Chess Coach and Lesson 2

Thursday morning I had my second lesson with Attila Turzo.   I basically let him know that in a month I hadn't had time to work on my homework.   That is not a good start.   He is very patient though and understood.   We then played through a game that I had recently lost and talked about different things I could have done differently.   If I had been a little more careful in two places, I could have blown the gentleman away.   As it was, I lost a close game in the end.   During the lesson, the one thing that most stood out for me was that Attila pointed out that I was swapping out a good bishop that was worth more than the other.   I had never really thought about it.  I sacrificed a bishop that was on the same color as where my fixed pawns were in the middle of the board.    Attila pointed out that this could be used to support those pawns later on in the game.  Because of this I was not sacrificing equal material for a slight gain in position.  I was sacrificing a lot.