I confess to not liking the Two Knights Defense very much. It just seems like it's too easy for White to get his pieces onto good squares (Nc5 & Nd4 & Bf4) where there's no practical way to remove them. Also, White has a space advantage, his king is safer, his rooks are connected, and he has several targets that keep Black's pieces tied down defending them. What's Black got? A cramped position, weak pawns, and little hope beyond hanging on for a draw. How confident can you be in an opening that produces this sort of middle game...? There's a reason why I stopped playing 1. e4 e5 as Black... What ever happened to the good old Najdorf...?

Never-the-less, I'm a sucker for lost causes! (BTW, your diagram is wrong: the White rook is on a1 not b1 after 18. c3 in the game.) So what can Black do? Well he can start trying to trade off some pieces... Though 18... Bxd4 doesn't look so hot regardless of how White recaptures. The real problem child is the knight on c5... How to get rid of it? If 18... Nb7 19. Na6 Rc8 20. b4 (else 20... c5 and Black might me making some progress...) Be7 21. Nb3 and White seems to be holding the line on c5 but his knights are no longer so dominantly placed.

I'll think about it some more... Maybe you should try playing White in the position against Herr Fritz and see what he tries to do as Black. You might at least get a glimmer about what 18... Kg8 is all about...

L8erz...
=wild=

Thanks wild

Two knights defence isn't that bad white got what you mentioned because of my lame play in the middlegame, although I am switching to the Bc5 now ( Bc5 instead of Nf6 in the opening). The two knights is a more combative way to go than the Bc5. I dropped najdorf as I totally hate the Bg5 variation

I was confident as I was a pawn up and I thought I would get in c5 so no knight on c5, however then I noticed that I can no longer play c5 and I figured I will play around those knights but I ran out of ideas. I haven't looked this up with a computer very thoroughly yet but I think that especially in the opening it's evalution is a bit off. As the computer thinks Nd6 was THE BEST retreat after f3, however I looked up some grandmaster games and somehow they all went Nf6, go figure Maby the machine doesn't yet realise in what kind of trouble it might get?

Thanks for the diagram correction. As for the line I think instead of b4 white might try Nb3 instead which both attacks a7 and defends against c5, so I think it doesn't work and maby my position is just really bad here but again the computer thinks it's not ( in the diagram position, not after our line ) which is really puzzling

Kg8 I was thinking in abstract terms here. I thought in some lines MABY white can take on d7 with a check or sometimes his queen might come to c5 with a check or the bishop might take on d6 with a check so I figured might as well just sidestep those even though it gives up some control on e7 which turns out was vital in the game

I have been looking looking and looking at that game above. I have found lots what I think are improvements and one bonus I get is once you first look things up without a computer even though it takes longer you remember them a lot better. For example



black to play

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

My next game was kind of an easy win. He just blundered a pawn in the opening, maby a pawn sac? But it was followed by another bad move and then black just didn't stand a chance, although I wasn't sure how to recapture after black's Nxd4 even though queen takes seemed very strong but the queen somehow felt clumsy on the d4 square not being able to swing to the kingside even though it granted an easy e5 push which seems to outweight the disadvantage



I am also half way through Mcdonald's Chess Secrets: The Giants of Strategy which I find very well explained and 1/3 through the soltis book which I don't read very carefully but I just try to absorb the ideas of the different pawn structures

I got some nice victories up my sleeve since the last one, although think I have a tactically crappy position in one of the games at the moment where my opponent is attempting to sac his queen ( as I understand ) but I probably will have to give mine back or get mated, I dunno, I haven't figured that one out yet

My training is getting pretty random though I need to keep up with Wildman's advice more, however I do feel stronger

A short combo from my most recent game for you to solve ( solution in the game continuation )




I'll probably head to the shop soon and buy a microphone to make some videos as nobody bothers to read these anyway

I am also almost finished with McDonald's AWESOME book which I'll probably read again sometime as it has so many great games and lots of verbal explanations

Hi armis,

I read them, but I'm so busy I seldom have time to comment. And 16... Ng5 was a nice tactic!

L8erz...
=wild=

Well, I read this one and it was really cool Armis!

Jup don't worry, we're reading! But a video is always cool!
I'll try to be a little bit more helpful with comment in the future

Hiddie

Oh, thanks guys Anyway I'll probably post less here and better try to come up with a video or two but that's after the tournament so that I would have some decent ( hopefully! ) games to show

I still have two weeks to prepare for the tournament, although my preparation lately has been more or less random except for the tactics which I kind of do every day. I feel pretty much ready and figured it's pointless to look through all the possible openings so I just focused on the middlegame and endgame instead, solving lots of exercises and stuff

I'll be playing in the B section which is for <2000 people and loosers like me. Basically I'll play a bunch of kids, some old guys and some chess enthusiasts who don't have ratings. I am most scared of the kids though

Well, wish me luck

armis, to the old guys you *ARE* one of the kids...

I agree that the kids are the scary ones because they can play like 200-300 ELO above their rating. Definitely handle with care. I played one 15 year old in an OTB tournament game. His rating was 1596 or something, but he was playing in my section (1600-1799) so I knew to watch out.

Being a wily old buzzard, I thoroughly thwarted his attempts at gaining an opening advantage (forcing his English into a QGD which is what I normally played against 1. d4 then) and got into a roughly equal (maybe I was a little better...?) middle game as Black. Then he proceeded to slowly outplay me, eventually grinding me down and gaining a won (or nearly won) endgame position. This was very grueling, taking almost 6 hours to play (it was a 40/2 + SD/1 time control). To give you an idea of how zonked we both were, in the end, he hung a piece. I missed it. I sat there fuming at myself for 3-4 minutes and he moved again -- leaving the piece hanging. Not being one to turn down an invitation twice, I took it and he resigned. It's what I call "winning ugly," but a win is a win...

So watch out for those kids... Maybe do some exercise and eat right as part of your training, so you have the energy and stamina to hang in there with them...

Heh, thanks I hope that won't happen to me, the loosing endgame part I mean

I do skateboard a lot so I think I'll be allright on the stamina part, however the eating right thing is definetaly something I should look into. I also figured I should readjust my sleeping and waking hours for the tournament so I wouldn't yawn during games

Hey, armis... How did the tournament go?

=wild=

Nice to see you FINALLY went to a tournament, armis Yeah I want to know the results. Wouldn't be too surprised if you got like a perfect score since you obviously know strategy as well as a master
My thoughts on kids (many would call me a kid, lol)
It IS true that juniors are often extremely underrated, one guy was rated like 1500 but he played in the U2200 section and CRUSHED EVERYONE THERE. (crushed me as well)
In my last tournament I was rated 1653 and I played against 4 1900's and 1 1700, scoring 4.5/5 against them and earning me a shiny first place

Hey guys thanks
Last year at the university is a busy year

Some photos from the tournament http://www.chesslyga.lt/index.php?lang= ... 7&tid=1210
Results http://chess-results.com/tnr23525.aspx? ... -1&wi=1000

Well it didn't go as bad as I thought it would Actually as I went along I even was the favorite to win my U2000 section and I thought I could. What's more important is I have realised how badly I have studied chess and how much time I have wasted playing blitz, 15mins on the internet and things. It's just SO MUCH different when you actually have someone sitting across the board. And what computer engines think about the position is a little stupid to rely on too heavily

All what really matters is what you actually think about the position. They might give it is a clear advantage in a book or something but you still might end up loosing if you don't understand it. Now I really know for the first time what they meant by saying don't study openings too much which is absolutely true. Middlegame and the endgame are just so much more important except the cases when you are playing najdorf or some other minefields. It's all about judgement and being practical. Speaking of being practical the position you have on the board is just as important as the time situation.

And the thing about people playing some opening just to AVOID THEORY I find really ridicilous. The truth of the matter is I think nobody really knows the theory anyway and even if you don't play some main main line but end up playing some harmless sideline it doesn't really matter all that much. As one gets stronger the value of the move of course increases but at U2200? Common that's not much of an issue I think

I have played kids, parents and their sons and some old guys too. I thought I might face a lot of offbeat openings and sidelines but pretty much all of them even though around 1800 played the main line stuff. One guy played utter rubbish the entire tournament b3 d3 g3 Bb2 Bg2 and so on Check out game 4

Anyway, enough talk I took 2nd place which is kind of cool and I even some decent money I would have taken the first place if I had beaten this kid whom I lost to and who won the 1st place I got a winning endgame I think but miscalculated and lost a down an exchange situation. Overall I got 7/9 which I am quite satisfied with. Not because of the numerical value but because of the value of my games. I think they were pretty good, especially the first two. I can't wait to analyse them. By the way my first estimated rating is something around 1850

I'll try to post some thoughts on the games I played even though I haven't got time to look through them yet I am pretty sure I'll do so in the future. Last year at the university is kind of a busy year So I won't make any promises as I have noticed as soon as I start posting after a couple of days I am like gone for a week or a month

If you got any question just ask, I'll be glad to answer

cheers

Games from the 1st to the last

Hey, armis!

Congratulations! Finishing 2nd in your section in your very first OTB tournament outing is quite spectacular. The best I ever did in a really big tournament was finishing 5th at the Western (US) High School Championship back in 1974 -- and that was near the very end of my (first) chess career. You're just getting started...

Of course, I can't resist pointing out that in the picture it looks like you are the old guy about to crush that poor sweet little girl...

Good job! (Both in the tournament and for crushing the little girl... However cute she was, she'd have eaten your liver if you'd given her half a chance... Chess is just like that. )

=wild=

aww I was expecting first from you armis A little more tactics and analysis practice could easily get you to 2200, you already know the hardest thing to becoming a master So you're only class A? you're really underrated