English Chess Forum

I don't intend to post all my wins here, but I'm quite proud of this one from tonight because I'm pretty sure I should have lost . It's a Hammersmith internal tournament game.

1.e3 e5 2.e4 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.h3 O-O 6.Nf3 d6 7.a3 h6 8.Nc3 Bd7 9.Nd5 Nxd5 10.Bxd5 Qe7 11.c3 Be6 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.Bd2 Rab8 14.Qc1 Qd7 15.Bxh6 f6 16.h4 d5 17.exd5 Bxd5 18.Be3 Bxe3 19.fxe3 Bxf3 20.gxf3 Qxd3 21.Qd2 Qxd2+ 22.Kxd2 Rxb2+ 23.Kc1 Rfb8 24.Rd1 R8b7 25.Rd2 Rxd2 26.Kxd2 Rb2+ 27.Kd3 Rh2 28.Rb1 Rxh4 29.Rb8+ Kh7 30.Rb7 Rh3 31.Rxc7 Rxf3 32.Rxc6 g5 33.Rc7+ Kg6 34.Rxa7 g4 35.Rb7 g3 36.Rb1 f5 37.Rg1 f4 38.a4 Rxe3+ 39.Kd2 Re4 40.a5 Ra4 41.Re1 Rxa5 42.Kd3 Kf5 43.Rh1 Rd5+ 44.Ke2 Ke4 45.c4 Rc5 46.Kd2 Rxc4 47.Re1+ Kd5 0-1

My opponent realised that after he'd played e3, he meant e4. I thought about offering to start again, but then I thought that it was his own fault for not moving the piece to the right square in the first place!

Bah, 6. ... d5 was better, since it wouldn't have given him an annoying outpost in the centre. It's also probably useful for opening up the centre, so I can put a rook on the d or e file.

12. ... Rab8 was because I saw there was an outpost on b3 (as well as a hanging pawn), but I wasn't sure how to use it (or whether it was particularly useful, given that it's far away from the white king).

14. ... Qd7 - Oops. I should have seen Bxh6 coming. Stockfish likes Qf6 here, which seems sensible. I was thinking that I shouldn't leave the c6 pawn hanging. Note to self: make sure you check what the opponent is doing!

15. f6 - Normally, I'd have taken the free bishop. However, this seemed silly to me, as it would leave my king more exposed and he probably wanted a piece on g5, so I thought I should cover it.

18. ... Bxe3 - I figured I'd try and remove material, so he couldn't start another attack. 19. ... Bxf3 was along the same line of thought as well as the fact that I like endgames, so I wanted to try and get into one quickly.

My endgame technique probably isn't very good right now, but I managed to clear up all his pawns and get him to resign, so I'll take it .

Enjoy .

Well done, Nicky!

Congratulations on your win. With your level of enthusiasm I'm sure you'll be making rapid progress!

2...Nf6 might have been a better move in principal than ...Nc6, as it limits white's options (d2-d3 might block his bishop in, while Nc3 would block his c pawn etc.), and you're prioritising kingside development.

7...Be6 might have been interesting, challenging his most active piece. If Bxe6 then ...fxe6, and you have a half open f file to use against the white kingside, while also controlling the d5 and f5 squares - and maybe being in a better position to push d6-d5. If he doesn't take immmediately then he might have to play Nbd2, which is a little awkward for him.

Once you get to the kind of position after 7...h6, you really need to be looking to make some kind of break move - making f7-f5 or c7-c6 followed by d6-d5 happen.

10...Kh8 followed by 11...f7-f5 might have been interesting for example.

I like your 11...Be6, as Bxc6 is not a problem for black.

Re: move 13, I don't think ...Rab8 is bad at all. Re: somewhere being a useful outpost or not - this doesn't depend on whether it's close to the enemy king so much as whether it's somewhere influential - the centre is usually best.
One way to use this b file (in principal only, it's probably slow and impractical in the game) would be to push your a pawn to a4, and double rooks (or triple with the queen) against the backward b2 pawn. It's awkward to defend (and if they defend from behind, e.g. a rook on b1, then often a tactic such as Bxa3 can arise)

Re: move 14, yes, it's a bit tricky to see the Bxh6 idea, because when your opponent plays a move you think "why did he do that?", but on the surfance he played Qc1 to protect b2. If he had played Qc2 when there was no threat against b2, I bet you'd have spotted the threat.
[With that said, a move that you could have been looking at playing anyway - 14...f7-f5! would have defended against that threat (15.Bxh6 ...gxh6 16.Qxh6 ...R/Qf6)

16...gxh6 leaves you easily winning, because your pieces can now defend along the 7th rank, chase the queen away, and your king can move to the centre if needed.

I maybe prefer 17...cxd5, to fix your pawns and maintain excellent central control.

If down material it's usually a mistake to rush towards an endgame, where in the simplified position the relative importance of that material difference becomes larger (though, again, I admire your enthusiasm!), but maybe here you make the correct decision because you had seen you got the material back with Qxd3.

I think I prefer a move like 24...Rf2 or ...Rh2 - clean up his kingside pawns and then make a passer there!
[24...Rf2 Rb1 ...Rxb1 Kxb1 ...Rxf3]
[24...Rf2 Rd7 ...Rf1+ <with threat of winning a1 rook> Rd1 ...Rxf3]
Also after 24...Rf2, if he inexplicably plays some pawn move, e.g. h4-h5, then you can double on the 2nd rank, with funny ideas like ...Rfc2#, or other possible mating threats (or just gaining a lot of tempi with checks - e.g. Rc2+ winning the c pawn with tempo)

You play the endgame nicely for the remainder.

[I have a blog where I annotate my own games - http://www.myopic7.blogspot.com/ ]
[If you use ICC feel free to send me a tell some time, my username is 'Alseki']

Hi Nick.

Good. Solid. No piece dropping blunders. That is a giant step forward.

But why no names?
I want to know who plays 1.e3 intending 1.e4. It's a good idea.
It will save one a small fortune in opening books if they are going
to lose a tempo making every White a Black.

You could have played played 1...e6 then we could have had this opening.

1.e3 e6 2.e4 e5

rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq e6 0 2

Forcing him to find another way of losing the tempo.
He's in Zugawang!

Nicky Chorley wrote:It's a Hammersmith internal tournament game.

I was there that night, playing an adjourned game. Were you there as well? It seems like it. I would have come and watched if I'd known!

I dont know why you thought you should have lost - you played that endgame well, maintaining a good initiative with the rook and pushing the pawns as soon as the time was right. I think you were safe to just hack his bishop off when he played h4, white appears to have nothing after some defence like Qg7 and you are a piece up,

Thanks all .

Sam: thanks very much for that. I think I just played 2. ... Nc6 out of habit really, because I was expecting the Italian. Must try not to play automatically! I did think about 7. Be6, but I got worried about exposing my king. Pushing the a pawn to a4 was also something I thought about, but I discarded that because I thought he could just play a4 and stop it. With Bxd5, I thought I should just leave the bishop with long diagonals, but maybe that wasn't needed.

Geoff: my opponent was Bill Cook. He wanted to play some graded games, so I doubt any one has much info on him . I think his intention was to play e4, but he moved the pawn one square by mistake. Also, I'm not sure I follow your example. Isn't White just going to play Nf3?

Christopher: this Monday just gone? I saw two of our members going through a game when I arrived (around 19:00, I think), but I didn't see anyone I didn't recognise all evening. I think I left after 21:00. Ships in the night, eh? .

Joey: I thought I'd managed to mess up and thought he'd expose my king and mate would be delivered shortly. Seems like I was being over-cautious by not taking the bishop, then!

Hopefully I'll manage to meet my grading target of 100 by January 2013. 2012 should be a good year .

I believe that about 30 years ago I played a W Cook who I think was from Fulham, in the Middlesex team tournament. The player had a grade of about 94, and if the two players are the same, Nicky's opponent must be aged at least 50.

If it is the same player it is a good result for Nicky, as I only drew my game despite being considerably higher graded, even if at the time my confidence may have been slightly eroded by having only obtained 0.5 points from my previous 5 rounds.

I think it is good that Nicky can show his games on the website and get helpful advice from other players.

It could be the same guy, though I don't know my opponent's history. He was quite a bit older than myself (27), too.

Agreed, this forum is a great place to get chess advice .

Nicky Chorley wrote:Christopher: this Monday just gone? I saw two of our members going through a game when I arrived (around 19:00, I think), but I didn't see anyone I didn't recognise all evening. I think I left after 21:00. Ships in the night, eh?

I arrived at 19:30-ish and left at about 21:45-ish. You must have been concentrating on your game and not looking at who else was there. That's good!

Probably . I guess you were probably playing Sheik, since you seem to be of similar strengths. I was at the other end .