im doing chesstempo problems in standard mode and im 1700ish, what rating should I achieve before working on something that isnt tactics?

First Team 45 45 league game of the season. As I suspected, the epic slump I'm in comes from playing too darn much and having trouble focusing on each game. Playing a game that mattered to me made all the difference.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=44677

Evans Gambit. Nothing spectacular opened up from the gambit but I felt like I had decent compensation for the pawn all game.

Any ideas on where there were improvements to be made? 13. R(either) to e1 looks way better in retrospect, and I think I needed another idea instead of 19. e6.

Once he got greedy, it just sort of played itself (tactics flow from strong positions. I get that now! )

There really is no, "Ok I'm done with tactics. What next?" level in chess. Even Kasparov would routinely work out studies and problems during breakfast each day.

I'd look to play much more dynamically when down a pawn. So a move that cries out as an immediate improvement would be 9. Qxd2!? You get your queen knight on the much more promising and active c3 square and also set a little trap. Black has just been playing to try to exchange everything ignoring all other considerations. But 9. .. Qb4?? bumps into 10. Qg5! when black will be forced to make a very dangerous weakening of his kingside.

I also really think 11. Qb3 is much too slow. You need to keep material on the board and try to keep black's king in the centre. Qb3 doesn't really deal with either of these since on b3 the queen opens you up to forced exchange via an eventual Be6 or Na5 and you're really not doing much about brewing up an initiative. That leads to looking at moves like 11. e5! which I think is simply very strong here. The point is if black plays 11. .. dxe5 then 12. d5 is pretty much decisive. eg: 12. d5 Nb8 13. Nxe5 Nf6 14. Re1 wins at least an exchange.

You had the same idea available on move 13 but it would have been even more effective due to black's awkward rook on b8. 13. d5! Nd8 14. Nxe5 and white has all sorts of threads from Bb5+ to Re1. Black seems to be probably just lost.

After 13. dxe5? I think white has given up all chances of an opening advantage. Not to say black is better, but he surely can't be worse anymore either.

The theme of dynamics does continue from there however. For instance its somewhat difficult to understand your reasoning for 15. Qxc4. The queen is no better on c4, perhaps even worse. Whereas Nxc4 massively improves the positioning of your rook and your knight! Again with dynamics you also have 17. e6!? the idea being to exchange your weak pawn for some more dynamic potential. eg: 17. e6 fxe6 18. Ne4 O-O 19. Neg5 with a position similar to what you had in the game, but much more dynamic and dangerous.

All in all, good game but you're down a pawn - play like it!

Fantastic stuff, thank you!

Two big blind spots that kept me from even considering most of those ideas. First, I was trying to avoid dropping a second pawn, even temporarily, for fear of not getting it back. Second, the video I learned the Evans Gambit from said Qb3 was a "key idea," even though it obviously doesn't help much here because f7 isn't weak.

I know but Im sure Kasparov worked in his openings, endings, etc as well, my question is should I work on other stuff or should I just stick to tactics?

I don't think it's ever wrong to mix in other stuff, just don't skimp on the tactics and keep it level appropriate.

Chess.tv seems to be down right now so I can't comment on the game but I'm interested in this opening as well. I'll offer these for your edutainment.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz89.pdf

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz90.pdf

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz119.pdf

If you like those, Tim Harding also has some articles on the Two Knights in the chesscafe.com archives although I haven't read them.

Kyle, can you post a pgn? I love the Evan's Gambit and would like to look it over, but chessvideos.tv doesn't seem to want to load for me right now...

http://www.team4545league.org/pgnpla...r.php?id=45800

Hmm. Those look awesome and there goes my Sunday

I just created a database/opening tree, populated with nearly 5,000 Evan's Gambit games pulled from the 2010 MegaBase. Don't know why I haven't built one of these before, lol. I'm running your game through it now to look for likely improvements during the opening phase.

In the 5. ... Bc5 variation, it looks like 7. 0-0 might be a stronger try than 7. cxd4, as you played. Castling shows up 344 times in my database, for a 72.4% score, average rating 1875 for those who played it, and average performance rating of 1889 (+14 points). Your cxd4 try shows up 200 times, scores 66.8%, average rating 1599, performance 1565 (-34 points).

Edit: Now that I have some more time, I'll come back and add a little about why this moves is better, instead of just quoting database stats. The point of castling first is to avoid Bb4+, after which it's a little tough to avoid liquidations of material that leave white without enough compensation for the pawn. After 7. 0-0 d3 8. cxd4 Bb6 white has a nice development edge and plenty of attacking chances. And 7. ... dxc3 8. Bxf3+ is even better for white.

After 7. cxd4 Bb4+ as played, you have the option of blocking with Nd2 instead of Bd2. Bd2 is the more popular move, scoring 62.4% in 109 tries (Avg 1525, Perf 1436). The less obvious Nd2, though, scores 85.3% in 39 tries (Avg 1818, Perf 1998). That's starting to get pretty thin on the sample size, but the stats are so much better that I'd definitely give them some credence still. And while engines are kind of silly to use for openings, I'll add that at depth 20 Houdini does prefer Nd2 as well (+0.04, compared to =0.00 for Bd2). The engine analysis doesn't mean much, especially with such a razor thin evaluation difference, but since I happen to have the info at my fingertips I figure I might as well share it

After your opponent played 8. ... Qe7 the database no longer means much as it cuts our sample size down to only 8 games (Bxd2+ is the standard move there, played 93 times). You were still within the database through 11. Qb3, though, before your opponent deviated for good with 11. ... Rb8?? which Houdini says was tactically losing, until you gave the advantage away with 13. exd5?? which Do It Right already covered. If you want computer analysis you can get it yourself though, so that's all I'll say about that. From here, I'll leave it to others to analyze your middle game better than I ever could. Do It Right had a lot of good insights, imo.

Just make sure you lose to my team kyle :P

Playing anyone associated with the forum in any way causes me to play horribly.sd

Brag: Won my second T4545 league game this week
Brag: He let me play the Fried Liver!
Beat: I knew I should play the Lolli instead, but it's the Fried Liver!
Brag: He didn't play Ke6
Beat: I assumed this meant I would win easily and I got hella lazy and threw away my advantage.
Brag: I did win easily anyway

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/...r.php?id=46193

lol I just noticed the mate in two we both missed. I'm so awful at chess.

How I feel looking at Kyle's games:

True story: When I was in like second grade, I told my teacher "I already know how to do this, why should I have to prove it to you?"

The parent-teacher conference that ensued was hilarious in retrospect, not so much at the time.

I go through terrible streaks like that in chess. On the rare occasions that someone actually worse than me is at the board, I just don't feel like proving to them I can beat them.

Interesting things on the chess board you'd like to do or have done in a serious tournament game. Go!

Have done:
Underpromoted to a knight for legit tactical reasons

Would like to do:
Actually execute a Philidor rook draw

Have done:
Executed a Philidor rook draw (two or three times)
Won in a Philidor rook draw position (That game actually made it into Megabase...)
Played drunk after just two hours of sleep and won
Beat a FM

Would like to do:
Sacrifice my last piece against my opponent's last pawn and draw K vs. K+B+N
Execute a smothered mate

I actually witnessed a team mate of mine executing a smothered mate once. Unfortunately, he didn't start with Nf7+ but with Qg8+ and resigned after Kxg8.

The timing for me to post here is pretty good since...

Have done:
Sacrificed my last piece against my opponent's last pawn and drawn K v. K+B+N.
Executed a smothered mate. (Well, it was mate in three. My opponent resigned.)

Would like to do:
Win K+P v K. Without the opposition. (I watched this happen once. The players were ~1700 and playing for a few hundred dollars in prize money. My eyes almost fell out of my head.)

Hold the draw with K+R v K+R+B playing on only the increment. (This is a good reminder that I need to learn how to do this before this happens again.)

Beat a GM. I'm probably going to have to play one of those GMs now rated 2200 to make that happen, though. Or count my victories over "GMs" before they had the title.

Any recommendations of really good chess journalism?

I'm looking for novella-length narrative essays, akin to David Foster Wallace's articles on tennis.

Thanks for any help.

Have done:

- had a crucial game at 9 am, partied until 5 and then slept in the car in front of the tournament hall. My opponent failed to show up and i won by default.
- hung a queen petrosian-style in a tournament game
- underpromoted to a knight to force mate in 3, getting a Q would have led to a perpetual against my K. Unfortunately in a blitz game which i couldn't reconstruct.
- had someone underpromote to a R against me to avoid stalemate, wasn't the only win though.
- beat a true (>2500 ELO) GM at standard time controls.
- smothered mate several times.

Want to do:

- beat a true IM (>2400) at standard time controls
- mate with N+B in an important game
- draw with R vs R+h+f
- win a game against the catalan.

Not exactly sure what you are looking for but maybe Tim Krabbe?
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/text/jacobson.htm
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/text/kaspeng.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/lovest.htm
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/chess.html