Game Analysis

I can see this new group having alot of potential in imporving alot of peoples chess with team work and cooperation, while having a lot of fun. One of the ideas I think we should look into is group analysis of live games we play against each other. My friend and I have been rivals for over 8 years now. We live long distance from each other but we play many games on live chess here, more importantly though is win lose or draw we use skype to comunicate and we review our games and try to help each other identify problems with each others plans and even just look for more concrete variations then what actually happened to win the game. I really think this has been instructive and helpful to our game. More instructive then when we refused to work together, in fear of improving each others games in a way that one of us ends up a distinctly stronger player.

My idea is analysing each others games as a group should bring a whole new level of quality to the analysis with everyone working on the same games and positions together, and equally everyone should be able to benefit from this. I know its trivial but I think it would be cool to watch the average rating of this group progresivly get higher and higher becuase we made an active attempt at improvement as a group.

I know time zones will very and not eveyone will be able to work together at the same time, but diffrent things could be done to work around that. Like making reusable notes made threw a group analysis that can be posted on the forum to be looked at when other groups or individuals do there own analysis of the game then any notes they have can be posted and shared. Theres proabably a million and one ways to make this a useful idea.

I play slow time controls becuase in the words of the Wu-tang clan. "Chess is like a sword fight. You must think before you move." Lucky for us not many people die from playing chess. So we should use that opportunity to take another look at our games and have all the time in the world to think before we move, after we move, then take it all back and think before we move again.

So hopefull atleast a few people will want to get the ball rolling and be apart of this and I think the best way to do it is by showing intrest here and posting or derecting us to there most interesting game that they might want to share and go over with a few people. Wether its a game you won or lost or took a draw no matter what the rating I think every game has its instructional value. So lets see what you got!

We have completed a game with G/60 time control yesterday with Maxamilion. We spent twenty minutes after the game for analyzing it together. It was more beneficial, and enjoyable than finishing a game in ten minutes , typing "gg" and start searching for another game.  

Of course analyzing the games as a group can be even better. I was thinking it could be great if we could watch the live games of each other when our schedules fit. Group members who are watching the game could analyze it together with the players after the game. Then we could post the game and the analysis to the group forum, and people who didn't have a chance to watch the game could view it, and contribute there. 

I know bringing people together wont be easy, but it is not impossible either. We just need to try and see if it works or not. Lets set a date and time, announce it, and see how it goes.

This is my game analysis on

StrategyKing420 vs. blazedondatcron

5/10/2010

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=23898305#

6. Nxd4, bd7 ( I think here it was safe to have continued devolepment with something like 7. Be3 or bf4 with different ideas. I think Be3 might have been best because of some possible tactics? Manly though I feel like my biggest downfall here was my development was two slow getting my bishop out would have just helped with my idea of castling queenside. Witch I never ended up getting to do.)

Still I think I was fine until move 9 were I started to work on a plan that I thought after the game must have been flawed but looking at it again I think maybe with a more acurate move order might have been ok? So in the game I wanted to fight for center control while hopfuly holding down the b file knowing it was going to be important to black because he can get there first. So anyways if you look at the game we had 9. Ne2, Qf6 10 f4?? (was really way to soon taking away my chances for castling kingside anytime soon. But My idea like I said was to try and take control of the center) …Ne7 11. C3, a5 14. a4 , O-O 13. Bd2 Rfb8 14. Qc2, Ra7 15. Nd4, Rab7 16 Rb1, Bxd4 and from there you can watch me fall apart lol.

So this is my idea hopefully executed a bit cleaner not leading to a complete loss lol. I will try and make what I feel is best moves for black without being biest to making my own plan work. But I am not a grandmaster that is why I hope people will take a look at this game and these notes and work with the position and see if we can get a good detailed analysis of this game. I know its not of high level quality. Here we go though.

New idea

9.Bd2, (again im not the strongest player so looking for black I see three simple ideas for black Bb4 hoping to trade the bishop that’s holding back the pawn that’s like isolated in a weird way on c6 without making the dark squard bishop too passive.like I feel it would be if we tried 9 Bd2, Bb6 after c5 the bishop seems really bad especially if white can dream of a4 a5 maybe you could aviod this but it seems long and not very logical to me. Still my logic might be what makes me a bad player. We could also play 9…Rb8 fighting for the semi open b file or 9… Nf6 just devoloping another piece and preparing to castle kingside soon. Or Ne7 with same idea of castling and having the knight hold some light squares. I think I would take this route for black) …Ne7 10. Qe2, O-O (here I wanted to castle long instantly but I saw some trouble with Bb4 then taking and Rb8 in some kind of order. So I decided for move 11 a3 preventing this for now hoping when I castle queenside if I can take the time to get my king to b1 without a white bishopfor ether of use I was hoping I would be able to hold a2 and c2 with the pawn looking over b3 for the time being. So maybe this would be a good reason to look at doing something with the blacks dark bishop early on move 9. Or other tries for black that Might easily be 100 times better then this line.) 11. a3, Rb2 12. O-O-O, (I think here a couple things to look at here would be Bd4 to take the knight or try and replace the bishop somewhere and maybe Re8? Im going to look at) …Qc8 (hmmm) 13. Na4 , Qb2 (I think it’s a stronger threat the Qa6 giving white the option to take the bishop and threaten the queen and trippling blacks pawns witch I think looks cool but I hear generaly is very weak right?) 14. (maybe here there might be something with e5 for white creating tension and I think 14. e5, dxe5 is a blunder? 15 Qxe5 forking the knight and bishop? Blacks queen cant defend because of white knight on a4 and pawn on a3 blacks knight cant defend so any knight moves wins the bishop and I feel like a good square for the White queen to work from on and before I get side tracked I think the only move for the black bishop is to win a pawn on f2 for the knight on e7 witch looks maybe even nastier for black with maybe problems coming with back rank mate. Now with that siad maybe e5 is actually stronger then I thought at first I orginally. Yea… no I think it still just creates tension I thought  if black ignores e5 and leaves the tention I thought exd6 was also winning if black recaptues with c7 it still hangs the knight on e7 but black simply take Bxd6 and I think black is holding ok here? So if exd6 isnt a concrete threat black should be able to hold the tention and white left behind control over f6 and d6 that blacks knight might be able to use so im going to wait on e5 here but maybe someone wants to look more into it. And go with Rde1 making space for my king incase black finds a way to ram that queen into b2 sometime soon.) 14.Rde1, Rfe8 (heres where Im going to stop and say my plan here for white is something like Rhf1 and f4 and try to make an atack on the kingside while watching my queenside where I think black should still have plenty of play here. Ive been doing this for almost 3 hours already typing out my ideas is of course whats slowing me down. Still this is my attempt at once again getting the ball rolling on this group working together by sharing my must recent trip to ouchtown. Im sure the lesson to be learned from this game opening wise is watch for moves that lose time in the opening I found myself tangled and two slow to handle the threats that came on the b file while I was also trying to take control of the middle. Atacking and defending only works if your actually defending while your atacking lol. In this case my king in the middle cuased me the most trouble in being able to hold my atack in the center of the board together while holding my oppenets atack on the queenside my position quickly fell.

So I really do hopesome bothered to read this far and will take a look at the game and comment on it most likely there will be plenty of places to make me look stupid even in my New Line or New Idea but that’s the point and its having the new line refuted and something better suggested is the point. Also I feel like the new line is very dinamic but roughly equal im only human though and sense I didn’t continue on with the analysis there maybe someone can continue from there and see if white can win the new position or does black hold or even find an advantage for himself still even with my so called “improvements” on my own play. Im sure everyone gets the idea of how to game analysis. But what I am not sure is that the move order will be clear with all the notes in between moves so heres the new line without interuption lol:

1.e4e5

2.Nf3Nc6

3.Nc3Bc5

4.Bb5d6

5.d4exd4

6.Nxd4Bd7

7.Nxc6Bxc6

8.Bxc6+bxc6

9.Bd2Ne7

10.Qe2O-O

11.a3Rb8

12.O-O-OQc8

13.Na4Qb7

14.Rde1Rfe8

I think http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=23898305# takes you straight to the actual game.

Theres probably a couple improvements later on that im sure I missed that might have been irrelevant but sense I continued fighting and didn’t resign I cant say there not relevant to compared to the opening improvements I tried to look for one that blazedondatcron pointed out to me was 21. Qxb4 could have possibly been improved with Rxa5 so maybe someone can take a look at this move and the rest of the end game and see if maybe I could have fought harder in the endgame. I am always trying to study endgame as it was a horrible gap in my game when I started to play chess again last February and I am still no master. So maybe with accurate play I could have still drawn but most likely even with 21 Rxa5 leaving me only 2 pawns down instead of three I think black was probably still just winning but chess is a complicated game. Anyways this is my contribution to my own idea of starting to work together to improve our thought process and chess by getting a vast view of ideas on games and positions played by each other. Hope this works out It took along time to write all this out but hopefully it will be useful and I had fun doing it.

I keep hearing in different way from different people that you have to lose 100-300 plus games that you truly care about to start the journey of becoming a strong player. I think extensive analysis of games is something that demonstrates caring. So even if you don’t participate in this group idea I still strongly suggest to always review your games quickly after while your thoughts of the position while you were playing were still in your head so when you notice mistakes or inaccuracy in your game you can remember the logic you had when you made the move and use that to adjust the thought process as need be. That’s it for my public analysis of this game. Peace!

Ps please forgive the misspelling and bad grammer this would have went from 3 hours to 6 hours real fast if I treated this like a formal essay and went back and edited everything lol. I hope for some instructive feedback!

Here is a game Maxamilion, and I played today. When he offered me a game, I asked him if G/30 time control was ok, but then we decided on G/60. I told him before we were starting that we probably wouldn't needed two hours to complete this game, and we had five minutes left on our clocks when the game was completed 

I am glad we didn't play with shorter time control, because we were going to be forced to rush it then. 

Move 8.Bb5, I made a mistake moving my bishop there. I ended up deciding between losing tempo, or capturing his knight. 10. Bxc6 wasn't a good idea either, which simply allowed him to bring his bishop sweet h1-a8 diagonal. Move 15. ..Nh5 , he blundered with his knight, though he kept putting pressure on me regardless of being a piece down. 

I would like to thank Paul (Paul211) here, who was giving his time for coaching me last couple weeks. He showed me the importance of being sure my king is safe before starting any attack. Of course this is common knowledge, and "do you need somebody else to show it to you?" , you may ask. But I have learned that, even when I thought I was protecting my king, I usually wasn't. I am mentioning it here, because I feel I was able to put some of the things I have learned into action in this game. After starting my attack move 31.b5, I was still trying to coordinate my pieces, so they can both keep protecting my king, and get to the positions where they can deliver their attack. 

In the past I would either defend my position, or attack, but would never think on how my pieces can do both at the same time, so it's a step towards right direction. 

Instead of writing a move by move analysis, I wanted to share with you my thoughts and experience. Anybody who wants to analyze the game further is welcome, and it is much appreciated.

Hermes3 vs. maxamilion

12 May 2010

An old school 4 knights game! I love this opening coined it for pretty much a year after I got over going for 4 move checkmates and what not. I didn’t really know anything about theory back then but now I think I kind of go overboard trying to learn opening theory I really want to see Daniel Resnch’s next videos on pawn structure more then anything but I keep up with all the new videos religously. It seems to fit perfectly that GM Roman Dzindzichashvili just had a new installment on his series on this opening come out this morning. Roman is definatly a player worth trying to understand I really recommend watching all videos on this opening if it’s a often used opening in both of you opening repertoire.

For those in the group who don’t have a premium membership for this website, I know money is a problem sometimes I personaly have to pay the 12.99 US a month for my diamond because I can barely afford that every month and am Not in a position right now to fork up the whole year purchase in one shot even though it’s the best deal they offer. Its on my birthday wishlist though =p. Seriously though if you don’t have a paid membership and your truly devioted to learning more about this game and are truly a fan it is so worth the struggle to keep the membership. The videos and tools they offer here are awesome and the extra perks here and there are very pleasant if you’re a fan of chess and not just a player. I watched the majority of the coverage of the matches between Anand and Topalov and it was truly the most fun I have ever had watching chess. All the GMs and Ims did a great job. Anyways sorry didn’t mean to make a pitch for chess.com lol. To the game.

I really don’t want to spend to much time on the theory for this opening I think talking about the game will be more important. Still I think its good to mention move 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 and I think here Roman said black can castle or play d5 with ideas of the same thing in a different order and play continues on from there fairly simply with a couple of bad moves to watch out for but mostly a pretty simple and equal position for both sides.  I havent checked game explore to see if theres any recent master lvl games that play this but I trust Roman to have been flawless in his analysis of this line. Anyways looked like a very solid line to me very drawish as I am sure it is intended to be but there is always a chance of outplaying you openent in any chess match. So that’s all I have on some opening theory.

What I really think is worth Talking about for a minuet is before black blundered the knight on move 15. I looked at this position breafly trying to figure out the plan for you here maxamillion. I am not sure exactly what your plan was here when you made this knight move but Im sure the idea was still to push the f7 pawn and try and do something over there.Witch was probably the right idea. I had a position like this similar to white where that abstract little pawn structure with the doubled pawns actually held a tight grip on the light squares on the queen side. I was able to trade a couple of minor pieces and play off that grip for if I remember  correctly a realy easy win. Here though I think that whites pieces might have been momentarly uncordinated enough to try and make something happen. I havent really calculated anything yet but what I notice right off the bat was that d5 was only eyeballed by two of whites pawns the e5 and c5 pawns. So I thought of something of the sort  after Re3 from white trying to untagle your pieces with putting you bishop on d7 trying to reroute your pieces to make an atack on the kingside while white will try and untagle the pieces in a to atack queenside but even though the dark squared bishop looks like it has plenty of room I feel like whites kingside is cramped for now and with the slightly akward looking rook on e3 and with blacks slight lead in development I think white opening up lines on that side could still benefit black but cuation will always be needed over there. Still with that said I think black will be faster with Bd7 maybe bring the rook over to the king f or g8 Ne8 where I think it will be flexible for a minuet providing some defense on the king side witch is a better roll for the knight then the rook anyways but it was kind of nice having the rook oppsite whites queen but the likely hood whites queen is staying on that file is low to me so now with the pices in there new places I really don’t think white would have found the way to stop the f7 push followed by the g and h pawn coming to reck whites king side with blacks major pieces looking past them to the white king. I really feel like theres not much going for white before black hung the knight. That’s why I didn’t actually play out my plan for black out move for move here is I couldn’t move for white so hopefully someone will look at where I want blacks pieces and try to organize whites pieces to stop this idea. I think the only way would be to find counterplay quickly on the queenside. I really feel black would untangle faster though and white will be defending in no time. So hopefully someone will look at this more.

Now something pretty I found in the end game that would have ruined black a good 12 moves faster. 38. Ra5, Bf3 39. Qe3, Rf5 is a blunder do to a tactic Zwischenzug translating to something like “intermediate move”  Demonstarted with Bxc7+!! replacing Nxf3 for move 40. So what happens here is black only has to way to respond to this check the worse variation is 40 Bxc7+ Kxc7 41.Qxe7+ anywhere the king moves is followed by the rook on f5 falling to white rook on a5. Aweful for black as GM Jesse Kraai would say “I can’t play chess like this” So the only other option 40. Bxc7+, Qxc7 41. Rxf5 and black can resiegn here. I don’t think this end game will be hard to win with good technique.

That’s about what I have to say on this game I hope it helps. Good game!

Fiveofswords I am really glad to see you put your two cents in here, with you being the top rated player in the group your analysis of us lower rated players will always be very helpful.

The four knights opening you showed is the move order I do go for in that line. except that wierd variation used to awenser Bc5. Looked simple and logical enough but Ive never seen it happen it my head. So im going to hold onto that one. Just lately I seem to be falling back words in 1 e4 e5 lines. Ive been playing c5 with black alot agianst 1 e4 like a good amount of people are now adays. So that along with trying to learn the brumfeld defence and a few other resources for black agianst 1 d4 when I get back to the old e4 e5 i played a 1000s times as a kid I sometimes draw a blank lol. I'm working hard to one day be able to pick and chose from the systems I play so hopefully with hard work it will just be a matter of time.

I'd love to play a few 60 minuet games with you just so I could have a couple of good loses to look over. I'll send you a friend request except it if your interested.

I also want to mention one idea I had in the game was to trade my dark squared bishop for the beast of a knight on what was it e5? This might have been a idea I need to look at more but avioded in the game for two reasons that seemed logical during the game. Reason one was bishop takes knight Rook takes Knight. I didnt like the idea of whites rooks coming to life on me quickly with whites queen already slightly centralized. Reason two was pawn takes bishop. I felt like the isolated pawn was a peice that represented stregth in the center for white but could later become more and more of a weakness. So I wanted to keep whites pawn isolated. There was also a third reason I came up with the idea that my black square bishop was also my better bishop based on the fact that the majority of my pawns were on light squares and thells pawns were mostly located on dark squares. Please please please correct me if I am wrong but I think thats like the defenition of a good bishop. So I avioded making that trade but maybe I should have considered it more. If anyone has any ideas on how those lines might go I would love to hear it.

So hopefully someone will do that for me becuase I am stumped or you could even just chime in nah you blew the opening there was no plan for black in the position where you started to blunder, and thats why you blundered you were just in trouble and suck at this game lol. I would accept that as a valid time to insult my game as long as there was some constructive pionts about the opening. That way the insult becomes more of a joke with some constructive critisism and not just a blantent insult. No one will continue to participate in this activity if it becomes a pissing contest. So we have to stay civilized.

On another note I really want to thank everyone who has been activily working within this thread. I would love to see more people getting active and posting there own games so we can work together on them. I really think theres no reason as individuals all of us cant reach expert and master level. Yet I think working together there is a better chance for us as a group to advance in rating at an accelerated rate then trying to master this complicated game alone. So I highly promote this thread and I am personally promising to try and take a look at every game and position that gets posted on this thread until its so out of control with participants that it would be physically impossible to do so. So please I would love to have to much on my plate to handle with this thread. Thatll be my first sign that this thread is serving its purpose.

Now another little treat I am working on is as a fan I am following the 2010 US championship going on right now between may 14-25 I am trying to keep track of the main table in every round and the games played by the elites here on chess.com participating in this tournament. ie GM Milekset Khachyian GM Jesse Kraai and IM Samuel Shankland.As a player I will be analysing these games becuase there is always something to be learned in every master level game. So for the benefit of the group I will be posting some of these games for us to work on together. I am looking forward to doing this for the group. Even though the idea is to review our own games to get us in good practice of looking at every game we play even if its not a game you post its always important to look at your past games. The sooner from the time the game was played the better so you still have an idea of what your thought process was during the game. I think it will be ok to trail off that idea and throw in some master level games as well. So keep a look out for these games to show up on the thread.

Agian I just want to thank everyone who has been activily participating in this thread, and to those who aren't your missing out on all the fun and the chance to get some help improving your chess knowledge so get with the programe eh. Nah just kidding no one is forced to do anything in this group I think we are pretty laid back like that. So until next time I decide to get all long winded, peace!

Alright for now all I have to say is even if you are running low on time and company is on the way you still have to look before you move or you might be getting checkmated. I totally missed the f7 square when I quckly evaluated my king safty. Still I cant give a reason for the pawn move I made even if f7 wasnt a problem for me so I cant say I didnt deserve the loss. If anyone has any comments on the opening and middle game Id love to hear them like I said I havent actually looked closly at this game yet. way out of my preperation for diffrent variations of the sicilian though. not that im some theory expert or something and my prep is all that great but still I have a general ideas of some plans for both sides and what not and this opening was definatly doobious for white and I actually mananged in my opinion to have managed to punish him for it. Take a look and have a luagh.

Really fast another note right off the bat move 5 instead of b5 d5 might have been a better try. Im sure most can see why

The game above is a game I played with the computer that used to be advertized as "Little Chess Partner" They have updated this programe I was playing it on hard shown to be rating 2000+. I want to know if anyone has any idea why this computer would play 19 Rg1 handing me the smothered mate. I was expecting Qxd6+ and white has a good position probably winning right? I feel the computer shouldnt have played a move that instantly lost unless it glitched or I am missing something after Qxd6+ but I have looked for a long time now and it looks fine to me. Anyone have any Ideas?

It's tough to program a computer to act at less than full strength.  Where do they cut off their muscles?  That said, Rg1 is the worst move on the board.  Maybe they were programmed to give you a few chances. 

Bd6+ is the real doozie though, simplest seems like QxQ and get white's knight to safety.  If black checks on f2 capturing leaves white a clear exchange to the good.

Thats exactly how I felt white should have sluaghtered me after trading queens. Instead blunders smothered checkmate. If only all experts played like this! lol I would blunder the exchange then make wack threats all the time. =p

It's a good strategy against inexperienced players, and unfortunately easy to get into such a bad habit.

Ok I'm following this thread now -- some pretty exciting games here... :D