All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
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Paolo Casaschi
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:13 am

That is something everybody experiences at some point after starting to study chess. Welcome to the club.
For this reason, you should resist the temptation of studying deeply a single defense and spend more time playing. If you really want to spend time with opening books I'd suggest something like Fundamental Chess Openings that gives you an overview of all opening, spending more time about the general principe than about deep variations.
Last edited by Paolo Casaschi on Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Peter Webber
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Peter Webber » Sat Nov 01, 2014 11:12 am

Thank you very much to everybody for your helpful suggestions, which I will try to incorporate into my games. Being a frequent reader (and advocate) of the ideas in Dan Heisman's books, I've never underestimated the importance of studying tactics. Over the years, even though I've played very few games, I always tried to spend a few hours a month on "CT Art 3.0", where I often managed a 75% success on tests of level 40, (and the software says I should be 1924 ELO; you can take at least 500 points off of this!!). My main problem is I spot very few tactics in real games.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Michael Farthing » Sat Nov 01, 2014 11:45 am

Peter Webber wrote: My main problem is I spot very few tactics in real games.
Perhaps it's worth making a conscious decision to look out for the sorts of situation where tactics often arise.
For example:

A white rook on c1 and a black queen on c7 separated by other things. Danger signal for black - opportunity signal for white. There's no immediate danger but, for example if an intervening piece is a white knight that can give check...

A black bishop on g7 and a white rook on a1 separated by other things. Similar danger/opportunity
All currently existing pins also give opportunities for tactics.
All possible checks (including apparently sacrificial ones) are worth noting.

Just knowing these positional features are present can excite your thinking.
This sort of non specific thinking and exploration is a good thing to do in your opponent's time.
It can also help to alert you to your opponent's possible tactivs - also quite useful!

Roger de Coverly
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:10 pm

Michael Farthing wrote: Just knowing these positional features are present can excite your thinking.
It's patterns as well. Put a Bishop on c2 and a Queen on d3 and there's an obvious danger to a castled King. OK there's a defensive Knight at f6. But what happens if the Knight can be prodded or even taken? Trying to make things work is one of the ways of playing a broadly equal position and turning it in your favour.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Michael Farthing » Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:57 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Michael Farthing wrote: Just knowing these positional features are present can excite your thinking.
It's patterns as well. Put a Bishop on c2 and a Queen on d3 and there's an obvious danger to a castled King. OK there's a defensive Knight at f6. But what happens if the Knight can be prodded or even taken? Trying to make things work is one of the ways of playing a broadly equal position and turning it in your favour.
With this post, Roger, I can have no quarrel :)

Geoff Chandler
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sat Nov 01, 2014 4:52 pm

Hi Peter,

"My main problem is I spot very few tactics in real games."

Because you are not studying and storing tactical patterns for real games.
You are studying and solving on a screen. The patterns are not gelling.
You need to get a board out and get them implanted so the inner eye can spot them.
(This is a tried and trusted method. Players have been doing it 200 years before computers.)

Roger's posted a nice game and later mentioned the importance of patterns.



He played the simple 26.a3 holding b4 and restricing the f8 Bishop.
Black cannot ease the situation with 26..Rxc1 27.Rxc1 as Rc7 is coming with all kinds of threats.

So here a few moves later with Black to play.



Black has to start fighting, clouding the waters, Now 27...Rxc1 28. Rxc1 Rd2



And tacically he is stopping White from playing Rc7 or Rc8 because Rd1+
would put Black back in the game. But Black had decided last move not
to play Rxc1 and did not adjust to the new situation on the board.

You have to fight, be active, plant a seed of doubt, annoy them.

With best play 27...Rxc1 would still be an uphill struggle but it was better than 27...Kg7?



Within a nano-second Roger saw the Knight fork pattern on e6 (he would have been looking
for such shots for the last ½ dozen moves.) and played h4 Kicking away the e6 Defender.

Then it was tactical wrap up time and the Rook on 7th which
Black dreaded plays it's part wonderfully.



The Knight is pinned, Black breaks the pin and defends the f7 Knight wuth Kg8
But the e5 pawn is aiming at e7 forking the Rook and Bishop. (another pattern)
It reaches e6 with a tempo and then onto e7. Black resigned just in time.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:03 pm

There are some flaws to Geoff's analysis above, of course. Chief among them is that he seems not to have noticed that white can play 29.Nxg6, which takes a pawn and protects the vulnerable e5 pawn.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:56 am

Hi Jack,

"white can play 29.Nxg6, which takes a pawn and protects the vulnerable e5 pawn.

You are getting old Jack, you are starting to worry about pawns.

Of course I spotted that the g6 pawn was going.
The day I lose sleep over a pawn going will be the day I give up.

The way I went avoids dropping the exchange and at least puts up a token struggle.
Roger has tied the guy up big time without breaking sweat.
There was nothing to be done, the lad should have been in his face much sooner.
The way the game went it just whimpered out.

At least In my 'make him think for the win' line. I'm looking active.
(and you know as well as me Jack, sometimes looking active is all you need - they do the rest.)
I've had worse positions than that as Black and won. Much worse.
Never came back from anything as bad as the way the game went. Kg7, Nf7, Kh7.(yuk).

And though the g6 Knight holds the e5 pawn Bg7 hits it again.
The Knight can feast on the f-apwn Ne7+ and Nxf5- big deal.

It's not the e-pawn I want it's the e5 square for my Bishop hitting g3.
You can have the pawn Jack - stick it in your pension fund. :wink:



27...Rxc1 28. Rxc1 Rd2 29.Nxg6 Bg7 30.Ne7+ Kh7 31.Nxf5 Bxe5.



That's a very plausible line. Is that not better than how the game went?

A Rook on the 7th, a Knight sniffing around a King, An active Bishop.
Pinned piece, haning pieces. Q-side pawns on dark squares....
I'll be able to create at least one cheapo out of that. Possibly even two.

My games aint over after the fat lady sings, I invite her back for an encore.

Guys who have had a positional grip on a game hate it when their opponents wriggle.
They see things that are not there and get all flustered.
Seen it a 100 times and I've got a chess score book full of games to prove it.

Roger has been round the track.
I very much doubt if this cheapo-counter attack would fluster him.
It's come much too late. But I would have lost my way.
I would have given myself a chance. Roger would have to do a bit
more work OTB than a simple win of the exchnage, Rc7 and e6.

Jack, stay and play forever young.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:48 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Kg1 is probably best here, renewing the threats of Bxb7, Nxg6 , Rc7 and Rc8. Against .. Ne4, Rc8 threatening to win the Bishop on f8 is very strong. Provided I could see something better, I would have discarded the immediate Nxg6 idea. It needs detail calculation to check the circumstances where the Nf3 trick doesn't work. If there isn't anything else, you have to attempt to calculate it through to the bitter end.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:32 pm

Hi Roger,

It's a better show than Kg7 that all I was trying to do.

Not taking on g6 and not going for Ne7+ and Nxf4 looks annoying
for a player trying to create counter-play.
As I said you are one of the old chess whores. (a compliment Roger)
You have seen all the tricks on the block.

But it's plausible for White to go that way. The sudden burst
of Black activity could have put White in grab the booty mood.
Seen it happen.

I can see blunder territory and a few pitfalls.
Black needs a blunder to survive. He was not going to
get a White blunder with Kg7.
If dropping the exchange gave Black a hint of play,
then fair enough, go for it. But it was just a blunder.

Francis Fields
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Francis Fields » Mon Feb 16, 2015 11:36 am

When I played a Scandinavian quite a few years ago I sometimes got 2. e5. This allows black to go for a French type set-up with the 'bad bishop' outside the pawn chain.

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Mon Feb 16, 2015 12:06 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote: Most of my wins involve plugging away in an equal position until I get a chance to strike.

Would you call this the 'huff and puff' method? ;-)

Francis Fields
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Re: All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Post by Francis Fields » Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:12 pm

I would call this realising your opponents inferior position.