What a neat position. Randomly analyzing this position made me realize how lazy I can be in thinking about very 'obvious' looking positions. Here I'd pretty much instaplay h4 without giving sufficient consideration to cxd5! simply because black can refuse the sacrifice.. but after ed Bf4! white simply has a very good position with alot of potential and black has really quite a poor position.

but after 1...h6xg5 2. dxe6 fxe6 you aren't exactly dominating because the black king is no longer holed up so much. I don't see it?

I have this position quite often because i play the classical QGD with Qc2. I think so far i have chosen randomly between h4 and Bh4. Nice idea dire! It rings a bell somewhere, could this be similar to an old Kasparov game?

Jd: after Nxg5 You have 2 healthy pawns for the piece, pressure against the king though nothing immediate, and e6 looks pretty awkward to defend because Nd7 doesn't have a good square to move to.

It's not about giving mate in 10 moves or anything. It just gives black a terrible position and white an initiative that's going to last pretty much for the rest of the game. I think black's chances of survival are very low there.

Yip! Kasparov - Portisch 1986. Such an awesome game for many reasons.

OH BABY, haven't played OTB since september, and about a month and half before one my toughest tournaments i've decided its time to get back into things.

Someone should prop bet me if i can get over like 2400 5-min in June, i'm currently only 2177 and haven't played much in past year =)

bump

Brag: Won a chesstournament < 1900
Beat: Had to share it with 3 other players.
Variance: After starting out 5/5 I finished 5,5/7, after ruining a completely won position in round 6 and refuting draw offers while I saw the position was lost and drawing a traxler game.

Holy ****, the last couple days I've been a little sick and had to work all night one night and my chess playing has been absolutely horrible. Do other people have huge swings in playing level? Even if I'm just stressed about something or distracted, my chess suffers. Admittedly this is only online blitz because I just skip the live tournament if I'm feeling bad.

Totally standard or I'm just weak minded?

Standard, I can swing 400 points in online blitz depending on concentration and sleep levels. It sucks because the time I most like to play is late at night when really tired but not in the mood to go to sleep.

In my experience, this becomes a little bit less of a problem as you improve. Counterintuitive but I think the reason is that the difference in true strength between comparable rating differences increases as the rating increases. So what I mean is the difference in true strength between a 2100 and a 1900 is just massive. While the difference in true strength between an 1800 and a 1600 isn't that big.

So a 2100 playing a 1900 when the 2100 is off his game is usually still going to just be a slaughter. While the 1800 playing a 1600 off his game is going to often be a really close match.

So you're rating will still take a dump as you get stronger, but it will probably take less of a dump than it used to take!

When it happens to me I just lose all my winning positions on time.

+1

I never thought much of it since I'm already probably the world's slowest blitz player anyhow. Is this standard?

Hm, now that I look back on it, this did happen a LOT.

Edit - not all the positions were winning, sometimes I got into an interesting position and just sat there thinking then suddenly realized I had 30 seconds left and the game wasn't close to being over.

I enjoy getting to +1.5 advantages in game after game only to blunder after thinking a while and forgetting its blitz.

1. c4 c5
2. g3 g6
3. Bg2 Bg7
4. Nc3 Nf6
5. a3 a6
6. b4 e6
7. bxc5 Qc7
8. d4 Nc6
9. Nf3 Rb8
10. Bf4 Qa5
11. Bd2 Qc7
12. O-O Na5
13. Bf4 Qd8
14. Bxb8 Nxc4
15. Qb3 d5
16. cxd6 e.p. b5
17. Bc7 Qd7
18. Ne5 Nxe5
19. dxe5 Nh5
20. Ne4 Bxe5
21. Nc5 Bxa1
22. Rxa1 O-O
23. Nxd7 Bxd7
24. Bb7 a5
25. Bxa5 Nf6
26. Qf3 Ne8
27. Rd1 f5
28. Bc3 h6
29. Qe3 g5
30. Qe5 Kh7
31. g4 Kg6
32. gxf5+ exf5
33. Bc8 Bxc8
34. d7 Bxd7
35. Rxd7 f4
36. Rg7+ Nxg7
37. Qxg7+ Kh5
38. Qxf8 b4
39. axb4 Kg6
40. Qf6+ Kh5
41. b5 g4
42. Qxf4 g3
43. hxg3 Kg6
44. Qf6+ Kh5
45. Bd2 Kg4
46. Qh4+ Kf5
47. b6 h5
48. Qxh5+ Ke4
49. b7 Kd4
50. Qg4+ Kd5
51. b8=Q Kc5
52. Qe5+ Kb6
53. Qge6+ Kb7
54. g4 Ka8
55. g5 Kb7
56. g6 Ka7
57. g7 Ka8
58. g8=Q+ Ka7
59. f4 Kb7
60. f5 Ka7
61. f6 Kb7
62. f7 Ka7
63. f8=Q Kb7
64. e4 Ka7
65. Be3+ Kb7
66. Ba7 Kxa7
67. Qff4 Kb7
68. Qgg4 Ka8
69. Qec8+ Ka7
70. Qeg7+ Kb6
71. Qfh6+ Kb5
72. e5 Ka5
73. e6 Kb5
74. e7 Ka5
75. Qa8+ Kb5
76. e8=Q+ Kc5
77. Qc1+ Kd6
78. Qgh6#

Been a while since I posted a chess game, but I'm still pretty new to chess when it comes to playing seriously and I was wondering what you guys think of 2. ...Bd6 and 6. ...Qe7 in this last game I just played. Also, after 24. ...Ra6, am I not in a better position than white here?

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.06.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "cooking"]
[Black "troycm"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1368"]
[BlackElo "1327"]
[ECO "C40"]
[TimeControl "900"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Bd6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. a3 Nd4 5. Nxd4 exd4 6. Ne2 Qe7 7. d3 Qf6 8.
Bd2 Be5 9. Ng3 Qc6 10. Nf5 d5 11. exd5 Qxd5 12. Ng3 Nf6 13. h3 O-O 14. Be2 c5
15. Bf3 Qd6 16. O-O Bxg3 17. fxg3 Qxg3 18. Be1 Qe5 19. Bh4 Nd5 20. Bxd5 Qxd5
21. Bg3 b5 22. Rf2 a5 23. Qe2 Bb7 24. Qg4 Ra6 25. Rf5 Qxg2# {cooking
checkmated} 0-1

I think 2. ...Bd6 is very bad because it blocks the d-pawn, which in turn blocks your other bishop. 6. Qe7 is bad because you are developing a piece for nothing.

It couldn't hurt to create a new thread for things like this. This is a whole lot more than a random bbv. That said, there's a few standard opening principles you should pick up:

1. Develop all your pieces and only then your queen.
2. Develop knights before bishops - this is since it's usually more clear where your knights belong.
3. Make one or two central pawn developing moves in the opening.
4. Move each piece only once in the opening.
5. Develop towards the center.

There are obviously a million exceptions to each of those generalizations but you need to have a reason before you break them. In this game you broke every rule except #3 and in my opinion without much reason. So for example, instead of 3. .. Bd6, 3. .. Nc6 is a better move - and it also follows all of the above principles to a tee. And similarly instead of 4. .. Nd4 just play 4. .. Nf6. Instead of 6. .. Qe7 just play c5 (fighting for the center and developing another central[ish] pawn). Instead of 7. .. Qf6 just play 7. .. c5 developing a pawn and not moving the same piece multiple times, etc.

Those generalizations all probably seem pretty trivial, but they can help you play the opening with a surprisingly good degree of accuracy and cohesion amongst your forces. As far as who had the better position - I think you're already doing great after winning the extra pawn. The bishops are usually deadly in positions like these - but with you having the e3 square for your knight I think white does not have enough for the pawn.

I once read in New In Chess that 2.-Bd6 was Fidel Castro's favorite variation. You are in good company

lmao @ 2.. Bd6 and Fidel Castro

Yeah I agree that posting a game like that either deserves it's own thread or should be posted in a n00bs chess games thread.

This reminds me of the following story:

haha nice story Ajezz thanks.

heh yes it was in the same article along with castro 2.-bd6, almost posted it myself. a great story

lmao nh sir