I'm no expert either, but I think this is a Blumenfeld declined. 5.dxe6 fxe6 6. cxb5 d5 would have taken the game into traditional Blumenfeld lines. After 5.Bg5 exd5 as played, the game seems to have gone into a Benoni pawn structure, just without the fianchetto.

Chess.com actually has some videos on the Blumenfeld for anyone curious. IM Mackenzie Molner did 2 or 3 of them. I don't know if they're good, I haven't watched any, just an fyi.

*posting this after 16...Nd7*

I think black is doing well, too. Essentially this is a Benoni pawn structure but several pairs of minors have been traded off. Black's protected passer is nice, as is the fact that white has no dark-squared bishop to hit the d6 weakness. My only concern is how black will activate his Ba8. Right now it's hitting granite and I hope YKW can manage to activate it. Black's control over e5 and pressure on d5 with the LSB mean the white center isn't going anywhere.

posting after 24. h3

Drawish? Black is never going to let white get e5 in, and I don't see how black can make progress until the board opens up.

Looks like YKW's opponent just blundered on move 40 with f3? Now Q+B own the black squares around the white king and Bd4+/Qh4 look very strong.

Looks won to me.

45. ... Bg4 46. Qe1 Qxd2+ 47. Qxd2 Bxd2 48. Kxd2 and that's a simply won K+Ps endgame.

Nope, I missed 46. f4. Still some work to do, but eventually should win.

Yesterday my school chess coach ( he is a FM) told me that tactically Im decent enough but positionally Im weak and that strong players will constantly destroy me because I make too many positional concessions. That kinda defies the logic Ive heard that I should study mostly tactics until Im 2000 or something.

I know a player about your level Valenzuela who has the exact same problem.

He doesn't miss too many tactical tricks, but he just gets himself into worse and worse and worse positions against decent players.

The thing is that Im the middle of my tactics training program . It doesnt matter though I will still finish it as planned.

YKW pulled it out. Awesome, great start. His opponent tried to press too much in a drawish position.

TY for support

Playing against young talented players who work on their game constantly is exceptionally annoying. I know that he knows theory better than me in pretty much every common reply to d4, so I chose to play the Blumenfeld, hoping to take him out of book. Naturally, he blitzes out first 16 or so moves while I have to think from move 9 or so since that's where my knowledge ended. Sick :/ As Tex said, he did try to press too much in what was (I thought) a drawish position, so lucky me, I'll take it

edit: what is slightly frustrating is that he actually already has +51 ELO for the next calculation, so 2411 or so.. But we are playing with the old ratings

edit2 : Tex, IM norms possible, not sure bout GM norms. IM norm is either 5/9 or 5.5/9 not sure.

Great first round man. And how about you just score 7/9 and don't have to worry about it?

well, I agree with your coach, you can never be 'too good' at tactics, so once you get very strong at that you can work on your positional skills. To have 'mastered' tactics you should not drop/hang a pawn/piece more than, say, once every 4 games against Master level opposition and you should not miss the same by your opponent if they hang a piece more than that [as others have said, it's a decent rule of thumb]

Obvs, once you get past the 23/2400 level you make significantly fewer errors.

Currently unofficially rated 1983 USCF. Playing in Binghamton, NY Sunday in a 4R SS Open looking to make the historic push!

Really good luck man. I'm facing a similar plight but can't make the push. Here's to hoping you get there.

YKW, what is the playing schedule? 1 game/day? Same time each day?

Good luck!

Yep 1 game/day, all at the same time except round 9 which starts late at night US time.

Ok good deal, I'll definitely be watching as much as possible.

YNW with a rather ambitious piece for pawn sac. Love it, but he's got a lot of work to do to justify it.

Good luck!

How's the sac looking now Kyle? Who is be playing?

He was down a rook for a pawn, but his extra pawn was an advanced passer. The computer thought he was dead lost, but the pressure was on his opponent to find the right moves, and YNW got a perpetual out of it.

This was against a 2407 IM. He's going to be very happy with that result too.

That's excellent. YKW loves the whole practical pressure aspect of chess. He's fantastic at creating OTB complications.

I'd never have thought of a move like Bxd6... Very entertaining and complicated game today, I guess both opponents were happy with the draw at the end.