There are some moves in this game that even though they were bad, I didn't make any markings on them, since those moves didn't really change the outcome of the game anymore. There might be in worse case scenario four days when I'm not able to post anything here due to the fact that I'm heading off to a Blitz tournament and I start making my way there tomorrow and come back Monday. There might be also other changes to this blog starting next week, mostly affecting the way I do the analysis. I might also get some training positions in addition to the daily puzzle that already is here in courtesy of GameKnot. Analysis updated February 1st 2015.
31 Jul 2014
B07 Pirc Defence: Miscellaneous Systems (1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.Nf3)
30 Jul 2014
B06 Modern Defence (1.e4 g6 2.d4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.e5 Bg7 5.c4)
This is one of those games where the engine didn't really like the Black's opening choice and considered this clearly better for White from the start. Since I started analysing my games for this blog, I have started to see positions where the engine gives maybe a bit false results. In the old versions of Fritz I faced this more often and started to disengage myself from computer analysis and started to think better moves myself and not be so reliant on the computer.
The biggest increase in my chess skills was probably when I started playing correspondence chess in 2004, then I used to spend several hours thinking about the next moves in my games. I used to write down on my notebook the variations that I came up with so I could remember them after it was my time to move again. I can't even think of doing that again, just not enough time anymore for that sort of thing. So many other things taking up my time these days but back then my day schedule was like, wake up, get breakfast, turn on computer and see what my opponents have done, start analysing the positions on my chess board. It was that glorious time when I spent most of my waking time studying chess.
29 Jul 2014
B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defense (1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3)
Another short game with a nice finish. This a decent example of how I play better chess when the time controls are longer. Sure there are still some small mistakes here and there but not clearly as much big blunders as there are in shorter games. There will be couple of days that I can't update this blog but rest assured that it will continue with daily updates after this small break. Saturday and Sunday this week there will be no posts here, Monday evening I might have enough time to make a post here but I can't guarantee it. The analysis was updated on December 22nd, 2019.
28 Jul 2014
B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defense (1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6)
If anything, this game that I have analysed today, shows how sometimes I just can't see tactics. For quite a long time now I have done 3 tactical exercises every day and that is the minimum amount but I may need to increase it, in order to improve my vision more. The level at which I see tactics now, is disgraceful at least to me. Only barely over 50% accuracy in solving is not all that good. Well, in truth that is only my accuracy in the tactical trainer at Chess.com. On Chess Tactics Server, I have managed a 85% solving accuracy but as it is based on solving the exercises as fast as possible, my tactical rating there is really bad, since I am old and slow... ;-)
27 Jul 2014
B04 Alekhine's Defence: 4.Nf3 (1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.Nc3 d6 5.exd6 cxd6 6.d4 g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Be2 O-O 9.O-O)
Another game in an opening I know almost nothing about. Somehow I get into decent positions, sometimes even winning positions and then I walk straight into a mate in one...
26 Jul 2014
B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defense (1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 d6)
An example of an opening that I don't face all that often in my games. Even though this is not all that great opening for Black, it may still have quite descent results against low rated people. I mean even I can hang a queen at any given moment...;-) That actually has happened too many times lately, not sure why that might be. Sure there was a long time when I didn't play chess at all, but I have played quite a lot this year at least on the internet. Then again, what I consider to be a lot, might not be the same to everyone. I may have actually only played less than 100 games last year or maybe barely over that and this year I have already played probably hundreds of games.
25 Jul 2014
A88 Dutch Defence: Leningrad System: 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 c6 (1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O d6 7.Nc3 c6 8.b3)
This time I present you with two light games, both are under twenty move short games. In the first game I manage to get a win, not a brilliant win since I was in a position earlier in the game that should have ended in my loss. It is quite horrible sometimes when I look at my blitz games and see how bad moves are played in them. Maybe in time I learn not to make as much bad moves as I make nowadays. Analysis updated on December 23rd, 2019.
A83 Dutch Defence: Staunton Gambit with 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 (1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 d5 5.Bxf6 exf6 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxd5)
This is quite a long game and if possible I try to post shorter games in the future in order to do these posts a bit faster. It is safe to say that analyzing this game took much longer than it did to play it... In any case, I hope you enjoy all the mistakes in the game and maybe learn from my mistakes as well. Going through my database of games in Eco order lately so next game is probably A88 Leningrad Dutch. Going through the games this way helps me get through all the possible opening variations easier. If you like these posts, feel free to tell your friends about it and other chess enthusiasts. Also if you want to see a game in particular opening that I haven't covered yet, please leave a comment and I'll see if I can find a game in that opening and I'll analyse and post it here.
24 Jul 2014
A80 Dutch Defence: Unusual White second moves (1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.Nf3 g6)
After I started this blog in July 15th 2014, I have analysed more of my games than I have in years. This year has been somewhat weird for me, in a few places in the internet where I play chess, I have managed to get my highest ever ratings. This also correspondence chess sites, which might be the oddest thing about my rating progress since I have only used minimal time to look at each move on my corr games. At the same time that this weirdness has been going on this year, in other parts of my life the past nine months or so have probably been worse than ever before. Well the last two of those months have at least gone in better direction. Analysis updated on December 23rd, 2019.
23 Jul 2014
E72 King's Indian: 4.e4 d6 5.g3 (1.c4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nc3 O-O 6.e4 c6 7.Nge2)
A bit newer game than usual and also I don't think I have posted any other 3 minute chess analysis before. One might argue that you should only look at the opening phase on blitz games as the rest is most likely not that accurately played. Then again I play like an idiot no matter the time controls so that might not apply to me anyway. How many of the readers can, for example, say that they have hang their queen in correspondence games, I have done so twice this year... And yes, I feel very ashamed of that fact. Then again, I have played my corr games almost like blitz lately, so replying to my opponents moves almost instantly I see them, has obvious drawbacks. I think the same kind of concentration loss has had a significant effect on my tactics solving. For instance, the rating I have in the tactics trainer at Chess.com has been around 300-400 points lower than it was when I was in my peak. If my memory serves me right, my rating used to be easily over 2000 and sometimes close to a 2200 mark. Now I have barely rating of 1700 there.
22 Jul 2014
A45 Trompowsky Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 d5)
It does take a long time to go through a game properly. Sure I could have added some variation examples of games played by much better players than me in the analysis but I think this should be good enough look through to guide me in the right direction in my chess improvement. There are still a lot more games to go through and quite a lot of different opening variations that I haven't gone through. We shall see when the time comes when I ran out of different variations I have played and need to start looking at games that have been in the same variations that I have already posted. Luckily every game is unique so that I never ran out of material to post.
21 Jul 2014
A39 Symmetrical English vs ...g6: 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.O-O O-O 7.d4 (1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 c5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.O-O O-O 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 d6 10.e4)
Another day, another opening variation to share with the world. This game I went through with Stockfish today and went on all the major advantage changes 25 or more moves deep. I also did some chess video experimentations today so that maybe in the future I could get also a YouTube channel, where I would post videos were I would commentate the games while I play and usually quite badly ;-) Maybe those fun times will be on the near future... If or when that happens I will post here the necessary details to let you know how you can find me on YouTube. Analysis updated on December 23rd, 2019.
20 Jul 2014
C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.Nf3)
Since I started posting my games and maybe looking at them a bit closer than before, it has been interesting to see how many different openings and variations I have really faced over the years. This particular opening variation I had never before even heard of, until I did some studying, did I learn what it is called. Truth to be told though, the game doesn't follow the normal move order of this variation. The normal order is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.c3. This has not been the first time nor will it be the last time that the move order in my games doesn't follow the usual move order. As you can see, it is another loss as I'm trying to balance things out. If I would post all the games I have notations of, I would be slightly on the plus side but maybe not in the ratio that you see my games here in this blog. The analysis for this game was updated on November 28th, 2019.
19 Jul 2014
C10 French with 3.Nc3: Unusual Black 3rd moves and 3...dxe4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.O-O Ngf6 8.Bg5 Be7 9.Nxf6+ Bxf6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Be2)
In my many games over the years, French Defense is most likely one of the rarest occurring opening. Despite that fact, I would like to at some point learn it so that I could play with both colors with some confidence. Well, actually I would like to at some point rotate between a lot openings without the result suffering in the process. It is an ambitious plan I have to admit and I may never achieve it but I am still going to try my best, for what it is worth.
C45 Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bg5)
I have played the Scotch on both colors though more games as Black than with White. It is a opening that I know quite well these days in my honest opinion, well at least the two variations that I most often faced either over the board or in the internet. Since I no longer really play close chess and haven't done so in quite a long time, it has been more of the latter for me for some months. I did by accident analyse this game again with my current engine so I replaced the old analysis with the new one.
18 Jul 2014
C25 Vienna Game: Alternatives to 2...Nf6 (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4)
This is similar to the King's Gambit as I don't like either opening all that much. I know this particular opponent quite well, he is better at tactics than I am and almost every time we play blitz he usually gets a better position, sometimes he is even up a piece or something but his time usage gives me usually the win...
C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5)
This one was played in the 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen II tournament that is held at Red Hot Pawn. I am currently second in the tournament but I still have some chances for taking the first place and be the winner of the tournament. Only time will tell what will happen. I have already secured at least third place in the 21 player tournament so this will not be a huge disaster no matter what happens in my remaining games.
Up to the move 7...d5 both players played if not accurately, at least reasonably. The diagram below shows the position in which my opponent played 8.d4, a move that created problems for jose sureda. Both pawn captures 8...dxe4 and 8...exd4 good enough to take the advantage. However, with accurate play my opponent should still be holding the position.
It was a better idea to push the pawn only one square forward to d3.
The penultimate mistake from jose sureda saw the light of day when he played 15.Qd2 in the next diagram position. The move that my opponent played ignored my threat of Nc2 completely and it was something that jose sureda could not afford to do.
15.Qb3+ would seem to me the best option for White.
I was mostly able to keep my winning advantage, but I did mess up on move 28, when I played c5. The position where I played that move can be seen in the next diagram. I should be clearly better after that move, but the sloppy move gave some unnecessary counterplay to my opponent.
For example, a move like 28...Bxc3 would have been clearly better than what I did in the game.
The game continued with the moves 29.Ne4 Qe7 and then jose sureda made the move that lost the game 30.Rxc5. I replied with 30...Bb6 and it should be quite clear that the game is over.
A93 Classical Dutch: Classical Stonewall: 7.b3 (1.c4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.d4 d5 5.Nf3 e6 6.O-O Be7 7.Nbd2 O-O 8.b3)
Even if this game doesn't have the usual move order of the Stonewall Dutch, it does end up in a same position as it would after the usual move order 1.d4 f5 2.c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 c6 5. Bg2 d5 6. 0-0. But it does miss the last move in that line 6...Bd6, so it must be classified under a different opening. I do have examples of the Leningrad Dutch as well, those in the usual move order but they have not yet been analysed so it will take some time to post even one of them. Until next time my fellow chess enthusiasts. Improved and updated analysis added on December 23rd, 2019.
17 Jul 2014
A36 Symmetrical English vs ...g6: 4.Bg2 Bg7 (1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.e4 e6 6.Nge2 Nge7 7.O-O O-O 8.d3 d6 9.Be3 Nd4 10.Qd2)
Here is an example of the Botvinnik System which has in turn embedded in the comments, examples from games played by much better players than I am. I hope you find it useful. There are a lot of examples in my analysed games of the English and this type of system but I think I will find games from other openings for my next post. The analysis in this game has been updated on December 23rd, 2019.
C34 King's Gambit Accepted: 3.Nf3: 3...Nf6 and 3...d6 (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6 4.Bc4 Be6)
One of the rare examples of me winning a game in the King's Gambit Accepted. Just to balance things out, I will post my losses at some point in time. Feel free to post a comment if you want to see a game in particular opening and I will get an example of it if I can and analyse it. Analysis updated on December 23rd, 2019.
C53 Giuoco Piano sidelines (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Bb6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 d6)
This game and the analysis that comes with it are a blast from the past, played around seven years ago on a correspondence chess site called Red Hot Pawn. By the way, I changed my handle in the notation so if you do find this handle in Red Hot Pawn it isn't me. I could post my other games quite fast from now on, well the ones that have already been analysed but when they run out, I need to start analyzing again and then the rate of my posts will slow down a bit. Posts will come everyday though, so be prepared for them. Please post comments if you find something odd about the analysis or in general want to chat about the great and time consuming 64 square madness that we call chess. In the game below you see a game that is full of mistakes, which hopefully means that you can learn from the mistakes made in this game, so you are not going to do similar ones in your own games. I may not remember much from these old games but I do remember seeing that mate in two on moves 23... and 24... after it was no longer possible to do. I was angry for myself not being able to see it before. Luckily now that I am older and maybe in some cases even wiser, I do not take it all that hard if I miss something like this and I am able to concentrate on next moves without the previous mistakes still in mind.
16 Jul 2014
B72 Sicilian Dragon: 6.Be3, lines with h3+Bc4 and sidelines (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bc4 Bg7 7.O-O Nc6 8.Be3 O-O 9.Qd2 Ng4 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.Bf4)
I don't know the openings all that well but maybe after I have done enough studying them for these blog posts, I will play them better... That is the hope anyway and hopefully readers will find my posts in some way useful as well. The games so far that I have put here are from my ICC five minute pool games but I will post in the future also probably games from other places as well, for example, some of my correspondence chess games from various sites.
Even though this was a five minute game, the first mistake of note was played on move 17, which just shows that even lower rated players can play quite well for some time with fast time controls. The diagram below shows the situation at the board after my 17th move e5. Vicwill played the horrible 17...Nh5 in reply, which placed the knight on a square from which it can't go anywhere safely. I should have played 18.Be3, but instead I thought that the bishop needed to stay on the h2-b8 diagonal and backed up with my bishop to h2. Had I played 18.Be3, it would have attacked the queen on b6, which in turn would have given me time to perhaps trap the knight on h5. However, had I played g4 after Be3, then the pawn cover in front of my king would have been very much weakened and I am not sure it would be worth it to do so just to trap the knight.
There was two good moves for vicwill to play in this position 17...Ba6 and 17...dxe5.
The game then continued roughly evenly up to the move 20.Qxc4. The diagram position is taken after my 20th move. In that position vicwill made another horrible move 20...Qxb2. Taking the pawn on b2 was not a good idea because it allowed me to play 21.g4 and trap the knight on h5. I did not go for the material because I was probably worried a bit too much for weakening the pawn cover in front of my king. I played 21.a4 instead and saved my pawn on the a-file. It was an awful move that turned the tables because my opponent would have been able to win the pawn on e5, so that my opponent would be up two pawns.
Vicwill would have been better off playing either 20...Bxe5 or 20...dxe5.
Winning the second pawn with 21...dxe5 was probably the best idea for my opponent to take the pawn and gain a clear advantage, but also the moves 21...Qb4 and 21...Bxe5 would have been good alternatives. All three moves should give vicwill a clear advantage. For some reason vicwill decided not to win a pawn from e5 and played 21...d5, which only attacked my queen and reached an equal position. Maybe the move d5 was designed as a trap for me. Had I taken the pawn on c6, then Rfc8 or Rac8 and my knight on c3 would be lost. I saw the problem with Qxc6, so I moved my queen to d3. It was not the best square for the queen, d4 was the right square for the queen. The next diagram shows the situation at the board after my 22nd move Qd3.
The correct move was 22...Qb4.
Vicwill played 22...Bh8 in order to allow the knight from h5 to have one safe square to which it could go. It was a blunder that turned the tables once again. I was able to take the advantage of my opponent's sloppy move and moved my rook to b1. It forced the queen to go to a3 and then I had the very nice move Nxd5! It wins at least a pawn because it is a discovered attack on the undefended queen on a3, so vicwill could not have taken the knight with the pawn because it would be replied with Qxa3 and the game would be lost for my opponent. If vicwill would take the queen on d3, then I would play Nxe7+ and then cxd3 and then I would be up a pawn. Therefore Qc5 would be vicwill's best reply to Nxd5. I missed my chance and played 24.Rb6?? Vicwill could have replied with 24...Qc5 and I would have been clearly worse. Vicwill did not protect the pawn on c6 at all, instead my opponent played 24...e6. I took my chance to get material equality and took the pawn on c6. After that the position was even again. In reply vicwill made a move so horrible that it could have meant a loss for my opponent, had my answer to it being the correct one. It may not seem at first that it matters which rook to place to c8, but there is a significant difference. The move played in the game, 25...Rac8, would have allowed me to play 26.Nxd5 and win material. Had my opponent played the other rook to c8, I could not have played 26.Nxd5, because of the following line 26...Qxd3 27.Ne7+ Kf8 and I would lose material.
25...Rfc8 was the way to go.
The time control in this game probably had some effect to the inaccurate moves and may have caused me not to see the move 26.Nxd5. I played 26.Qb5 probably because it does not require as much calculating as the move 26.Nxd5. The safer move unfortunately also threw away the possibility for me to win the game and I had to accept an even position. The balance did not last long, my 29th move that was played in the diagram position below put me in some trouble. I took the pawn on a5 and probably thought that I can get something done with my pawn on the a-file. It was more important for me to prevent the rook from coming to the second rank with Rxc2. The rook on c2 would attack the knight on e2 and after it moves, the rook could go to c4 perhaps and I would lose another pawn on a4.
Only reasonable move for me was 29.c3.
My opponent had other plans in mind, however, vicwill played 29...Qc5 and immediately turned the tables again. From a clearly favorable position vicwill went to a position where my opponent was worse. The game continued with me taking the queen on c5 and vicwill then took back with the rook obviously. I replied to that with the move 31.c3, protecting my pawn and taking better control over the square d4. After my 31st move it should be clear why 29...Qc5 was so bad move. It only helped me to keep my material advantage. With queens on the board and my opponent's rook wreaking havoc on the second rank, the game would have been much more difficult for me. In the continuation where the rook took on c2, I would have likely lost the a-pawn and maybe even the e-pawn at some point. The last option might have been less likely to happen, but I would have had at least two pawns less than on the game continuation. To 31.c3 vicwill answered with 31...d4, which was a huge blunder that could have lost the game. I continued correctly with the move 32.cxd4 and then my opponent played 32...Rc2 a little bit too late as it would have been much more impactful a couple of moves earlier. The next diagram shows the situation on the board after 32...Rc2.
My best chance to keep my winning advantage was to play 33.g4.
I wanted to keep everything as well defended as possible, so I played 33.Re1. It is a really passive move that allows my opponent to be more active and therefore get good compensation for the material. Vicwill replied with 33...Ra2 and I played 34.Nc3 because I thought that the pawn on a4 is more important than the pawn on d4. However, I could not protect the pawn on a4 as the move 34...Ra3 basically forced my knight away. I may have tried the move 35.Rc1, but then 35...Nxd4 with the threat of Rxc3 Rxc3 Ne2+ winning my knight and I do not like the position. Then again I may just reply to 35...Nxd4 with 36.Kf1 and the tactic does not work. After driving the knight away, my opponent took the pawn on a4 and it seemed that a draw would be the likely outcome of the game. A draw should have been indeed the outcome, but I tried too hard to win and made a huge blunder because of it. The next diagram is taken after the move 43...Kg6.
I should have just moved my rook to either c8 or c5, for instance, and things would have remained roughly equal.
I unnecessarily weakened my position with the move 44.h4 and my path towards a loss had started. We played a few more moves, but I resigned after I had accidentally sacrificed my rook... At that point it was pointless to carry on with the game.
15 Jul 2014
B01 Scandinavian Defence (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O c6 8.Re1 Be7 9.Bf4)
Under this post I will start collecting examples of the B01 Scandinavian Defense: Classical Variation with some analysis. I will start posting games on all the possible openings I have played with comments where I look on the opening and positions where the players have made clear blunders. If you want to see an example of a specific opening, post a comment and I'll see if I can find an example of it and then I will analyse it and post it here on my blog. Analysis updated on November 27th, 2019.
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