Positive trademarks of a dedicated Chess Instructor - Episode 2
This game gives an illustration of common mistakes often made by players in the opening of the game. It is the perfect example of how fast you can easily go wrong by breaking basic principal rules in the beginning of the game. There was a gap of 200 rating points between my student and his stronger opponent, and his opponent’s strategy was to avoid any home preparations made by my student going directly away from normal known opening theories into completely unfamiliar territory in an attempt to have a psychological advantage.
Is this a good idea in general against lower rated players or can this badly backfire with the higher rated player?
We can see that black has almost completed his development and white still has to bring his king into safety. It is very important that when you are ahead in development, to use this to your advantage.
What should be the first step for black?
Simply take your time to create a plan, think it through and avoid impulsive moves.
It would be a good idea to ask the student why his opponent wasn’t able to exploit the weakness of the isolated d5-pawn, given the opportunity after he played his pawn to d4 on the 12th move.
What is really a weakness? It only matters if you can exploit this weakness, if not it is simply a useless weakness. The answer is very simple white didn’t complete his development and is at least 2 tempo’s behind.
White’s plan should be first try to place the Knight on d4 blocking the d5-pawn. Slowly build the pressure on the isolated pawn putting the Bishop on f3 and use the semi open d-file to double the rook on the d-file including the queen on this file. Then the second phase of the plan would be to unblock the pawn and transfer the Knight from d4 via e2 to f4 attack it 5 times! A very difficult plan to execute but at least it is a standard plan used against an isolated pawn.
It is clear that black has a total loss position. His only chance is if white makes a terrible blunder that lets black land in a stalemate position. Black has nothing to lose and can only use some tricks.
Conclusion:
What are the lesson’s that we can learn from this game?
Remember to develop your minor pieces and bring the king to safety so to connect the rooks as soon as possible. If you try to launch an attack before applying the basic principles the attack is doomed to failure.
Why will the attack fail?
Simple, you need most of your pieces and have them coordinated with each other for the attack to succeed! We can also see that black has to work on these middle game techniques. Black had a good position but couldn’t come with a good plan or didn’t realize the importance of choosing the right move order during the game. This game show’s a lot of pit falls from both players and there are a lot of practical things to learn from this game.
Enjoy the hostility and till next time.
Sensei San Valentino!
