Another live game I lost...any suggestions?

Hi guys please see the board below from a recent 15/10 game against a lower rated player on this site. As always I have contained my thoughts and would be really interested to know what any of you would play at move 20 as black - without the use of a computer. It was at this point I got a bit stuck and ended up losing from here.

Thanks in advance for any other advice you may have.... Dan

 

I’m a long way from expert but had a quick look. My comments are more about how i thought about it in the first few seconds rather than what the best moves/plans actually are. Hope it helps. Also interested what others think!

The computer top move h5 on move 20 occurred to me instantly. The knight has just been put in the way of your plan, you have an easy move to kick it, the knight has nowhere active to move forward to, so it will probably go backwards, and it doesn’t weaken your king too much. I’m not saying it’s obviously the best move, or even winning, but i think it’s an easy candidate move to find.

Given 10 seconds to think i would have played Qf6 on move 17. The white knights cannot attack your queen easily on that square and it can go later to the light square g6 where the knights can’t attack it and nor can white’s bishop. So it looks a safe, flexible attacking move with the same g2 attack possible. Putting the queen on g5 in the line of white’s bishop on c1 looks scary - the computer likes it but it requires calculation (ie time and effort) to be be happy with your queen there. Maybe that’s a positional style versus a tactical one.

Whites lack of light squared bishop is a source of other ideas for a plan. Put a rook on e4 in some positions???

Good luck with your analysis!

What I immediately notice at move 20 are the weakened dark squares around White's King. g3 is especially weak so if I were playing this position my plan would be to try to use that square for my pieces. h5 is a good way to start to kick his knight back and it also gives you the option to play h4 at some point to really clamp down on g3. Long term I'm thinking about these kind of checkmates: 

This can happen in endgames if your opponent leaves the back rank undefended and you have a Knight supported on g3. Another idea is to set up a Queen-Bishop battery on the h2-b8 diagonal and maneuver your Queen into h2.

Yeah I think h5 was the way to go mate, if all your pieces are on great squares then look at pawn moves. Don't be discouraged, your play up to move 20 was beautiful, what a position for black!

Stop dropping pieces and you should be fine.

Most attacks in chess follow a similar pattern: 1. The build-up, aiming all your pieces at the target and putting them on the best squares, 2. The build-down, so to speak, or the worsening of the opponent’s position, be it creating pawn weaknesses or restricting activity.  3. The breakthrough, the decisive combination or series of moves that takes advantage of all the build-up.

In this game, your initial build-up is great, but you try to cash in too quickly.  You could have done more to improve your position (or deconstruct your opponent's).  …h5 is the move others have mentioned, which kicks away the enemy Knight and gives you more room to play.  …Bd6 would also be good, as the Bishop eyes the very weak diagonal, and getting Qg3 in would threaten mate.  Also, moving the Bishop gives us the option of playing …c5, getting rid of White’s good knight but without losing our valuable Bishop.  Remember, pushing White's pieces away can be just as good as improving our own.

Bxd4 is a dubious move just because your Bishop is so strong.  With all of White’s pawns on light-squares, our Bishop has complete domination.  We should strive to complement the Bishop.  Even …Rxd4 is interesting, because your strong Bishop compensates the material disadvantage.  I don’t think it’s necessary yet, but it’s a move to consider.

My unprofessional opinion is that you rushed in, possibly because you were overthinking.  Looking at the time, you only used 90sec up until move 20, and you have a massive position.  Then you start thinking at 60sec a pop and end up needlessly sacrificing pieces.  If you really think it’s time for the knockout blow, invest five minutes, double-check, and then go for it.  If not, keep doing what you were doing before.

Here are my thoughts on the game, as usual.

 

- 5. Ng5?! attacks the f7 square, but that's about it. I doubt White has any thoughts of 6. Nxf7?! or 6. Bxf7+?! though. Other developmental moves on move 5 are better. As it turns out, the White knight is indeed sent back to f3 on move 11.

 

- Hard to say if 7. h3 is bad or not. Well this move indeed stops the obvious move from Black, but nothing more.

 

- It feels good that there is no more light-squared White bishop pointing at f7 on move 8, right? The price to pay, however, is allowing the d2 White knight to travel to c4 followed by the good defensive e3 square.

 

- I prefer 9...h6 followed by 10...Be6, though 9...a6 is ok.

 

- I do not quite like 10...b5 though, unless you are planning to move the dark-squared Black bishop to b7. The move 10...b5 encourages the c4 White knight to move to e3.

 

- I am having crazy thoughts and hallucinations now. By this I mean 13...Nxe4?! 14. dxe4 Bxe4, with Black probably having insufficient compensation for the sacrifice.

 

- Same old hallucinations with 14...Nxe4?!.

 

- Skipping several moves even though I considered sacrifices on those moves.

 

- I briefly looked at 18...Nxg2??, but then comes 19. Kxg2 Qg5+ 20. Ng4, and Black is busted.

 

- For some unknown reason, to me, 19. Qc2 looks weird, and I am now scanning the entire board to see if there are tactics for Black. Hmmm...well, maybe not.

 

- 20...Bxd4 is a plausible good idea, aimed at quickly mobilising Black's forces. Though, I have to accept pabs57's comments that the computer finds 20...h5 to be the best, and the rest of the players here have done a very good job of explaining the motives behind 20...h5. Moreover, Black must watch out for a possible move 21. g3 where the f4 Black knight may be lost. And of course, Black must watch out for the hanging c7 Black pawn.

 

- 22...Bxf3 is clearly a desperate attempt to create complications on the board. For some reason, I feel that you are starting to follow in my footsteps of making sacrifices. It almost worked out, but well, somehow White has sufficient personnel to deal with the attack. After that, it all goes downhill for Black.

Option A - 20... h5

Option B - 20... Rxd4 and go all out for the win.

Option C - resign.

Excellent advice. I find for every post such as this there often tends to be at least 3 or 4 more structured and helpful comments which IS the case here. Thanks to everyone else. I will dissect your no doubt well founded thoughts and return with some comments.

The problem you have is that your knight is pinned and is ready to be attacked. You simply have to play h5 to attack his knight. Either he moves the knight and gives your queen a square where she can unpin the knight while continuing to protect, or he attacks your pinned knight and it's a trade.

Rxd4 is reckless, and is basically resigning. When the pawn captures, it opens up a discovered attack on the bishop, while still the threat to the pinned knight exists, so this is surely losing. I considered it because it keeps the active bishop instead of a rook that is controlling a file where there's no action, but it really isn't good.

 

h5 or resign.

18... Qg5 is a poor move. You really shouldn't be happy to put your queen on the same diagonal as his bishop. The threat you pose is already dealt with, he has a knight on e3 guarding.

At move 19 you say you're happy with your position but you shouldn't be. His knights are very well placed. Ok, your knight occupies a nice square, but it can't hold that square for long enough to make a difference.

Ok you have a nice bishop pair, but what are they doing? The knights block one and a pawn blocks the other. They are being nullified.

You need to challenge his knights instead of threatening mates that are easy to defend against and result in your pieces being badly placed.

 

18... Ne6, get rid of one of his knights if possible, ideally without breaking your bishop pair. The queen can't really move too much out there with those patrolling the centre.

OK so Pabs, Vicariously-I and Strangemover, you all suggest h5, which was the computers best move but now I can actually see WHY thanks to your explanations. Yes I see it knocks the knight back, however more more importantly it might be possible to play h4 and then yes those holes around the king look ready to exploit. Especially as you say, SmithQ dropping the bishop back to d6, which looks very good even though it blocks the file for my rook - which isn't a huge problem and only temporary.

Vicariously-I thanks for the diagram, this clearly shows how those weak dark squares can be invaded. I hope to remember this kind of winning board when these squares offer themselves up - I have a dark squared bishop a queen and a pawn that can all help towards this goal so I should look for the weaknesses and then try and calculate how to pressure my opponent with the pieces I have. It seemed like I had the tools but just gave them up.

SmithyQ - excellent points well made as usual, really useful. I particularly took note of your last paragraph regarding time and sacrifices. I think lately I have been trying these sacrifices out as I have mentioned to you recently but not taking enough time to calculate what the outcome might be, good or bad. You are spot on that I should have spent longer at this point and found something better even if it wasn't h5 to begin with.

Playing h5 probably doesn't jump out to me straight away. Why? Because I am obviously still learning the game and forever being told not to move the pawns around my king. It creates gaps that cannot be prevented and allows my opponent better options to attack my king. Looking carefully at move 20 though I cannot see how white can make the most of this open square as it is guarded by the queen presently and white will have to deal with h5 by moving his knight first.

Lots to go over still, Eric and captaintugwash I will return with replies shortly...

LuckyDan74 wrote:

 

This is sound logic and applies in most cases. We don't want to move pawns that protect the king unless there is a very good reason for it. In this case, it seems like there is a very good reason for it... our knight is pinned and we need to do something about it.

LuckyDan, a game well played.  You, however, ran into trouble at move 20.  This happens to all of us.  I just recently lost a game where the last two moves I took almost a whole minute to think about it and the moves I ended up playing were bad moves and I lost the game.  (it was a 3-minute game)  

 

It happens to all chess players who have not learned the discipline of making a list of candidate moves to play before playing them and also considering your opponent's replies to each and every move, and possibly going down the tree in the lines you think might occur because your opponent has no other good options.  This cannot be learned in 3-minute time controls, nor can it be learned in 15|10 minute time controls.  Now in order to prove my theory, I need to play enough of these long games to get to expert level and also follow all the other advice Dan Heisman tells his students to follow.  A big chore for me, and anyone who plans to undertake the challenge of getting better at the best game ever created.

 

In my opinion, even if you do follow Dan Heisman's advice, and learn this skill, as well as listen to all his advice, you will still encounter "blocks" from time to time.  This especially happens to GM's.  The object is to not eliminate this but to greatly diminish the frequency at which it occurs.  Today I played probably 10 games, and only won 2 or 3.  I personally have a lot to learn.  We all have a lot to learn.  

 

This problem you faced on the board, was a tricky one, but remember, computers are a tool, and if it told you to play h5 then it was your duty as a chess player to figure out why by seeing the resultant position on the board.  I personally did just that and found a checkmate fairly easily.  I now ask you to do what you should have done before even opening your mouth here, run through what the computer told you to do, and see if you can figure out a way to win.  I did, in less than a minute.  

 

Silman preaches that we all should strive to learn how to detect imbalances in the position without even moving the pieces, however, before you get to that, one must first learn how to detect them while moving the pieces.  So, LuckyDan, get a board out, and move the pieces! 

 

The longer you resist not playing longer time controls, the more you will make these type of mistakes, and regardless what kind of game you play, 3 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, you will still make the same mistakes.  Of course, since I played a lot of blitz I am worse than you are in this.  So I predict if you follow the advice that was given to me, that I gave to you, you will develop into a much better chess player than I, but only if you step back, and learn the discipline, as well as, doing things, like going over the position on a real board first, instead of just asking everyone on chess.com forums what to do without doing the work yourself, that could have saved you time writing a post you would have already found an answer to.

 

Keep the games coming LuckyDan.  But remember, the real work, is always done on your own.  Your lucky to have found a few 2000 rated people to help you, as I probably would not have thought to play h5 myself I admit, so keep up the good work.  You seemed to have improved by 100 points since the last time we spoke.  Eventually, if I don't get my ass in gear, I will probably be left behind by you very quickly.  

 

Hint:  My solution, that I came up with, involved sacing a lot of material for mate.  (Note that I included the h5 knight kick at the start)  Maybe it would be hard for you to see... but now that I told you, maybe it won't!?!?!

Eric thanks for your thoughts and your time...

 

- I prefer 9...h6 followed by 10...Be6, though 9...a6 is ok.

 I am never really sure when to play h6 to kick a knight or bishop out. Here though a6 is an idiotic move because I can play b5 without having to support with a6 first. The piece I am trying to dislodge is a knight not a bishop! 

- I do not quite like 10...b5 though, unless you are planning to move the dark-squared Black bishop to b7. The move 10...b5 encourages the c4 White knight to move to e3.

 Hmm I suppose so but what harm is the knight doing on e3? Or is the fact it can move to a better square from there? 

- For some unknown reason, to me, 19. Qc2 looks weird, and I am now scanning the entire board to see if there are tactics for Black. Hmmm...well, maybe not.

Maybe it is because as captaintugwash said I have deliberately lined up my queen with the white bishop. At the time I was thinking mate on g2 but this looks foolish because of the knight on e3 again spotted by the previous poster. So I agree Qc2 is a weird move. I am not sure the best move here.... Bd6 maybe?

 

- 20...Bxd4 is a plausible good idea, aimed at quickly mobilising Black's forces. Though, I have to accept pabs57's comments that the computer finds 20...h5 to be the best, and the rest of the players here have done a very good job of explaining the motives behind 20...h5. Moreover, Black must watch out for a possible move 21. g3 where the f4 Black knight may be lost. And of course, Black must watch out for the hanging c7 Black pawn.

Yes let's face it Eric, it's not a good idea to play the move I played. I also did not spot the hanging c7 pawn unlike you

- 22...Bxf3 is clearly a desperate attempt to create complications on the board. For some reason, I feel that you are starting to follow in my footsteps of making sacrifices. It almost worked out, but well, somehow White has sufficient personnel to deal with the attack. After that, it all goes downhill for Black.

Yes I am trying more sacrifices but without enough time spent calculating. Perhaps it is your fault for showing me many missed opportunities in other games and of course checking back with the computer in some games haha! Live and learn eh?

 

Captaintugwash, thanks for these thoughts:

18... Qg5 is a poor move. You really shouldn't be happy to put your queen on the same diagonal as his bishop. The threat you pose is already dealt with, he has a knight on e3 guarding.

At move 19 you say you're happy with your position but you shouldn't be. His knights are very well placed. Ok, your knight occupies a nice square, but it can't hold that square for long enough to make a difference.

Ok you have a nice bishop pair, but what are they doing? The knights block one and a pawn blocks the other. They are being nullified.

You need to challenge his knights instead of threatening mates that are easy to defend against and result in your pieces being badly placed.

I agree with everything you say here. The position isn't as good as I first made out and there are things I need to deal with before any ridiculous sacrifices or check mates that don't exist or can be easily nullified.

 

9...a6 is not exactly needed here but you are probably used to providing defence in anticipation of other moves. I like kicking that g5 Black knight out first to prevent any complications on the kingside.

 

Usually we do not see White knights standing on e3 or Black knights standing on e6 (as it is on move 11 of the game) because at least three moves (for knights coming from b1/b8) or four moves (for knights coming from g1/g8) are required to get there, which is considered pretty many moves early in the game since the early portions of the game often call for developmental moves and not moving the same piece multiple times in a row. However, these are just guidelines to follow, and they are not those kind of hard and fast rules to commit to our minds. Look at the White knight on e3 on move 11. Its outreach and defence is really good (except for the fact that it temporarily blocks the full path of the light-squared c1 White bishop). Though White has spent three turns moving the White knight from b1 to e3, one of it is helped by the move 10...b5, though it is hard to put question to this move since it is in some way a kind of pawn storm attack on the queenside as well.

 

On move 19. the position appears to contain tactical possibilities for Black, and thus I spent a fair bit of time there (and I will definitely take a lot of time on that move if I were to play the same rapid game). Unfortunately, the time is not ripe yet, and no fruits can be collected yet. Hard to say if 19...Bd6 is good; White may move either of the White knights to the f5 square on move 20 or a few moves after. The computer suggests 19...Nh5 with an evaluation of -1.66 (advantage to Black). Also, the reason why you play 18...Qg5 is because if White skips a turn, then 19...Rxe3 wins a piece due to the checkmate threat being present (the e3 White knight defends the g2 square).

 

The issue is not exactly the c7 Black pawn, but rather the subsequent fork on f4 and b7 by the White queen from the c7 square. The c7 Black pawn is simply a bonus - White may have just played 22. Qc7 even without anything occupying the c7 square.

 

Okay it is probably my fault that I have influenced you to these sacrifices, but in a way it is good - at the very least, you have broken from the spell of fear of losing a big material for smaller ones. And in your case, other moves are no better, so probably creating complications is the best way to try and spoil your opponent's game. The next step if for you to calculate out the sacrifice to see what happens. Some sacrifices are meant to really be sacrifices, where the sacrificed piece never returns home (I mean you do not get a piece back for it), but for other tangible compensation. Other sacrifices are basically netting checkmates or big material gains at an initial activation energy of something relatively small.

Thanks Daybreak, great to hear from you again.

I lke what you say about it being my duty to find out why the best move was h5 haha! Some of these other guys have pretty much cleared this up now (and yes I am lucky to have friends here who are rated 1800+, 2000+ etc and for some reason they keep the advice and help coming - to be honest I really don't understand why more people don't ask for such help with losing games, there are so many good people here). I really couldn't see a checkmate from here, I got close but there always seemed to be a way for white to foil the attack. 

I am playing all types of time controls. I have played around 700 daily games (mainly through tournaments) for general improvement but my favourite time control is 30 minutes, of which I have played over 1000 games now and yes you are right, I have gone up around 150 points in the last 6 months, mainly thanks to the useful folk here and continuing to work on my tactics. I am also playing many blitz games at present so that I am exposing myself to as many games as possible to learn patterns and try and spot tactics quickly. Like you I am humble enough to realise that I will never master this game but I will keep persisting to get better, to enjoy the game, and as you say, I will keep the games coming

Thanks Micky. I didn't consider 20 ...h5 no  - there are lots of good moves I miss sadly. Looks so obvious afterwards doesn't it?

You are absolutely right about "getting my rook to the 7th rank" and even "bringing a rook to an open file", "not moving king pawns" etc. Sometimes I need to know when to break the rules or when to do something other than the standard idea. Difficult though especially when the clock is ticking. 

I can think of at least 3 recent games I have played where I just cannot think of what I need to do yet when I go back over the game it is so obvious!

The dark squares around whites king are very weak. You could have even landed a sac on h3 or g2...