123Chess_Game6

The CHESS Analysis Method (7-Steps)

CLOCK & CODE (Step 1)
HEAD & HAT (Steps 2 & 3)
ED & ANA (Steps 4 & 5)
SELECT & STUDY (Step 6)
SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS (Step 7)

CLOCK &CODE: 

1. CLOCK & CODE: During Gameplay - Create a CODE legend for you to write down and identify the critical moments of the game, including the moves that took the most time on your CLOCK.
   Tip 1: You can use numbers, letters, symbols, or anything else you can think of.
   Tip 2: This process works best if you play a live (non-correspondence) game with at least 10min on your clock.
   Examples:
   - When felt Disoriented
   - Confused
   - Comfortable
   - Uncomfortable
   - Stuck
   - When you overlooked something
   - When you had a positive "eureka" moment
   (The code legend I created for myself is “SCOUTE.”)
   S = I feel Stuck
   C = I feel Comfortable
   O = I Overlooked a position or tactic
   U = I feel Uncomfortable
   T = This was a Time consuming move
   E = Eureka! I discovered something good!
   
   HEAD & HAT:
   
2. HEAD: Immediately after the Game - Write down what went through your HEAD throughout the game such as what you were feeling, the reasons for your decisions, the plans you had, and calculations you performed.
   Tip 1: Expound on your In-game CODE
   Tip 2: Be specific
   (This PGN below include both of these steps 1 and 2 within the annotative comments.)
   
3. HAT: Immediately after the Game - After finishing the above, write down at least 3 key lessons you've learned from this game that you can add to your HAT of knowledge.
   Warning: No outside sources! Just your own thoughts and conclusions so far!
   (Here are mine.)
   

   1. I know very little about the Queen's Gambit Declined: Even though the Queen's Gambit is one of my favorite openings to play as white, I realize now that I've spent very little time studying the opening theory behind it (and know almost nothing about the Chigorin Defense).  I'm guessing if I had known more about it, it would have probably diminished many of the questions and uncertainties I had in my mind over the course of the first 15 or so moves.
   2. I need to pay more careful attention to calculating forcing lines around checks, especially when all my pieces are around my opponent's King: I see now (which I didn't see in the game) that with a little careful calculation, I was winning at move 36.  I was in tunnel vision mode, only looking for a checkmate, when I should have been looking for any type of winning position.  The forcing idea available to me revolved around forcing his King to e8 via a sacrifice of my Bishop, after which I would swing my Queen over to d8 to skewer his King to his Queen.  I did eventually accomplish this, but only after I blundered on move 40 by playing Qxg6+ instead of Qg8+, giving him the opportunity to play Kf8 which would have possibly turned the tides and prevented me from winning altogether.
   3. I still struggle with knowing how to properly exploit weak pawns by mounting pressure against them: A perfect example of this struggle is regarding my goal the whole game after move 10 to maintain pressure on b7.  It seemed like all was going well with this plan until about move 26, when one exchange of rooks pretty much neutralized my attack on that pawn.  After that point it basically just locked up 1 Rook of each of us, and that was about it.  I still wonder if there was a way at any point in time in the game for me to better exploit that weakness.
   ED & ANA:
   

4. ED: Immediately after the Game - EDUCATE on the critical moments of the game. These include any major changes that took place.
   Internal critical moment examples:
   - Ran out of known moves
   - Moves that surprised you
   - Change in plans
   - Overlooked a situation
   - When you found yourself "lost" or stuck
   External critical moment examples:
   - Phase Transition
   - Draw-ish Endgame --> Lost one
   - Massive trade of pieces
   - Major pawn configuration change
   - Quiet game into Tactical storm
   (Here's what I chose.)
   9. Ba3: My first move with a positional strategy, with the intention of controlling both c5 and d6, stifling my opponent's development of his Queen and desire to advance his c-pawn.
   10. Rb1: My first move to exploit a specific weakness is my opponent's defense, with the intention of maintaining pressure on my opponent's b7 pawn.
   11. Qc2: My development is completed and I officially enter the Midgame
   14...a6: The moment when my entire attack plan and positional strategy is confirmed and crystalized in my mind, which is to continue to mount pressure against b7 after I move c5, and keeping my opponent's Bishop locked in for good.
   19...Bxd7: The moment when part of my attack strategy is neutralized and I have to start thinking of something else to do
   22...Bc8: The moment where my strategy shifts to creating an attack with my Queen
   25...Rxb6: The moment I realized I overlooked a crucial exchange sequence for me, related to my felt need of maintaining a closed position.
   35. Qh6: The moment when I realized that my opponent had some intimidating-looking counterplay
   36. Qh7+: The move in which I spent by far more time on my clock to decide than any other move in the game.  I simply couldn't figure out where to go from here to checkmate my opponent.
   40. Qxg6+: The blunder that could have cost me the game
   41...Ke8: The moment when I finally found a winning line, just in time!
   
   This video below is a review based on our completion of steps 1-4.
   
   
5. ANA: After the Game - Pick at least 2 or 3 of the critical moments you identified above, and now ANALYZE them. Warning: Before you analyze, run your moments by an equal or higher level player!
   (Here are my 3 critical moments that I chose to analyze.)
   6...Ne7
   25...Rxb6
   30...Ra8
   This PGN below includes my finalized analyses for these 3 critical moments within the annotative comments.
   
   
   SELECT & STUDY:
6. SELECT & STUDY: After the Game - SELECT an opening theory, positional pattern, or tactical element to STUDY it by learning from an expert sources.
   Examples of types of sources:
   - Reading instructional Books
   - Watching instructional Videos
   - Reading relevant Articles
   - Looking up relevant Master Games
   - Submitting your game online for a Game Review
   Warning: Finish this step and THEN check your findings against a chess engine!
   (Below is what I did for this step.)
   1. I watched a few instructional Youtube videos (and read a couple articles) about the Queen's Gambit Declined
   2. I reviewed some Grandmaster games of the Opening variation we played.
   3. I double-checked my game against a chess engine to make sure I caught all my blunders and mistakes.
   4. Tom and I both memorized the same GM game with an identical Opening position to our game at the end of move 5. Below is this game.
   
   
   SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS:
7. SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS: Conclusion - SECURE and write down any final KEY TAKEAWAYS that are principles you can take into your future chess games, based on what you have learned from your analysis of this one. Write down at least 2 or 3.
   (Below is what I did for this step.)
   1. WHEN YOU HAVE A NOTABLE POSITIONAL ADVANTAGE, YOUR GOAL SHOULD BE TO CONVERT IT INTO A WINNING POSITION: In all three critical moments that I analyzed, an element they all had in common is that the winning move was in the spirit of finding the simplest way to quickly convert my positional advantage into a completely winning position (either in material, space, time, or a combination of them).
   2. SOME WEAKNESSES CAN'T BE EXPLOITED AT ALL IF THEY AREN'T EXPLOITED RIGHT AWAY: The second element all three of my critical moments had in common is that they all involved exploiting a weakness in my opponent's position right away. In each of the three cases, in the actual game I either didn't exploit the weakness at all, or tried to exploit it too slow, resulting in a far more complicated and inferior attack than what I should have done as covered in my analysis.
   3. LOOK FOR THE ZWISCHENZUG: Many times the best move is not the obvious one (usually involving some sort of capture), but is actually a zwischenzug (i.e. intermezzo or in-between move). In the second critical moment I analyzed, moving my pawn to d6 was just such a move. If I had seen this in-between move in the game and utilized it, I would have created a dangerous passed pawn and significantly increased the cramping of my opponent's position.
   
   Finally, this video below is based on our completion of steps 5-7.