Thanks Zibbit

Seems that my idea is crap in the end Oh,well...

I do like the centralising Bd4 and the point that black hardly has any counterplay was somewhat missed by me and is still way over my head at this stage! Thanks for the reply

Very nice! I especially like that black won't be able to get rid of the knight without fatally weakening the light squares.

Thanks Josh, glad you liked it

Exams, exams, exams.... I'll take a week or two off chess yet again

Finally my exams are other and I'll have a little bit more time for chess
Today at last I played an OTB game. Here it is


I'll post some of analysis later as I'll perhaps analyse it only tommorow. I would be glad to hear any sugesstions, thoughts. Thanks

Armis, did you just have a board set up next to your computer while Fritz played? I've always wanted to do this, but I've been too disorganize (my desk is just too messy).

Nice game. I was a little worried about your weak d-pawn (it seemed to be making life hard for your light-squared bishop. Also, what settings did you use?

Ups, sorry about the confusion but this was not played against Fritz. I just copy pasted the game and seemingly fritz10 was written automatically. I'll change that

Yeah, my d pawn was pretty weak but I think the move that caused me headaches was 21.b3?? which is HORRIBLE I don't have a darksquaered bishop thus this can hardly be a good idea unless there is a concrete variation. Here black's darksquared bishop could settle on d4 blocking the defence of the d pawn after which I could play c3 bxc Nxc for example but still it's not as good as it could have been without the weakening b3.

I'll try to post my analysis as soon as I finish it

thanks Josh

Yeah, now that I think about it, b3 is a pretty weird move. It creates a lot of weaknesses.

19.fxg5 looks interesting.

Thanks Crash

I considered it but was somewhat worried that my bishop will get trapped and left out of play there. I'll look it up in more depth tommorrow and let you know what I think

Lately my university really cuts down the amount of time I can spend on chess. I haven't had my hands on the exercise thread ever since the new semester started Although I like studying physics ( Optics this semester, my favorite ) I would love to spend more time on chess

Rob is quite successfull with posting his game analysis here and there. I thought I might do the same I'll try to post the analysis of every single game I play. Beforehand I used to analyse my games with a strong computer program, from now on I decided I'll look them up myself and only then let the beast tell me what's wrong with it. This is not going to be extensive analysis but just a general feel of the positions. I have no doubt this is the more beneficial way to go. Here we go!

This game is one of those Qxd4 sicilians where white takes on d4 with the queen instead of the knight. On one hand it's not that threatening, on the other it worked damn well against me! Quite a poor performance on my part, not the first time though . Time controls were 10min. Any help, greatly appreciated


1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3

I am not entirely sure if this move order is somewhat special or not but it does give black some extra options, although I don't really like something like 3. ...e5 thus I continued in ordinary fashion
Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4

This isn't the most testing line I guess I can win a tempo and if white so wishes the bishop pair as well but white develops really smoothly and has good central control. The problem though is white played
Nc6 6.Qa4

This I find annoying! What white usually does is pins the knight to retain the centralised queen but it's not what matters. What matters is the fact that I didn't react correctly to this queen move. I played
e6?!

which although doesn't look that bad it just doesn't feel right to me. It sort of justifies white's opening strategy: now the d file is open, my queen is still sitting the d file thus a rook coming there might be annoying, Bf4 is coming and I have to watch out of e5 pawn push. Originally I intended to get an isolated pawn position by playing d5 at some point but I have no idea why I didn't go for it
6. ...g6 would be my choice now
I would be glad to hear your thoughts as I am sort of struggling what should black do here
7.Bf4 Be7?!
I should have gone e5 here. Now it's not an option because of the pin along the d file to my queen. Thus I'll have to find other ways to defend my d pawn
8.Rd1

Rd1 was really surprising! Why not 0-0-0? I thought Anyway here I started playing really poor moves
Qb6? 9.Bb5

I think I should have gone for e5 pawn push earlier once white has played Bf4 and try to play around my d5 weakness as mentioned previously.
Here I played the terrible
Bd7? 10.Bxd6 a6?? 11.Bxe7 Kxe7

Looks pretty bad already, doesn't it?
After 12.e5! it all went downhill, a true massacre

So I couldn't really adopt to the new situation and think with a clear head on what is black's best way to proceed. Now I'll go look this up with Fritz. Analysing a game yourself is tough! I'll try to improve though

Hey armis, thanks for the analysis. I agree that it's best to analyze the game yourself first and THEN go over it with a computer. This is what I've been doing for the last while now and I think it helps greatly. That's why I put in the "computer analysis" tags on my analysis to show things that I got out of the computer after I had finished.)

Here's a couple thoughts I had about the game:

It looks like the Qxd4 lines of the Sicilian turn into a sort of reverse Qa5 Scandinavian. Possibly there were some moves you could have pulled from that vein that might have helped you. I haven't calculated anything out but possibly an early Bd7 would have worked out a little better.

Like you said 10... a6?? just doesn't do ANYTHING for your position at all. You attack a piece but the pawn you're attacking with is pinned to the unprotected Rook so the threat is moot as I'm sure he'd love for you to take it so he could not only win the exchange but also put his queen on your first rank with check and subsequently pin your Bishop to your King.

When thinking about a6 is that really what your Rook wanted for Christmas?

The game was played pretty well, for an ugly game. I think the main thing is you were doing what you always say I do and got rather routine in your opening and didn't react to the changing circumstances enough. (I think you even mentioned this in your analysis, but I have to admit I didn't read it very thoroughly.)

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a bunch rob

Yep, this helps a lot. Moreover analysing on your own is often times so tough! I think I'll steal the computer analysis thingy from you see how it goes. I'll try add the copy pasted analysis in the hidies to. I couldn't do it this time as It was done on my laptop which would probably melt from Fritz's system requirements

An early Bd7 I somewhat didn't even consider that during the game since I didn't really see how can it be to my advantage, although it does stop any e5 action as I could move my knight with a discovery to his queen. Another small addition is that my rook is protected! Compared to the stupid a6 line I played I think Bd7 is really worth atention

a6 was terrible! I played this game so badly I can't even belive it. a6 was one of those nervous reactions when something goes wrong

I agree with the routine thing. It's actually surprising that I can someetimes notice others doing it and telling them but I still do the same mistakes myself! Fortunately, not that frequently these days but this game is a good illustration. I'll try to be more aware of that
Normally against anti-sicilian lines g6 works best for black, getting sort of a dragon structure

thanks again rob

I've just finished a 15min game on FICS and I thought I might share one position

White to play

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

A recent game I played:
White played the grand prix attack without Nc3 inserted which allowed me to play a pawn sacrifice with d5 for lead in development and active piece play. Later my adv. in development turned into a little attack against his king, however in the critical moment I should have just got the pawn back with a microscopically better position. I missed some tactics as well and got under huge time pressure which eventually costed me the game. This was a 15min game by the way


e4 c5 2.f4 d5

This is supposed to be the refutation of white's line. Thus if white wants to enter the grand prix attack it's better with Nc3 first which stops the d5 advance.
3.exd5 Nf6
This is the whole point! If white defends the pawn with c4 Black gets quick development and pressure on the d file and the d4 square for his pieces after an e6 pawn push. White can't really allow black to take on d5 unhindered as black would be simply better in that case because of white's weak d pawn and squares on the d file
4.Bb5+
Logical, white is willing to trade his lightsqured bishop before playing c4. Not only this gets the bishop outside the pawn chain it also helps white to catch up in development.
Bd7 5.Bxd7+ Qxd7 6.c4 e6 7.Qe2
This seemed like a contraversial idea for me, although if I am not mistaken it's the main line. The problem with this move is that what will eventually happen is I'll get a rook on the e file way faster than white can develop and play e5 with his queen so exposed to potential tactics.
On the other hand an endgame if white doesn't play Qe2 but goes 7.dxe Qxe+ Qe2 Nc6 is reasonable for black as white's d pawn is awfully weak. I would really like to hear your thoughts on this one
Bd6 8.dxe6 fxe6

The e pawn isn't really much of a problem as I'll get rid of it in time by opening up files in the center. White can hardly stop that as I am ahead in development
9.d3 O-O 10.Nf3 Nc6 11.O-O Rae8 12.Nc3
Finally the time has come for e5. Black's pieces just spring to life and white is likely to loose his extra pawn just because of the pressure
e5 13.fxe5?
I don't like this at all. Just seems conceptually wrong. Black is ahead in development yet white is willing to open up the game for black! Besides white trades his only developed pieces Better was 13.f5!

analysis diagram
although it gives the pawn back it blocks black's pieces and allows white to catch up in development. Black retains a slight edge I think however gets some squares to work with too: d5 and e4 look good home for the knights
Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Ne4 Ng4?!
A miscalculation Why on earth didn't I trade another of his developed pieces?%^?$!@%!*? A clean cut way of transforming my lead in development to a clear positional advantage was 15. ...Nxe4! and black will get his pawn back with excelently placed pieces. For example 16.Rxf8+ Rxf8 dxe Qd4+ Be3 Qxe4 and black is clearly better. There are some minor tactics which I leave for the reader If you are not sure, ask! I'll gladly answer
16.Rxf8+ Rxf8 17.g3 Bd4+ 18.Kg2 Nf2

Computer analysis

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19.Be3 Qh3+?!

It does look scary for white! But this was overly optimistic on my part as I didn't really see a clear way my attack to succeed. I should have just regained the pawn with 19. ...Bxe3 Qxe Qxd3 which would probably lead to a draw. The rest of the game is just me trying to get an imaginary attack which just doesn't work and misplaces my pieces on the kingside. White can always give up a pawn on the kingside just to get the queens traded and leave my pieces misplace there.
20.Kg1 Bxe3 21.Qxe3 Ng4? 22.Qe2 b6 23.Re1 h6 24.b4!? Rf5 25.bxc5 bxc5 26.Nxc5?
This only lead to a perepetual check which I certainly should have accepted! Somehow I thought I was getting mated This explains the caveman
Kh7?

27.Ne4 Rh5 28.Rf1 Nxh2
and here I lost on time

What I've learned:
1. Stop playing "hope chess"! It's surprising how many times I repeat that to others and still do the same mistake myself. This is a very bad habit I have, lazyness... it can be noted in my analysis as well, although I am slowly trying to correct this
2. 15. ...Nxe4 wasn't that hard to find, was it? This is pretty much the same as point number 1. Try to calculate the resulting complications better. As I pretty much gave up on this move because I looked at it like 5 seconds and saw that the e pawn is defended. Checks and captures, checks and captures, checks and captures....
3. Time managment! I'll go read an article by Dan Heisman or something

Interesting game Armis. I'll take a closer look at it later when I'm not as tired and can actually think clearly.