Can you link to the game? It's really hard to follow what you're talking about, but we can certainly give advice if we can see it.

Edit: nm, this? http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=672067451

Qa3 was mate, dude

16 ... Nb3+ just hangs the knight if white is paying attention. As played, 17 ... Nd4+ lets you save the knight.

With the rook pinned 25 ... Rb8 leaps to mind. That forces Qb1 (or Qc3) and then you'll probably end up exchanging rooks**, but at least you're attacking and giving your opponent a chance to make a game-ending mistake if he doesn't defend with the queen. "Attack the pinned piece."

**Actually you can just leave your rook on b8 as long as white's rook remains pinned though. Try to castle asap and bring in the other rook if he gives you the chance.

Thanks. See it now... lol. I've been doing the Chess Mentor and working on mating puzzles (heyoooo) but lol @ me missing this one. That's a huge miss even for me. But you can see what I did... that stupid thing where I think "hey I'll just keep putting him in check and see what kind of trouble he gets into" without realizing my queen is hanging. Stupid.

Yeah I ****ed up that play. He put my queen at risk and I thought I could check him then somehow bust through that wall with my Queen but it didn't work out as planned. I don't know why he didn't just take my knight. Definitely trying to be too fancy there.

A-rod whats your rank atm? I am up for some play and discuss IIT, think we´re not to far off each other. Currently ranked 924 at blitz (5/2)

I'm 804 on Blitz after 125 games. Low point was 645.

754 standard but really small sample size so I think my rating goes up a lot with a couple wins in a row.

There's no way this guy is a 543.

I ****ed up again and lost my queen by being a stupid ass (really, really, really, really need to stop this) but I still should have smoked him being I'm near 800. Trading a queen for a knight shouldn't have been the death of me. Think I'm gonna remove 3. Qxd4 from my playbook. Pulling my queen out this early always wastes time and doesn't allow me to develop. And it's not worth stealing a pawn for.

But yeah, his moves were way too good for someone in the 500s. I don't get it. My 5th move is super stupid, too. I definitely played sloppy. f3 way better than e5 there. He didn't even fall for my 23 Bxd4 "trap"

The standard move is 2 Nf3 before you play d4, and then you'd recapture with the knight. Not that Nf3 is your only option there of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence

If you want to stick with 2 d4, instead of recapturing with the queen you could try 3 c3, the Smith-Morra Gambit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilia...1;Morra_Gambit

I don't think recapturing with the queen is that bad really, but I don't like the retreat to c3 which is a square you'd like for your knight.

Just lost to a 507. Think I need to take a break.

On move 8 you had an opportunity to capture the f-pawn en passant. Just curious if you knew about that rule.

I would advise worrying less about rating, and more about the moves themselves. Maybe he played unusually strong "for a 500", but all that matters is what moves he made, and how you can best play against them. Your goal is to keep improving, and playing better chess. Doesn't matter what your opponent is rated, and it also doesn't matter what your rating is. Improve your play and over time you'll see the rating rise with it.

Obviously dropping your queen was big. You have to always be aware of what threats your opponent made on his last move. He pushes a pawn to attack your queen? Do something about it. Save the queen. Because yes, trading your queen for a knight absolutely SHOULD be the death of you, even at the level you're playing at now - and certainly at the level you ought to be aspiring to.

Good idea to stop playing 3. Qxd4, bringing your queen out that early is seldom a good idea, particularly if your opponent has a piece that could attack it while simultaneously developing - known as a gain of "tempo". If your opponent's Nc8 was off the board, then Qxd4 would be a much stronger move - the centralized queen is an asset if it is safe, but a time-wasting liability if it can be easily attacked.

Of course if you don't plan on recapturing with the queen on move three, then you should also probably stop playing 2. d4 (I don't think you're ready to start exploring the Smith-Morra yet). As EvilSteve pointed out, the "normal" main line against the Sicilian is 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3, and after any of black's normal responses, then 3. d4 (with intent to recapture with the knight after 3. ... cxd4).

Don't worry about memorizing more than that, you'll learn more by working it out over the board. Just keep in mind good opening principles. Fight for the center, develop your pieces, don't give away material.

1. e4 occupied a central square (e4) with a pawn, attacked another central square (d5), and opened up a diagonal on which to develop your f1 bishop. It was a good, solid, principled opening move.

1. ... c5 fought back against the center indirectly, by putting pressure on d4. It also avoids a symetrical position, creating imbalance (which indicates that black intends to fight, and not play passively). It's also a good, solid, principled opening move. It defines the opening as the Sicilian Defence, and it's one of the two most popular responses to 1. e4 (along with 1. e5).

Your opponent has put pressure on d4. Rather than directly occupy the center, he's looking to pressure it from the flank. He's hoping to trade his c-pawn for your central (and thus more valuable) d-pawn. You can allow this trade, but only if you get something in exchange. Playing d4 immediately does not lose material, since the queen backs it up, but as you saw after he trades the pawns and you recapture he can develop a piece and attack your queen at the same time. Now you have to retreat, and he will begin to solidify his development advantage, then make his delayed strike at the center where he still has two pawns and you now only have one. You're in some trouble already. So instead, you play:

2. Nf3 develops a piece, and puts additional pressure on d4 from your side. Now if you later push the pawn and he captures, you can take back with the knight and you have gotten the compensation you need for the pawn trade - you have a centralized knight eyeing the whole board. As a bonus, you're also exerting pressure on e5, so for the time being you now control both central squares on the fifth rank.

2. ... Nc6 is one common response you may see. He knows that your move of Nf3 was in preparation of a d4 push, so he responds by developing a piece of his own, and further raising the stakes in the battle for the d4 square. He now attacks d4 with a knight and a pawn.

3. d4 now you press forward into the center with your second pawn. Yes, he attacks the square with two pieces, but you defend it with two pieces as well (your knight and queen), so you aren't losing material. And if play continues cxd4 Nxd4 Nxd4 Qxd4 then your queen again ends up in the middle of the board, but notice the key difference: he has no good way to immediately attack it! By taking the extra move to prepare for the pawn push, your queen is far more solid in the center of the board, and no longer a liability.

There's a million directions the game can go from there, the Sicilian Defense is a very rich opening with tons of dynamic lines for both players. It is not worth worrying about the intricacies of the Najdorf or the Dragon variations yet (someday those terms will mean something to you, don't worry about it for now). Just focus on making moves that continue to develop all of your pieces to strong squares where they control the board and work together. Keep fighting for the center (your opponent still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to try to undermine your central structure, the battle is not yet over!) And of course while working to implement your own plan, try also to understand what your opponent's plan is. If he is making direct threats, you need to notice them and respond (ideally with a dual-purpose move that both parries the threat while also still achieving your own goals - but such a move won't always be available). If he makes a mistake, you need to notice that and exploit it. As a general principle you don't want to waste time moving the same piece twice if you still have other undeveloped pieces, but you can certainly make an exception in order to win material if your opponent hangs one of his pieces! (Just make sure that the piece you think is free actually is so - this is where continually improving your tactical understanding will be key).

The "funny" thing is I was playing some "scrubs" 200-300 points beneath me only to try to perfect your line against me in the game we played, BJJ. You dismantled me in that game and I wanted to get the realtime game mechanics down pat in case I could ever get an opponent to fall for my knight trap. Turns out I keep drawing black or my opponent doesn't open the same and I end up actually losing games. lol.

I wasn't so much worried that their rating was in the 500s, but I would say it affects how I play. I try moves that I don't think work against stronger opponents. Those moves end up being sub-optimal if they don't work against these guys, either. And that's what happened. Basically I implemented a sloppy gameplan against these guys and I couldn't get away with it. That's my fault, though.

I know about en passant but didn't recognize it there. I don't actively look for it but I guess I should. Would also be funny to pull that move off on someone who may not know the rule and totally perplex them.

That game was a trap that relies on a common theme. The theme is that pushing your f-pawn early (while the king is still in the center) can often be extremely dangerous (tactically), and if your opponent does so there's usually a way to exploit it with your queen.

This is why 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6?? is a weak opening for black, and it's relatively well known that white can get away with immediately snapping off the e-pawn, and black can't recapture the knight.

That said, you won't get too many chances to use the line as white, because even without the tactical theme of Qh5+, general knowledge of opening principles should show that f6 won't achieve much. Even if the move DID defend e5 against the attack from white's knight (it doesn't), you're still not getting a piece developed, you're blocking a square that you'd like to develop your own knight to, and you're doing nothing to contend the center.

So as soon as you improve to a level where your opponents know and follow basic opening principles, you'll seldom (if ever) see that line played against you, even from people that don't actually know the trap.

Funny how I failed to mention, you also had an en passant opportunity on move 7 (and it's the move I would have played there). You definitely should be aware of e.p. when it's potentially an option, which is anytime you have a pawn on the 5th rank and your opponent has an unmoved pawn on an adjacent file. Or vice versa. So be aware of it in those spots. Even if e.p. is never played in the game, it is sometimes the reason a double pawn move isn't playable when it otherwise would be.

Yeah, I've actually withheld moving a pawn forward 2 when his pawn could e.p. me. So I seem to be more aware of it from a defensive standpoint than from an offensive one. :/

raises hand

People complain all the time about chess software having a bug when really it's e.p. I hate playing it irl when I don't know if my opponent knows it because I'd hate to be the guy saying "you don't even know all the rules of this game, but I do." And it sounds fake.

Not as bad as playing an irl pickup game against an unknown, and them trying to castle through check or something, and then getting pissy when you tell them they can't... at least en passant is a weird enough rule (and comes up rarely enough) that I understand how a casual player wouldn't know it. Castling happens every game. LEARN HOW IT WORKS NEWB!!!

Honestly I had never heard of en passant until like a month ago. My wife is her school's chess leader and their district was having a large 5-round tourney on a Saturday. I always go with her and volunteer and was one of the "rules officials" (scary). I made sure to read up on the rulz of chess before going and that's when I learned about e.p. The kids all knew about it, though. The dude running things is really involved and serious about chess. They do the touch rule and everything. If you touch your opponent's piece you must take it if you can, etc. If you touch your piece you must move it if you can. Touch clock with same hand you move piece with, all that. It's pretty cool to help out an event that is so well-run, though.

Then I'd play the kids during the down time between rounds. One of the kids won a round by pulling off the Scholar's Mate and was excited to show the other kids the move. One kid was 0-4 going into the final round and was able to win quickly with this, so that was cool.

I also got to write up the 2 paragraph synopsis for her school's paper:

"<school redacted> chess club sponsor Mrs. <wife's last name redacted> and her team of students met up on Saturday, November 16th, at <redacted> Intermediate, to challenge 5th and 6th grade students from various <district redacted> middle schools. Sixty students battled their way through a nearly four hour tournament, while family, friends, and volunteers looked on. After the five rounds were completed, awards were presented to those who placed high, though every student had fun - win, lose, or draw!

<Name redacted> (6th) and <name redacted> (5th) each finished the tournament with 2.5 points and tied for 26th place overall, while <name redacted> (6th) and <name redacted> (6th) finished tied for 34th place with a total of 2.0 points. <name redacted> (5th) finished round 5 with a quick victory, earning 1.0 points and finishing tied for 54th place. Congratulations to all the <school redacted> team members – you did great! See you at the next tournament on February 8th, 2014!"

So I just happened to check in on ARC's progress. Didn't go through the whole game but the opening is outstanding!

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=674722623

I still haven't been able to get anyone to lose as badly as I lost to BJJ, though. lol. I enjoy these games that start off with a large material gain, though, because it allows me to concentrate on trying to close before time runs out. I'm super inefficient in closing easy wins.

I kinda hate when people resign early though because I don't get enough work in.

In that particular line the king is busted wide open, and after winning material you can usually follow up with something immediately tactically winning - like I did against you - if you can find it. Keep the pressure on and they'll usually crack. That's just a matter of sharpening your tactics.

In the meantime, though, if you can't find the immediate win then when you're up big in material (a rook or more) the simplest option is usually just to trade down. The material difference becomes more meaningful with fewer pieces on the board, until it becomes trivial to queen a pawn, and then the material gap becomes so large that mating should be easy.

Also, I notice that most of your opponents are in the 550-600 rating range, when you're hovering around 800. I assume that's by design? You've set a rating range for your seeks? If your goal is to learn and improve, I'd advise seeking out opponents who are better than you, not worse. Set your seeks to target players between 800-1000 and yes, you'll start losing more games. Probably more than you win, initially. You'll learn a lot more a lot faster though, and it will help prevent bad habits from developing (things that better players will punish, but that weaker players can't exploit).