Posted on February 26th, 2016 by Richard
I have played a little this season at the local chess club and was having a good run of success until my last game several weeks ago. The trouble was, I was not used to winning games at the club! My rating had increased to 105 ECF and strangely when I played my last game and lost I had felt inhibited during the game, because I had felt under pressure to keep winning! I lost that game badly! I was playing White and it was a Scandinavian opening and I blundered in the opening and lost a knight to a simple Queen check and fork that I had been vaguely aware was possible after I made my blunder to allow it! I played my blunder move anyway without properly considering it,because I thought I was going to sac the piece anyway. Mmmmm! That was a huge brain freeze by me. It shows me how you need your brain clear and properly focused on the game in front of you. Without out a doubt, when you start to play a chess game, you need to be in the right frame of mind for the game ahead. To be worried about other matters (such as keeping a winning run going and day to day problems in your head) just leads to poor performance. My advice to myself is to put such things out of your mind and only focus on playing good chess. Hopefully I have learnt my lesson and the game I played last night was my best win at the chess club.
I played on board 3 (of 4) and had the Black pieces. My opponent was graded 141. He started with 1.d4 and I played 1…e6. This is a flexible move by me, giving the opponent the chance to play 2.d4 and so transpose to the French defence. Most other moves from the opponent eg 2.c4 or 2.Nf3 I treat the game as a Queen pawn opening and I continue with 2…b6 and play the English defence. In this game he played
2.Nf3 and I went on with 2…b6 and the English defence.
Of course I have some experience with the English defence and with it, I have learnt, there are several ways to play this opening. 2 main ones are either to play for a f4 pawn chain that can allow for a good kingside attack (if the opponent has castled kingside!) or with a d6 pawn chain which is a much quieter and flexible yet very solid way to play.
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Club game”]
[Site “Bury St Edmunds CC”]
[Date “2016.02.25”]
[Round “9”]
[White “AN”]
[Black “Me “]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A10”]
[WhiteECF “141”]
[BlackECF “105”]
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 Ne7 5. O-O Ng6 6. c4 d6 7. Nc3 Nd7 8.
a3 Be7 9. b4 O-O 10. Re1 e5 11. d5 Nf6 12. a4 Nh5 13. Ne2 Qd7 14. c5 dxc5
15. b5 Nh4 16. Nxe5 Qd6 17. Ng4 f5 18. exf5 Nxf5 19. Be4 Rae8 20. Qd3 Bc8
21. Qh3 Nf6 22. Bf4 Qd7 23. Nxf6+ Bxf6 24. Bxf5 Qxf5 25. Qxf5 Bxf5 26. Rad1
Be5 27. Bxe5 Rxe5 28. f4 Re4 29. Rc1 Rxa4 30. Nc3 Rc4 31. Kf2 h6 32. Kf3
Kf7 33. g4 Bd7 34. h4 Re8 35. Red1 Rb4 36. Ra1 Ra8 37. Rdb1 Rd4 38. g5 Rd3+
{Opponent low on time}resigns 0-1
[/pgn]
In the game last night, I chose to play for the quiet d6 pawn formation and my opponent took the chance to occupy the centre with his pawns. His pawns looked threatening, but as my set up was so solid, when I made my e5 pawn break I was perfectly sound. Later he made a pawn break which again I handled well and gave him no advantage. Later still, I played both my knights to the rim on the kingside! The point being, that was only temporary, as I brought a knight to f5 and both knights were attacking his kingside castle. This did allow my e5 pawn to be taken, but I got compensation by attacking with my Queen.
I played the opening slowly but carefully and had a solid position and my plan was then simple, to attack on the kingside. My opponent had started a Queenside pawn advance but I felt it was too slow
and I concentrated on my kingside attack. This caused my opponent to slow down and he slowly started to get low on time.
I played the middle game much quicker than the opening, as I had a simple clear plan to bring as many attackers to the kingside as possible. He did defend my kingside attack well but he had to think carefully about this and his play slowed right down. I decided to be patient and persistent
with my attack and after a few exchanges I felt I had a better position even though I had not exposed his king directly. As such, I wanted to continue to trade pieces, as I felt I could get a reasonable end game position, but he refused to trade and he then started to bring his kingside pawn majority down the board.
However he missed a rook check from me winning his knight (a blunder) and he resigned! He only had 4 minutes left on his clock and I had 15 minutes left and I was now a piece ahead. A good win for me and my patient approach to the game!
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Written by: Richard
Posted on November 15th, 2015 by Richard
The usual way to play the English defence opening is 1.c4 b6 2.d4 e6 (see Browne vs Miles 1-0),
The game here shows an unusual White variation with 1.c4 b6 2.g3. White still won the game…
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Rubinstein mem 36th”]
[Site “Polanica Zdroj”]
[Date “1999.08.26”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Gurevich, Mikhail”]
[Black “Bunzmann, Dimitrij”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A10”]
[WhiteElo “2643”]
[BlackElo “2596”]
[PlyCount “63”]
[EventDate “1999.08.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “POL”]
[EventCategory “15”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.12.01”]
1. c4 b6 2. g3 Bb7 3. Nf3 Bxf3 4. exf3 c5 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Nc6 7. Qd1 e6 8.
Bg2 Rc8 9. O-O Na5 10. b3 b5 11. Nd2 bxc4 12. Nxc4 Nxc4 13. bxc4 Rxc4 14. Be3
Nf6 15. Bxa7 Be7 16. Qb3 Rb4 17. Qc2 O-O 18. a3 Rb5 19. a4 Ra5 20. Bd4 Nd5 21.
f4 Qc8 22. Qb2 Qa8 23. Rfb1 Bd6 24. Bxd5 Rxd5 25. Bxg7 Rb8 26. Qf6 Rxb1+ 27.
Rxb1 Bc5 28. Qc3 Qa7 29. Bh6 f6 30. Qxf6 Bxf2+ 31. Kg2 Bd4 32. Qf8# 1-0
[/pgn]
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Written by: Richard
Posted on November 9th, 2015 by Richard
Schmidt vs Schild 2004 Colle opening 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 0-1
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Bad Zwesten op 8th”]
[Site “Bad Zwesten”]
[Date “2004.01.04”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Schmidt, Bodo”]
[Black “Schild, Christoph”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A47”]
[WhiteElo “2346”]
[BlackElo “2246”]
[PlyCount “98”]
[EventDate “2004.01.??”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “GER”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2004.03.10”]
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 c5 4. Bd3 b6 5. O-O Be7 6. c4 cxd4 7. exd4 d5 8. cxd5
Nxd5 9. Ne5 O-O 10. Qh5 Nf6 11. Qh4 Ba6 12. Rd1 Bxd3 13. Rxd3 Nd5 14. Qe4 Nd7
15. Nc3 N7f6 16. Qh4 Rc8 17. Bg5 Nxc3 18. bxc3 Nd5 19. Bxe7 Qxe7 20. Qg3 f6 21.
Ng4 h5 22. Ne3 Nxc3 23. Qf3 Qf7 24. Nf5 exf5 25. Rxc3 Rxc3 26. Qxc3 Qd5 27. Qb3
Qxb3 28. axb3 Rd8 29. Rxa7 Rxd4 30. Kf1 Rd1+ 31. Ke2 Rb1 32. Ra3 Rb2+ 33. Kf3
Kf7 34. h4 b5 35. Ra7+ Kg6 36. Ra3 b4 37. Ra5 Rxb3+ 38. Kf4 Rb2 39. Kf3 Rc2 40.
Rb5 Rc4 41. g3 Rc3+ 42. Kf4 b3 43. f3 Kf7 44. Rb7+ Ke6 45. Rb6+ Kd5 46. Kxf5
Rxf3+ 47. Kg6 Rxg3+ 48. Kxh5 g6+ 49. Kh6 f5 0-1
[/pgn]
Posted in Chess Openings • Comment on this post »
Written by: Richard
Posted on October 16th, 2014 by Richard
I have seen a chess game viewer called Chess Microbase and thought it looked interesting and decided to try it.
I made an example game and am posting it here with Chess Microbase embed code.
Well, this game, showing an introduction to the VonHennig Schara Gambit, has loaded and displays here but without the comments that I added. Perhaps I missed a step allowing my game comments to be added. I will check it out and see if and how I can add my game comments and report back later. I’m also wondering if I can adjust the viewer size….
Anyway it works as my first test, and I will experiment some more with it to check it’s full capabilities. I think this is a javascript coded widget and I may explore the coding later also.
Mmmm interesting!? 🙂
Posted in chess games, Chess Openings • Comment on this post »
Written by: Richard
Posted on September 25th, 2014 by Richard
Here is a chess video of mine in praise of MatoJelic.
It shows the Birds opening From Gambit Mestel variation between Fried and Schlechter 0-1..enjoy.
Mato is a fine chess commentator..check out his YouTube Videos…
Posted in Chess Openings, My Chess • Comment on this post »
Written by: Richard
Posted on June 16th, 2014 by Richard
Here is my next video in my chess game of the week YouTube series.
It is a win for me as White in 2.c3 e6 Alapin Sicilian opening variation.
I haven’t played many games during the week and this was not a good game as I made a blunder to lose a pawn but my opponent then blundered a rook! That proved fatal as it gave me an easy win.
The Alapin Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.c3) is my standard defence against the Sicilian defence. It is arguably a boring response to 1….c5 but it can lead to exciting positions. WGM Alisa Melekhina recommends it (see her YouTube videos about it). In this game it virtually transposed to an advanced French defence position for black and that is not good for the black Sicilian player trying to use his pet Sicilian defence!
Sadly over the week I have not played very well and my rating has not improved. So I still want to get my rating between 1400-1600 consistently in 5 minute blitz. My real downfall is frittering away good opening positions with less sound mid-game play and taking too long in the mid and endgame and getting in time trouble.
This is my continual weakness that I have had over the last few years of my chess play and I want to change this, and I need to do this to win more games and get my rating to 1400-1600. On the positive side, I now have a reasonable knowledge of my preferred White and Black openings and defences and I can build on that. I need now to seriously try and eliminate my slow play and improve my mid and endgame play and this should be perfectly possible with practice and patience!
So I am going to try to learn to play more solidly and more quickly in the mid and endgame and this should mean I will win more games, I hope!
I look forward then to playing more and better games through next week and having a better game of the week video to showcase!
I also hope my videos are of some help to other low rated players who are like me trying to improve their rating. Happy chess play everyone 🙂
Posted in Chess Openings, My Chess • Comment on this post »
Written by: Richard
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