12-03-2018: Grinya72 (1415, Russia) vs. E4orce (1238, USA)

Concept: Attackers vs. Defenders

What does attackers vs. defenders mean in chess? Well, the idea is that when you attack a piece, that you always want to have more pieces attacking that piece than your opponent has defending that piece.

The following game below illustrates this idea 3 times.

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 To me right now, the most frustrating thing about the Bishop's opening is that I know that it has some sort of momentum for White, but the maddening thing is that I don’t know how to play it at all! q=) Maybe that was why I was Black this game- for practice or something, haha. q=) 2... d6 3. Qh5 g6 4. Qf3 Threatens 5 QxP#. Everybody seems to like doing this, but they forget that it is defeatable, cuz you don't have to play by the rules. 4... Nf6 5. h3 Qe7 6. d3 Be6 7. Bg5

Attackers vs. defenders. In White’s favor, cuz White’s Queen and Bishop on f3 and g5 are challenging Black’s lone Queen on e7 for the f6 Knight.

7... Bg7 8. Nc3 Bxc4?! I didn't know whether this would keep the ball rolling, but I did know that his c-pawns were going to be doubled. And more often then not, people don't really know how to use doubled pawns, so they inadvertently create weaknesses in their position that you can slowly start exploiting, one by one, as the opportunity arises. 9. dxc4 h6 10. Bxf6 Qxf6 11. Nd5 $1 Qd8 (Forced, because of Nxc7+, gaining the a8 Rook) 12. Qb3 b6 13. Qa4+

This is a great example of checking a little bit too much, because if you go too far in, sooner or later you'll either lose some initiative, (which is what happened to him as a result of my next move) or you could even suck a piece into the position, (That’s where you can’t get it out again and wind up losing it for nothing) which is probably the worst-case scenario. 13... c6 14. Ne3 O-O

See what I mean? Now, not only has White's Knight been forced to move back out of the game a little bit, but Black has simultaneously beat him to castling and he's starting to connect his major pieces, AKA his Rooks and his Queen. (Even though I like castling Queenside better, it would have been a bad idea there.) 15. Nf3 Qc7 16. b4 Nd7 17. O-O Nf6 (Attacking e4+ momentum + a forced move) 18. Nd2 Qd7 19. Qb3 Rfd8 20. Rad1 d5

Attackers vs. defenders. In Black’s favor cuz it’s White’s move, and if he tries to gain the exchange by attacking the pawn on d5 with either of the pawns on c4 and e4, he’ll get nowhere: AKA 21. cxd5 cxd5 22. exd5 Nxd5 23 Nxd5 Qxd5 Qxd5 Rxd5, and White’s gotten nowhere. q=)

21. cxd5 cxd5 22. Nf3 The reason he didn't take back there was attackers vs. defenders. That's a really important thing to understand, and once you know how to use it, you've become that much more dangerous of a player, and that much more likely to win. 22... Qe6 23. exd5 Nxd5 24. Nxd5 Rd7 25. Qc4? It beats me why he didn't just play c4 here. I mean, it's obviously yet another gang-up-on-the-lone-piece-with-everything-you've-got kind of deal, and he couldn't see that c4 kinda ends that attack for Black? Of course, he coulda just been wondering about where to even put that Knight, cuz I don't really know either. q=) 25... Rad8

Attackers vs. defenders. Also in Black’s favor, because Black’s Queen and both Rooks are attacking the d5 Knight, and White can only defend with his Queen and one Rook.

26. Qg4 I guess he saw that it was kinda over as far as keeping the Knight, but I'll probably never know whether he wanted what happened next to happen! q=) 26... Rxd5 27. Qxe6 fxe6 Well, this is rather funny, cuz now I have the doubled pawns. The only problem is, they’re not gonna be doubled for too long cuz he's tryin’ to keep the ball rollin’ too! q=) 28. Rxd5 exd5 29. Rd1!? I almost think that Rb1’s better if he was trying to stop my pawns with his Rook. 29... g5 30. Kf1 d4 31. Nd2 Bf8 $1 32. a3 Slightly forced; Rb1 might do it too, but at the same time, Rb1 might be a little bit weaker- I'm not really sure. 32... Bg7 33. f3 Kf7 34. g4 Rc8 35. Ke2 Rxc2 36. Rb1 Rc3 37. Rb3 Rxb3 38. Nxb3

Ok, this is gonna be fun. Bishop vs Knight in a half-middlegame, half endgame! q=) At the time, believe me, I was not half that enthusiastic. 38... Bf8 39. Kd3 Ke6 40. Ke4 The bottom line here is, both Kings are blockin’ the only way into each other's back doors, so to speak. Now it's gonna be all about whose momentum stalls first, or who makes the first blunder.

40... Bd6 41. Nd2 b5 (b5 keeps his Knight off of c4. Although if he wanted to cause a bigger ruckus, he could have came in anyway through h5 cuz if he had played it that way, somebody woulda had to defend against that threat- either my King or my Bishop- and it coulda been a really bad Zugzwang, so I was really lucky that he didn't see that!)

42. Nb3 a6 43. Na5 Bc7 44. Nb3 Bb6 45. Nc1 a5 46. Nd3 axb4 47. axb4 If he'd played NxP instead, he could have kinda had the flow back on his side after that too. But as it was, he got into my position anyway, and that's where it got really fun lol...

47... Bc7 48. Nc5+ Kf6 I had to, cuz it woulda been fatal for me to lose my g and h pawns. 49. Kd5 Kg6 50. Kc6 Bb8 51. Nd7??

White commits an appalling blunder! He just lost the game tryin’ to get that Bishop, cuz after 53 ...d1=Q, I was kinda on a roll.} 51... d3 52. Nc5 The thing I find really funny about this is that it looks like he was so shocked at the fact that he just blew the game, but apparently it didn't sink in very fast. q=) 52... d2 53. Nd7 d1=Q 54. Nxb8 Qxf3+ 55. Kc7 Qc3+ 56. Kb6 Qxb4 57. Nc6 Qb2 58. Ne7+ Kf7 59. Nf5!

Dang. When he played this, I looked it over- kinda grinnin’ to myself, big time. Cuz now, not only have I gotten 1 Queen back via promotion, now I'm gonna have some purposeful FUN with this endgame! Watch this. q=) 59... Qf2+ 60. Kxb5 Qxf5!? Me, in my head: "Ha ha HAA..." 61. gxf5 Kf6 62. Kc4 Kxf5 63. Kd3 h5 64. Ke3 g4 65. hxg4+ hxg4 I don't mean to pick on this dude, cuz he was 177 rating points higher than me, but from here for real, it's a pretty funny situation for White. 66. Kf2 Kf4 67. Kg2 e4 68. Kf2 e3+ 69. Ke2 g3 70. Kf1 Kf3 71. Kg1 e2 72. Kh1 e1=Q#

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There were so many hilarious possibilities there! Let’s look at a few.

At 72. Kh1, 72... g2+ 73. Kh2 e1=Q 74. Kh3 Qg3# is a possibility too.

If he tries 71. Ke1, 71... e2 72. Kd2 g2 73. Kc3 g1=Q 74. Kb3 e1=Q 75. Ka3 Qd4 76. Ka2 Qc1 77. Kb3 Qcb2# wins.

If he tries prolongin’ things with 74. Kc4 instead of 74. Kb3, e1=Q 75. Kd3 Qgf2 76. Kc4 Qe5 77. Kb3 Qed4 78. Ka3 Qfb2# still wins, so I guess that that’s kinda done for... q=)

I hope ya enjoyed this lesson, and if you want, i’mma see if I can make some more material for this series! q=)

Your buddy, E4orce (AKA Willy G. SoulFire)

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