easy but victorious tactic from a team match two weekends back, yours truly with B to move:

I'm up for a malkovich game for sure. Might be boring for the better players to watch but hopefully they can pop in now and then

Makes sense to have two similarly skilled players though if possible and tbh I'm not sure I could give an accurate assessment of my current playing strength so might be worth finding somebody else.

Got a nice game in last sunday's team match:

Villain - Noir Desir

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Nd4 5. Nxe5?! (there's a reason most GMs don't take this pawn) Qe7 6. f4 d6 7. Qa4+? (loses directly, but it's bad to divert the Q from the defense of her husband anyway) c6? (misses Kd8!! with the twin threat of dxe5 and Bd7-c6) 8. Nd3 Bf5 9. Kf2? (after this White is lost, but appetizing alternatives are rare here) Ng4+ 10. Kg1 Bxd3 11. exd3 Qe1 12. Nd1 (only move, but look at White's position - no piece can move)



h5! (simply bringing in the reserve wins easily) 13. Kg2 h4 14. gxh4 Rxh4 15. b4 Nxh2 (threatens Rg4+) 16. Ne3 Ng4 17. Rxh4 Qf2+ and White resigned.

pretty smooth, h5 was nice (though your opponent did play really badly). Kd8 is one of those moves you miss by being in "conventional thinking" mode

CTS p51825 is very pretty



1... Nf6 2.

White best move?

dont think this deserves its own thread, but...

Today I played a game as black. My opponent opted for the ponziani, game went 1. e4 e5 2. nf3 nc6 3. c3 d5 4. exd5 qxd5 5. d3?

In the game I played bf5 followed by 0-0-0 to attack and immediately win the pawn. The question I have is, is this correct to exploit a weaknesses immediately in the opening, or should I wait, develop my pieces normally, and attack the weakness in the midgame?

edit: after thinking about this for a second i am terribly embarassed to not know the answer here

Win it if you won't fall behind in development

How can he fall behind in development by making developing moves like Bf5, 0-0-0? WP, hoya.

How can I identify spots where it is appropriate to withdraw my knights from the action versus the times I should get stubborn with them.


1. Bd3

When I follow this move as black, what should I be considering when I decide which tile to move my knight to? Can someone use words to describe why f4 is so bad? Here is my effort: it lets a ton of pressure build up on e4 that I am not in control of and my queen is at risk of getting pinned.

...

Assuming you meant 1. ... f5, well u said it, after 2.Re1 the Q is pinned and i think black loses the pawn (Ng5 is coming).
On the other hand, 1. ... Nc5 looks good cause is doing something (instead of just retreat); its attacking the bishop, pointing to weak square b3 and in case of future b4 it can goes againh to the centre (d7 or e6). imo.

black plays 12. ... h5
white checks
balck plays 13. .. h4

lol, impressive. I'll definitely add this line to my repertoire. Very nice...

absoultely correct imo. u r doing both at the same time (develop+attack).
But in general developing comes first than going for a pawn.
This reminds me a good game i played 1 or 2 years ago:



villain (black) just played 1. ... c6? and after 2.QxQ BxQ 3. Bf4 Bc7 4. 0-0-0 i got a big advantage during the whole game. Same history.

f5 is bad because:

- You'll have a lot of trouble trying to hold e4 because you'll end up with a rook staring down the e-file at your queen, and because you don't have a light square bishop to counteract the pressure your opponent can place on e4 with his.

- Your opponent can get rid of the knight any time it's an issue for him anyway, by simply taking it with the bishop. If there are a series of trades on e4 that end with you capturing with the pawn, then you'll have an isolated pawn, which will be a weakness in the endgame.

- You weaken your king's position considerably. This is going to cause you issues. For instance, your opponent can play b3, and you will be forced to move your queen due to the threat of Bc3 pinning the queen against the king. I don't think this is important now, but it might be later on.

Nc5 is best. You would be happy to exchange the knight for the light squared bishop. The fact that you don't have one makes his light squared bishiop a powerful piece, plus having both bishops is an advantage.

I assume that Nd6 and Nf6 are 'bad' simply because they are passive relative to Nc5.

It feels like after a few months of casual study and chess tactics server I now make little blunders after 20 moves instead of 5.

Partly because they're passive and partly because the knight gets in the way on those squares. On f6 it's blocking the bishop and on d7 it will get in the way of a rook which you should want to bring to d8 at some point to control the open file.

1.-Nc5 is the most active square and tactical stuff seems to work too; 2.b4 Nb3, 2.Be3 Nf5 3.Qxc5 Qxe2 and 2.Nd4 Bxd4 3.cxd4 Nb3.
Thus it looks like Nc5 is the best move.

I've played this opening in a few Blitz games. I think if White plays 7.Nd3 then it's nothing special for Black. Black has compensation for a pawn, but no more.

Activity and sustainability are the keys for knights. As long as you actually understand activity, then yes Nc5 is best because it is most active. Farthest forward doesn't necessarily mean most active, even for knights. Activity is all about attacking/controlling important squares. c5 is a more active post for the knight because the squares it's threatening are actually kinda important.

lol blitz game where i survive a minority attack with my king on G6
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=35397

22.Qg3 looks better

Cool game though, I like the Rxg2+ tactic

That's what we found out in the post mortem too. But white has much more chances for a pull and a pleasant game after 5.Bg2, which imo warrants a ?! for 5. Nxe5.

In practical chess it's not white's goal to take a pawn like that and suffer from positional problems for a long time after that. For example, if you don't know precisely White's methods of neutralising Black's play, i would never advise you to accept something like the Benko Gambit. On below-master level chances for white to get ground down are just too high.