Chess XIII

Frank Marshall
"The hardest part of chess is winning a won game."

It's become a reoccurring theme in my play that I throw games. It feels as though almost every game I manage to come out of the early or middle game a pawn or even a whole piece ahead, and then muddle up my execution in the endgame and get a draw, or worse, a loss.

The problem is a combination of two things. I often repeat myself that I have a lapse in focus. That is the most important problem, and the second is that I simply have weak endgame skills in general.

Not having focus is something that doesn't have a single root cause, but several. Perhaps I get bored at 2 pawns up and waiting for my opponent to make a move so I start to browse teamliquid in another tab. Maybe the game has dragged on past the hour mark and I'm not accustomed to the length. Still yet I could simply be feeling lazy and don't notice everything on the board.

This problem extends beyond the chess board. It's not something I can work out in a trainer. It's something I have to work on in myself, which is quite a bit more difficult. If I say the problem is my endgame skills, I can detach "me" from "my skills" and study endgame books. Because "I" am not "my skills." However the main problem can not be detached from "me," because it IS me.

In more precise examples, I can say that I am terrible at finding mates to finish off my games. I almost exclusively play to queen my pawns for the win because I am terrible at finding winning attacks without them going horribly wrong. The obvious solution is to play a million puzzles to find the mate.

However, when I say I have a distracted mind, or get mentally fatigued easily. That's a bit harder to work on. Maybe I should meditate daily to calm my mind. Maybe I should force myself to grinding hours and hours of continuous gaming without allowing myself to do anything else other than go to the washroom and eat.

I might be overcomplicating it. If I can separate "me" from "my skills" why not "me" from "my mental skills." I don't know of an elegant way to phrase that.

To make it all the more rich, I'm even taking a break from writing this to play a quick counterstrike game.

I really wanted to be 1200 rated for this blog, but while I was grinding out games this weekend for something I can blog about I was losing a lot more than I won. My rating is stable because I only play against players higher rated than me, but I'm not satisfied with that.

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 [Move List and Game Link] +

Thaniri vs quiettime
http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=742299801

1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 h6 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c4 Qf6 6. d5 exd5 7. cxd5 Nd4 8. Nbd2 Bg4 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Nxf3+ 11. Qxf3 Qxf3 12. gxf3 O-O-O 13. Be3 h5 14. f4 Kb8 15. f5 f6 16. Ke2 Ne7 17. Rh2 g5 18. Rg1 Bh6 19. h4 g4 20. f3 gxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Bxe3 22. Kxe3 Ng8 23. Rg6 Nh6 24. Be2 Ng8 25. Rhg2 Re8 26. Bxh5 Ne7 27. Rxf6 Nxd5+

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1.e4
1...e6
2.Nf3
2...d6
3.d4
3...h6

I have an irrational hatred for extremely early moves such as h6. Sure, this move uber-pre-empts moves like ng5 or Bg5, but playing it this early is to react to a threat that doesn't exist yet. It's in the realm of possiblity, but an effective attack involving the g5 square takes a few moves to execute, and only one move to block all of that posturing. I wish I knew how to take advantage of these cowardly players.

Him playing a passive center like that also feels bad to me, neither bishop can move out to an effective square, and it'll be like wasting a tempo when he inevitably plays e5 or d5. I already feel as though white will have a strong advantage in the middlegame.

4.Bd3
4...Nc6

I'm posturing to castle. I have begun to wait on the castle a little bit though, because in cases like these where my opponents dark squared bishop is locked in I know that my king is not under any immediate threat and to develop my other pieces is more effective for now.

With that knight move I expect some mounting pressure on my d pawn by e5. Why couldn't he have played e5 from the start?

5.c4

I'm not sure if this move is actually good, but at least I'll provide the logic I had behind it. Seeing as my opponent shot himself in the foot in terms of development, I decided that I should take up as much center real estate as quickly as possible. c4 and e4 will be able to support d5 and I think black's correct response to this is to lock up the center.

5...Qf6

The critical square, as predicted, is e4.

I can defend with Be3, or push forward to d5. I don't like Be3 because the line Be3, e5 makes things uncomfortable in the center. Should I take back I have this strange c4 pawn out in the middle of nowhere, and if I ignore e5 I simply lose the e4 pawn.

After e5 my opponent can also play Bg4; pinning the knight on f3.

I decided on

6.d5.

I don't care if he takes with exd, because I will play cxd and have the better center control. The other possibility is for him to retreat his knight or put it in the hole at d4.

The line Nd4, Be3, e5 creates quite an annoying center for black, but that is not what my opponent played.

6...exd5
7.cxd5
7...Nd4

He sort of went for both plans, but it didn't end up working.

Here I missed a sick line Nxd4, Qxd4, Bb5+! winning a queen. I played the rather boring

8.Nbd2

The idea behind it was that I was afraid of Bg4. The resulting trade war would leave my king unable to castle safely and I didn't want to be put in that situation. But I'm bad and I'll show you why.

8...Bg4
9.h3

What was I thinking? Its like between moves 8 and 9 I forgot that my plan was to NOT double up my pawns on the f file.

9...Bxf3
10.Nxf3
10...Nxf3+
11.Qxf3
11...Qxf3
12.gxf3
12...0-0-0

Here priority #1 for me is to figure out a plan. I have the double bishop advantage, great, I'm also marginally better developed than him, but he has the stronger pawn structure.

He has two pawn islands, and I have 3 including a doubled pawn. The semi-open file is e, and the queening square is white on e. I think my plan is going to be to push down the e file with all I've got and try to queen.

Funnily, the doubled pawns might end up being an asset as opposed to a liability if that plan pans out as it gives me an extra man on the important file.

In black's shoes I would think about fiancettoing the black bishop and pushing the a and b files to queen a pawn.

13.Be3

This could win me a free pawn, but I've learned my lesson that after bxa7 black plays b6 and traps the bishop. Last time this happened to me I played Ba6 to save it but I don't think that would have worked in this situation because there isn't anything else I can commit to saving the dark squared bishop.

13...h5
14.f4
14...Kb8
15.f5
15...f6

Black is insisting on not developing his bishop or knight. Neither piece has anywhere to go. I wonder if I should have begun to focus on the queenside with my rooks and king now that its certain that blacks pieces are imprisoned by the insanity that is our pawn structures.

I had my tunnel vision goggles on however, and continued my plan to reach e8.

16.Ke2
16...Ne7 <- lol nowhere to go!
17.Rh2
17...g5
18.Rg1

I feel like the g5 square is weak for black. White has a lot of potential there with moves like h4, f4, or rh2g2 and eventually overrun that square. Lets see how white attempted to break it.

18...Bh6
19.h4
19...g4
20.f3
20...gxf3+
21.Kxf3
21...Bxe3
22.Kxe3

Again, I have to take a step back and figure out what the hell comes next by analysing the position.

Black's king is beyond garbage in the corner. A new term will be coined to express a new level of trash that this king is, but white's king doesn't appear to be useful either. White can not move forward beyond f4 because of pawn checks.

White's bishop is quite bad as the important pawns in the center are all on light squares.

The h file is locked beyond hope.

I think white's best plan is to double the rooks on g.

22.Ng8
23.Rg6
23.Nh6 <- here I want to take rxf6, but after Ng4+ I lose my rook to a fork.
24.Be2
24...Ng8
25.Rhg2

It's not getting any easier. I can't take the f pawn, and I can't position ANYTHING to take the h pawn.

What I think I could have done was to play Bxh5, Rxh5, Rxg8, Rxg8, Rxg8 mate. The continuation would probably be more similar to Bxh5, Rxh5, Rxg8, b6, Rxd8 winning a rook.

Unfortunately this plan didn't work.

I think the idea was fundamentally flawed, and that I should have been pushing the a and b pawns all along. It's beyond my capacity to calculate 15 moves ahead though.

25...Re8
26.Bxh5
26...Ne7

I essentially give up my bishop. I can't defend it in any way.

27.Rxf6?
27...Nxd5+!

Good game.

I thought of these continuations:
28. Kf3 Nxf6 29. Bxe8 Nxe8 30. Rg4 Nf6 31. Rf4
28. Kf3 Nxf6 29. Bxe8 Nxe8 30. Kf4 Rxh4+ 31. Rg4 Rxg4+ 32. Kxg4 Kc8 33. Kg5 Kd7 34. f6 Nxf6 35. Kxf6 c5

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