Chess IX

Thaniri

1264 Posts

February 04 2014 02:24 GMT

[soundcloud] https://soundcloud.com/dunkelbunt/zwischen-st-petersburg [/soundcloud]
C'mon R1CH get with the times.

Welcome to the ninth of my chess blog series.

Demetri Martin's "If I" show is my favourite comedy show of all time. The laughs per minute are not as high as most popular comedians, but he weaves them together to make a beautiful narrative to describe a real problem he struggles with in his life.

I like this little part of the video that I linked, because sometimes I feel like I'm the same obsessively analytical train wreck that he is.

I figured for this week I'd just keep it simple. What I should have been doing all along.

Instead of trying to improve everything at once, in order to race to the finish line. I need to really simplify things.

So this week was dedicated to just basic opening principles and blunder checking.

I have a million goals simultaneously, I believe I should severely restrict the things that I focus on so that I can truly apply the idea of circles within circles.

It also happens to parallel one Ha Joon Chang's ideas in 23 Things, the idea that government regulation perhaps is good for business as it limits the amount of decisions businessmen can make, giving a lower likelihood of a bad decision being chosen.

I enjoy how I can make connections between seemingly unrelated topics. It is also interesting to me how whatever I am currently reading seems to manifest itself in my own writing. I wonder what kind of blog will end up being written next week as I recently started Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

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.

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+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=717387961

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qc2 dxc4 5. e4 Nfd7 6. Nf3 c5 7. Bxc4 Nc6 8. d5 exd5 9. Bxd5 Nb4 10. Qd2 Bd6 11. a3 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 O-O 13. O-O b6 14. Qg5 Bb7 15. Qxd8 Raxd8 16. Rd1 Rfe8 17. Nc3 Bc7 18. Bg5 f6 19. Bh4 Ne5 20. Nxe5 Bxe5 21. Rxd8 Rxd8 22. Nb5 Bxe4 23. Nxa7 Bxb2 24. Re1 Bc2 25. g3 Bxa3 26. Nc6 Rd1 27. Kf1 c4 28. Na7 Bd3+

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I wrote up an incredibly long analysis on this game last night, but in a stroke of brilliance that only happens when one is exhausted, I closed my browser before hitting submit. Rather than analyse the same game again, I went ahead and played another one.

I will be playing black, and the opening will go like this:

1.d4
1...d5
2.c4

This is a rarely seen position for me, almost no-one seems to play c4. Looking at this situation, I determined that I had best play conservatively as I did not know how exactly everything will play out. My plan is to hold onto my d pawn for dear life, and react to whatever he is doing later.

2...e6
3.Nc3
3...Nf6

Looking at this position, I expect white to probably fiancetto his white bishop, play qb3, and push e4 to break open my center. In the long term I believe black wins that situation because it is is simply easier to defend than to attack that square

Looking at that possibility I think about a move like Bb4 to lock down his knight temporarily and possibly pre-emptively trade before an attack starts on d5. a3 to ward off simply weakens his pawn structure and doesn't actually remove the threat that my bishop is making, so this would be a very strong move.

However
4.Qc2?

The only logic I can think of to explain this move is that he wants to hold onto c4? Or perhaps he wanted to have a strong launchpad for his white bishop later? This early queen move seems more like a weakness than an asset to me.

I respond with 4...dxc5 because I didn't like his early queen move and it's a free pawn. My instinct in these situations is to just take the free pawn and figure out what comes next later.

He capitalizes on this move by playing 5.e4, grabbing lots of center control and activating his white bishop simultaneously

I felt compelled to play 5...Nfd7 even though it goes against basic opening principle because he could threaten the knight with something like e5 or Bg5. With this move I intend to begin to launch an attack on his center.

6.Nf3 is a purely developmental move, it is obvious he wants to play Bxc4 and 0-0 immediately after.

My plan however involves 6...c5
7.Bxc4
7...Bxc4

Because of his earlier queen move he is going to have a tough time holding on to d4. If he lets me attack into it, I get a very centralized and annoying knight, or conversely if he takes me on c5 I will have my black bishop pointing directly at his king. Not a pretty situation for him.

But none of that happened, my opponent surprised me with 8.d5
to which I responded with 8...exd5 because letting him take that pawn would result in an unsafe king,
9.Bxd5

The situation would have been turned on me quite nicely, but I can take advantage of his earlier queen move and fork with 9...Nb4

This also threatens an additional fork on c2.

Crisis averted by 10.Qd2, all potential attacks squashed.

Here I feel the need to prepare a castle as my opponent is set to castle at his own leisure and I am behind in that regard, so 10...Bd6.

He DOESN'T castle, and shoo's my knight with 11.a3, like mentioned above this weakens his pawn structure, and I believe actually slightly weakens his center control because I play 11...Nxd5.

He responds with 12.Nxd5, and to me, this position just FEELS harder to hold.

12...0-0
13.0-0
13...b6 This move is just to fiancetto my bishop. Because I intuitively feel that his position is weak in the center, I want to attack it as hard as I can.

He plays 14.Qg5, but I don't particularly care about that. I don't intend to take it and allow him to develop his black bishop.
14...Bb7

His choice to trade queens anyway with 15.Qxd8 does not agree with me because now I will have superior center control by way of the rook.

15...Raxd8

He realizes it and plays 16.Rd1.

I don't like this move at all because his black bishop is still useless, and he is restricting the movement of his rook on a this way. I would have simply developed my bishop somewhere, as the knight on d5 is not under any immediate threat.

After that, I make clumsy work of breaking down his center.

16...Rfe8

My two main notes about the current position is that his e pawn is hanging, and that it is the only "cheap" unit defending the knight.

He fixes both of those problems with 17.Nc3. Nc3 also creates a discovered attack for his rook and I am forced to play 17.Bc7

Things start to become un-elegant after 18.Bg5. I am forced to play 18...f6, and now my knight is pinned down harder than... I'm not much of a poet. It's REALLY hard to move my knight anywhere here.

19.Bh4
19...Ne5
20.Nxe5
20...Bxe5

In an ideal world I wanted to take the e4 pawn with my rook on e, but it was defended by his knight.

Given any opportunity to do so, I would love to trade my black bishop for his knight as almost all of my pawns are on black squares and he has a white bishop.

21.Rxd8
21.Rxd8

Remember way back when I said a3 created a weakness in pawn structure?

22.Nb5
22.Bxe4

From here, I look at the position and see two passed pawns for me, and an exposed back rank for my opponent. Like I noted in one of my previous blogs, I find it interesting to note that when one has an advantage in the endgame that player can pursue two game winning plans simultaneously and let one fail for the other to succeed.

My two plans are to either mate him, or to queen a pawn.

He plays 24.Re1
24...Bc2

Rook on d1 is a serious threat to him now.

He plays the safe move of 25.g3
So fine, revert to plan B, 25...Bxa3

26.Nc6
26...Rd1

27.Kf1
27...c4 (Plan B)

28.Na7
28...Bd3+ (Plan A)

GG

Here my opponent concedes as he's just lost a rook to the check and is about to have two queens barrelling down his throat, because I'm not very good at mating people.

don_kyuhote

3006 Posts

February 04 2014 02:35 GMT

This is called the Queen's Gambit. One of the best openings for White in Chess and certainly very popular. As you continue with your journey in Chess, rest assure you will come across this opening frequently sooner or later as Black. Maybe one day, you will decide to play 1.d4 and play it yourself as White.

hp.Shell

United States2527 Posts

February 04 2014 02:47 GMT

Fun game. I like that you didn't miss the blunder on 17.

On February 04 2014 11:24 Thaniri wrote:
Given any opportunity to do so, I would love to trade my black bishop for his knight as almost all of my pawns are on black squares and he has a white bishop.

This confused me.

Thaniri

1264 Posts

February 04 2014 02:49 GMT

@don_kyuhote

I just have to wait and see how the openings evolve as my rating slowly crawls up.

@hp.Shell

His white bishop is rendered useless by having everything on a black square.

sertas

Sweden890 Posts

February 04 2014 02:50 GMT

On February 04 2014 11:47 hp.Shell wrote:
Fun game. I like that you didn't miss the blunder on 17.

Show nested quote +

This confused me.

there is a rule in chess that says that good bishops got their pawns on different colour that the colour of the bishop.

However there is also a rule that says bishop pair is very strong , especially in open possitions. So i would say 2 bishops > 1 good bishop vs opponents worse minor piece. (in general).

This was a good game. I would say the best game ive seen you play so far.

hp.Shell

United States2527 Posts

February 04 2014 06:40 GMT

On February 04 2014 11:49 Thaniri wrote:
@don_kyuhote

I just have to wait and see how the openings evolve as my rating slowly crawls up.

@hp.Shell

His white bishop is rendered useless by having everything on a black square.

Right, but the problem is, he has no light-squared bishop here.... :/

Edit: One new thing you may try to activate in your games is, before making any move, look to see if he can place your king in check on his next move. You may be surprised how often you save yourself from checkmate just by doing this quick check before each move.

Another thing I started doing is looking at each of his pieces' attacking squares two moves ahead. For example, for his knights, for each of the 8 squares they could move to on the next turn, which 8 squares would they be attacking? This has helped me get out of potential knight forks. I'm sure you can see the benefit to doing this. Preferably I do that while it is his turn, so I don't waste too much time thinking about it.

wingpawn

Poland1342 Posts

February 04 2014 07:35 GMT

Just saying: 5...Nfd7 is a horrible move in Queen's Gambit. You should never be worried about one-move threats like that in the opening - if he plays 6. e4 you have 6...Nd5 and if 6.Bg5 Be7 is okay for you and you don't have to break any opening principles. By the way, most of players decline the c4-pawn by playing 4...c6, to solidify the d5-stronghold.

His 8. d5 was a premature move - he should've just reinforced d4 with 8. Be3.

After 10...Bd6, your opponent missed the tactical blow: 11. Bxf7+ Kxf7 12. Qxd6 Nc2+ 13. Ke2 Nxa1 14. Ng5 Ke8 (14...Kg8 15. Qe6#) 15. Nd5 and there's no defense to the fork on c7, which will win your Queen because otherwise it's checkmate. (Unless I'm wrong... But I'm analyzing this without engine and it looks winning for White). Of course you could refuse to play 12...Nc2+, but then you're just pawn down and have King so weak that it's awful to hope for saving yourself.

I think going 13...Nb6 instead of 13...b6 was slightly better. The one good defensive idea is to try to undermine or exchange the strongest attacking piece of your enemy - in this case, it's d5-Knight. Also, 13...Nb6 opens the natural rout for your Bc8 to develop.

"Given any opportunity to do so, I would love to trade my black bishop for his knight as almost all of my pawns are on black squares and he has a white bishop." That remark doesn't even make sense. He has dark-squared Bishop and in most endgames with pawns on both flanks, you never want to exchange Bishops for Knights unless you can grab material with the exchange sequence. The reason is that whenever you have 2 Bishops, their influence can be spread all around the board, especially when they're centralized.

21. Rxd8 is simply bad from him as he gives up the d-file. Had he played 21. f3, the fight would still go on.

24...Bc2 isn't the best move. Curiously, you got the right idea of a back-rank mate with ...Rd8-d1, but you failed to apply it immediately. 24...Bxa3! immediately was possible because the e4-Bishop cannot be taken because his Rook has to guard d1-square!

You had 27...Bd3+ right away, but the game was won anyway... Nicely done, there were certainly less mistakes here than in your previous games.

Kaizen[7]

United States86 Posts

February 04 2014 15:36 GMT

I like reading about chess and imagining a world where I understand what in the hell is going on =)

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