Cannibal Chess Players In The Avocado Jungle Of Death
The Chess.com member rosyflamitto said: “I usually blunder a lot, mainly in middlegames. Will you please look at few my games and give me some advice?”
Jeremy Silman: Before continuing, a word to those reading this article:
I am getting an enormous amount of people asking me to look at their games and give them some advice. I appreciate your desire to get better, so I’ll try to get to as many people as possible.
I also want to repeat something I mentioned in an earlier article: If you ask me for help, I will presume that you want me to publish your games, be it in an article or book. I can’t give you personal advice, so your games will be shown to the world.
Now we can concentrate on Mr. rosyflamitto, who is far stronger than one might imagine. Oh...by the way, this article has nothing to do with chess-playing cannibals (though they DO exist... maybe, perhaps... maybe not). Just wanted to see how many cannibal fans would tune in.
Our first game shows two players that are pretty much rated the same, yet it is very clear that rosyflamitto is far, far stronger than his opponent. In fact, he is superior in the opening, tactically, positionally, and he is much better in important things like getting the king castled quickly, and attacking an enemy central king.
14.c4 was the first subpar move by White (though White is still easily winning). I don’t think he did this to protect his c-pawn, I think he did it to open the a1-h8 diagonal for this dark-squared bishop. However, brute force was the way to go. Let’s look at two examples. First capturing on c6:
Second, moving White’s queen to d4:
Before we go on, please look at this position and figure out why White is better:
Here’s the position I gave earlier, and I asked why White is better.
White has a big lead in development and more kingside and central space. One would think that those things guarantee White a clear advantage. However, White is NOT better at all. In fact, Black’s position is preferable! WHY? How can this be?
In our previous game White dominated his opponent due to his king being safely castled and Black’s being trapped in the center with a completely open center. In this case, though, the center is closed so development no longer has the same punch. And, since White's bishop is rather poor while Black's is active (even though it’s sitting at home!), and since the f5-knight is happily living on a huge hole from which it can cast its shadow in all directions, and since Black can initiate queenside play by ...c5 or ...b5 (which is where White’s king lives), I would prefer the Black pieces.
HOWEVER, Black lost on time (as he did in the previous game).
Here an example of what Black might do:
Rosyflamitto, you simply got outplayed here. Happens to everyone! But there was an important lesson to be learned: do NOT play passively in positions where your opponent’s game is all about dynamics! Trade some pieces or get some counterplay, but do not lounge about waiting to be hit over the head!
As for rosyflamitto’s self-proclaimed blunders, let’s look at one:
Again, everyone gets confused with difficult positions (especially technical ones), and blunders are normal in such situations.
Mr. rosyflamitto, I’ve noticed that lots of players on Chess.com resign games early. There are all sorts of reasons to do so, which means I won’t try and figure out what your reason is.
What I can say is that you play quite well. Blunders are painfully common in non-master chess, whether it’s due to being confused in a tight battle or dropping something in mid-air or playing passively and wondering why you got bashed to death.
