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Analysis about how to play against the English Attack in the Najdorf:

My game (post #58) was a Fischer-Sozin attack (6. Bc4) against the Sicilian Najdorf.

Awesome thanks!

Our club recently finished a 6. Bg5 Najdorf, here:

Murder on the h-file - Chess Forums - Chess.com

Cool thanks. Interesting to see how long you’ve been enjoying the Najdorf!

My only two FIDE-rated events were in 1973 and 74, and I played the Najdorf in both of them.

I'll resume the Your Move! series pretty soon. Please keep playing and sending in great games. In the meantime, check out my latest video where I play and analyze one of my own games!

Enjoyed your game in post 70. Slow games, commenting as you play, are great formats. Tell us what you see, what you think, what the options are are why! Those ideas are what most of us haven't grasped yet, so what seems obvious to you can be the gem we're missing. Personally, I think these are the most instructive videos that people put out as they show "what to think as you play". Post game analysis is more about "what to remember the next time you play", but then, the next time you still have to think what to play as you play.

...what the options are are why! should read "...what the options are are and why!" Sigh.

Thanks!

Don't thank me! I'm just acknowledging your contribution. And, Just so you know, after watching the above game you commented upon, I plucked up the courage to take on "Wally-bot" (one of the bots, as you may have guessed). I've played it probably 6 times now. I've lost most (won 2), but guess what, this came was one of those 2! Beat Wally once with Black, but now for the first time, won with the White Pieces.
Sometimes, the important lesson is just to try, rather than what to try. (sorry, feeling very Zen right now as I come off this high! Here's the score, I was losing at various points, but Wally let's me back in the game; as the bots do).

Here is another game that I played.

Back to the game with Owen’s defense. Bd3 f5 is fine for white, because if white captures on g2, white can play Qh6+. The resulting complications leave white better. this is an example line.

Hey guys,

I've started doing the Your Move! series on my Twitch stream. Follow my channel and turn on notifications to catch my next daily stream. Here's a follower's game I reviewed on my stream today which I also uploaded to YouTube as a highlight:

Hi Tom,

Just in case you revise "Your Move", I recently played the following game against one of the current "theme-bots" (Silas the Strong). Bot ratings are a bit suspect, but that aside, I think this might be a nice instructional game. In my non-expert opinion, the game was won by Black on move 6. ... Qh4+, making White's move 6. f3 a losing mistake. The options for White at that point are to get his king hunted out to the middle of the board as after Ke2, Qf2+ seems like it leads to what might be described as "rarely a good thing" ). The alternative is to block by g3, (as in the game), but Nxg3 seems like just exchanging one executioner for another. While white gives up the exchange and a pawn, I'm not sure there were better alternatives. I am pleased with this game for that one tactic, as I had calculated the various options, including the line that got played, and all of them looked good to me. After that, I think the game just flows really nicely into a straight forward conversion. Perhaps I've missed something, but I really don't see a way for White to recover, and Black's game more or less plays itself. There's a couple of moves in the endgame pawn play that could be improved. I don't need to save the a pawn for example and could have just continued the advance of my h pawn to queen more quickly. Also, my 2nd to last king move should have been to where it ends up for the mate anyway, but by that time I wasn't calculating and just playing it out.
Anyway, I think this is a nice game that shows one decisive tactical body blow, which then smoothly flows through to the consequences.

And in case you need it in text, here's the score:

[Event "Petroff's Defence; Steinitz Variation"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2024.02.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "silas-the-strong-Bot"]
[Black "AngusByers"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1650"]
[BlackElo "857"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. c3 d5 5. Nxe5 Bd6 6. f3 Qh4+ 7. g3 Nxg3
8. hxg3 Qxh1 9. Kd2 Qh2+ 10. Qe2 Qxe2+ 11. Kxe2 Bxe5 12. dxe5 O-O 13. Bd2
Re8 14. Kf2 Rxe5 15. Bf4 Re7 16. c4 dxc4 17. Bxc4 Be6 18. Be2 Nc6 19. Nc3
Rae8 20. Rc1 Nd4 21. Rd1 Nxe2 22. Nxe2 c6 23. Bg5 f6 24. Be3 Bxa2 25. Rd3
Bc4 26. Rc3 Bxe2 27. Kxe2 Rxe3+ 28. Rxe3 Rxe3+ 29. Kxe3 Kf7 30. Ke4 Ke6 31.
g4 b5 32. b4 g6 33. f4 f5+ 34. gxf5+ gxf5+ 35. Kf3 Kd5 36. Kf2 c5 37. bxc5
Kxc5 38. Ke3 Kd5 39. Kd3 a5 40. Kc3 Ke4 41. Kc2 Kxf4 42. Kd3 h5 43. Kd4 h4
44. Kc5 a4 45. Kxb5 a3 46. Kc4 a2 47. Kb3 a1=Q 48. Kc2 Qa3 49. Kd1 Qb2 50.
Ke1 Kf3 51. Kd1 Ke3 52. Ke1 Qc1#
0-1