Daily Analysis from an improving player #2

above is a game i played today where I should have won. and there were repeated places where i could have taken a significant advantage, but I was rushed and in the wrong mindset and it cost me. I am posting my own analysis and thought processes to be brutally reviewed by some better players so that maybe I can stop being so terrible at chess. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to post here as seeing where i make mistakes both in and out of game is invaluable. Thanks in advance.

bxc6?!

Your play in the early opening was a bit passive... after Black's 4. ... bxc6, you replied with 5. d3. You could have played 5. d4 safely, or castle first and then play d4 (or even c3 and then d4).

I'm not convinced that your Q-side play against Black's broken Pawns really leads to much in the opening. That's more a late-middle-game or end-game theme. In the opening and early middle-game (ie: with lots of pieces still on the board), the dominant aspect of broken Pawns is that their collective mobility is reduced. *NOTE* If you aren't familiar with "collective mobility", then ask.

The actual weakness won't amount to much until some pieces are exchanged off.

So I wouldn't have thrown myself into that Q-side play right out of the gate. I would have played in the center, relying on the fact that Black will be reluctant to exchange off my centralized forces... because every exchange of pieces (all other things being equal) makes the weakness of those Pawns more of a factor.

6...Bg4?! 7.h3! Bh5? 8.g4!! +=

Yeah blueemu i know i tried to play on the queenside too early. at first I was just going to get some prep out the way for a queenside push later but then i got caught up in things and went for it at the wrong time. I will look up "collective mobility" as i've never heard the term before but I do think I understand what u mean by it. and to answer your two notes bronstein, I believe i mention them both in my own analysis, though I don't got into detail with the line involving h3.

As always thank you very much for the advice. I will especially keep in mind that simplifying against weakened pawn structures can increase the relevance of that weakness. I have never considered that before but it makes a lot of sense when I think about it. all added to my notes, thank you

Just a quick note to clarify the concept of "collective mobility".

Most of the players that I've talked to consider properties such as mobility or activity to be associated with individual pieces or Pawns... either a piece is active or it is not, and a passive piece represents a problem that needs to be corrected. That's the common view.

I look at things a bit differently. Activity and mobility are properties associated with entire constellations of Pawns and pieces. They are shared or pooled properties. Instead of thinking of individual pieces being active-or-passive, or individual Pawns being mobile-or-restricted, try looking at it from a collective viewpoint: an entire group of pieces sharing active and defensive duties between them, or a constellation of Pawns which have a certain potential for advancing while maintaining contact.

It is well known that broken Pawns have less mobility than intact Pawns. Here is an example:

Compare these two Pawn formations on the Queen's side:

In the second diagram, White's Pawns have been broken by a piece exchange on c3. This doubling of the c-Pawns reduces the collective mobility of the entire Pawn constellation. White can no longer support the c4-square with b2-b3. That means that the Pawns can no longer advance (ie: to c4) "under their own steam"... they will require the help of pieces in order to move forward. This becomes even more obvious if we add a Black Knight to the diagram:

Now the immobility of White's Pawns is painfully obvious. *NOTE* that in the first diagram, with healthy Pawns, White could simply kick that annoying Knight out with b2-b3.

The take-home lesson from this is that broken Pawns have two weak sides: exposure to capture (which is basically an end-game weakness) and limited mobility (which is a middle-game weakness). You can often play these two weaknesses off, one against the other, by exploiting the broken Pawns' limited mobility in the opening and middle-game, and your opponent will be reluctant to shake off the pressure by exchanging pieces since that will amplify the other weakness of broken Pawns: their vulnerability to capture in the end-game.

One other tip:

I don't know if you read chess books or not. If you were only going to read two chess books in your life, I would recommend "My System" by Nimzovich and "Pawn Power in Chess" by Kmoch.

After your play has improved a bit, read them again. Set up every diagram, and play over every game in the two books. You won't understand much the first time. You'll get more out of them the second time through. And even more the third time, after you have improved some more. Those two books have the unusual property that both a beginner and a Master can learn from them, and at each level of play you learn different things.

A word of caution about "Pawn Power". Kmoch was a madman. A lunatic. But brilliant. In one sense, the book is almost unreadable... Kmoch invents his own arcane terminology (Rams, Twins, Levers, Duos, Complexes, Sealers and Sweepers, etc) and sticks to it throughout the book. You'll need to learn... not just what those terms mean... but also to think in those terms, like Kmoch himself does. Otherwise you miss a lot of the implications. But if you can successfully digest Kmoch's squirming mass of verbiage, it will change the way you play chess. I was around 1200 strength when I first encountered those books, and I was still learning from them as I passed 2000 strength.

The Nimzovich book is more readable, but bear in mind that it was written around the time of the First World War, so the language is a bit archaic.

Thanks for the kind words, LuckyDan.

I'm not above a bit of gentle trolling, but if someone has a genuine question (as opposed to "How can my cat become a GM?"), I will usually try to help them.

that's for the explanation blueemu, and I'll see if I can get those books.