Played against the nicest person of SDCC - Fred Cleveland. Fred has a history of running into time problems during 40 min games. He plays above his level in long games though.
I offered him a draw around move 20-21. He declined.
5. c5 is a big positional error. When you push a pawn like this you give away square control. By this I mean the d5 square. A big part of chess is about square control and after this move Black will have great control over the d5 square which is one of the 4 most important central squares in chess. Also, this makes your d4 pawn backward, imagine if Black ever gets pawns to c6 and e6, then you will never be able to rid yourself of this backward d4 pawn. Instead simple development with 5. Nc3 is called for.
8. Bxd5 willingly giving up the "Bishop pair" (when one side has the two Bishops and the other doesn't) for no clear reason I do not like. Typically in chess it is important to maintain the Bishop pair and it can prove to be useful in the long run. Instead 8. h3 putting a question to Black's Bishop and making air for your King when/if it castles kingside is a useful move.
I can't criticize 10. Nc3, a logical developing move. However, it is important to note the idea of 10. Qb3!? attacking the b7 pawn and after 10...b6 you have also unpinned your Knight which allows for 11. Ne5 putting the Knight to a strong central square while attacking the Bishop on g4.
19. fxe3 looks to be the wrong way to recapture. Much better is 19. Rxe3 to try to take control of the open e-file. Also, this pawn recapture you make weakens the g3 square which Black can try to occupy with his pieces at some point. If the pawn were still back on f2 this would not be a concern. And now Black willingly gets control of the open e-file with his next move.
25. Re1 passively defending is usually not the correct way to hold the balance. Instead you should consider 25. Qg3!? and if 25...Rxe3 26. Qb8+ Qe8 27. Qxb8 winning back your pawn with active play.
32. g4 is just a tactical mistake losing a pawn as was played in the game by the opponent. Instead you should go for 32. Kh2 as strange as this seems. The reason is with the Rooks and Queens still on the boards you want to have your King back in a safer position. And in a balanced position like this time is not a critical factor and you can look to quietly improve the placement of your pieces. Only if it was a King and Pawn endgame would the King be better places on h3 then h2.
36. Kg4 is a big error even though the opponent did not take advantage. If 36...Rd7 you are losing the d4 pawn and with it most likely the game. Instead you must play 36. Re3 to prevent Black for having time for this type of move.
43. a5 is OK, however you have an immediate win here! You must realize you have a 4 vs 3 pawn majority on the queenside and therefore the objective is to create a passed pawn on the queenside. You can do this with 43. d5 cxd5 44. b5 which is threats an immediate c5-c6 or even b5-b6 and then c5-c6 advances to queen a pawn. You must always look for creative ways to try to force through passed pawns on the side you have the pawn majority.
In summary probably a really lucky win with the opponent seriously misplaying a better endgame. But sometimes it is good to have luck on our side. But as seen with 32. g4, one tactical mistake can totally turn a game into an immediate loss so you must be extremely careful to calculate the consequences of each and every move.
In this game too what really jumps out at me are your pawn moves. 5.c5 isn't really aggressive as it only pushed your opponent's knight to a better square. Later your kingside pawn pushing was suicidal. It caused your opponent no problems, only opportunity. 19.fxe3 blocked your rook with no compensating gain as there's not much potential on the f-file. To be truthful I didn't even like the safety first 16.h3
In your future games, whenever you are tempted to push a pawn, stop. Maybe there is a piece move instead that is faster, creates less weakness and is more coordinated with your other pieces. A pawn move can do all of those things under the right circumstances. You have to judge if it is really so. In case of a tie, choose the piece move because pawns don't move backwards :)
In the end I suspect you saw the breakthrough pawn position on the queenside with d5 but wanted to push him back a square first.
My feedback:
ReplyDelete5. c5 is a big positional error. When you push a pawn like this you give away square control. By this I mean the d5 square. A big part of chess is about square control and after this move Black will have great control over the d5 square which is one of the 4 most important central squares in chess. Also, this makes your d4 pawn backward, imagine if Black ever gets pawns to c6 and e6, then you will never be able to rid yourself of this backward d4 pawn. Instead simple development with 5. Nc3 is called for.
8. Bxd5 willingly giving up the "Bishop pair" (when one side has the two Bishops and the other doesn't) for no clear reason I do not like. Typically in chess it is important to maintain the Bishop pair and it can prove to be useful in the long run. Instead 8. h3 putting a question to Black's Bishop and making air for your King when/if it castles kingside is a useful move.
I can't criticize 10. Nc3, a logical developing move. However, it is important to note the idea of 10. Qb3!? attacking the b7 pawn and after 10...b6 you have also unpinned your Knight which allows for 11. Ne5 putting the Knight to a strong central square while attacking the Bishop on g4.
19. fxe3 looks to be the wrong way to recapture. Much better is 19. Rxe3 to try to take control of the open e-file. Also, this pawn recapture you make weakens the g3 square which Black can try to occupy with his pieces at some point. If the pawn were still back on f2 this would not be a concern. And now Black willingly gets control of the open e-file with his next move.
25. Re1 passively defending is usually not the correct way to hold the balance. Instead you should consider 25. Qg3!? and if 25...Rxe3 26. Qb8+ Qe8 27. Qxb8 winning back your pawn with active play.
32. g4 is just a tactical mistake losing a pawn as was played in the game by the opponent. Instead you should go for 32. Kh2 as strange as this seems. The reason is with the Rooks and Queens still on the boards you want to have your King back in a safer position. And in a balanced position like this time is not a critical factor and you can look to quietly improve the placement of your pieces. Only if it was a King and Pawn endgame would the King be better places on h3 then h2.
36. Kg4 is a big error even though the opponent did not take advantage. If 36...Rd7 you are losing the d4 pawn and with it most likely the game. Instead you must play 36. Re3 to prevent Black for having time for this type of move.
43. a5 is OK, however you have an immediate win here! You must realize you have a 4 vs 3 pawn majority on the queenside and therefore the objective is to create a passed pawn on the queenside. You can do this with 43. d5 cxd5 44. b5 which is threats an immediate c5-c6 or even b5-b6 and then c5-c6 advances to queen a pawn. You must always look for creative ways to try to force through passed pawns on the side you have the pawn majority.
In summary probably a really lucky win with the opponent seriously misplaying a better endgame. But sometimes it is good to have luck on our side. But as seen with 32. g4, one tactical mistake can totally turn a game into an immediate loss so you must be extremely careful to calculate the consequences of each and every move.
In this game too what really jumps out at me are your pawn moves.
ReplyDelete5.c5 isn't really aggressive as it only pushed your opponent's knight to a better square. Later your kingside pawn pushing was suicidal. It caused your opponent no problems, only opportunity. 19.fxe3 blocked your rook with no compensating gain as there's not much potential on the f-file. To be truthful I didn't even like the safety first 16.h3
In your future games, whenever you are tempted to push a pawn, stop. Maybe there is a piece move instead that is faster, creates less weakness and is more coordinated with your other pieces. A pawn move can do all of those things under the right circumstances. You have to judge if it is really so.
In case of a tie, choose the piece move because pawns don't move backwards :)
In the end I suspect you saw the breakthrough pawn position on the queenside with d5 but wanted to push him back a square first.
awesome comments! Thank you Matt and Bruce!
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