EPTThis week I want to know if my writing style is good for reading, and if I need to make improvements.
Previous blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=373639
Wtf is up with bbcode. Center is not working, and neither do videos
Week 3. It has now become apparent to me that chess won't be learned in a day.
>Rome wasn't built in a day.
>Rome was mighty
>I shall be mighty
>Just not today.
As far as progress. Nearly none has been made as far as ELO. I am now sitting 700, which is up from 500 I guess. Stylistically speaking, I feel as though I have experienced the two extremes of chess. My first two weeks I had been forcing games into trades, often gaining positional advantages for myself through these trades. However, as time progressed I found myself experimenting with more closed games, in which pawn structure and defense is crucial for survival.
The two styles side to side I think are the equivalent to micro and macro. Trading pieces, having shorter games, and being smarter with fewer pieces is like playing a fast and furious bunker rush style against zerg. Playing games based on pawn walls, and not necessarily having a large amount of attack opportunities because of the amount of defense that has to be dedicated to the pawn walls is like playing a macro game. Compared to playing a micro game, the macro game has much, much more to think about. In a micro game, I am thinking about the relationships between a few key pieces. In a macro game, I have to account for every single piece that can create an attack. As far as learning Starcraft, we all know that macro games are the best for honing your overall skills, so I shall apply the same fundamental knowledge to chess, and begin to play as often as possible in fairly forward, yet defensive positions. This way, I will force more moves to be made, and more thought to be put into the moves as the pawn walls are established. As I increase the difficulty of the type of game I play, and therefore increasing the amount of thinking required to play, my understanding of how pieces move and attack should be much better.
If you have read "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin, remember learning Karpov from Kasparov (or was it the other way around?) Obviously those two players are way out of my scope of learning still, but I intend to learn to use my middling pieces and queens to break pawn structures for at least a week, so that when I revert to my fun and much more natural style, I shall have a much better understanding of creating and executing attacks.
This week has had no time dedicated to books, videos, articles, just games, and it has actually been pretty fun.
Irrelevant caption that you will inevitably read.
http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=378114761
Here I will do a simple game analysis. I picked this one, because it was my first draw! Yay!
As I write this, I recommend that you read with this setup: [img=http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch1z_zps2cc77a19.png[/img]
>I open 1.e4, I don't really pay attention to my openings, but this move, and d4 are the moves I like to play as they are central pawns that can control the center.
>He responds with e5, which is standard. My prebuilt response to this is to play Nf3, and after he brings up a pawn to support, or to further contest mid, I play d4.
>However, after Nf3, my opponent plays Qf6 o.o Here I am thoroughly confused by this bold move, and keep to the principle of center control and play c3, as I plan to use it to support d4 later.
>He predicts this move with Nc6, but I continue with my plan and play d4.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch2z.png)
>He takes my d4 pawn with exd4. I think this is a silly move because he has two supporting pillars for this pawn, the queen and knight on c6, this is bad because I can attack with pawn with my own knight, my pawn on c3, and my queen, 3 attacks.
> I choose cxd4, and move would be fine, but this one continues the theme of center control.
>He plays Bb4 to put me in check. I think using bishops or queens early on to check your opponent is a poor decision. Usually this means that the defending player is going to be moving up either his kingside or queenside pawns forward to defend the king, and the aggressor must always be moving his one piece backwards to keep it alive, lest he takes and unfavourable trade. This means that the move will increase my pawn structure, while decreasing his development.
>Funnily, this is one of the few games where I use my knight to defend the king. I am baiting a trade from him because I want the B pawn to move to C, and further the goal of center control. Also bishop > knight.
>He plays d6. I guess to develop his bishop?
>I play d5, this is a move that can't be defended by him and should force his knight into a weak position.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch3z.png)
>He goes for the most aggressive possible move, with Ne5.
>I support that knight with Be2, yet he takes it with Nxf3+. I immediately counterattack, and feel marginally ahead because bishop utility gets much stronger that knight utility as the game progresses.
>He plays Nh6, I'm not goign to even pretend to know what this move is. I'm a bad chess player, someone tell me.
>Remember that early check with his bishop? Well that bishop can piss off now, a3. He again trades a bishop for a knight with Bxc3+, I just play bxc3 with my pawn.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch4z.png)
>He plays Qxc3+ to fork my king and rook, however because it is my queenside rook, after Bd2 I succesfully defend both pieces.
>He plays Qc4 to get the queen out of trouble, for now. However, at this point I want to punish his insolence.
>Be2, MISTAKE. Qxe4. Fuck.
>Qb3, I can't let him take the next pawn.
>He mounts the pressure on that pawn with c6, but I counter with f3, forcing his queen to get out with Qf5.
>I play Bc3 to try and set up a fork between his rook and knight on g7.
>He does a kingside castle, and safe!
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch5z.png)
>I want his queen out of there, so g4. He responds with Qg6, because if you work out the possible trades had he killed g4 with the knight, my bishop would have killed his queen.
>I play h4, intending to play h5 and further harass the queen.
>He plays cxd5. Whoops, forgot about that. There goes center control.
>Here I probably should have killed d5 with my queen, but I play h5 to harass his queen.
>He plays Qg5. Bd2 from me keeps the pressure on, and the queen needs to constantly move, and goes to e5.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch6z.png)
>Here starts a laughing farce. I play Bc3, the queen must die.
> He retreats with Qe6.
>I castle as I dont know what the hell I can do.
>Mistake, free bishop for him with Qxe2.
>Now I had a lead, and I REALLY want to kill with queen. So......I clear space for him, with Qxd5.
>He counter threatens my queen with Be6, But I can simply kill d6.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch7z.png)
>He sets up a battery on my rook with Bc4, and I respond with classic idiocy by playing Bb4.
>He threatens Bb4 with a5.
>By plaing Qd2, I am essentially trying to get rid of this pest, but I learn he is reluctant to trade as he plays Qe8.
Wheeeooooo wheee, I think I'm going to have musical themes for every blog post.[/center]
>I continue to be stupid, and threaten his queen with Rfe1.
>He counterthreatens with Rd8, and knowing that this trade would give him a positional advantage, I play.........Rxe8 well, it is now obvious that I am a complete idiot, he now has a rook in my face, when he obliges and takes Rxd2.
>But, there is light at the end of the tunnel? I forgot my bishop, and so had he. I play Bxf8, and suddenly the game is even again.
>He needs to push forward a pawn or it is checkmate, f5.
>I play Bc5+, checking with my rook. This is a check for the sake of a check. It was probably a poor choice considering that when he plays Kf7, he is getting more developed.
>I continue to check with Re7+, and he keeps pushing the king forward with Kf6.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch8z.png)
>I'm lost. Rae1.
>He kind of knows what to do, Rd5, thisshould get my bishop out of position, but fuck that. R1e6+
>His king is beginning to get backed into a corner, Kg5.
>Be3+, am I seeing victory????
>Alas, he escapes through Kh4.
>I take a free pawn with Rxg7.
>He then slickly pins my bishop against an undefended pawn with Rd3. I take Rxh7, and he takes Bxe6. This was me simply overlooking that bishops do, in fact, exist.
>So I check him with Bf2+
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch9z.png)
> He retreats with Kg5. See I should have killed his knight, but now that option is removed. So I kill a free pawn on b7 with my rook.
>He kills a free pawn with Rxa3.
>My king moves up to g2, I want to restrict his space.
>Fxg4. fxg4. Kxg4. Now losing my rook previously to his bishop on e6 is really spiraling out of control.
>I pin the bishop to the knight with Rb6, and he plays Bd5+, which buys him time to save his knight. Now I am forced to play Kh2, and then he takes a free pawn with Kxh5, and also meaning that I can kill his knight. Things are looking grim.
>I just play Rb5, forking the bishop and pawn.
>He defends the bishop, so I kill the pawn on a5.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch10z.png)
>I defend my bishop and push forward with Kg3.
>He plays Nf5+, I feel like there is nothing left for me to do but die.
>Kf4. Rxf2+. Shit shit shit shit shit.
>Atleast Ke5 should net me a kill.
>Nope Bf7.
>Kf6, keep the forks!
>Be8.
>Rxf5+. Rxf5. Kxf5.
GG.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch11z.png)
Please, feel free to comment on how terrible I am, and give advice. Or just rate me a 1 and say that I should go suck a bag of dicks. (Louis C.K. joke )
