The Cat With Nine Lives

Oct 13, 2018, 7:13 AM |

For today's post, I've shared a recent blitz game I played, where I used one of my nine lives to win a game where I got outplayed up and down the board. My annotations ended up being quite brief, so I've included them in full.

Three things I learned from this game:

1) In the position after 14...f4, Black is threatening 15...f5! and the idea behind 15.Rfd1 or 15.Rad1 is to stop ...f5 - e.g. 15.Rfd1 f5? 16.exf5! Bxd5 17.f6! Rxf6 18.Bxh7 Kf8 19.Rxd5. That's why you see Black meet these rook moves with ...Kh8, to prepare the ...f5 break.

2) I played the middlegame far too quietly - it's important to be quite direct in these positions, before White plays a4, pressures the a6-pawn and stabilizes the queenside and center. A good example is 15...Kh8? followed by 16...Ra7?, which reflected the fact I hadn't studied these positions in a long time.

3) I completely missed 20...Bb3!, which I would normally see immediately, because I was too fixated on my opponent's threats, and forgot to look for whether I could make a stronger threat.

See you tomorrow with a new post!

Blogs

GM Max Illingworth's Blog

All Blogs

Top Bloggers

Chess.com's First 'Coach of the Month'

Are you as passionate about chess as I am?

I am Grandmaster and FIDE Trainer Max Illingworth - 2017 Australian Open Champion, 2018-19 Australian Champion, now committed to helping others make their chess dreams a reality through coaching and writing.

Why are my students successful? They love chess, work hard at it under my guidance, and I solve my student's biggest challenges in chess, by listening to them and sharing useful thinking techniques that, with continued practice, improve their results. It's the best feeling for me when my students do really well in a tournament and experience the rewards of their continued effort and our work together.

Under my training, you get a clear direction of how to most effectively improve your chess outside of our lessons - with a training plan and plenty of supplementary chess material (including annotated games) to organise your work each week. If you're not sure about a position, thinking or training method, you can ask a question anytime and get a reply to most questions within 24 hours.

You have an opportunity to hone your chess skills much faster than you are right now, through my regular feedback, including the various puzzles and questions I'll pose you in our lessons together. However, I'm getting close to full capacity for my private coaching, so this window of opportunity is limited!

If you're a passionate chess player with the qualities I'm looking for, I really don't want you to miss out on getting the feedback and support you need to achieve your goals. If you're serious about improving your chess and are ready to invest in the next stages of your chess journey, either message me here on or send me an email at illingworthchess@gmail.com, sharing your chess story and why you'll be a great student!