How to improve?

[LozCooper]

Ben that is a great shame!

I hope you will continue to teach chess, unfortunately I'm not good enough to do so, but I am doing my most soon to try start promoting chess.

You should be 200 plus I figure from what I've seen off your games Ben. Your tactics are pretty immense.

Matt.

Matt,

You are strong enough to teach chess, players of all levels need coaching and anyone who plays competitive chess to the level you do can certainly help others improve their game.

[matt_ward]

Thanks Loz Cooper!

Could I have your email or facebook to talk to you about this!

Perhaps you could help me set it up!?

[LozCooper]

Thanks Loz Cooper!

Could I have your email or facebook to talk to you about this!

Perhaps you could help me set it up!?

Hi Matt,

I'm not able to offer much help regarding setting yourself up as my coaching is mainly local players who know me through clubs or tournaments. I would recommend you contact Andrew Martin though who is Manager of Coaching for the ECF [email protected] and has far more experience than me.

The important thing is to enjoy it though and if you like analysing with other players and can offer them helpful and constructive suggestions to improve then that is a good start.

[Nicky Chorley]

I believe you should work on openings definitely. To start with as your just learning, in addition I'd definitely advise using your time to study tactics, and a little on positional themes don't just memorise openings actually try work out the ideas and plans behind them.

People always make the fundamental error of looking at parts of chess that they're okay in and not looking at the areas which they need to work on.

Matt.

Thanks Matt. I've not had much time for forums recently, as I've been busy with my PhD thesis (which was submitted about a month ago and I'll be defending it at the end of August) and job hunting.

I've begun reading "Logical Chess" (thanks again to Geoff for the copy) and am just trying to work out how to play, basically. I think it should help with what you mentioned, about working out the ideas of openings. There's so much to learn! Rather than trying to read lots of things, I think it's a bit better for me to concentrate on reading one book at a time. Thus, I intend to read "Logical Chess" to the end and hopefully learn quite a bit from it.

[Nicky Chorley]

A draw at last! This is a game I played at Hammersmith last night, with White. Usually, I lose my games there; the players are a lot stronger than me. As such, I'm quite pleased with this one. It was a rapid one (30 min) and my flag did fall, but we played on. I've not been through it myself yet, but hopefully it's not fraught with mistakes . One of the other players pointed out that I could've probably won by getting my queen to b6, but I'll take a draw right now .

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.O-O O-O 6.d4 d6 7.d5 Na5 8.Be2 b6 9.Bg5 Bg4 10.Qd2 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Nb7 12.Rad1 Nc5 13.Rfe1 Ncd7 14.h3 Nxd5 15.Qxd5 Bxg5 16.Qd3 Nc5 17.Qc4 Qc8 18.b4 Nd7 19.Nb5 Bd8 20.Bg4 a6 21.Bxd7 Qxd7 22.Nc3 Qe6 23.Nd5 Qd7 24.f4 b5 25.Qc3 Rb8 26.fxe5 c6 27.Nf4 Qa7+ 28.Kh1 dxe5 29.Qxe5 Bc7 30.Qg5 Bxf4 31.Qxf4 Qe7 32.Rd6 Qc7 33.e5 Rbd8 34.Red1 Rxd6 35.exd6 Qd7

[Anthony Higgs]

A draw at last! This is a game I played at Hammersmith last night, with White. Usually, I lose my games there; the players are a lot stronger than me. As such, I'm quite pleased with this one. It was a rapid one (30 min) and my flag did fall, but we played on. I've not been through it myself yet, but hopefully it's not fraught with mistakes . One of the other players pointed out that I could've probably won by getting my queen to b6, but I'll take a draw right now .

Well done Nicky. Two particular points that arise from the game, both around pins:

1. Watch out for pins that are broken tactically. Your opponent played 14...Nxd5 to win a pawn (and could have played it earlier) - these sorts of tactics only work if the pinning bishop is not defended sufficiently. It is also common to see things in the opening like Bxf7+, Kxf7, Ne5/g5+ followed by Qx a pinning bishop on g4 which wins a pawn and is on a similar theme, keep an eye out for these.

2. You played 21.Bxd7 when you had a nice bishop that was exerting strong pressure on the diagonal and was paralysing his queen and knight. It was much stronger to keep this piece on the board. Before every exchange you make, ask yourself "how does this improve my position or make my opponent's position worse?" - if you can't give a good answer then its probably best to not exchange. It is tempting to exchange pieces because we often think "less pieces must make things easier - I will have less to calculate", this is often not the case.

Well done again, look forward to you posting up a run of wins soon...

[Nicky Chorley]

Thanks for that, Anthony.

Ah, I will indeed have to watch out for pins like you suggested in 1. above. I always hate having a bishop pin one of my knights, hence playing 8. Be2 in this game. We'd played 2 games before this one and I'd gotten into not wanting to move my queen because I didn't want Bxf3 gxf3, creating a hole in front of my king.

Regarding 21. Bxd7, I thought that was the sensible move, because it got rid of the knight and forced him to respond to the threat on his queen, so I'd be able to retreat my knight. However, looking at the game again, I don't think his knight was really doing very much, so there was no need to get rid of it. I haven't yet gotten to a stage where I even know which side is better in a given position . I guess, then, that I should generally avoid exchanging pieces!

Also, I probably wasted a move by playing 16. Qd3, since it invites Nc5. I should have played Qc4 straight away, I think.

[Anthony Higgs]

I guess, then, that I should generally avoid exchanging pieces!

Don't avoid it as a rule, just make sure you can see a concrete reason for exchanging (maybe some doubled pawns you can attack as per your example). If you can't see a benefit then wait a while. In the case of a pin, in most cases the pinned piece won't be going anywhere fast so you can exchange later if a good reason presents itself.