire for counterplay lead me to make this error.

21. Ne5 Forces Black to sacrifice the exchange. If White trades his knight for the Black bishop, he will have temporarily defused the attack.

23. f3 f4 also opens the queen but doesn't sacrifice the pawn. Things still do not look good for White.

25. Ne4 Black controls g2 again. I must sacrifice the exchange back.

28. Qe2 h6 White must constantly watch g2 while Black can take his time and eliminate the possibility of a back-rank mate.

31. Kf2 I didn't want to allow Rd1 check when I can't capture with the queen because of mate on g2. The computer suggests Kf1.

33. Kf2 There are many roads to losing, but this is probably the quickest because of Black's next move. Kf1 is better.

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Just for fun, here's another recent game. I'm mainly posting this for Robofriven, my colleague of the French defense.



6. Bb5? I see this so much. I'm glad to know the tactical follow-up.

8...cxd4 I figured out in another recent game that this is probably the best move if White castles immediately. Create a weakness on d4 right away, strengthen Black's center. If 9. cxd4, Black might position a knight on f5 and the queen on b6 to pressure it. C-file is available for the a-rook.

10...Qb6 A little ambitious, maybe. The computer shows that it makes little progress after 11. b4.

11...Rc8 Getting the rook to the open file and lining up against the white queen. The d4 knight can be taken in this position. White's next move does not address this problem, so Black wins material.

15...Ne7 I choose developing over the free pawn on b2.

17...Nxe5 I'm up a piece and I'm happy to trade.

20...h5 I wanted to prevent g4. The other move I was considering is probably stronger. Nh4 threatens taking on g2 and, if g3?, the knight forks on f3.

25...Rxe2 Again happy to trade and also set up the knight fork.

46...Kc3 Just trying to keep the king close a support the pawns. I didn't see 46... Kd3 47. Kb1 Nc3+ with checkmate next move.

47...a2+ 47...b2 is a faster route to mate. I'm not sure why I wanted to keep the a-pawn. I can just sac it and queen the b-pawn.

53...Qc2+ 53...a1=Q# would have been fun!

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Heh, nice game you certainly slaughtered him tactically.

I'm hoping to get a few opinions about a line of the French defense. I came across this position as I was practicing with the chess position trainer.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Nc3 5. Bd3 cxd4 6. O-O f6 7. Qe2 Qc7 8. Bb5 fxe5

Normal is 9. Nxe5, but I asked myself today, "What if Qxe5?"



This isn't given in Watson's book, so I sat down to try to figure it out. Unless I'm missing something obvious, Black has two options: 9...Qxe5 or 9...Bd6.

If 9...Qxe5 the next two moves are basically forced. 10. Nxe5 Nge7. Next, I would expect White to do something with the other bishop, since his knight can't develop to c3 and d2 blocks the bishop. 11. Bf4 or 11.Bg5. Either way, Black's cramped and he's got to get out of the pin to his knight, so 11...a6. Crafty found this "best" line and likes it for Black: 11. Bf4 a6 12. Be2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Nc6 14. Bh5+ Kd8.

I see the king stuck in the center and get nervous. Is it actually safe there? Also, I'm not sure how to use the central pawn mass to my advantage.

If I had faced this in a real game prior to today, I think I would have gone for 9...Bd6. Qxd4 allows Black to quickly develop his other knight and castle, so probably 10. Qh5+ comes next. With the help of the computer, I found that Qf7 maintains the integrity of the kingside pawns and blocks the check; White is obligated to trade queens.

11. Bxc6+ bxc6 12. Qxf7+ Kxf7 13. Nxd4 Ne7

This looks more appealing to me than the other line.

At my skill level, people play crazy things, and I want to be prepared. Thanks to anyone who can offer thoughts on these positions. I'd much rather get advice from real people than from Crafty.

-BoyHowdy

1/20/09 EDIT: Fixed mistakes in diagrams

Hey Boyhowdy, you pose a good question about "why not Qxe5?" And here is my take on it, however I'm not really familiar with this line as I've never seen it come up. But I'd have to say that taking with the queen isn't so great because it is offering a queen exchange in a game where White is aggressively playing for an attack. And after the Queens are off the board the idea of an attack is mostly gone (though White apparently can harass the King in the center a little there are no real mating threats).

As to the King being safe in the center with all those pawns in front of him? I think so. Play the King to d7 instead of d8 after the check and all possible checks are gone. Keep the knight where he's at and push the pawns and pieces on the Kingside and it looks to have Black be pretty comfy to me. Hell you're almost to the endgame anyway, the only real problem I see is that doubled e pawn where the front one will prove awkward to protect, you'd have to find a way to trade it off or lose it.

Those are my thoughts, actual mileage may vary.

Personally, I think Bd6 might be better. After 9...Bd6 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. Qxd4 and either 11... c5 or e5 that black pawn center looks pretty ominous.



In the Crafty line you quote, having the King in the center is probably a good thing now that the queens are off the board- it looks dynamically equal to me (and Hiarcs 11)
Also note that you should be prepared for 7. Bf4 instead of Qe2- that's likely what I would play in that position - a possible line: 7...fxe5 8.Nxe5 Bd6 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10. Qh5+ Kf8 11. Bd6+ Qxd6 12. Qh4 Qb4 with a complicated position- white cannot play Bxh7 because of Nf6- Black's king has been displaced and his rook will have to find a way out but black is a pawn up with a dangerous center- this position may be a little better for white as he surely has compensation for the pawn.
Hope this helps- keep in mind, I'm only a class A player but I do have a lot of experience in this line.

First, I'd like to publicly thank Rob and Dave for posting their thoughts on my last journal entry. I appreciate you both!

I'm posting a question here that I asked myself after recording my 2nd blitz game:

"I'm getting the feeling that, when I get an unopposed pawn center, those pawns want to advance. Is this the right idea? After playing over a year with the French, it's becoming clear to me that I need to be an expert in central pawn breaks and advances. Any way to study that concept?"

Here's a link to the game that prompted the question: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4465

And a diagram to illustrate the central structure:


Anyone is welcome to chime in and post a thought here!

Later,
BoyHowdy

EDIT: Fixed error in diagram.

hmm... that's a good question. We've been playing the French for about the same amount of time, and i think you're right. Pawn breaks are very important in the French, but more than just that, I think that pawn breaks are very important in ALL aspects of the game, and it seems to me that the French is an excellent place to learn such things as if you don't figure it out quickly you're likely to get steamrolled.

Now on to your question. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "unopposed" so I'll talk about the two ways I think you might be talking about it. First, passed pawns: I think that Nimzovitch (sp?) put it best when he said that "Passed pawns must be pushed". If you've got a passed pawn then you need to try to get it down the board, but you need to make sure that you control the square in front of the passed pawn as it is the "key square" concerning the pawn. There are huge sections about this in many different books on strategy, my favorite is still How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy silman.

Now if by unopposed you mean your opponent just hasn't played to control the center yet, then the answer is probably that they are best if left in the center of the board and not overextended. Pushing pawns gains space and takes said space away from your opponent, but it also leaves behind weaknesses. Before a pawn is pushed you should always consider the squares it is leaving behind because they can never be covered by that pawn again. If you try to strangulate your opponent with your pawns but do it too quickly then you are likely going to let them in through your pawns and into your position where they are hard to deal with. (I know, I've done this many times trying to constrict my opponents It's harder than it sounds)

There are some sections on this in How to Reassess Your Chess as well, and if I remember Silman also suggests looking at games by Karpov as he was good at this, but I haven't tried doing so yet.

Hope this helps.

Hey Rob,

Let me define "unopposed" for everyone's benefit. What I mean is a situation where I have two central pawns and my opponent has none. My pawns are not blockaded by enemy pawns. I don't think we can call these "passed" pawns unless they make it by the enemy pawn in the neighboring file. Do I have that right? Does the old saying about passed pawns apply here? I think that's my question.

Maybe the second part of your answer covers this situation.

-BoyHowdy

By definition, a passed pawn is a pawn that can advance unimpeded by one of the other side's pawns. There are no passed pawns in the example diagram you gave.

The answer to the question about advancing central pawns, of course, is that it depends... In the diagram above, Black is a solid pawn up and should be looking to convert his d-pawn into a passed pawn. In the diagram, Black ideally wants to (1) consolidate his position given the tactical situation, (2) prepare an attack on the White c-pawn down the c-file while advancing his a/b-pawns, and then (3) worry about advancing his d-pawn. The f7-e6-d5 pawn chain is quite safe for the moment so there's no need to start advancing it any time soon. In particular, it is imperative to prevent White from playing c4 and forcing a pawn exchange on c4 or d5 which would liquidate his weak c-pawn and leaving Black with a much weaker isolated d-pawn or a much harder job creating a passed pawn with his pawn on e6.

Now no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. White's pieces are more active (hence the consolidation phase of the plan) and he'll want to use this to control the central dark squares d4 and e5 as a way of tying down Black's forces. It will be hard to execute the queenside attack on the b/c-files if White is dominating the center. If Black cannot nuetralize this by exchanging minor pieces (the best way to consolidate), he may end up needing to play f6 and e5 at some point to evict a pesky White minor piece or two. In such a case, he will want to have his pawns on f6-e5-d5 for better central control. He does not want to end up having a f6-e5-d4 pawn chain since it's relatively easy for White to play c3 and force a pawn exchange on c3 or d4 with all of the annoyances of the c4/d5 pawn exchanges mentioned earlier.

L8erz...
=wild=

Was that diagram always there? If so then somehow I missed it before.

I added it about 2 minutes after I posted. You must be awesomely quick on the draw for forum responses!

That happens when you're unemployed and bored a lot.

Thanks a million for that awesome response. I need more great examples of what a "plan" is. The point that resonated with me the most is that I should be happy with the solid center and seek to keep it, so consolidating is the first step, not pushing forward.

-BoyHowdy

De nada. Just remember there will always be a case with a similar pawn structure where advancing the pawns is the right thing to do! For example, let's remove the pawns on c2 and b7 and move the White bishop to d2 to tone down the tactics some:



What do you think the correct plans are for both sides?

As Botvinnik once said (loosely paraphrased by me), "Chess mastery is nothing more or less than correctly evaluating chess positions." Unfortunately, I'm not a chess master so your mileage (and my evaluations) may vary...