Grueling battle here, ending in a Resignation victory after 59 moves.

This game took a lot out of me. I think he played incredibly solidly pretty much all game, he just wasn't making mistakes other than minor positional ones and stuff. And I kept playing "hope chess" hoping he'd slip up but then he'd play the 1 move I didn't want him to play. Over and over. I considered offering a draw once he got his King to the 6th rank (see 49....Kf6) but figured he wouldn't accept and I really wanted to see if I could pass my pawn. I figured I'd rather play it out and lose at the benefit of learning something about pawn promotion with rook assistance (something I stink at). But I had a rook behind the pawn and on the 8th rank so I figured his pieces may ultimately be overloaded in trying to attack my King in the h1 corner and defend my pawn in the a8 corner.

I'm doing a chess.com computer analysis, but here are my thoughts while it processes:

11.Bxa6. Trades my good bishop, which kind of stinks but I figured he develops his Knight to a poor square and it's also hanging which allows me to attack it and develop my Queen to a central square on the next move.

14.e4 15.h3 16.e5 tries to force his Knight backward but dumb me failed to realize once I attack him with e5, his Knight now has d5......... lol wtf me.

17.Bxe7. My DSB kinda stinks and is floating out there clogging up the basepaths for better pieces near his King. Though now that I look at it, his DSB sucks, too, so this might not be great.

18.Ng5. lol cheap mateaments.

23.Qg3. Not sure if best square.

25.Rac1. Nothing is clear to me yet, might as well get Rook to open file.

26.Rfd1. Adds a defender to very important d4 pawn and develops Rook somewhat.

27.a4. I spent a long time here. This guy took a matter of minutes to make each move and I took hours. His blitz rating and standard ratings being relatively high do not surprise me. Dude moves QUICKLY. I expect him to reply with e.p. but I figure it's not bad for me after bxa3. Can't believe he retreated, though. No idea if that was the best move. I thought it rendered his knight stagnant and far from the action but eventually this knight played a key defensive role for him so maybe it was good.

28.Qd6. I'm eying that important e6 pawn, with check. And I don't want to play Qe5 and allow his Rook into f5. (Foreshadowing)


31....Rf8. Oh ****. For some reason I thought he'd play Rd6 to defend that pawn, and then I thought I had some good stuff with Knight takes pawn. But he played this and I LITERALLY kicked myself for allowing that Rook into f5 that I recognized 3 moves ago. Only this time is worse since my other knight is clogging things up now. I spend a couple days here and of course consider Qe3 or something, saving my Queen and just losing a knight. But I really didn't want his Rook getting into my territory and maybe getting taht important pawn on h6. And I looked for follow-ups with my f4 knight to discover an attack on his Rook but didn't find anything worthwhile. So I got cute with it.

33.Qc5. Hopefully renders his Queen a bit stagnant, and opens up the d-file for my Rook. If he trades Queens on c5, I have Rxc5, defending that g5 knight, but I guess he still can get my f4 knight, and be up a minor piece with Queens off the board. Anyway.

Moves 35-38 evens things up a bit material wise. I guess his 36....Qe5 was bad. Didn't bother to analyze it much.

40....Kg8. I was a bit surprised he moved back to the 8th rank.

41.Kf1. I'm thinking maybe get my Rook onto e1 and the other onto a8, which would be nice. He sees this.

42....Nd5. What an unbelievably good square for him to rest his Knight on. Ugg.

44.Rg7+. I don't want to leave my Rook over here because I think he can play Nc7 and trap my Rook and capture it with the Queen. This move seems good since it puts him back in the corner. Otherwise if ....Kf8 then Rxh7 followed by Rh8 possibly winning his Queen with a cheapo tactic.

45.Ra7. My Rook can't get trapped now b/c after a big exchange on c7, I have Re8#. So if he plays Nc7 I just win his Knight. He does not.

47.Ra6. Now I can't play Ra7 b/c he can trap me with his Knight and Queen.

Move 48 I considered sticking either Rook on e8 and seeing if he trades Queen for both Rooks, but it appears I can't pass any pawn in time so no bueno.

49.Rh8. Again, let's see if I can skewer his Queen or at least if he moves his Queen, win the a7 pawn. Nope!

52.Ra1. I knew he was about to play Qd3+ and considered playing Re3 which defends that, but then I don't have immediate access to the a-file to get behind my passed pawn. I also didn't think I was in that bad of shape if he plays Qd3+ but shortly after that I realized my position was basically lost if he plays it out right (53....Qe4 instead of Ne2+) I don't think it's a forced mate but he ends up winning my Rook on a1 after 54.Kf1....Qxg2+ 55.Ke1....Qg1+ 56.Kd2....Qxa1 and I'm pretty sure it's a trivial win after that for black.

54.Kh2. Kh1 is my only legit other option but it disallows g3 after Qe4. I spent a long time analyzing both options and glad I did b/c intuitively Kh1 felt more correct to me and I almost played it.


58.f3+. Well, he's got mate on next move. So I consider first Rh1, but that seems to be rather crummy for me. Then of course I exhaust all options and consider f3+, which basically wins. It ends up winning his Queen for a Rook at most, and a pawn at least. Then with just a King and Knight near my King I have no problem staving off mate and promoting my a-file pawn.

If 58....Kg5:
59.Rh1Nf4+
60.gxf4+Kf5
61.Rxh5+gxh5

Or he just captures my Rook and I recapture.

If 58....Kf5
59.g4+ forking his King and Queen.

New high 1627 but that's going to be coming down.

Computer (2000 strength) analysis finished. 6 inaccuracies (10.9%), 2 mistakes (3.6%), 4 blunders (7.3%) for me and only 0 inaccuracies, 1 mistake, and 5 blunders for him!

Computer actually thinks 11.Bxa6 is fine.

14.e4 inaccuracy. (Ne5 suggested) Up 0.71 after e4.

16.e5 inaccuracy. Worth .5 pawns! Now even. (Rfc1 suggested).

It likes 17Bxe7.

After 21.Qf3 I'm down 0.14.

After 26....a5 I'm up 0.6.

Computer likes 27.a4. Weird.

28.Qd6 (ALTERNATIVE: b3)

29....Nc7?? BLUNDER. I went from 1.08 to 3.11. Suggestion 29....Rf8.

30.Qf6? MISTAKE. Suggestion: 30.Nf4. Down to 1.61.

31.Nf4?? BLUNDER. Yes, I know. (Suggestion: 31.Ng3). -0.68

32.Qe5?? BLUNDER. Wat? (Suggestion: Nxh7) -1.81

33.Qc5? MISTAKE. (Suggestion: Nxg6) -3.13

After 38....Qxe6 I'm at -1.41

40.Ra7+?! INACCURACY (Suggestion Rxa5)

41.Kf1?! INACCURACY (Suggestion Ra8)

44.Rg7+?! INACCURACY (Suggestion Rxa5)

45....Qd8? MISTAKE (Suggestion: Kg8)

47.Ra6 ALTERNATIVE Ra7

50.a5?! INACCURACY (Suggestion: g3) -1.76

52.Ra1?? BLUNDER. (Suggestion: Rf8) -4.71!!!

53....Ne2+ BLUNDER. (Suggestion: Qe4). As I expected. Back to 0!

54.Kh2?? BLUNDER -MAT04. YIKES. WAT? (Suggestion: Kf1)

54....Qe4?? BLUNDER. (Suggestion: Qd4) Ahhh, not sure I even noticed this. He wins my Rook. Now at -0.41.

56....Qh5+?? BLUNDER. (Suggestion: Qf7). From -0.47 to 2.85.

57....Kg4. BLUNDER. (Suggestion: Nxg3) 8.70

59.Rh1 leaves me at 9.42.

After move 19. Feasting on the c-pawn and the dark-squared weaknesses is better than a kingside attack. Black has f6 covered, and there's no good way to break through. Rfc1 (to keep the other rook for opening the a-file) or Ne4 are indicated.

Agree. I felt Ng5 was an excellent move, provoking this weakening of the dark squares with g6 and preparing Ne4. Was really surprised to see h4. Blacks only plan for anything active is c5, which you can stop with Ne4, Rc1 and an eventual Nc5. After having taken control over the center you can think about the kingside attack. The two-weakness approach is very helpful in this regard. You first tie your opponent down to the first weakness, after which he is unable to defend the second. In this case it is much easier to make him commit to defending c6 and all juicy squares surrounding it and crush him on the king side after, than to make him defend the kingside and then crush him elsewhere. Why? Because he can defend actively on the kingside, whereas his queenside/center defense is doomed to be passive.

What if he plays Na6, defending c5?

You play the rook over or Ne4 (whichever you hadn't played). Note that a knight on e4 can also drop into d6 at any point you want to potentially cause tons of havoc. Or f6 for that matter. He has tons of holes in his position and Ne4 eyes pretty much all of them.

I don't really see any way for him to seize much of an initiative or create too much counterplay unless he can get in c5 of f6, which you will secure with Ne4. Imo this is the type of position where you should be able to combine sound strategic moves improving your pieces along with a few tactical ideas when the time is right (and to not let him get the initiative) where you don't have to worry too much about forcing a winning attack or action b/c white already probably has a winning advantage. You can afford to improve your pieces which will probably create threats while you do so and you're going to then be able to act on a winning plan depending on what black does (e.g. if he gets tied down to defending his pawn, perhaps Nf6 will generate an attack against his king or Nd6 will allow you to win material.

Note my only analysis is based on the position Rei posted, I haven't looked at the actual game at all.

Here's a pretty poorly played game that resulted in a loss.

I was playing a weird book defense that I hadn't played before, and it said I get a minor piece back after dropping my knight early, but I ****ed it up when he played Nxc6 "out of order" and I failed to play or even notice Qxe4+, getting the piece back.

Then 26...Rxa2 and 27...Rxd2 were basically fatal, or at least like wingsuit BASE jumping in a narrow gorge, and I didn't even notice what he was doing.

Note to self: If someone leaves even a pawn hanging, when it's super obvious you want to attack it, there is probably a reason. IF SAID PERSON LEAVES A BISHOP HANGING THERE IS PROBABLY A REASON.

Anyway I was down all game and just never got anything going. I certainly didn't see him do anything to lose, once he was up a minor piece.

Here is a BAD draw against the same player in a different match.

Unbelievably boneheaded to allow Qf4+. Again, didn't even notice it. I was lying in bed making phone moves at night and got all excited and moved too hastily. I considered Qxf2 but not Qf4+.

From there I had to stave off mate, and he had to keep finding checks, since I had a mate-in-3 the moment I was not in check. I hoped that he'd take my Queen once it was skewered but once he didn't I knew it was a draw. Didn't claim it b/c I was freerolling at that point and maybe he does something stupid like take the queen the 2nd time, thinking maybe I didn't notice my forced mate. But no.

This one sucks. I was white, I was up material, and I was on complete attack then one slip-up and he lucksacks a draw.

I had wondered if keeping my knight on the f6 outpost was better than going ahead and winning the exchange with 21.Nxe8+, but ultimately I figured winning material is good and I'm the better player with the better attack.

I used my Knight moves of 17-21 to show my wife an example of pin exploitation. She knows what pins are but she's at a level where she wouldn't have spotted the tactic from move 17.

First game: 5.-Bb4 is the usual move. 7. Nxc6?! is a mistake on White's part -- 7. f3 is normally played, and 7. Bd3 Qxe4 8. 0-0 should work too. As played, Black has 7.-Qxe4+, regaining the piece. There's not much to comment on beyond that. I guess I'd play something other than 12.-f5?!.

Second game: http://chess.tuxtown.net/game/view/i...dbe22f4bbb2c22

I'm analyzing some of the more interesting games while they're in progress and saving them as ongoing annotations (instead of just taking scattered notes and trying to remember random stuff I notice). I like being able to use my favorite annotationisms, too, like "X has the pleasant choice between [move 1] and [move 2]".

Thanks! I love that write-up for the 2nd game. Definitely helpful. Many of the moves you suggest I of course considered but ultimately played other moves. I considered f4 in the 2nd game but at the time wasn't sure if I wanted to clog that file from my rooks or queen.

I totally didn't see that he could play 31.Rf8 in the 2nd game and give his King a wall to hide behind. Wow. I'm glad he didn't see this, either.

I also saw that he could play the intermezzo move with Qxf6 but worst case scenario we end up even and best case he misses it and I win an exchange. So I tried it.

Another draw.

This game is against TheTinkerman, who was on Team 2p2 at one point but is no longer. He's in another group with me so this was kind of a coincidental matchup. I asked who he was on 2p2 and he said TheTinkerman, though I haven't looked for him here.

+0-2=4 in my last 6 correspondence matches. I probably need to stop offering draws and play some of these out. I have no idea how to renege a draw offer after offering.

Moves 10-12 "Hey, d4 is triply attacked and only doubly defended now that he's blocked his Queen. Let me win a pawn!" Oh yeah I forgot that when one of his defenders is a pawn and my attacker is a minor piece that's not wise of me. Didn't even notice this during the match. Just noticed now. Wow. Assumed I won a pawn - didn't even bother to add it up. I need to stop thinking in terms of "number of times" attacked/defended and more "aggregate value of pieces" attacking/defending.

14...f5. Classic pawn fork right there.

15...fxe4. Before I played this I realized my position won't be easy to defend from here on out, but I figured I would be OK and ultimately decided to win material then deal with what's to come.

The position got extremely tough to defend, though.

I didn't even notice he could play 25.Rxb5 and win a pawn. A bit surprised he wiped pieces off the board, though, down material.

29...Rxd7. Wasn't sure if I should capture with Rook or King, went with Rook.

Not sure about the draw offer. I've got that passed (extra) pawn, and some immediate initiative, though he can simply play Rg1 for now. His King is safer and his Queen can harrass my King easy enough that it seems hard to promote my pawn. I kept wanting to capture f3, exploiting the g2 pin but couldn't get around to it.

He'd timed out in our first match so I didn't feel too bad about just taking a draw here.

Yeah this is probably related to playing 6-8 games for quite a bit. Fatigue could set in if you're trying to play quality moves (unlike some of the mass-tablers).

Looks good.

It looks like 7.-dxe4 had the idea of preventing e4-e5? I noticed you like playing such "strong pawn chain"-creating moves when you get the opportunity, but it's not that dangerous in this position, because Black gets a good French-type position after something like 7.-0-0 8. e5 Be7 9. Bd3 c5 10. 0-0 Nc6, with immense pressure on d4. 9. Be2 [same moves] doesn't help because of the threat is to win the e5 pawn, and 9. Ne2 in that line to reinforce d4 gives Black an easy game in the subvariation shown.

I can't say why I played that move. I've quite bad with pawns and don't understand the concept of them many times. Often times I will play PawnX__ before I end up dropping said pawn without compensation. Which I did earlier today in one of my games.

Here's a funny game. Blunder, blunder, blunder!



Early on I was hoping to get a pawn to d5 somehow, to block Nc6 for black, and then play Qa5+ and win a piece. Eventually I just gave up on the Qa5+ bishop fork. It got kind of cluttered.

8.Bb5 is a move I hadn't tried before.

13.Rxd3 is derpville. Natural instinct is, of course, to capture with Queen but I talked myself into thinking the queen was better placed on c2 than on d3. I wasn't worried about 13...Bb5 because I can just retreat my Rook. I COMPLETELY FORGOT to check the other diagonal. Jesus. Bf5. This is when I typed "Fantastic."

16.Ba5 prevents a6-a5 and b5-b4, and hits c7 pawn once.

17.Qc3 hits c7 pawn a second time. If he defends the pawn with the wrong Rook I appear to win the exchange back with 18.Bb4, at which point he typed "Fantastic." into the chat and I lol'd.

23.dxc5?! Not sure if this is good but I felt so.

26.c6. I wasn't worried about Qxe3 b/c I had Qc5+ and maybe some stuff happening from there. But it was still a bit risky and speculative, as I didn't find immediate concrete lines. Just kinda went for it. I also knew there was a non-zero chance he loses his Queen.

Which is what happens after 28.Nf5+, which my opponent called "maybe the best chess move I've ever seen." LOL. Seems pretty basic. Even my wife found it in like 5 seconds and she's like a 25-1 dog against me in correspondence.

The end is only a matter of time but I tried to figure out the best move and decided to hit those 2 pawns with check and also potentially have access to h8.

18...c5! would allow him to keep the exchange and a large advantage, because of the pins on the c-file. Amazing that he doesn't see this after apparently preparing it with 17...Rc8. Because of stuff like this, I think the whole idea of castling queenside is dubious - I would prefer 11. Qc2 (preserving the bishop pair) followed by Ne2 or Nf3, castling short, and then you have a pleasant choice of whether to play on the kingside, the queenside, or in the centre.

After 8...Bxc3 you could have continued with the plan started by Bb5: 9. Bxc6+ dxc6 10. Qxc6+ Bd7 11. Qxc3 wins a pawn. This means that 7. Qa4+ is actually a very good maneouvre winning material by force - though if you didn't have or didn't see the concrete followup, it should be a bad move that misplaces your pieces and makes you lose time.

Yeah I figured I fudged up the Qa4+ plan. It felt like I had an edge but no I didn't see it out like you said, winning at least a pawn. I think I got scared and tried to get out of there with even trades at that point. One thing I struggle with is order of moves/captures in positions with a lot of tension.

I saw 18...c5 as an option for him but I don't see how it works. It still seems fine for me at worst, and winning the exchange at "best". Can you elaborate?

let's say you take with the bishop, 19. Bxc5. Then he moves the queen, say 19...Qe6. Now you can't take on f8 because you lose all of your pieces. So you are the exchange for a pawn down with worse development, and Black can also play against your bishop on the c-file. Play might continue 20. Ne2 Nd7 21. Nf4 Qc6 22. Nd3 a5! with some kind of an attack

or you take with the pawn, which is probably better as you get a passed pawn, the use of the d4-square and you keep a blockade on the queenside pawns. But you are still material down and Black has some easy play: e.g. 19. dxc5 Qe6 20. Ne2 Rfe8 21. Kd2 (what else?) d4!? 22. Nxd4 Qxa2 and you are probably in trouble.

Maybe I overstated it by calling it a large advantage, but Black gets to keep his material advantage and you don't have much compensation. In the game you get a fine position. Kb1 and Rc1 is definitely the right plan there, and it looks like you can always hold back his pawn storm - b4 was well met by dxc5! and his alternative, 22...c4, could have been met by 23. Qb4+ Kg8 24. Nc3! Rb8 25 a4! when I would say chances are equal.

OK yeah I see all that. I guess I didn't analyze the lines out much. If he moved his pawn forward to block then I probably play Bx then move to Kb1 or something. My bishop is protected by a pawn that can't be attacked anytime soon, and I should have time to move my Queen around. So maybe I end up only winning a pawn.

A loss against the guy I had the 59-move epic win against a few weeks ago. I'm shedding rating points quicker than Magnus!

I just never mounted any kind of attack whatsoever. He stymied me the entire game. I was extremely cramped then he won a pawn that I didn't notice happening and I rushed into an endgame for some dumb reason and made some miscalcs at the end. Think I just got tired of it all. It's super annoying when you are being pummeled and your opponent takes literally a minute to respond to each of your moves. I GET IT I'M LOSING.

Had thoughts of trapping his c6 knight but never was able to. This guy annoyed the **** out of me with his relatively strong knight play in both games.

I thought 8...c5 was good as it makes a decent pawn wall, but he just outposts his knight on c6.

10...Be7 prepares to defend c7.

20...Kh7. Debated playing g6 first but was so worried about tempo. g6 would have been nice as it would have probably saved my h-pawn.

29...Bd4+ was stupid. I considered it earlier and realized he can just trade bishops (and his kinda stinks) and get his King closer to the center while I do literally nothing. Then a move or 2 later I just totally forgot and played it anyway. lol me.

34...Kf5. "Hey I can get to f4 then g3!" lol @ just not even thinking he might play g3 which blows for me.

The end was just a miscalc. I thought I'd be OK and that we'd both clean the pawns on that side of the board (I'd still be down 3 to 2 but with a closer King maybe it's a draw?) But no it looks like a loss at the end.

Why didn't you play it out. You're only one tempo short, so if he makes a bad move you have chances.

Early notes.

Game was lost at 36...dxc5?? If 36..Ke6 37. c6, Ke7 38. c5, a5 and you have at least a chance to hold

h5 I played because I remember someone playing h3 once and Rei telling me to prevent g4. lol. But yeah that was a Benoni? or something and probably was to stave a pawn march from pawns not protecting my opponent's king. It's a move I basically never make but saw him make that and thought about this thread. I know, not all games are the same and I need to think deeper.

Uitje, I really don't think he was going to mess this up. A large part of why I resigned is b/c I let my clock go down to like 88 minutes before looking at it and figured I'd probably rush into making the wrong move anyway. But I think he wins. Every scenario I looked at he can capture my a-pawn and link his King back to his c-pawn. I can get my King on C8 to prevent his promotion, but then I'm forced to start pushing my 2 vs. 3 pawn wall and that's just another battle he's winning.

Yeah that was a6/b5 in the Benoni.

Here's a fun little 10 minute game I played. Haven't played blitz in a couple weeks. I had 1:54 left on clock.

Haven't looked at it yet to see what mistakes were made. I'm guessing near the end at least he, if not both of us, made mistakes. Actually, I lost a minor piece in the middle of the game to a pawn's attack that I didn't even notice. lol. Still, I think it was a fun game for 10 minutes.