Chess Games

Here is a 30|0 live game I played against a much higher rated player today. I was checkmated in 21 moves, but it felt much longer than that becuase of the time controls (my opponent in particular took very long between moves). Even though I was beaten early, I still feel like I played well (considering the strength of my opponent compared to mine). Any thoughts?

A few thoughts.

You lost in the middle game but you were not beated early. In another group where I sometimes play vote chess we have a vote chess game where we checkmated The Power of Chess in 16 moves. That is beaten early and that is beating one of the best vc teams on chess.com in 16 moves.

Second thought. Do you have one or two solid openings that you usually play with white; and do you have one or two solid openings that you know how to play against both e4 and d4? Having openings that you really play a lot makes it less complicated.

Do you ever play tactics rtrainer puzzles here on chess.com? They help and are fun also. I have played thousands of those.

Good game !!

I almost always respond to e4 with the Ruy Lopez or the Italian, and I've experimented with playing the Sicillian, but I should study queen pawn openings more, as I usually just play d5 and then don't have many openings to use after that. In those cases, I just use general knowledge of opening principles. I do Tactics Trainer daily (25 problems per day for my Gold Membership) and usually do well (though I have winning and losing streaks), as well as problems on chesstempo.com, and those have helped, but I still sometimes have trouble noticing these tactics while playing.

I just got back from playing this 30|0 online game. The opponent and I had similar ratings, and though I started out with a material advantage in the opening, I ended up having to sacrifice material for a strategic advantage that led to a win.

Good game Juliet !!

I got a win last night in my regular OTB games with friends. This opponent is a new guy named Fred. He is pretty good. Previously he had beat me in a close game and one not close game. In both of those games he had white. This was my turn to play white.

Fred didn't play his best, but I didn't play my best the last time he beat me either. 

Good game Dude. Indeed white has won the game, and very convincingly!

At a glance Ke7 could be met by taking the queen and I don't think that extended king could survive the queen and minor pieces for long. Ke8 would be even worse. Congrats!

Great game! Well-played by both parties.

Thanks f_b and Camberfoil!

Thought I share this game, as it shows a small amount of positional play and differant side castling. Sorry for the blabbering, thought I would share ideas and sights. If you see anything better please say. Happy new year. 

Good job frazer! 

I played two OTB games last night with my friend Josh. In the first game I had black and didn't feel like taking notation. I won that one. Then Josh wanted a rematch so I had white and did take notation. Here it is.

Josh didn't play real well, but a win is a win. 

I think our vote chess games have helped my OTB game.

The last two weeks I have player OTB with some guys who are close to me in skill but at least one is better than me. I have won 3 outta 4 of those games and the one I lost was real close and was against that guy who is better than me. 

Point is that other than Tactics Trainer puzzles and vote chess, I haven't done any study or practice in some time but I played better than expected those two nights.

 Moral of this game is not to get tunnel vision.

Zechek, real good game! Congratulations!

Good games dude! Thanks for sharing them :)

Zechek, excellent game! That game was reminiscent of one of Fischer's!

That was a good game, Zechek. I loved the positional strategy of the opening- I like games that have openings that violate opening rules for a better position later in the game.

I played this game in a team match for this group.  I have never been able to finish a game quite like this, and I really like it. Tell me what you think, etc.

I'm not sure how much of my win was because I played well versus because my opponent missed my mistakes.

Well Cabuji you played well and won. Your opponenet made some mistakes, but that happens in every game. Congratulations.

I think I would have played 12. dxe7 but you won and that's what counts.