Interesting game. It seemed to me that Black's strongest minor was the light-squared bishop and Adams set things up to make a favorable trade of that piece. Sure, there were other areas to make the trade, but he rotated around to make the trade on c6. For the longest time I wanted to get rid of the bishop as then the dark squares are pretty much uncontested as Black's remaining pieces just look a bit uncoordinated. Once the trade happened the rest was somewhat easier to understand (had you been allowed more time I am sure you would have opted for axb6).

If you'll forgive me for saying this, it seems that you spent a great deal of time calculating various and sundry variations. For example, the entire Bxh6 idea seemed to be a bit of a tangent (regardless of the zwishenzug you spotted before abandoning the line). I don't know, perhaps you can run it by Gregory and get his thoughts. While you were calculating all those lines I was adding up the relative strength of the pieces and from that I was determined that the light squared bishop had to be traded - preferably for White's light-squared bishop. That being said, I don't believe that that alone would win the game, but it seemed to me it made Black's defensive chores that much more difficult and seemed to give White some pull in the long run. Maybe you were mentally aware of this, but sometimes it makes sense to verbalize it in your head (and here, for the audience), to take an itemized account of the positional factors.

I only mention this as you were hard on yourself for not moving faster and sometimes that means you have to cut out some lines altogether. I'd sure like to know Kaidanov's thoughts on this game.

Interesting game even though it's not a line you play. Thanks.

I don't work with Kaidanov very often at all, I talk to him maybe once every two months, so it's not as if we have regular chess conversations Just the last two tournaments I paid him to go over the games with me, but that's it. Don't assume that because I mention his name occasionally in my game analysis that we are going to discuss every solitaire chess game I play

I actually don't remember what Bxh6 line you are talking about....maybe you meant Bxa6? Anyway usually I can calculate those lines a lot faster when I don't have to talk them out at the same time

Wasn't making any inference, actually I thought you probably ran into him at tourneys and picked his brain there.

Time mark 25:59-29.11 was something like 21.Bxh6 Bxg2, 22.Bg5 (hitting d8 R) Bxh3, 23.Bxd8 with complications, then you noticed the in-between move after 21.Bxh6 Black can flick in 21...Bh2+ and that way when 22...Bxg2 is played next it comes with check and the king is forced to capture then he can play gxh6 and has the open g-file to poke at you with - I believe your quote was "That just sucks!" - good call . Once you saw that you moved on to the next candidate.

To be fair, during that three minutes you did look at a couple of other candidate moves, i.e., Qg4 and possible f3. Personally I thought f3 was okay but you didn't like the holes on the dark squares which is understandable. I thought f3 might have forced his bishop to a weaker diagonal - but who can argue with Adams' results.

I didn't like Bxh6 without calculating, it just looked dangerous and Speelman is not someone you want to play risky lines against.

You are light-years ahead of me in chess development and have a natural talent for the game. I read in Kotov's book that you should first determine your candidate moves, calculate each one out and move on to the next line. I've also heard others say that humans just don't think that way (I know I don't!), but what I'd really like to know is if the super GM's are able to think in such a lineal manner.

So, here's my point. Bxh6 did in fact deserve some attention. You gave it attention, then you looked briefly at a couple other candidates and returned to the Bxh6 line. Eventually you decided on Bc2 (at time mark 31:23) where Adams played Ba4 (personally I don't really see the difference, the concept was the same, trade off the bishops if possible). You had looked at Ba4 as well but at this point you were down to 6 1/2 minutes on your clock and decided to make a move.

I fully understand your situation about commentary as you are studying the position, it's not easy. I do it when I am working with students, to get the thought process through to them, but this is a much higher level. Doing these without commentary until you do a wrap up would entertain the hell out of me but probably would not be to the liking of others.

Faster time controls are the dominating feature of modern chess and it pains me when I see players not manage their time well. For me it's no big deal, very little on the line, maybe placing in the top 3 at some small tournament that nobody cares about, but at your level it's much different, the pressure is greater, and therefor people are more hesitant to trust their intuition or 'chess instinct' if you will. In these solitaire game you add even more pressure with less time, but I believe it will pay off in regular tournament games, plus it is giving you a wider aspect of positions to look at in addition to your now more specialized opening repertoire.

Keep plugging away, a solid 2500 is just around the corner! Your work will pay off, I'm sure of that.

Interesting game, especially since I play the Tarrasch as White. Black seemed totally fine out of the opening and I didn't know how White was going to make progress. I didn't really see a4-a5 coming but once it was on the board it seemed so obviously to be the main way forward in the position (duh, opposite-side castling). I really admire Adams. He might be another good guy to add to your rotation -not at all flashy but very precise and good at evaluating positions.