How a 2300 in rapid thinks in chess
I am very active in the chess.com discord, and every day people ask for help in certain positions. I have compiled some of them today to illustrate how I would think and arrive at conclusions to my moves. By doing this hopefully I can help some people optimize their thinking process to be more efficient and effective.
======
Here we have an interesting maroczy exd5 position. White would want to attack on the kingside, but why do that when we can win positionally? White should play Na4, pushing the black queen to c7. Then we push b4, to avoid Bxb2 sometime. Black will castle. Now we play c5 dxc5 bxc5 Nxc5 Nxc5 Qxc5 d6!! exd6 and now we can win the pawn at b7 with Bxb7. Now black has an IQP and even material, and white should have a comfortable and easy game.
---
In this position we are in an interesting endgame. It will be difficult for black to promote his pawn. So we should use it to exploit the fact that white needs to capture it. Thus, black should play rc2. This allows him to play a fork after Rxb4?? Rc4+ , forking white's king and rook. This is a common endgame theme and if you're not familiar with it, you should start getting familiar.
---
Here is one for beginners learning to implement different tactics. black wants to checkmate on g2, but it is defended by the queen. We will now do a common tactic, “overloading the defender” or “deflection” and play qxe3. White will capture on e3 and no longer defend g2.
---
First we should notice how active white's pieces are, and how black is underdeveloped. Thus we should try to open lines with d4! exd4 Nbxd4 (bringing another piece to the attack) Nf6. Now we find ourselves at a critical moment, since black's king is about to run away. Now white must play Rxc6!!!! bxc6 Qxc6+!! This is a check, which if done with the correct inputs will force black to move his king away. However, if that doesn't work, black must play Bd7 to which we can follow up with Qxd6. This now cuts off black's path to castling, and white should have an easy attack here with the black king stuck in the center.
---
---
Yes, that is unfortunate blunder. However, you should realize with this material difference, the only way to win is to checkmate! Thus black should play Rb3!! And he threatens mate in one. To defend against M1, white will not be able to capture your pieces.
=====
Follow me for more banger chess analysis
