EPTI'm sorry I messed up, I linked the wrong game at first, AND none of the images worked.
Irrelevant song that I like. I also like the idea of sharing music 
Welp, It's been about a week of my first foray into chess. Unfortunately rather than me taking my machete through the jungle and carving my path through the unknown, it was more of a landing at the shore and setting up a tent by cutting down a few trees.
Since last week, I now am literate in algebraic notation in chess, however long sequences of moves written this way are simply incomprehensible to me so far. I don't have a concrete use for this notation yet, other than understanding what a puzzle is asking for, such as; "Pay attention to the knight on D6, can you check your opponent?"
As far as actually playing chess, my skill has not changed much at all. I started the last week with just under 600 ELO, now I am just 650 ELO on chess.com, my peak being at around 712. I began to be more reserved with my trading of pieces, and trying hard to create trade sequences for a lack of a better word. I still like to make trades, and will make them if I see no harm to come from it, but by trade sequences I mean I stack up a lot of pressure on an opponents pawn, and once I have a 1 move advantage over my opponent, I trigger a long series of (theoretical) trades in which I should have a developmental advantage.
As far as tactics go, I have been losing horrible each time I try to incorporate them into my play. I try to shoehorn something like a battery onto the field, even if I don't necessarily benefit from it in any way. The strongest tactic in the game seems to be forking units, where-in one unit is undefended, and the other unit is beneficial for you to eliminate otherwise. However, forks are incredibly difficult to execute, because often you are moving an important piece into the wild blue yonder, and therefore must suddenly begin to be aware of every unit on the board that can possibly affect it, which if you read the previous blog, know that I like trading to create a simpler endgame.
I like music, do you?
http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=370873607
If you find the screenshots awkward, do what I am doing as I write this blog: http://imgur.com/fDqKN
Or, perhaps if you convince me to try it, I will make a youtube video of my commentary and delete all the below text.
I don't know how to embed a chess game, so I hope that a link to the game that I want to analyse is sufficient.
My opponent, the lovely Raysalis from teamliquid.net opens d4.
Not sparing a second of thought, I play d6 to lead up to e5 my next move.
He plays e4, I respond with e5, he supports that pawn with c3, also opening up the queen to move.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch1.png)
I continue to mount pressure on the d4 pawn by moving Nc6.
He supports with nf3, which I threaten with Bg4.
He gains an advantage of the d4 pawn by giving it additional support with a bishop. Unluckily for me, I have exhausted all forces on my queenside for the time being, and can no longer threaten this position.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch2.png)
With g6, I plan to start paving ground on the kingside. He responds with Be2, resulting in a Knight that cannot be threatened.
I push f5 as the other central pawn of my opponent is undefended.
exf5, gxf5, and now I can push up after a kingside castling to have a strong pawn wall that threatens the bishop on e3.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch3.png)
The bishop retreats, Bc1. I don't quite know what to do here, and move my knight up to f6 to develop my pieces.
He plays dxe5, and I do the same.
Now he chooses to trade queens on d8, and I take his queen with my rook, giving me a powerful central file.
Pertaining to the queen trade, I think it was a fatal error on his part, because in my great experience of trading, I have learned that you never trade queens (early) unless it developmentally
cripples your opponent, ie: having to use his KING to kill the assaulting Queen.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch4.png)
He plays Nbd2, I assume to simply gain ground on development
I play e4, to threaten his knight, while e4 is protected by MY knight who was useless before on f6.
He plays Nd4, protecting his knight by a pawn, and threatening my knight with his, the same trick essentially.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch5.png)
I'm willing to take this trade, which ended up being an error. I overlooked that Nxd4 was a possibility, and that is the exact move he plays. I play Nc2 to threaten his Rook, assuming he would have to defend it and therefore leave his white bishop stationary.
However, he plays Bf5, which I respond with e3, assuming that the rook was mine no matter what, and could be dealt with later.
He takes the pawn on e3 with his f pawn. I do the same back to him, and continue to threaten the knight on d2.
Now he elegantly gets his knight out of danger, while defending his rook. I concede that I need to take the rook now or lose the knight to his white bishop, and kill with Nxa1.
He jumps on the opportunity to kill my far forward pawn with his black bishop.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch6.png)
Run boy, run.
My response is to trade Knights on b3, prompting him to double up his pawns.
I don't know the next step, so I push my H pawn forward two spaces.
He attacks my Knight on f6, with Bg5, but I defend with Be7.
The pressure mounts as he moves his rook onto the 3 file.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch7.png)
Now I make a decent choice in moving my knight to d5, thereby defending my bishop without being threatened.
The ruse is easily foiled by moving a pawn to c4.
Hilariously, I have not castled yet, and now welcome him to take my knight with his c4 pawn, as then I will take his bishop with the f8 rook whislt simultaneously threatening an exposed pawn.
Clever bastard forks me with Be6+, meaning that my king MUST move, and that means my knight its free for the taking.
Reverting back to my old tendencies, I am willing to trade my f rook for this position, and move it forward one square.
He plays Bxe7, threatening my rook that has its own file, but I simply take the bishop with my knight and defend it at the same time.
Realizing his mistake, he decides to cut his losses and take the exposed rook with his bishop and force my king to move forward and counter kill.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch8.png)
Now let's analyse this position.
I gave 4 pawns, and exposed king, a knight, and a rook on a file. Against a rook, a secure king, 5 pawns (one of which is doubled.)
The rook on a file gives me hardly any advantage, as the pawns can not move sideways, and I don't see a circumstance for him to move his king or rook to that file.
My advantage should be to either a) push my queenside pawns, as the doubled pawns are weaker than three lined up pawns. or b) maneuvre with my knight. What is easier to do? Push my pawns ofcourse!
He moves his rook to Re2, I assume to be a waiting move.
I push my a pawn to a5, planning to eventually queen a pawn.
He plays Kf2 to develop his king, and gain ground.
F4 was not a particularly beneficial move, I simply delayed his pawn push on the kingside.
His response is Kf3, I fork the king and the forward doubled pawn. Netting me a kill after Kg4.
He then takes h4 with his king, meaning that the threat of him queening a pawn is much higher.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch10.png)
I decide to pin the c4 pawn to the king, and he elegantly defends it and the b2 pawn with Rc2.
I check him with Ng6+.
He plays Kg5, directly attacking my knight, defended by my own king. This will allow him to push his pawns later.
I know that it is futile to try and stop him, so I push my own pawns. c6.
He plays h4, supporting his king.
B5 from me, trying to gain ground on my opponent.
He plays h5, forcing me to retreat my knight to f8. He gains ground, and also temporarily puts my piece out of the game.
He plays cxb5, I do the same.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/c11.png)
Now he continues to push his pawns, and plays g4.
I don't have an option but to play a4.
He lets his g pawn some space by moving Kf5.
I play a completely aimless move with Rd4. I don't know what I could have been thinking at the time.
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch12.png)
He checks me with Rc7+.
I move my king to e8, meaning I utterly surrender to his pawn push.
With Rc5, another seemingly aimless move, he simply makes my plan keep going forward by pushing my pawn to b4.
Again, he plays Ra5, so I continue to push my pawns, b3.
Now lets skip a bit. After a lot of attempted pawn pushing, we end up manoeuvring each other to the point that it is K,R,P,K vs K,R,P. I have the marked advantage with the knight, but through it in the shitter with Rxg6
![[image loading]](http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/warrockdot/ch13.png)
After this it is clear that I lose.
A song about how great life is. I don't see my failures in chess as shortcomings, but rather hurdles to challenge myself by. I think I went 0-12 (14?) against teamliquid users.
I welcome others to analyse the game, as I'm sure I did a terrible job, and always feel welcome to message me on chess.com, ID is Thaniri!
Oh well, at least I am a firm believer in learning by floundering!
