The following game was played with a 5 minute time limit. I'd been experimenting with the Dutch Defense, especially the Leningrad-type variations with a king side fianchetto. Before this, I almost exclusively played either the KID or Benoni, but I found them slightly cramped, and quite honestly not as fun as the more aggressive Dutch.
afmtxg
Jan 4, 2020
I recently played a 3 minute blitz game where I achieved a very solid pawn chain and a massive spatial advantage. According to the computer analysis (strength 2000), I only made 1 mistake and a few slight innaccuracies. I consistently had a +2/+3 advantage throughout the game.
I won't lie- most of that was because my opponent misplayed the opening and didn't press for a queenside spatial advantage.
afmtxg
May 10, 2016
As soon as I sent this game to be analyzed by the chess.com engine, I knew there was a glaring blunder in it. Nonetheless, some of the positions wer very fun and demonstrated the need for initiative. In the game, I was able to push back Black's pieces into the corners and beginning ranks. I did miss a lot of opportunities, though, and there is even a comical mouseslip that my opponent missed because of time trouble.
afmtxg
Jul 24, 2014
This game was played on 2|1 bullet time control (2 minutes, 1 second given every move). It was fun and to-the-point. I haven't analyzed it thoroughly yet, but there didn't seem to be any blatant blunders, simply a bunch of inaccuracies on White's part.
afmtxg
Jul 9, 2014
I managed to play an interesting game in 2 minute Blitz (1 second increments). The opening wasn't played very cleanly, but I was able to manage a good queen side break as White in the Accelerated
Sicilian Dragon.
afmtxg
May 1, 2014
I recently played a blitz where I sacrificed the exchange to gain tempo and the center. I'm not sure of my accuracy in the game, but I'm posting it with the hopes that I might find possible continuations for Black.
afmtxg
Apr 18, 2014
I couldn't think of a title that adequately matches my sentiments regarding this game. This game is beautiful. This game is historic. Steinitz didn't win the match- indeed, Lasker, true to his style of playing the opponent more than the board, soon found and exploited Steinitz's weakness in queenless middlegames when the match went to Philadelphia. Nonetheless, Steinitz was a formidable opponent, even in his advanced age. Even if the masters of old might be fodder to the average A-Class player nowadays, the World Champions, no matter the era, were always timeless.
afmtxg
Apr 17, 2014
With the Gashimov Memorial to start on Sunday, it is only fitting to look back on the games of one of Azerbaijan's greatest chess heroes, the late Vugar Gashimov. In the following game, he quickly destroys the solid Petroff Defense with his heavy pieces. Anyone interested in developing a sharp attacking style, or studying defense through counter attack, Gashimov's games are strongly recommended.
afmtxg
Apr 17, 2014
I've been turning to the French Defense more and more, though I still have quite a bit of theory to brush up on before I consider myself "fluent in French" (sorry about the pun). Either way, I had a fascinating blitz game that resulted in a few positions that seemed contrived. Nonetheless, I quickly analyzed my opponent's mistakes and found that, despite the "beauty" of my moves, many of them were very inaccurate. In fact, White could have fought for a while had it not been for one mistake. What I also find helpful about this particular game was the necessity for puzzle-like accuracy in some of the variations.
afmtxg
Apr 10, 2014
In the last post, we saw Smyslov play the Neo Grunfeld Defense against White and win easily. Thus, I thought it was only fair to provide a game where Smyslov played White in the Neo Grunfeld. This way, we can study how Syslov would have approached the ideas from the White perspective.
afmtxg
Apr 8, 2014
The "octopus knight" idea (a knight that can reach 8 squares, generally one that is imposing on the enemy position) is most famously demonstrated by the 16th game of the 1985 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. If you haven't seen that game before, leave. Now. Go watch a video of it or find the moves on a PGN. It's brilliant.
This game, played decades earlier, demonstrates a similar idea. In it, Smyslov coordinates his pieces beautiful to create a forward outpost for his knight and constrict the amount of space Katetov has on the board until Katetov, playing white, is confined to his first three ranks.
afmtxg
Apr 8, 2014
I recently played an odd game as Black against the Bishop's Opening. There were some positions that I felt lost in, or ones that seemed to have clusters of my own pieces supporting each other, but not really supporting the center. I believe my opponent may have missed some opportunities to capitalize on this, but I can't quite find any blatant errors (until, when under time pressure, he misclicked on his queen).
afmtxg
Apr 7, 2014
This is an instructive game that shows the dynamic possibilities for black in the sveshnikov sicilian. First black covers his weakness (d5) and gains a central majority. He played ambitiously to get his pawn center active, sacrificing a pawn in the process. This translated into a strong kingside attack and once white created some unnecessary weaknesses the game was in black's hands.
Elubas
Apr 6, 2014
So I've been playing a lot of 1 minute blitz lately. Maybe I haven't been very diligent in my chess studies, but I suppose lessons can be gleaned from any game, regardless of time control. In a few short moves, I was able to Zugzwang my opponent while almost no material had been removed from the board. I thought that the position might be entertaining, so I'm sharing it.
afmtxg
Apr 4, 2014
The following game is an example of, well, a lot. It's a long game, and I will most likely be revisiting this post to update my/our analysis of the game. It starts with Nimzovich playing a very odd and rare line in the French Defense. In fact, this game was the earliest listed example of the variation in the chess.com database. Throughout the game, the advantages Nimzovich creates for himself are transferred into new advantages once the original ones start to expire. The game is a good example of how a player may oftentimes need to transition from winning in one way into a different advantage, as many times some positional features may diminish in strength as a game goes on.
afmtxg
Mar 31, 2014
This game came from the solid hedgehog defense. It's an excellent opening for studying strategy, deep maneouvers and flexibility for both sides. Black for the most part played toward a decent plan but eventually made a few inaccurate moves and all of a sudden black couldn't get in any pawn breaks so had to go for a desperate sac. It gave him a strong knight on e4 and he got a strong center but suprisingly it actually wasn't all that dangerous, probably because his army still wasn't working together.
afmtxg
Mar 27, 2014
I have a bit of a history against the Scotch Game. Namely, in high school I can remember at least two occasions when, after having thoroughly preparing lines in the closed Ruy Lopez (I've now jumped on the Berlin bandwagon), I was presented with 3. d4. I was thoroughly crushed both times, though the second time, I was semi-prepared to go into the Classical Scotch lines as Black (though I hadn't practiced it much). As of now, I'm considering switching to the Schmidt Variation after seeing how well Anatoly Karpov has scored in the Mieses line.
At the very least, though, I can finally say I won a game (a blitz game) in the Classical Scotch, though not without my opponent missing a key move.
afmtxg
Mar 25, 2014
This blitz game is far from a well-played game. It has many errors by both sides, as well as many recoveries. You could say it's a humorous game. I found it funny in my post mortem. Hopefully everyone else will appreciate the humor, too.
afmtxg
Mar 23, 2014
We've already looked at how Kasparov defanged the Dutch Defense as white against Nigel Short. It only seems appropriate, then, to examine how Karpov approaches the Dutch Defense as White. It should be noted that neither player has a single game listed on this site where they play it as Black.
afmtxg
Mar 23, 2014
We already saw earlier how the Dutch Defense can create bizarre attacks and punish passive White openings. Yet there is a reason it is falling out of favor (and has been for a while)- opening theory has caught up to it. Themes from older variations, like the Blackburne variation, have been proven true and the top GMs of the last 20-30 years have discovered that White can make due with a flexible set up and activity on the Queen side, rather than targetting the center and king side with Black (for a good study on the development of that theme for White, look into the World Championship matches between Smyslov and Botvinnik). First, we'll look at how Kasparov beats Nigel Short with the White pieces in the Dutch Defense. In 1987. In 61 moves. Twice. It's a little eery. If you want to search these games, make sure to look at the location or ECO numbers as everything else is the same.
afmtxg
Mar 15, 2014
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