Grandmasters vs other players ?
I often get asked, what makes GM different from the rest of us.
Those of you who are familiar or follow @gothamchess aka Levy Rozman know he many times declared his goal is to become a GM
https://www.chess.com/member/gothamchess
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While he is a strong player already ( IM Title), he will have to step up his openings,middle games and endgame technique to improve his quality of play to be GM level.
For instance, I was able to draw my game against GOTHAMCHESS in Titled Tuesday with my previous account "thechesscorner64" which you can read here, and neither of us played GM level that's for sure !!
https://www.chess.com/blog/thechesscorner64/i-played-gotham-chess-in-titled-tuesday-and
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Grandmasters have the ability to scan all possibilities and quickly narrow down the best candidate moves. i.e sometimes we find what we think is the right move and we don't go further which leads to lower level of play.
Grandmaster are superior in FINDING THE CANDIDATE MOVES, including the NON OBVIOUS ONES
They have mastered the technique of looking for forcing moves, which are checks,captures and threats. They may consciously or subconsciously use this technique to review all possible moves, CANDIDATE MOVES.
I'll show this in 3 EXAMPLES, and you can compare what you would play vs what GMS played.
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Game 1, GM Bortnyk vs IM GothamChess
White to play
I'll put the solutions at the end of this blog
GAME 2 , White to play GM Rauf Mamedov
also White to play in Game 3
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SOLUTIONS
first I selected 3 games with players using 1.e4 which is an opening I play a lot
Here are the entire games if you want to see solutions as well as how to get there, and below I will also show the solution MOVE BY MOVE.
game 1 link
game 2 moves
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FULL EXPLANATIONS FOR EACH POSITION , did YOU FIND THE RIGHT MOVE EACH TIME ?
I dont think these players won these games because of superior opening preparation. The players with White navigated the selection of moves in middle game better
GAME 1 EXPLANATIONS
BORTNYK played Bf4!! as shown below
While many moves would be good for White, this is forcing. if Black moves the queen, the rook on h8 drops.
If Black takes the queen, White takes the queen with Bxd6 but also pins the bishop on e7.
Game didnt' last long, I am convinced Gothamchess didnt see this Bf4!! move
Game 2, GM Mamedov sensed it was time to take ACTION. he played a capture which is a sacrifice and won very quickly after that
Clearly after Rxg7!!+ which is a check and capture and adirect threat, Black is doomed. yes its a rook sacrifice but Rg1+ is coming next and I put the game above if you want to replay til the end.
Game 3
the move to find was Bg5!
clearly a THREAT as the Black Queen is targeted
These are the moves played
and there was a brilliant move Bxh6!! played next, let me show you the position, it is clear the sac works which you can verify in the analysis link I put above , the rooks will give check and the black king cant escape
on gxh6 white would win with either Rdg3+ or Rhg3+. Black played something else and lost soon.
This is all for today's entry.
How did you do vs GMs ?
comments welcome !
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clearly a THREAT as the Black Queen is targeted
