Yeah Nh4 was a headscratcher for sure, lol

Hmm. My opponent resigned and I have no idea why.



I can't win right? Or am I just being really really dumb?

http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en
There's a tablebase, to get definitive results on any position with 6 pieces or less.

The answer is draw, yes.

theres a special place in my heart for smallville and isildur1

Yes its a draw, same with Pc7 instead of a7

LOL!!! I'm playing a themed tournament on chess.com for the Fried Liver Attack, and just managed to get almost the exact same miniature win for the second time in the tourney.

First was:

[Event "Fried Liver Attack - Round 1"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2010.12.19"]
[White "BobJoeJim"]
[Black "cwcoonce"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1690"]
[BlackElo "1562"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
[Termination "BobJoeJim won by checkmate"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position.}
Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Ncb4 9.O-O c6 10.d4 Bd6
11.Re1 Nxc2 12.Nxd5 Nxe1 13.Nb6+ Ke7 14.Qf7# 1-0

and second was:

[Event "Fried Liver Attack - Round 1"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2010.12.29"]
[White "BobJoeJim"]
[Black "angelor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1715"]
[BlackElo "1498"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
[Termination "BobJoeJim won by checkmate"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position.}
Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Ncb4 9.O-O c6 10.d4 Bd6
11.Re1 Nxc2 12.Nxd5 Nxa1 13.Nb6+ Ke7 14.Qf7# 1-0

I can't believe I pulled off this exact variation twice, it seems pretty obscure, lol.

You re-fried that liver!

*ba-dum-ching!*

Brag: I achieved my highest tactics rating to date on chess.com tonight, breaking 1900 for the first time!

Beat: During the course of the session, I failed not one but TWO one-move "take the hanging queen" problems.

lol

Huge game for me.

1) I reached my goal of 45 minutes of clock time used (49:45). Not exactly up to tournament standards yet, but I'm slowly getting better at using up my time

2) Reached a new personal high rating: 1603 on the ICC 45 45 pool. I think that's the first time I've been rated 1600 anywhere.

3) I flat stole this one.

Story of this game was that I tried to use a complicated set of exchanges in the middle to gain a slight positional advantage, fixing his pawn on e4 and making his light bishop work around that. Then, as is usually the case at this level, that was all made useless by a tactical whiff that cost me the exchange. But I figured I had enough to play on and try to make it tough for him prove the win on the board.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=39118

Thoughts always appreciated. Be brutal.


[Event "ICC"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2011.01.03"]
[White "KyleMayhugh"]
[Black "Villain"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1603"]
[BlackElo "1599"]
[ECO "D10"]
[Opening "QGD Slav defense"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bf4 Bf5 5. e3 e6
6. Bd3 Ne4 7. Nge2 Be7 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Nxe4 Qa5+ 10. N2c3 dxe4
11. Bc2 Bb4 12. Qd2 O-O 13. O-O Nd7 14. a3 Bxc3 15. Qxc3 Qd8
16. b4 Rc8 17. Qd2 Nf6 18. Bg5 h6 19. Bxf6 Qxf6 20. Bb3 Qg6
21. Rac1 Bh3 22. g3 Bxf1 23. Kxf1 Qh5 24. Kg1 Kh8 25. Rc5 Qg6
26. Qc2 f5 27. Re5 Rfe8 28. Qc5 b6 29. Rxe8+ Rxe8 30. Qc4 Rf8
31. Qa6 h5 32. Qxa7 h4 33. Qxb6 hxg3 34. hxg3 f4 35. exf4 Rxf4
36. Qd8+ Kh7 37. Bc2 Rf6 38. Qe7 Re6 39. Qh4+ Kg8 40. Bb3 e3
41. Bxe6+ Qxe6 42. fxe3 Qxe3+ 43. Kh2 Qxa3 44. Qd8+ Kh7 45. Qd6 Qc3
46. Qc5 Qd2+ 47. Kh3 Qh6+ 48. Kg4 Qg6+ 49. Qg5 Qe6+ 50. Qf5+ Qxf5+
51. Kxf5 Kg8 52. Ke6 g5 53. Kd6 Kf7 54. Kxc6 Ke6 55. b5
1-0

Edit to add: computer just pointed out I missed a very simple tactic after move nine and the saving move f3 after 21. Bh3. More tactics trainer for me. More more more.

Third edit: You know what, there were so many missed tactics in this game that it's not even worth listing them all. Never mind on the comments

Ah, I was wondering about this. I also considered 22. f4 as a way to save the exchange and your king.

Still gonna have to point out 36.qb8+ and 37.qg8+ followed by qh8+ though I have coached a couple guys with the same problem as you seem to have. They had an idea on what they should be doing but not on how to do it; sensible looking moves accompanied by gross tactical mistakes. It'll fix eventually through playing games and analysing them + tactics training

Yeah, that was the one that prompted the third edit I don't know what's more annoying, the ones I never even considered (9. N4c3) or the ones where I was looking at the right line but discarded it one ply too soon (I stopped thinking about it at "okay, after Qh8+ his king escapes to g5 and I can't check him anymore).

I think the official name for the problem of making tactical mistakes and being clumsy at implementing ideas is "Class D player."

Another new high rating. Up to 1629 ICC 45/45. I'm on such a ridiculous heater and it's affecting my mentality to the point where I just assume I'm going to win against a similarly rated player even when I'm playing black. The comeuppance losing streak will be coming any day now. This is the same opponent as the last game, incidentally.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=39198

The big mistake was 19. Ng3+, which wins the exchange, rather than Nf2+, which wins the rook cleanly. I don't think there were any other big mistakes, but I may regret saying that. Any suggestions for how I could have improved the game are always greatly appreciated.

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Bf5 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 e6
6. c5 Nbd7 7. b4 b6 8. Bd3 Ne4 9. Qc2 Ndf6 10. h3 Be7
11. Bb2 O-O 12. g4 Nxc3 13. Bxc3 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 Ne4 15. Ne5 Qc7
16. a4 bxc5 17. dxc5 Bf6 18. f4 Bh4+ 19. Kf1 Ng3+ 20. Kg2 Nxh1
21. Nf3 Ng3 22. Nxh4 Ne4 23. Qd4 f6 24. g5 fxg5 25. Nf3 gxf4
26. Ne5 fxe3 27. Qxe3 Nxc3 28. Qxc3 Rf5 29. Nf3 Raf8 30. Nd4 Rf2+
0-1

edit nvm

honestly i think this game is annoying and looks more like a 3 minute game between 2 1900's. 12...Nxc3 and black should be punished for giving up his best piece. Then white doesnt recapture with 13. gxf5 so what was the point of playing g4.

c5 is premature, you just played b6 one move too late. 6... b6 7 cb ab black is fine. The point is he cant really play 7 b4 because of 7... a5

yup, problem with Nbd7 is he can now play 8.-a5 9.b5 which looks annoying. Maybe 7.-Qc7 followed by e5. On move 10.Nd2 looks logical for white, and maybe after 10. h3 a5 could be played since there isn't a knight in the way on d7 any more.

Thanks guys. It's funny how logical the explanations look now, but I sure didn't see any of that on the board.

"looks more like a 3 minute game between 2 1900's."

Hmm.

I can't help but notice that a lot of the inaccurate moves you guys point out are coming in the late opening, when I've already made the most obvious developing moves and I'm just trying to activate the rest of my pieces.

I think maybe it's time to start dabbling in the dark art of opening study. Not memorizing a bunch of lines and traps, but at least trying to get a thorough understanding of the classics and thus the ideas I should be implementing.

Okay, I may have to go ahead and get an online coach at some point, because I have a neverending hunger to have my games analyzed and I can only spam these forums for so long before everyone gets sick of it. Also, with Bob as my witless, I may never lose another chess game ever again.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=39324

Basically, after 10. exd5 I was a little flummoxed. I wasn't quite sure what I should be doing next. I won a few moves later because my opponent got a little too eager with his pawn moves around his castled king (and resigned a little quickly, imo).

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 e6 5. e3 Be7
6. Nf3 O-O 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8. Bd3 h6 9. Bh4 b6 10. cxd5 exd5
11. O-O Bb7 12. Rac1 Rc8 13. Bg3 Nh5 14. Ne2 Nxg3 15. Nxg3 g6
16. Bxg6
1-0


[Event "ICC"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2011.01.06"]
[White "KyleMayhugh"]
[Black "Berg123"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1641"]
[BlackElo "1544"]
[ECO "D10"]
[Opening "QGD Slav defense"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 e6 5. e3 Be7
6. Nf3 O-O 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8. Bd3 h6 9. Bh4 b6 10. cxd5 exd5
11. O-O Bb7 12. Rac1 Rc8 13. Bg3 Nh5 14. Ne2 Nxg3 15. Nxg3 g6
16. Bxg6
1-0

Usually in that kind of position i put a rook on d1 (in the exact position after 7....Nbd7 i used to play 8. Rd1 to maybe save a tempo with the Bf1 if he goes dxc4, but maybe that takes things too far). It looks kind of silly but helps defending your centre or discouraging him from playing c5. Once he puts his own rook on c8, i like switching the Q to e2 to get out of the rook's line of fire and sometimes prepare Ba6 after he goes c5 to invade his weakened light squares on the Q-side. Also the maneuvre Bb1-Qd3 becomes an option to pressurise his King.

First 11-12 moves were all good, on move 12 or 13, besides Qe2 you could also consider Ne5 (with kingside plans) or Qb1 (with minority attack plans). Your moves 13 and 14 are a little too compliant, especially 14.Ne2 as 14.Be5 looks quite standard and good to me. Your opponent resigned way too early, it's not all that lost yet.

What's a plausible continuation?

As far as I can tell, he has two options:

fxb6 17. Qxb6+ Ka8 18. Qxa6+ Kb8 19. Qb6+ Ka8 20. Nf5 and now he has to play Rxf5, anything else leads to mate. He's now down a rook and three pawns for a knight and a bishop with a very exposed king. He's got some counterplay with more active minor pieces, but eventually that's probably lost.

or he can just ignore the bishop and play a developing move, continuing on down a key kingside pawn. That's probably his best plan.

Or I could be wrong about all of that.