Great idea! Combo tourney and analysis...I like! Great way to train! I'll be on vacation and I'm not sure if there will be cell service so I didn't join. I definitely will next time! Thanks for the invite! 😁
Groovy Training Camp - Standard with analysis 1
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Alright peeps, about halfway through round 1 and I'm seeing some good candidates for analysis. Won't make choices until the round is over though, but I thought I'd share some general thoughts from what I see so far:
1st: Rushing the Queen
I notice a lot of games many of you are rushing to get the queen out in play, so here is a fun statistic for you: in most cases (about 95%) the first one to come out with the queen loses. Why? Because so many moves and tempos are now wasted in defence of that exposed queen. It is tempting to go out early to try to stress the opponent or for some quick easy threats, but if your opponent makes the correct moves (and you should always assume they do), you end up wasting lots of time pulling the queen out of the firelines. In openings and early middle games the queen is a great defender controlling a lot of ground from the back, it's offensive power comes into play in late middle games and endgames where you have big open lines on the board and can set it up supported by minor pieces. I'm not good enough to tell you how to play, but I'll urge more of you to play a few games where you try to hold back on your queen a bit, keep it back in defence until you are in controll of the board.
2nd: Respect the power of the knight
A lot of us, myself included, get into trouble by not paying enough attention to the knights. As the most asymetrical mover on the board the knight is the piece you'll not intuitively spot as easy as a threat. This leads to some ugly forks or even checkmates coming from balanced and controlled positions. Take that extra time per move to check on the knights, where can they move and what do they threaten when moving there.
3rd: Change of plans
Having a plan with your moves is good, but don't get blind to what changes when your opponent moves, and what plans your opponent has. I saw several examples where moves had plans that won material, but the opponents plan won more material, where you checkmate in 4 moves, but your opponent checkmates in 3, or even where your plan works great, but following it blind shot you right passed that free shot at picking off a bigger target. Again I'm down at this rating with the rest of you, but a rule of thumb I try to use (but often forget) is: If your opponent makes the expected move, doublecheck your plan, if opponent does something unexpected, tripple-check and make the plan again from scratch. You might end up with the same plan, but at least you've checked it out.
And finally something I really suck at, always try to see what your opponents plan is before you go ahead with your plan, if he is winning in a few moves your grandmaster plan to win won't be worth much.
Okey, we're almost done with round 1, I'm going to select 3 or 4 matches out of the 120 games where we will go deeper. During today and tomorrow I'll make my final choices and ask the participants of the games themselves to make their first analysis. Once they have come through with their views, I'd like to see the rest of the Groovy community to chime in with their views. To get the most out of this, please refrain from using computer analysis for this excersize, as that would defeat the purpose of looking at how WE think.
I CAN reveal that these games are the hotlist I'm currently looking to select from. As mentioned before I'll be trying to use these as criteria for the final selection:
- I'd like to see at least 35-40+ moves so there are many phases of the game to look at.
- I'd like to see a balanced or back'n'forth game, don't see the use in analysing one player taking time to finally win the game that is clearly going that way anyway.
The games on my hotlist are:
GROUP 1:
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316838
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316832
GROUP 2:
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316782
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316778
GROUP 3:
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316726
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316716
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316700
GROUP 4:
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316696
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316684
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316654
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316658
http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=113316662
Okey, final choices for Round 1 are made, the following games will be analysed:
The participants have been notified and asked to input their anotaded games in the forum here.
In my game I think I got fortunate, I have been playing chess on line for over 10 years but still a beginner, my main problem is seeing ahead or what is coming. I know some standard openings and can see some patterns. In the game concerned I lost my Queen early by I have learned not to panic, I managed to get my opponents kings trapped on it's back rank be pawns and my bishop blocking a move inside, when I got my rook on the back rank the only move for my opponent was to block with his Queen and next move would have been check mate, so opponent resigned.
Most game I start with the same moves and then try to see how then develop.
Okey, I'll give a shot at analysing the game. I'll try to comment on some principals this game demonstrates too. I hope to see more people pointing out elements as well, and maybe some feedback of where I might be wrong or if you like this type of analysis from a fellow <1200 player.
Analysing the second game here, as always if this is to have any value we'll need several perspectives and discussion on these games. What are we learning, what are we missing, how do we get all of us up to the groovy+ group:
Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000167 EndHTML:0000005028 StartFragment:0000000454 EndFragment:0000005012
Sorry, I can't seem to work out how to insert comments next to each individual move....my IT skills are apparently as under-developed as my chess skills....
1 General plan at start is to advance a couple of central pawns, get both knights and bishops into play and castle to protect king within first 10 moves
2 Protecting pawn
4 Pawn unprotected so change plan and move knight for second time to capture
6 Move 5 was wasted move – maybe better to move to e3 in first place
8 Didn't notice that after 7 black had two pieces threatening e5 – maybe better to move c6 and just exchange knights rather than losing knight and pawn
11 Always struggle with what to do in this phase of game after I have developed a few pieces. Normally either wait for opponent to make mistake or get impatient and exchange pieces – in this case got impatient.
12 Planning to leave f and g pawns where they are to protect king, so moving rook in position for further development
13 Creating space for king to escape later if needed
14 See comment on move 11 don't really know what to do so just moving safely and waiting for mistake....but I didn't notice black 14 meant black queen now protected by bishop on diagonal
15 Same theory for my previous move – but this was very bad move. Left rook a1 exposed (black didn't notice luckily), but still in trouble as black queen can now attack my king protected by her bishop
17 Try to halt momentum by putting black in easy check
18 Offer knight exchange to get rid of black knight which is in threatening position (didn't notice it was also threatening my bishop)
20 Reacting to threat while capturing free pawn in process – queen now in good position to attack king but more by accident than design
22 Still no real plan so take the delayed knight exchange
23 For first time have a plan – now have two pieces attacking d7
26 Pawn unprotected so capture
27 As above
28 And again
30 Black now cant move queen without sacrificing rook
33 Trying to get queen round back of pawns – plan to check king and capture rook after king escapes
36 Don't know why I didnt take bishop with queen here.
38 Suspect this was my last chance to save the game although didn't realise it at the time and even now not sure what I should have done and when.
40 Have been focussing on attack for last 15 moves and not noticing black threats....this was my only move I think, although just delayed things for a couple of moves...nothing I could have done once it got to this stage I don't think, mistake was focussing to much on attack and not seeing his threat.
Great stuff cjduncan. To get the ball rolling I'll respond to a couple of things here with my own thoughts (only on your moves, hoping for a view from calico as well):
Thanks for taking the time to go through my game - the feedback is very useful.
I don't have much to add to your analysis of the other two games - overall if there is one thing that could be easily improved from all three games it is that pretty much every player made at least one really basic mistake which cost them a piece. I suspect that even without learning any new tactics or principles taking just an extra ten seconds per move would improve our play a lot. That's certainly true for me!
Jul 29, 2015
0
#12
Hi mrklin,
I am not sure how to add notes to the analysis, so I will do the same as cjduncan for my game against jimh2076.
1. Opening : King's Pawn Game : Leonardis Variation. (from Computer Analysis)
I tried to get my pawns out so I can open the way for my bishops. Perhaps I should have used my knights more in the beginning.
5. I again used my pawns too much and forgot to activate my other pieces so that I can get a good foothold in the game.
7. That was a real blunder, I am not sure why I played f5, perhaps to get closer to the other side?!
8 and 9. Again pawn movement. I should have played my bishops or knights.
10. Nb5. Computer analysis said "serious blunder". Should have played Bg5. I don't know why it was such a bad move. But I realize that Bg5 was a better move.
11. exd5. Computer said I should have taken his knight (Nxd4). His bishop would have taken my knight if I played that.
12. At this point I only had pawns out and all my remaining pieces were idle. That was a turning point as my opponent was in a better attacking position.
14. By this point I am just defending the whole time.
15-17. I made a good comeback by taking a few of his pieces.
18. I was in check and had no choice but to lose my queen.
21. Nxg7. Bad move by me, I just concentrated at checking him, but lost my knight in the process.
22. Trying to get my rook in the game, but both bishops were unused. I should have used my bishops more.
23. d6. Not a well thought out move.
25. Bb5. Too eager to get to the king. Should have tried to control the center.
31. Here my opponent was in a good position to finish the game, I was defending the whole time.
34. I thought I still had a chance, but my pieces were getting too few, and he still had his queen.
36. Almost thought I had him!
37. Should have moved back the bishop to put him in check again. Missed that one.
38 - 43. Running away, but at least I got his queen!
42-48. I realise that it could have been a draw, but I resigned.
Thanks jimh2076, well played!
Hey chucky_v, good to see you participate. Here is my take on the game, but I also would like others to chime in with their views, doesn't have to be a full analysis, could be looking at just a few moves or maybe discussing some points from the already posted analysis. Let's hear it folks.
Right boyos, new tourney coming online. What I want to do for this one is to pick out a few games each round, and have you all give your thoughts on the game. It would be really great if all of you could have a crack at analysing the chosen games (without computers) so we get a little look at how one thinks. Even better if the players of the chosen games can post their annotations. Once the tourney is done with round 1 I'll post here my choices for games in the first round for analysis, probably 2 or 3 of them, and I hope you'll all take part.
Tourney will be here: http://www.chess.com/tournament/groovy-training-camp---standard-with-analysis-1