Very nice andrew somethings never change jim baillie glenrothes

Hi Andy

Very nice game against Stephen. I ended up on Chandler Cornered after being mated in 12 in the Bishops section of the tournament! My only exuse was a late night in Sandy Bells.

Nice Q sac. Love it!

Bruce 

I do and have made sacs. in my games if I see it gives me an advantage. But, I have seen you make them in the middle game with a queen that most people would not see ( alot of pieces on the board still ) or consider.

 I am striving to read those lines:)

Bryan

Thanks Bryan!

Usually when I sacrifice my queen in situations like that it's because the alternatives don't appeal to me. Take another look at the Rattray-Burnett game in the book and you'll see what I mean.

Also, sacrificing material, be it a queen or a piece or the exchange (when it's not to deliver mate) can be seen as simply an unusual kind of piece exchange. For example, most players are happy to swap a knight for a bishop if it allows the other pieces to work well together.

In this game here I simply swapped my queen (which was awkwardly positioned opposite the black rook in many lines) for a couple of minor pieces, to allow my remaining forces to do something useful.

Material values (queen = 9pts, Rook = 5pts, etc) are obviously necessary when we are learning to play the game, but as we improve we really need to look more at WHAT a particular piece can do in a given situation and 'reassign' the values if need be. It's not easy, but it's a large part of what separates stronger players from the rest.

Of course, this is just my own humble opinion

Andy, your queen sacrafice does not surprise me but still I am amazed at them as you go on to win. Having experienced your queen sac. agaist me, I just sit back and shack my head because I wish I could see that possibility in my game.

Very impressive ! :)

Bryan

"did you not do 12. c5 because you wanted an open c-file and for other positional considerations? or is there a simpler reason why it doesn't work and cxd5 is better?" dmitrysm

Hi Dmitry,

The reason I didn't like 12.c5 is because it allows black to play in the centre with 12...e5.

White may still be able to play for an advantage in this kind of position, but it seemed more in keeping with white's development plan to try to use the c-file (as you mention) and also try to ensure that the Bg2 had an influence on the game (after 12.c5 e5 13.Nxc6 bxc6 the bishop might have a bleak future in prospect!?).

In addition (from a purely subjective viewpoint) I tend towards more fluid, dynamic positions with active piece play rather than blocked pawn structures where more subtle manouevres are required!

Finally, I am fairly new to playing 1.d4 and the middlegames it produces, so I am happy to listen to any advice/comments given!  

did you not do 12. c5 because you wanted an open c-file and for other positional considerations? or is there a simpler reason why it doesn't work and cxd5 is better?

thanks for the game/article!

Hi Alex,

You're absolutely correct - I've just checked the FIDE site and Vlad Barnaure is an IM. My mistake - as he was top seed on rating ahead of our 3 GM's I just assumed he was a GM too. A bit sloppy of me but I'll edit the article today - thanks for pointing that out!

As for a game, I'll challenge you ASAP.

Thanks for the comments and kind words from everyone

Brilliant game well done Andrew!

Very cool end to the second one too.

This was a really enjoyable congress and I didn't know that Vlad Barnaure was actually a GM as it had IM on the board but maybe they made a mistake.  He is super strong anyway.

I'd like to give you a game some time when you have time if you want?

A

slick ending(:

beutiful queen sacrifice

bravo, very well done.

Andrew help yourself anytime.

Cheers Jim! 

I was going to ask to borrow one of them for this article but couldn't find the post on the CS website to double-check for a specific photo?!

Hi Andrew thanks again for the signature on the book, here is the photos off the above event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UidQ_mvclM&feature=channel_page

Very spectacular games !

good to see chess played well

Having lost to a couple of our promising juniors in rounds 2 & 4, I was playing too low down the boards to get the carbon scoresheet treatment!

The only reason the Hogg game made the downloads is because it won the Best Game prize, although it isn't 100% convincing as black can draw if he chooses to/gets it right.  

Interesting games. The first with Hogg is in the ChessScotland download of the event. It is the only Andrew Burnett game available. No games of McKerracher are shown. The solution to that one was very good and eliminated other tempting and distracting ideas.

Very entertaining games - thanks