Just scored a draw by repetition against a 1026 as a 907. I forced it at the end as he was up a rook and I couldn't find a win there. I'm going to review the game from move 37 later but I gotta help my wife clean right now so if anyone can find a win for me from move 37 onward let me know.

The match moved pretty quickly time-wise and there was a lot of aggression early on. My 13.Bxa6 is a super-aggressive line for me especially at my experience level but I thought it looked fun and wanted to see what I could make of it. And what I could learn from it. I hate that I only have 1 other attacker developed here but anyway...I played it. I sacrificed my LSB for a pawn!

37. a7+ Ka8 38. b7+ Kxa7 39. bxc8=Q# wins.

Unreal. Can't believe I missed that. I felt like there was a win there and I stared at it for a while. Damn that would have been a nice finish. Especially being down material and making that risky sacrifice early. Thanks.

4 Qxd4 normally in the opening you'd prefer to recapture with the knight and responses like Nc6 are the reason. Black makes a natural developing move and you have to waste time moving the queen again. Then Qd2 hinders your development by blocking the bishop, simply Qd1 is better.

7... Qd7 looks like a waste of time for black, so now instead of being pinned to the king the knight is pinned to the queen. And 7... Bxf3 was available which makes a mess of your kingside after the recapture. After Qd2, 8 Nd4 both avoids Bxf3 next move and attacks the pinned knight.

13 Bxa6, I like! The black king is looking really lonely over there. Nice follow up with the next two moves too. After c5 did you notice the en passant capture? It unblocks your bishop right away though unfortunately it also allows Nxc6 bringing black's knight in for the defense.

So the sacrificial attack didn't quite work, but the connected passed pawns on the a and b file give you something to work with and after you castle I'd start trying to make them a threat, and avoid trading rooks if possible (trading off pieces is bad when you're down material). So 23 a4 for example instead of Rfd1. Don't know why black avoided trading the rook.

And shouldn't the software detect threefold repetition ending the game on move 41? Apparently chess.com requires fivefold repetition. By move 42 I would have been freaking out.

I think I know why it takes five repetitions though. If the software fails to check side to move when checking for repeated positions, the fifth repetition guarantees at least three repeats with the same side to move.

The explanation is probably a lot simpler: draws have to be claimed. If the position repeated five times, it means neither player claimed the draw after the third repetition.

Qxd4 is fine there, but only if you're following Nc6 with Bb5, transposing to a steinitz ruy.

otherwise, yeah, general rule is N>Q

Yeah, u have to press the draw button after 3 repeats, I miss clicked the resign button a little while ago after 3 repeats. Beat.

Man I lost sleep last night once I realized how easy of a mate I had there. Uggg. That's an awful miss even for me. I have no idea why I didn't recognize that, as I spent plenty of time on move 37 and considered every piece. Oh well, lesson learned. Still would have been nice to CM a dude 119 points higher than me with less material. He would have been by far the best rated opponent I've beaten. My wife was up late cleaning until 4am because we had guests by today and every guest is apparently the King and Queen of England. I showed her from move 37 all I had to do and kept complaining that I missed it and she was like "get over it will ya" lol.

Steve, I missed the en passant move again. Really bothers me. I need to actively train myself to pay attention any time they move two squares. This should trigger me looking to see if I can pull the e.p. move. Especially this one because his movement there blocked my Bishop. Not sure what happens if I play e.p. there but still I need to recognize it.

Just finished this game. Villain abandons game with 13 minutes left once I have mate-in-2. Standard. This was a rematch game after he'd just smoked me after I played awful and lost my Queen. I played until the end when he had Mate-in-1 and Resigned. Pretty surprised he'd do this but anyway. No chat until I made my last move and said good games tho.

I'm on a run of some pretty poor play the last 4-5 games and have gone from 910 to 895. This was a win but it was super sloppy and I got lucky he made a stupid fatal error to gain a useless pawn.

Thoughts:
My 3.a6 is a mistake I'm sure.

13. Bc5 is a clear miscalculation, as putting heat on his Queen is meaningless. I probably need to play f5 here to defend better. I was happy with how I backed his Queen up but in the end I lost a minor piece in the big trade, which clearly sucks for me.

After this I am happy with how I attacked his Knight and backed him outta my kitchen. I got him to a point where he had a trade-at-best but I didn't want to call him on it since I was already down material.

22.h5 I'm not sure about but I wanted to see where advancing my pawn wall would take me. It helped me in a game recently and so I played this. I had good Rook position on h8. After this move I realized the e7 square was weak and would have liked to have my h8 Rook on h7.

24. I play the nice little Rae8 which is good and he makes a fatal mistake by capturing a benign pawn. Of course I capture his Rook for free and simultaneously put him in check.

After this move I assessed the situation and determined I had mate-in-2 with the game ending thus:

26. Kg2.... f3+
27. Kg3.... Be5#

Let me know if this is incorrect. Anyway, sloppy game but I'm happy with how I hung in there and played it out. I considered Resigning again but even told myself "I made a mistake (losing my Queen for -6 net last game) last game - maybe he'll make a mistake" and he ultimately did.

No, it's actually by far the most common move in that position. Unlike the last time I asked you why you played a2-a3, you have an actual reason to play ...a7-a6 in this position.

Can't I just save tempo though and move my threatened Knight, or develop my DSB or my other Knight?

On move 27, ...Rg1# mates. Be5+ still wins (you'll be up a rook + knight, and you can win the pinned bishop too), but White can prolong the game with Kxg4.

I am not as good as the other people on here (~1300 on chess.com), but I do play this opener (it's called the Ruy Lopez) with both sides.

Your knight is not really "threatened," and moving it would cost a tempo (you don't want to move the same piece twice in the opener, as well as pin your d pawn. You don't want to do that.

Yes, he could take your knight with his bishop, but that is generally a good trade for you. He gains compensation from doubling your pawns, but that is ok.

Once he exchanges and you take with the queens pawn, he can't really take your e pawn. If he does (as in the game), you should play 5. Qd4. He will move his knight and you can take his e pawn with your queen with check for an advantage.

4. ..Qe7 is okay - Qg5 is the superior move (threatening g2 and the knight)
5. ..Nf6 is again okay and a natural development move but g6 is a superior move here as well (because he can push your knight around and escape with his queen like he does in this game)
12. ..bxe4 seems good to me but my engine suggests bf5 as a superior move, gaining tempo on the queen and allowing you to castle safely. You play it next move, but its a good move on move 12 and a move that loses on move 13 (you were right that f5 was the superior move on move 13)
14. ..Bb4+ Does nothing for you, sure its a check on the king, but it actually lets him develop (via c3 or Bc2) and attack your piece. Meaningless checks that don't accomplish anything are a leak of mine so I'm particularly sensitive to finding them in others games

Gotta run to dinner, but nice fightback.

yes, and many of those lines are also pretty well developed. a6 is just the most popular and considered the best, but not so much better than anything else that it makes it bad to play a different line that might fit your style better. Nf6 is the berlin defense, Bc5 is usually called the classical, d6 is the steinitz, etc.

If you move your knight, then you're not really saving a tempo unless its new square is that superior (and this opening has been analyzed for like 500 years, so I can say with some confidence that there is no better square for your knight at this time).

You can certainly play 3...Nf6, and this is in fact the 2nd most common response.

Developing your DSB, such as with 3...Bc5, is much less common, though I don't know that I can say anything really concrete about why. Just be sure to be familiar with 'the fork trick' (4. Nxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 forking your knight and bishop and therefore regaining the knight sacrificed on move 4).

I don't think I've ever actually played this line, but I had in my head that 4...Qd4 was the move. Is it actually any worse?

It's a bit more advanced than your level - but 3...a6 is the most popular move essentially because after 4.Ba4, you have the option to break the pin with b7-b5 at any time.

The exchange on c6 is not really a threat for the moment since the pawn is indirectly defended (3...a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qg5/Qd4). So after 3...a6 4.Ba4 (the most popular move) it usually goes4....Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 (if 5...Nxe4 6.d4 and White eventually gets the pawn back - also 5...Bc5 is an option which is considered more risky because after 6.c3 with an eventual d4, the Bishop comes under attack) 6.Re1 - Now White actually is threatening to take on c6 and then on e5 since his e-pawn is protected but because of 3...a6, Black can defend with 6...b5.

Compare the same position without the inclusion of 3...a6 4.Ba4 - i.e., 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Be7 5.Re1 - in this case Black has to play d6 to defend himself, with a much more passive formation (here White can immediately strike in the centre with 5...d6 6.d4).

Thanks, everybody. Rei, I didn't even notice my suggested ending isn't even Mate. Jeez. I didn't even recognize he can play Kg4 and capture my pawn. I'd still be in a good spot but yeah I should recognize the correct line with f3 followed by Rg1.

I need to work on more of the end game Mentor exercises, methinks.

By the way, I think people were talking about how the computer analysis on chess.com is not very good. I had an analysis last night that suggested I made mistakes and they suggested putting the King in check with a move that simply kills your minor piece with a pawn (and doesn't materially affect position). They suggested this twice. I'm pretty sure they were wrong lol.

Looks like you are correct, my opening database appears to be a little out of date - Qd4 is probably better (and actually ARC's Qe7 has been played 24 times, at a decent winrate).

Probably helps to check my work every now and then

My understanding is that in both the Ruy Lopez/Spanish game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5) and the Italian game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4), White really wants to keep the light-squared bishop, as it's one of the best attacking pieces. The point of 3. Bb5 in the Ruy Lopez is not to actually take the knight, but to apply pressure, to open up room for the early castle, and to pin the knight if d6/d5 is played by Black.

Taking the knight on c6 is a bad move for White just on its face, because generally speaking bishops are more valuable than knights in more open positions, and White is simultaneously trading a bishop for a knight and opening up the position.

Nevertheless, there are some pluses to it for white, and Fischer played it at least a dozen times in high level games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruy_Lop...ange_Variation

Another TL/DR passage from ARC!

Just logged my best (rated) victory so far. A 1007 resigned against me as an 895. Villain may have been taking me lightly though as his clock was still above 10 minutes and mine was down around 4 by the end. He makes a couple moves that are very hasty (thought not terrible - but probably tempo wasters) and you'll see he makes 2 serious blunders.

I'm aware my 3.c3 is definitely non-standard and sub-optimal. Gonna be honest the only reason I played it was I'm tired of playing the same openings over and over and simply wanted a different flavor. Please don't berate me for it :/

5. Qa4 I know is bad. I know I know bringing my Queen out so early is bad. My non-standard opening has left my Queenside very clogged and unable to develop. The other 2 moves I considered were b3, which allows my DSB to develop (in trade, as it's still protected by Knight) OR 0-0, which I'm not thrilled about seeing his dominating diagonal lanes looming for his Queen and LSB. At this point I'm already kicking myself for the non-standard opening

8. gxf3. I consider capturing with my Queen but he can put his LSB on g4 and make me waste more time moving the Queen.

9. Bxe4. I can take with my pawn but I want to capture with my Bishop here to allow the D-file pawn to advance and give my other Bishop and my Queen some more space.

His 13. Qh4 has me in a bad spot. Luckily I recognize it and do something about it. He's clearly got his eye on capturing the pawn on e4 and capturing my Rook. And obviously I can't advance my f-pawn to protect it so I pull my Knight over. I also notice his DSB will not be threatening this Knight anytime soon, which is nice.

15. Qxb7. I'm really not sure what to play here and he does appear that his plan is to attack my Knight with his DSB. I could have played 0-0 to buy some time, but I don't love the idea of castling this side yet so I want to keep 0-0-0 in play if I can. I don't really have any other backup for my e4 square other than playing Qc2, but that just buries my Queen and I'm not thrilled about it. So I decide to put some offensive pressure on if I can and play Qxb7.

18. Rg1. I don't have a lot of options here and he's about to capture my Knight in trade if he wants it. So I say very clearly you can have my Knight, Bishop, and Rook. I'll take your Bishop and Queen. A +1 trade, and I still retain my Queen. Plays 18 through 21 are a slaughter and he fouls up by wasting a move. Overall he trades 8 for 13. I think he's steaming now because he didn't intend for this and plays 21. Bf3+ almost instantly, which does nothing for him.

From here, there is a lot of jostling, but I'm never threatened. His Rooks are not breaking through my pawn wall anytime soon that's for damn sure. His move 28 discovers an attack on my Queen, which luckily I don't fail to notice. He's also left his Rook vulnerable now but I guess he's getting desperate.

29. Qb8 simply forks both his Rooks. His final move is a clear blunder and my final move is capturing his Rook with my pawn. This move shows up on our game but not on the Archive, since the Resignation message was popping up at the same time I was moving. But he knew I wasn't going to miss this and from here it's just mop-up duty for what should end in a painless CM with plenty of time left.

3. c3 is fine. It's known as the Ponziani opening, and is perfectly sound, albeit a little unambitious. It's not too common at the highest levels, because black has a little easier of a time equalizing against it than other third moves in that position. That doesn't matter one iota at your (or my) level though. And it's still played occasionally even by some top GMs. Here's two games where a player rated over 2700 played it: http://www.chess.com/games/view?id=13278276 and http://www.chess.com/games/view?id=13271620

It's also been played a few times by Nigel Short (see below) and at least once that I know of by Hikaru Nakamura. Nothing wrong with playing it if you like how it feels. And seeking out some different types of positions is a great thing to do when you're learning the game.

The move I don't like is 4. Bd3. If you're going to play c3, I would assume that your entire point is to follow with d4; c3 is a good move to prepare for the central pawn thrust. Putting a bishop in front of that d-pawn, preventing yourself from playing d4, pretty well negates all the upside of c3 on the prior move.

Yes, he was attacking your undefended e-pawn. If you really want to defend it you can play d3 (more passive), but just 4. d4 is probably best, and most consistent with your prior move. Notice that you now have two pieces, a pawn and a knight, attacking his e5 pawn, so if he takes e4 you can just take e5 - or you can push d5 first kicking his knight and THEN take, like Nigel Short (once the third highest rated player in the world) did against Gata Kamsky in this game: http://www.chess.com/games/view?id=4388964

That idea of indirectly "defending" an attacked piece by counterattacking something else, so that if your opponent takes the piece of yours that was threatened it's not actually a loss of material, but rather an even trade, is a somewhat advanced tactic that you probably haven't seen much yet, but it's worth keeping in the back of your brain. It can be very strong at times.