what the #$%^was he playing and how did he win?

Sort:
jojojopo

That would be nice, but I guess SBS needs to have a say in that since he doesn't want to let this thread turn into a multi-purposed thread (and I agree with him).

Sticking to the idea of analyzing games, I played an english today... and I'm not really proud of it :P. But some valuable lessons can be extracted of every stage of the game. I can post it if you want.

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

I'd like a look at it, I'm playing 2 English games against a pretty tough opponent at the moment Laughing & its a very interesting opening. If we can learn from it it must be worth posting.

As far as other discussions go we could work out a couple of themes that are consistant with the theme of this thread & use them when its quiet so we don't get 10 days without a post. But I agree its SBS's call as to where we go.

jojojopo

I'll comment it after you've gotten the chance to look at it. I've taken a few lessons from this, so I hope it's useful to you too! And it'll be interesting to compare notes.

jojojopo

Thank you for your comment aronchuk. As you said, the endgame was horrible, it was my very first time on an endgame with a lone bishop and with 6 minutes left on the clock I did not have time to figure it out, so I played mistake after mistake. What troubled me the most was not knowing what to do with the 4v4 pawns on the kingside, there had to be a way to create a passed pawn there, then let the black king go to the queenside to march his pawn, and trade my bishop for it when it's too late for him to return to the kingside, but honestly after analyzing the game myself I couldn't figure out how to do it. Fortunately I knew enough about opposition to hold the draw! The rest of the game has a lot of mistakes that which I more or less can think of corrections, but on the endgame I saw only strategic errors, like putting my pawns on the same color of the bishop or delaying the arrival of my king in the center, but not a winning procedure.

I already wrote down what I was thinking and am starting to analyse the game looking for improvements, I can post my thought process if you want, or I can post it along with how I think I should improve on those mistakes when I finish my analysis.

And I'm really looking forward to the master games you said! I honestly think I'll have to start to spend some time with endgames along with tactics.

Thank you for your time!

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

A lot to analyse in jojojopo's game, I'm going to split it up into 2 parts the 2nd being the endgame, but before I post anything I would like to know if there was any time pressure in the endgame. Time pressure in an endgame can be a real pain, especially if like me you don;t play then very often.

jojojopo

From around move 25 I think I had ~6 minutes left on the clock, so I was living with my increment and with what I could think ahead in the time of my opponent (he had like 30 minutes). Before you ask, the game was 45/45, so it wasn't blizt lol, but I spent A LOT of time on some moments. I'll explain that when I post my thought process. When the endgame started I managed to maintain my time at around 5-6 minutes, and my opponent had around 20 if I recall correctly, but it was a huge difference.

And, as I said, this is the first time I ever find myself in an endgame up a bishop, so yes, I made a complete mess!

This probably means that 1) I have to practice more tactics to be more efficient in calculation (this is in what I invested most of my time, there are some really dynamic positions where I was looking for tactics and there were so many possibilities that it kind of went over my head) and 2) learn to better manage my time.

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

@ jojojopo

Thanks for the info, I'll get onto the analysis which will probably be as difficult as playing it but there are a few here who will benefit from exploring endgames including myself.

jojojopo

@aronchuk

First and foremost, thank you so much for your analysis, I'm surprised by a few things.

First, here is the game with the thoughts I had about it while playing it and my thoughts written immediately after the game (the player left and apparently didn't want to trade ideas).

The first thing that comes to my mind, is that now I see clearly the importance of knowing a lot of different structures and ideas behind the different openings that arise from the world of 1. d4 and, because of it's transpositional potential, 1. c4. Truly, I'm trying to get into this world after always playing 1. e4, and it's remarkable how intertwined the different openings in the 1. d4 and 1. c4 world are. This is regarding your comments about obtaining a reversed Benoni one tempo up (which I'll be asuming is equal or just slightly advantageous for white if black can play the same opening and aim for equality), and afterwards the resemblance to the Benko.

Of course, I didn't see the lines that you show are better for black in the middle-game, as you'll probably see from my notes, I was starting to get really confused by that time and ended up playing something I had not proven in my mind's eye. As you'll see in my notes, I get REALLY confused with complex tactical situations, and this problably means that I lack proper calculation technique, or that I try hard to find a combination in a position where it's not present (due to not recognizing the signs that imply that the combination isn't there).

Your comments on the endgame are most instructive and you clarified a lot of key ideas that I was not understanding correctly (or at all lol). But I agree with you that I need to start to give the endgame some time and study it, and even if I'm kind of an "endgame novice", I do find them really interesting and beautiful, more so than middle-games I must say because of the attention to the smallest tiniest of details that end up summing up. I think that I have to start with some K & Pawn structures, because most of my doubts while playing endgames come from a lack of knowledge on how to play different structures with only the kings on the board, and this implies basic technique for creating passed pawns. Is there a good book you could perhaps recommend? Or, what kind of endgame would you advise that I study first, if any?

Thank you again for your time and effort.

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

@ aronchuck

I'm in a similar position to jojojopo with Pawn structures & also endgames. I'm searching out your earlier suggestions on endgame books but do you have any recomendations on study material for Pawn structures? Books or video would be good. I know the Stonewall Pawn structure pretty well (surprise, surprise) but the others you mention I have played many but never studied the finer points. Also like jojojopo I need work on King & Pawn endings, particularly creating passed Pawns.

Any suggestions appreciated

Somebodysson

hi everyone. I've been preoccupied with a few things other than chess the last couple of months. I just checked in to the thread and I'm glad you guys are continuing to work together. I'll be checking in and contributing as I can. Please continue the great work, jojojopo with your game contributions and others as it comes up. Its important that this focus on the contributor's games, and the learning chunks that lie ahead as shown by the acual games, exactly as you've been doing. Best, SBS

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

Not sure if anyone is still watching here. I've been playing some 3 day games & after 3 wins on timeout I finally got a win that is worth posting.

So if anyone is still around here's the game. It was 3 days/move so the tactics were at a higher level than in OTB which allowed me to focus on strategy as well.

I'll post my notes & analysis after everyone has had a chance to check it out.



brian97

where's the rest of the game?

QueenTakesKnightOOPS
brian97 wrote:

where's the rest of the game?

Thats where he resigned