Hey guys,

I made a thread for when you have a game you want to post but it's not important enough to warrant a new thread!

OK I am white in this 5 0 blitz. I played 1. d4 to see what's up with that opening. I have always been a 1. c4 player so I don't know too much d4 theory, so here's where I learn from the school of KNOCKING HARD.

http://www.ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/sho...62;action=show

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nc3 e5 4. Nf3 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. e4 c5 7. Nf3 Qxd1 8. Kxd1 Be6 9. Nb5 Na6 10. Ng5 O-O-O 11. Kc2 Nf6 12. f3 Rhe8 13. Nxe6 Rxe6 14. Bxc4 Red6 15. Bf4 R6d7 16. Nxa7#

This is the position out of the opening which is a Queen's Gambit Accepted.


Where did I mess up

garcia, 3. Nc3 is a playable move that's been played by many top players but I would really focus on playing more straight forward moves. Since you shouldn't bother wasting your time with theory at this point, I'd strongly encourage you to just play the logical moves.

3. Nc3 is not the most logical move. After d4 d5 c4 dxc there is already a major imbalance. Black has given away the center and white is down a pawn that cannot be immediately regained. So you should play in a manner to directly take advantage of these imbalances. The most logical move is e4. White continues development, gains more central control and simultaneously 'threatens' to regain his pawn. Another logical move might be e3 with similar ideas to e4 but a little bit more conservative.

With 1. d4 you'll find yourself with much more immediate ramifications of all of your (and your opponents') moves than with 1. c4, so make sure to never play automatically. Just a general piece of advice as you move to more active openings. Even in this game, your opponent is offering you a free central pawn on move 4 - why not take it? This is indeed a bad move, but unless you understand exactly why then I think you should take your opponent up on the challenge. Force your opponents to prove that dxe is a bad move, and once you finally agree - move on. And once you understand why taking is a bad move, then the idea of 3. Nf3 might come to mind and you make progress as a player.

So take my advice for what it's worth. I'm encouraging you to make bad moves, but I honestly believe it's the best way to learn!

I liked moves 15-16

Nh garcia

Like a common experience I will have in my games is I'll play some super sharp line like a gruenfeld, botvinnik semi-slav or something. And I don't really know much theory. But I will play logical moves. I'll invariably deviate from theory with a logical move, but my opponent who only knows the theory won't really understand why my deviation is not the best move - and he'll quickly crumble as he's out on his own in a position he doesn't really understand and I just found my way there by making logical moves and so am completely comfortable with the position.

Thanks, I'll try that next time. btw I am extremely against memorizing opening theory without learning it. I mean why do we play chess? I play chess so that I can exercise my mind. It is not exercised by rote learning.

I would never think of taking the e5 pawn on move 4, though. Unless I play f4 it can't be defended, and it leaves me with a vulnerable center. It'll be taken back later, anyway, and my position would be worse than if I didn't take. I mean I haven't calculated any variations but that is my feeling.

what do you play if black 15...Rb6 ?

looking at it again is it a4?

very nice game, it seemed like at first things weren't going so well but then all of a sudden you checkmate him out of nowhere.

I second Dire on 3.e4, it looks like you get the best of everything, control the center, open lines for more pieces, threaten c4. That's a pretty good deal to me.

Nc3 seems ok to me too tho.
Garcia, you say you wont take the pawn on e5 because you could only defend it with f4, but if i'm not missing anything you can defend it with natural moves like Nf3 and Bf4. Sure Black can conjure up some ways to undermine it later but that also gives you time to complete your development and maybe capture on c4.
Another option if you still don't like taking on e5, what about pushing to d5? I'm just not a fan of allowing him to trade queens so easily and if you can get to play e4 later and capture on c4 you'll have a nice control of the position.



SuperSnort, after Rb6, can't he go Nxa7 anyway?

Supersnort, I would play Rad1, and he would have to sacrifice the exchange to prevent mate. I would still have kickass pressure with all the open files and diagonals. Sample line: 1. Rad1 Rxb5 2. Bxb5 resigns

jontsef, I don't mind an early queen exchange if I can play e4, blocking the b1-h7 diagonal. That way, the king is safe on c2, and it doesn't hinder the development of my other pieces. In fact it is faster to get to the center during the endgame.

Also I looked at you are right that it seems like it is safe to take on e5. I just have a gut feeling that black's counterplay by pressuring e5 is huge and all my pieces will have to go to bad squares to defend it. I dunno, I am not too comfortable there

I probably would have thrown in Nd6+ on move 10, followed by regaining the c4 pawn. Nb5 is ok but I think Ng5 is probably just over fiddling with your knights. I'd be a fan of developing quickly in this position where your king is exposed - even if there are no queens on the board, a pretty fugly attack can happen with 4 minors and 2 rooks and lots of open space available.