English Chess Forum

I have certainly being improving this season, but it's not so hard to do from such a lowly position. I had probably my best result ever the other night, beating a player graded 144 ECF with the black pieces. Beating him has been my target since coming back to the chess club two years ago, I have never got close before. I've always disliked facing d4 openings, though I've got used to the kings indian defence now, and stuck to it pretty much for two seasons, I still had never won against a Sämisch. I hadn't realised that it changed pretty much completely the direction of play, and that rather than persist with my king side attack I should aim for something on the queen side. Anyway, I spent half an hour reading the chapter of the "starting out" kings indian book that dealt with the Sämisch, settled on the Panno and the game below was the result. Which I am very happy with. It is the first time I have ever known enough about my opponent to feel able to do specific opening prep for him, rather than just reading over what I'd like to play given a chance.

I feel it was worthwhile prep, and would like to do it again occasionally.

[Event "Club Championship 14-15"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.11.17"] [Round "?"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1766"] [BlackElo "1575"] [Annotator "Fritz 13 (20m)"] [PlyCount "72"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Qd2 a6 8. Nge2 Rb8 9. g4 b5 10. Ng3 10... e5 $17 11. d5 Nd4 12. Bxd4 $2 12... exd4 $19 13. Nd1 b4 14. Ne2 Bxg4 15. Nxd4 Bxf3 16. Nxf3 Nxe4 17. Qe2 17... Re8 $19 18.Ne3 18... Bh6 19. Ng4 Bf4 20. Kd1 20... Nc3+ $1 21. bxc3 Rxe2 22. Bxe2 bxc3 23. Nf2 23... Rb2 24. Nd3 c2+ 25. Ke1 Rb1+ 26. Kf2 Qb8 27. Raxb1 27... cxb1=Q 28. Rxb1 Qxb1 29. Nxf4 Qxa2 30. Nd4 30... Qb2 31. Ke3 31... a5 32. Nb5 32... a4 33. Nd3 Qb3 34. Kd4 34... a3 35. Nxc7 a2 36. Nc1 36... Qb2+ 0-1

The main point of this post is that I haven't lost a game yet this season, and I'd like that to continue. However, I have a game coming up, as black, against a player graded in the 180's. He is considerably stronger than anyone I have faced yet this season, and he may well crush me for that reason alone. However, being a decently graded player I thought it might be easier to find a couple of his games to look at. I've found one game for him here http://chess-db.com/ , can any of you lot point me to any other useful resources? Or give me any tips on how to prepare. I don't have to play him for a few months, hopefully I will have improved generally by then too.

The only indications I have found so far is that he plays the English.

Try not worry too much about long unbeaten runs. They can really start to opress you and your play Losing is unpleasant but a very normal part of playing chess.

180's can easily fly under the radar cf databases etc in the UK. If he plays 4NCL you might find games off their website, maybe the odd other domestic thing.

Dewi Jones wrote:can any of you lot point me to any other useful resources?

If you look him up on the FIDE site (www.fide.com) under rating, you may find games as well. If he's played in e2e4 tournaments there will be. Otherwise check the events that he's played using the ECF grading database and if tournaments, look for the tournament website. Many Opens these days will publish games from the top players.

Your opponent in that Samisch game may need to read a "Starting Out" book as well. The idea of playing the Knight to d4 is pretty standard stuff and the idea of giving up the dark squared Bishop is likely to be bad and worth doing only if it wins a pawn, sometimes not even then.