Believe in Your Own Ideas

I learnt a very important lesson in losing on the Black side of a Queen's Indian. Above all, follow your own ideas. Don't copy other ideas blindly without at least questioning why.

The following position has been reach once, where it it White to move

Here White played 18. dxc5 and Black replied with Qc6 with the game ending in a draw. See Giffard,N (2381)-Roeder,M (2444) Belgium 2007

In my game, my opponent instead played 18. bxc5

Here I replied with 18. ... Qc6 "following" the idea from the seed game. This is a bad bad way to play Chess. You should never play Chess like this. You must have your own ideas, and if you lose, you lose because it was you that lost. If I had trusted my intuition, believed in myself, I can reason here that the Queen is not a good blockader. Instead, it should be a Knight on c6, and the big difference with the seed position is the White d-pawn is no longer there to control the e5 square.

To that end, 18. ... Ne5 is far better, eyeing both the natural blockade on c6 and the c4 square.

Follow your own ideas. Don't imitate others.

Hold Tight me Matey

In the above position, Black is awfully stuck without a plan. I'm very disappointed I caved quickly by playing 23. ... Qa8 24. c6 +- and it's over for Black. I have to improve tenacity in defence, and if a concession had to be made, then 23. ... e5 has to be played, with Qe6 to follow.

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