First ever graded win for me tonight

[David Blower]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qe7 3. Nc3 c6 4. Bc4 h6 5. d4 d6 6. O-O Qf6 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Be3 Nd7 9. Qd2 Ne7 10. Rad1 Ng6 11. Ne2 Be7 12. Ng3 Ngf8 13. Nf5 g5 14. Nxe7 Qxe7 15. b4 Ng6 16. Bc5 Nxc5 17. bxc5 O-O 18. Qd6 Qxd6 19. Rxd6 Kg7 20. Rfd1 Bg4 21. R1d3 Rfe8 22. h3 Bxf3 23. Rxf3 Re7 24. g3 Rc8 25. a4 Rcc7 26. Rfd3 Nf8 27. h4 Nd7 28. hxg5 hxg5 29. Rf3 Nf8 30. Kg2 Rcd7 31. Kh3 Rxd6 32. cxd6 Rd7 33. Rd3 Nh7 34. Kg4 Kg6 35. f4 Nf6+ 36. Kf3 gxf4 37. gxf4 exf4 38. Kxf4 Ne8 39. Ke5 Kg7 40. a5 a6 41. Rd2 Kf8 42. Rd4 Kg7 43. Be2 Nf6 44. Rd3 Ne8 45. Bg4 Rd8 46. d7 Nf6 47. Bf5 Ng8 48. Kd6 Kf8 49. Kc7 Ke7 50. Kxb7 Nf6 51. Kxc6 Ra8 52. e5 Ng8 53. Kb7 Rd8 54. Kxa6 1-0.

I was white. Wolverhampton Chess League Division 3, Wolverhampton B v Brewood B, Board 3. Here is the game.

Always good to get the first ever graded victory under my belt.

[John McKenna]

Congratulations on that win!
2... Qe7 is an unusual move but some good players have tried it. E.g. 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 h6 5.O-O d6 6.d4 Bg4 7.de (h3!?) de... Alburt-Kupreichik 1971 USSR. The whole game is given in Informator (11/195) but I don't have it so I cannot say more.

[Geoff Chandler]

Well done. Good Game and a very well played opening.
You did the right thing in ignoring his 2...Qe7 and not going sac-happy trying
to refute it.

The use of your King in the ending will have the lads nodding in agreement.

I sighed on move 14 when you swapped that brilliant super Knight on f5 for a his e7 Bishop.

Such Knights are worth more than Rooks. You only trade them if you
have a 100% plus coming up after the swap. I could see nothing concrete
after your 14th move.

A Knight on f5 can do all kinds of damage to a Kingside castled position and an uncastled King.

Against a castled King they hit g7 and have checks on h6 and e7.
Against an uncastled King they hit on e7 and checks on d6 and g7.
More than enough to give you ideas.

I saw this in your game just to give you an idea of what tricks an f5 Knight can do.
Possibly not the best line of play coming up.
But it will give you a feel for the kind of ideas such Kinghts can generate.

(And I do so enjoy saccing other people's pieces.)

[FEN "r1b1kn1r/pp1nbp2/2p2q1p/4pNp1/2B1P3/4BN2/PPPQ1PPP/3R1RK1 w kq - 0 1"] 1. Nxg5 {That has a threat on f7 so it has to be taken.} 1... hxg5 2. Bxg5 {If the Queen moves White can play Bxe7 so this too needs taking.} 2... Qxg5 {The two pieces were sacced to allow the f5 Knight to show off it's power}3. Nd6+ {If 2...Kd8 then 4.Nxf7+ wins the Black Queen.} 3... Bxd6 4. Qxg5 Be7 5. Qg7 Rh7 6. Bxf7+ Kd8 7. Qg8 {3 bits for a Queen and three pawns. There are positions where three bits outplay a Queen but this does not look like one of them.} 7... Kc7 {Black needs to unpin and untangle.} 8. Bb3 Nf6 9. Qg3 {Hitting the e-pawn. Interesting position.}

[IM Jack Rudd]

Well, the knight's only as good as white's ability to keep it there. Sooner or later black's going to move his d7 knight to hit it with his bishop. 14.Nxe7 looks to me a reasonable attempt to transform the advantage: instead of a strong knight on f5, white now has bishop against knight and a nice square on d6 for his major pieces.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Jack.

So you cannot sleep either.

"Sooner or later black's going to move his d7 knight..."

And then maybe Nxe7 is on, after the d7 Knight has moved.
No need to swap it just yet. That f5 Knight was better than the Bishop.
My line was a sac without prep. Saccing for the sake of saccing.
Just to show what was in there.

14.Qc3 hitting e5 then the d7 KNight cannot move
and White is threateing to double Rooks is another idea.
(also there is the seed of a trick based on taking in e5.
The Black Queen and Rook are on the same diagonal.)

I'm not knocking the lad. Just feel there is more in that position after his good opening
play than what happened. And getting the Knight to f5 was good play.

Good game Dave.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have never been a great follower of the Bishops are better than Knights myth.
Especially at the lower levels.

At a higher level is it any different?
I think I showed the stats on here ages ago for Knight v Bishop and level pawns endings at GM level.
I recall the Knight had a higher % of wins.

[Giulio Simeone]

I agree with Geoff, the knight shouldn't take the bishop in e7 until he is threatened by the other bishop, and I will add a consideration. The Be7 hasn't many squares to go (d8??) and so it's a good thing to keep the possibility of capturing it for many moves. Until the knight is in f5, and the bishop is e7, you can choose to take or not to take it, and so you have twice as many variations at your disposal.

As for the interesting question bishop vs knight, I would say, as a rule of thumb, than the more pawns there are in the centre, the stronger is the knight. Knights can "jump over" pawns, bishops can't. I would say also that a bishop is "bad" mostly when his side has many central pawns on the squares of the same colour, but some comments on my game confused me a bit on that topic

[Roger de Coverly]

I would say also that a bishop is "bad" mostly when there are many central pawns on the squares of the same colour, but some comments on my game confused me a bit on that topic

There are endings which can arise from the French and the Kings Indian where the Bishop gets stuck behind a pawn chain and particularly where it's just one the minor piece each and the opponent has a well placed Knight. These can be close to losing even with level material.

On the other hand a Bishop inside its pawn chain can usefully glue the structure together whilst there's a lot of other material about. For example in a white square wedge, c4, d5, e4, the Bishop can be very useful on c2. In a dark square wedge with pawns on f4, e5 and d4, it's well placed on f2.

Returning to the game, I would suspect that taking on e7 is unlikely to be a bad move for reasons that Jack suggests. It's almost a style issue as to whether you keep the Knight in the hope of a mating attack, or trade it in for other advantages.

In the Advance Caro, the Bishop is outside the pawn chain on f5, but this leaves the b8 pawn undefended. Whilst ideas exploiting this are relatively infrequent, the idea of Bb5 check comes up quite frequently. This would be harmless if Bd7 was possible but can usefully improve White's position when it isn't.

[Clive Blackburn]

Well played David, you were in control of the position all the way through and capitalised nicely on your advantage in the ending. Good King attack!

[Paul McKeown]

Good game for a first ever graded win, very reasonable endgame exploitation of a passed pawn and weakened queenside. 100-120 standard perhaps? Congratulations!

P.S. I don't think worrying about whether to capture the Be7 or not is that useful. Keeping or taking it both have points in their favour. There were perhaps other more important issues to consider in a plan of improvement.

[John McKenna]

Sound advice above from Paul. And, the mention of an improvement plan reminds me that there is an interesting but unanswered (since Mon.) post about 'Chess lessons online' in 'General Chat'. I've never had

[John McKenna]

... any.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Dave.

Don't look at your 14th move as a lemon.
As someone else mentioned it's horses (a pun!) for courses.
Considering the circumstances you played very well and calmy picked him off.

I enjoyed the quick work out and as no one has come back with any
computer analysis it to bust it then it must OK.
I like pointing these things out. Sharing ideas. It's how we get on.

I can still recall the joy of my first league win, simply just playing over the game
brought it all back. We buy records/cd's so we can hear a song we like and
perhaps recall a happy moment. It's the same with playing over an old game.

So here is my first league win.
I was ungraded and it was infact my first serious game in Scotland.
I was standing outside the Edinurgh Chess Club. A car pulled up and this man
asked me would I like to a play a league game.
"OK." and I jumped into a car full of strangers. (something Mum warned me against.)

No internet then to share my happiness so I do it now. 35 years later.
Thank you.

D.Heron - G.Chandler. UDS v Edinburgh Chess Club 1975

By pure coindence it's my Knights that win this game.
I don't move a Bishop till my 19th move.
And look out for my Queen sac threatening a mate with a pawn.

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. Nc3 f5 5. Qe2 Nf6 6. b3 {That's a baddie, too slow and not asking Black any questions about his advanced pawn.} 6... c6 {Saccing a pawn for development.} 7. dxc6 Nxc6 8. Bb2 Nd4 9. Qd1 Ng4 10. Nce2 Qh4+ {I don't need Bishops. Look at them still sitting there unused, unwanted and not needed. Give me a good Knight and a Queen and I'm unbeatable....Unbeatable.} 11. g3 Nf3+ {Not bad for my first league game. Offering a Queen sac to mate with a pawn.} 12. Nxf3 exf3 13. Nc3 {Nuts! he saw it. Never mind White is still in the stew.} 13... Qe7+ 14. Be2 fxe2 {A piece up.}15. Nxe2 Qe4 16. Rf1 Nxh2 17. d3 Qe3 18. Rf2 Ng4 19. Rg2 Bd7 {The Queen and Knight have won the game the first Bishop crawls off the back rank on the 19th move. White resigned a few moves later.}

[David Blower]

Thanks for some comments.

My opponent was graded 117. I found that out after the match. Overall my club Brewood won 4-1 in a 5 board match (3 wins and 2 draws.) And that has saved us from relegation.

14 Nxe7 was a simple Knight for a Bishop exchange by myself. I think my opponent should have played 29 Nxc5 but once he failed to do that I felt getting the King into the action was the right thing to do. 36... gxf4 37. gxf4 exf4 38. Kxf4 was important as it meant that my King could break through to the other side. Straight after the game I said without prompting to my opponent: "I think bringing my King into the action in the endgame, won me the match," as it became an attacking piece near the end.

I think one move I should have played instead was 19. cxd6 to take the queen with my pawn, creating a passed pawn earlier than I did. I think I was lucky that my opponent decided to exchange rooks later on with 31... Rxd6 32. cxd6.

Overall I must say I probably have played better "technical" chess but the win felt a lot better than thrashing some randomer online that I have never met! Computer analysis showed I played 23 out of 54 moves perfectly!

By the way the computer for move 14 gives this: 14. Bb2 (I suppose understandable as the Bishop has become isolated) 14... b5 15. Nxd7 Qxd7. And I guess 14 Qc3 is also an acceptable move.

I have enjoyed playing in some matches, and I now have a record against other clubs of played 5 won 1 drew 2 lost 2. Whilst I would like to win every match that I play in, I have also done better than I thought I might do. And I wasn't as calm as the moves may have looked. Not helped by the fact that my game was one of the last to finish on the night, which meant there was a crowd of people watching!

[Paul McKeown]

I think my opponent should have played 29 Nxc5 but once he failed to do that I felt getting the King into the action was the right thing to do. 36... gxf4 37. gxf4 exf4 38. Kxf4 was important as it meant that my King could break through to the other side. Straight after the game I said without prompting to my opponent: "I think bringing my King into the action in the endgame, won me the match," as it became an attacking piece near the end.

Absolutely. Neglecting to take the pawn just seems a bit silly. Did your opponent have a reason? Activating the king, as you say, was key to the win.

I think one move I should have played instead was 19. cxd6 to take the queen with my pawn, creating a passed pawn earlier than I did. I think I was lucky that my opponent decided to exchange rooks later on with 31... Rxd6 32. cxd6.

I disagree somewhat. The passed pawn on d6 isn't going to be easy to push, and may become a target later. The rook on d6, however, is active, whilst the pawn on c5 restrains the black b-pawn, which suddenly finds itself uncomfortably placed on an open file. With careful play, the weakness of the doubled c-pawns should only be optical.

By the way the computer for move 14 gives this: 14. Bb2 (I suppose understandable as the Bishop has become isolated) 14... b5 15. Nxd7 Qxd7. And I guess 14 Qc3 is also an acceptable move.

What does your engine say to 14. Nxg5, with the idea of 14... hg 15. Bxg5 Qxg5 16. Nd6+ Bxd6 17. Qxg5? It all seems forced to me, but I might be missing something. I think the queen is active, the three pieces passive, indeed undeveloped, white's king reaonably safe, black's not particularly. White has two pawns as well as the queen, and the Black f-pawn looks very likely to fall. Maybe I'm missing something.

It reminds me of a game I played years ago in the Major Open, which started [Event "BCF Major Open"] [Site "Street, Millfield School"] [Date "2000.08.09"] [Round "9.50"] [White "McKeown, Paul"] [Black "Beedle, Jonathan E"] [ECO "C41"] [EventDate "2000.07.31"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "ENG"]1. d4 d6 2. e4 Nd7 3. Nf3 e5 4. Bc4 Qf6 5. c3 h6 6. Qe2 Ne7 7. Be3 c6 8. Nbd2 Ng6 9. Bb3 Nf4 10. Qf1 Nb6 11. h3 Be7 12. g3 Ng6 13. h4 Bg4 14. Nh2 Be6 15. h5 Nf8 16. Bd1 Bd8 17. Ng4 Qe7 18. dxe5 Bxg4 19. Bxg4 dxe5 20. 0-0-0 Nh7 21. Nb3 Nf6 22. Bc5 Nxg4 23. Bxe7 Bxe7 24. Qe2

Annoyingly I failed to convert the game, only drawing in 44 moves.

The point is, that Black's system seems rather unnatural, and seems to leave the Black queen quite exposed.

If you didn't want to go for a combination (or if there is something wrong with my suggestion), then either 14. Bb3 or 14. a4 seem sensible, tucking the bishop away, or gaining space on the queenside.

[David Blower]

Yes after 14 Nxg5 the computer then gives 14... hxg5 15. Bxg5 Qxg5 16. Nd6+ Bxd6 17. Qxg5