Chess VI

Thaniri

1264 Posts

January 12 2014 02:27 GMT

I took a long time in coming back to this chess series. However, as promised, I will make this a weekly event.

After arriving back in Canada in December, I was really excited to come back and do a lot of exciting things with my life. One of those exciting things was playing chess again.

I love the mystery of chess, but I also love the experience of learning and improving, and that is what truly draws me to chess so much. Chess is one of those games where each discovery leads to more questions, more things to figure out. It is a game of incredible depth and complexity, and that overwhelming feeling of being puny in comparison to some great mysterious power is something that excites me to the core.

It reminds me of a lost quote by Empire.Kas, the quote that made me a fan of his through thick and thin, to the death. As it is a lost quote, this is coming from memory and are not his exact words.

I am not a player who plays an opponent specifically. I try to play a game where I simply do what I have to to win, and try to prevent my opponent from doing what he has to do to win. Through practice I learn how to stop my opponents from killing me. It is like there is a large painting and I am discovering it one piece at a time to reveal the whole.

It's interesting to me how some of the things I love about Kas are lost in the nether of the web. What comes to mind is his humble interview before WCG Korea. Where he proceeded to massacre everyone in his way to a 3rd place finish.

My ultimate goal in chess is to have the title of master. I realize I started playing chess much too late for me to shoot for grandmaster, but to be a master would be a great achievement nonetheless.

I believe that from my past I have the skills necessary to reach a very high level of skill in anything, but what worries me is my discpline.

When I played piano and starcraft, I would play all day every day. I wouldn't care how bad my day was, or if I was tired, or any other excuse. I wanted to be the best of the best, and I forced myself to practice whether or not I liked it.

If I lost 20 games in a row of the same strategy, on the same map, vs the same person. I would start a new map and invite the same person and lose 20 more. So long as it would lead to me getting a win eventually.

If I just could not put together a melody based on triplets and an accompaniment based on steady eighth notes, I would grind it out for hours until I got it. I would record myself to hear where my rhythm was going wrong. I was determined to be successful.

If you want to be successful, you've got to want it as bad as you want to breathe. I don't know how many of you have asthma here today, but if you've ever had an asthma attack. You wheezing. The only thing you care about is getting some air. You don't care about no party, you don't care about no basketball game. The only thing you care about is air.

After quitting starcraft, my iron discipline had seemed to wane, but I intend to regain that indomitable willpower through living a goal focused life.

I welcome you back to Chess. Lets go!

-----

I recommend that the blog be read like this, so that you can read my comments throughout while also being able to see the board for yourself.

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=696895663

I like to open with the French as black because I feel like it poses challenges to me that I don't have to deal with when playing the Scotch as white.

Namely, that I am often going to be crippled in terms of my early game development, and can't put together any strong attacks early.

After

1. e4 1...e6
2. Nf3 2...d5

It is white's decision to play

3. e5

This is a move I often struggle with when playing the French, as it prevents Nf6, and to fiancetto the black bishop takes too many moves and is easily countered by d4.

My response to this move is to begin to develop the queenside as much as possible, resulting in a potentially delayed castle from me, and an extremely underdeveloped kingside.

3...c5

This move grabs a little bit of control in the center, and allows me to develop my queenside knight quickly.

4.a4

This move did not really make sense to me at first. It looked like a wasted tempo.

4...Nc6
5.Bb5

Now I see what he meant by that pawn move, but I am unphased, and play 5...a6. Should he trade the bishop for my knight I gain an advantage by having the center completely clogged up and (hopefully) getting time to develop and castle kingside.

That is exactly what happens after 6.Bxc6+ and 6...bxc6.

Notice how at this point it is extremely difficult to crack open my center position, now I don't care about how long it takes to develop my pieces because I feel relatively safe.

7.a5 chokes me a little bit, but I think that he would have done better to try and develop his middling pieces or to castle kingisde.

7...g6 allows me to set up my fiancetto.

8.d3 unlocks his black bishop.

8...Bg7

9.Bg5 is another move that slows me down, I will block with 9...Ne7 in order to castle as quickly as possible, but in order to develop my knight further I must first move my queen.

Move 10 we both castle, no problems.

11.c4 This threat on my d pawn does not worry me because I will take it back with the doubled pawns on c and maintain my pawn chain.

11...Qc7 is the move I make to cover my knight, and get my queen out of the threat by the black bishop.

12.Re1 is a good developing move, throwing an attack down the center is always good.

With 12...Nf5 I am planning on putting my knight on d4, capitalising on the fact that I have much better center control than my opponent.

13.Nbd2 counters my idea of trading my knight for his knight on e3, but I play 13...Nd4 anyway because I felt like it was the best position for my knight to be in.

After a bunch of trading, I still have center control but we end up at 15...Bxe5.

This was my first serious mistake in my opinion, as he will play 16.Nf3 and as a result I will waste a tempo and end up with a less dominant center.

The effects of it are felt on move 18 with Rc1 from white.

Suddenly, my queen can be chased around, my center is looking flimsy, I have an underdeveloped white bishop... and things are looking grim.

18...Qb5 was my solution, as he had no way to possibly defend his a and b pawns simultaneously.

Jump forward to 20.Qc6, and while this move looks absolutely brutal for me, I'm not that worried about losing the rook on a.

Should my black bishop get onto h6, I will have a threat on HIS rook in turn, and should end up with a pawn or two advantage which would be a complete turnaround in the game.

I play 20...h6, and he naturally takes the rook with 21.Qxa8 and takes a strong lead in the game.

After 21...hxg5 he takes back with 22.Nxg5

Now, I COULD take back with Qxg5, but that doesn't put me in an advantageous position. I really want his rook.

So I play 22...Bh6, but I didn't foresee 23.h4 or possibly 23.f4.

Suddenly my plan is in shambles, but at this point I hadn't realized it.

I played 23...f6 and lay down comfortably in the grave I had dug for myself.

I try to threaten things with 24...Qd2 because of the 24.Ra1, but alas...

26. Qxg6+

GG.

+ Show Spoiler +

As I do want to make this a regular series, I ask you the reader to help me improve this series. I invite you to comment and criticize on my writing style, or the way I deliver my content.

If anyone expresses interest in me creating videos for this series I am willing to give that a shot as well.

Help me make this blog awesome by telling me what I can do better!

TzaTzers

United States589 Posts

January 12 2014 03:16 GMT

I've always been pretty interested in chess though I've never really looked up actual strategies so I'm a casual player I guess. It's a nice write up, I just had to look up certain things (openings and fiancetto). As far as videos go, I think it would be really nice but if you will be using the same terminology then I will probably be just as lost about what they mean, but I will still be interested in seeing the game development.

Also I never knew that the chess board had to be set up with the white square on the bottom right corner... lol who knew.

don_kyuhote

3007 Posts

January 12 2014 06:00 GMT

Good to know there will be a chess blog every week here.

One thing I want to say is that, unless you're trying to get a lot of games in in succession to get a feel for a new opening or something like that, it's probably better to play games with longer time control like 15/10, 15/15, or 30/0 than 10/0 if your main goal is to just improve.
Just my thought.

DW-Unrec

492 Posts

January 12 2014 12:36 GMT

TL should be the home of non physical sports, not only SC2. And I included chess in this category.

O.G.

Russian Federation8 Posts

January 12 2014 17:00 GMT

26. Qxg2+

fix to g5+

Hryul

Austria2609 Posts

January 12 2014 19:03 GMT

I'm not sure if this is a thing for more people, but I stopped playing chess some years ago and I have "trouble" finding the fields as fast as I wanted. So would it possible to add a grid to the boardshots so it's easier to see where "f3" is?!

imBLIND

United States2626 Posts

January 12 2014 19:16 GMT

12. ... Nf5 is a bad move. White knows you're going to be going to play 13. ... Nd4 on the next move, and seeing how this is not a "killer" move and you were completely unprepared for that advance, you really should've taken the time to move your white-squared bishop to a better square so your rooks can be connected. There's no reason to move your knight from e7 because that trade would've favored you if he decided to exchange his dark-squared bishop for a partially inactive knight (and since your dark squared bishop was fianchetto'd, he does not want to lose control of those squares). In fact, your goal should've probably been to somehow free your white squared bishop, not to attack the d4 square.

Thaniri

1264 Posts

January 12 2014 20:24 GMT

@imBLIND

Thanks for the input. I realized later that having my white bishop undeveloped was a huge weakness for me and your solution is quite good.

@Hyrul
I'll work on it for next week.

@O.G.
Got it.

@DW_Unrec
I don't think so, chess players have their own communities. The chess world doesn't really need TL.

@don_kyuhote
I'll start doing that from now on, thanks for the input.

wingpawn

Poland1342 Posts

January 12 2014 21:29 GMT

First of all, I think you should post full analysis, move by move. You're skipping some points where still other choices were possible and you would be surprised how often they can make a huge difference.

Regarding the game: I think 5...Bd7 or 5...Ne7 would be stronger than 5...a6. As you can see, his plan was to give up that Bishop anyway and with moves I mentioned you would have effectively one piece more developed on c6. But as you said, doubled c-pawns are nice too, as they allow you to control the center.

Instead of 7...g6, a good alternative might've been 7...f6, to get rid of that annoying e5-pawn. In case of the exchange, the backward e-pawn later goes to e5 and you can develop your c8-Bishop freely.

Around here, you had many opportunities to activate your Rook with ...Ra8-b8. After 9. Bg5 it would even happen with gain of time, as b2-pawn was unprotected. It's always good to get some extra activity with tempo.

As you said, 15...Bxe5 was a mistake. But the other guy screwed up as well with 15. cxd5! By playing 15...exd5, you would release your Bishop from a prison it seemed to be doomed in.

"18...Qb5 was my solution, as he had no way to possibly defend his a and b pawns simultaneously." Not really. 18...Qb5 19. Qd2, defending pawns simultaneously, no problem.

I have no idea why you didn't just play 20...Rb8. It's not like he would've checkmated you. He also cannot harass the Rook with the Queen anymore, as you can always play 21...Bb7, connecting Rooks.

The guy makes a huge blunder by going 22. Nxg5, when he had 22. Rxc8, winning yet another piece (Re1 was protected by Nf3). I have no idea why he autopiloted for the recapture, but luckily for him, it didn't spoil his win anyway.

In conclusion: try to develop all your stuff before going for hand-to-hand fight. That's what won your opponent the game; all his pieces were working while Bc8 and Ra8 were mere spectators here.

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