Help Alison With Her Terrible Moves

I just played a live 30 minute game that seems to follow a pattern with me - I demonstrate stronger chess ability than a given opponent throughout the game...and then make a series of horrendous errors that omit anything and everything I did right. Take a look - 

So there you go - there's not a lot of mystery as to why I lost this game - I made a bunch of really stupid moves in a won position......what do I do about this? I am getting killed by the most braindead of counterattacks while making right decisions that are much more complex......it's painful....so help Alison with her terrible moves. 

Wow, this is eerily similar to how I was. When I was like 1300-1600 USCF, I would always seem to know more than my opponents did. Yup, they would play Bg5 and then want to take on f6 because it was fun or something. Yet I would still lose to them half the time! Well, you gave yourself a good self-diagnosis: find the simple tactics. Because if you don't, you will erase many moves of hard work and smart decisions. It's as simple as that. Work on tactics. I used to dislike tactics and only like positional play. But one day I decided to get really passionate about tactics, take pride in every fork, pin, or sacrifice that I found. Once you get enough patterns, you won't miss simple stuff. And you'll often be able to win much more quickly and easily. You have a lot of potential, because you're doing well at the complex things in chess; now you just have to work on the simpler things :)

Regarding the ending at around move 29 I'll say a couple of things. First, you don't need to rush with the b pawn. You have all the time in the world to get your king in the center, gain space with your pawns, at no cost. That will only increase your chances of winning. Still, I guess here pushing the b pawn was ok, since on b2 you can always protect it, but when your opponent is helpless, it often doesn't hurt to improve your position before trying to do anything -- why not?

38...Rc1 keeps the rook in a good position, tying down the bishop and knight. 43...g5 is not the best because you are trading off pawns. The less pawns on the board the less targets available, which is not what the stronger side (you) wants. A plan like 43...e5, moving your king up to d5 maybe, pushing ...e4, stuff like that will really increase the pressure. You might even start attacking white's kingside with ...Rc3-f3, because why not grab more pawns? The more advantages you get, the harder it is for the opponent to try to swindle you, so it's always smart to get as many as you can.

Once you traded off too many pawns, you reduced your options. On move 55, you still have the b pawn, but that's it. All white has to do is stop the b pawn. If you had won some of white's kingside pawns instead, or tried to get a passed e pawn, white would have been overstretched trying to defend things from all over the board. I still think tactics are the most important thing by far, as your opponent simply does not deserve to win just because he found a fork or two, meanwhile he otherwise got outplayed :) Still, if you simply let your opponent do this, they will take advantage of you.

Also, in the final position there is actually still quite a bit of hope! White will take the rook and you will be down a piece, but there is only one pawn left. If you sacrificed your bishop for it at some point, white will have to know how to mate with bishop and knight, and trust me, at his level, he just doesn't. And that's just the worst case scenario. Your b2 pawn is still keeping white a bit tied up, meanwhile your king can move towards the g pawn. Or you could even try to push your e pawn. That position is definitely not resignable.

Awareness is half the battle. Once you realise you're making stupid errors that you know you shouldn't be letting yourself make, force yourself to think very carefully after each move in every game, no matter how obviously winning the position. It's never over until your opponent gives in. Now let's look at the game.

The first part is as you said. Accumulation of small advantages, etc etc, generally playing better than your opponent. While this is overall true, there is room for comment.

3...a6 is unnecessary. You shouldn't fear Bb5, as that means your opponent would've committed 2 moves to the bishop, and possibly a third; the potential of pins or captures on c6 are insignificant. Simple development is better.

5...Nf6 6. e5 doesn't feel particularly good or bad for either side, I'm kind of neutral about allowing this. Nevertheless, in these 2. Bc4 Sicilian-like things, black should be looking for the e6-d5 thrusts quickly. 5...d6 would be OK but slow; ...d5 is ideally done in one push, maybe even immediately. Black has options, all playable.

9...Nd4 is committal. d4 is not a true hole yet because white has the c3 pawn push available still. The time is not for action. One irritating thing about the bishop pair is that its influence takes very long to manifest; the side with the bishop pair should look to play the long and patient game. The way to go here would have been ...Bb7 and ...0-0 as you noted, then working for a rapid ...d5 break, opening the centre while white's a2-rook is offside. Your bishops would then have nice diagonals to look down.

Instead of 15...Bf6, there might have been an alternative, say 15...Rad8 16. Nxd4 Qxd4 and black can play for ...d5 while white needs some time to chase the monster out of d4. Not that saving the bishop pair is bad, but I personally favour a strong queen on d4 over having the bishop pair and allowing white to potentially get in Re1 and d4 or something.

I don't think 21...Rfd8 works; simply 22. Rbd1 and the exchange is not lost. Most of the time simple is best; I've lost too many times by playing fancily without calculating it through.

After move 29 is the ending. Elubas covered good points, I'll just reiterate and bring in a few.

- Bring in your king. Whether it's to infiltrate the kingside or support your b-pawn, your king can do a lot of work, more so than the rook sometimes.

- Don't push pawns too fast. It's easier to hold onto pawns when they're closer to you, and only push them forward when you can secure their future. Pushing them hastily won't promote them faster.

- Try not to trade pawns too fast. It only reduces your options later - in fact all pawn moves should be held in reserve unless they actually improve your position.

- Bring in your king. This is just so important. You left your king on f8 until move 48 (!); if you had taken the time to improve its position before pushing pawns, the game would've been easy. Imagine the position after 43...g5 with your king on h5, or the position after 48. fxg4 with your king on f4. Improving king position is usually the first thing to do in any endgame, pushing pawns usually the last thing once all other pieces are optimally located.

Your position was actually still winning right up to the last move (55...Rg8 etc - the b and e pawns might be enough to win.) The loss was due to simple tactical oversights, although there was also some lack of technique in the ending.

Points to take away: Never let your (tactical) guard down until the clocks stop. In endings, improve your pieces' (and king's) position to the utmost before embarking on drastic pawn pushes or exchanges. "The king is a fighting piece; use it!"

Thanks for the encouraging, insightful, and helpful responses!

First, I'll say that Elubas is totally right about the final position being playable....I think this is a key deficiency - I get so disgusted with my own poor play that I forget that my opponent still has to justify their victory....in the bishop and knight mating scenario, this guy probably would have kicked me around the board with checks until I won on time.

I'm trying to force myself to do more tactics...my TT rating averages around 70 points lower than my USCF, but I'm making myself put in at least an hour a day now. I definitely have this horrible bias for positional themes over tactics - I like to have the prettiest pieces on the board, and while I'm making my pieces pretty and reviewing weak squares, I'm missing caveman stuff and losing because of it.

I need to get a more practical way to study endgames - I'm working through a couple of books which are teaching me the basics of how to draw/win in certain extremely simple positions, but there isn't a lot of ink spilled on endings like the one I had in this game with a lot of pawns on the board along with imbalanced sides.....I get similar positions very frequently, and I feel like I don't evaluate candidate moves very well in them. I know about king activity intellectually (I played Kf8 thinking I'd move the king up on the dark squares), but it's easy to get sidetracked by the allure of a new queen. I will learn to be more patient. 

Wonderful responses both

Also 'these 2.Bc4 Sicilian-like things' is a very amusing description of the position :) I think this comes out of opponents who only ever play the fried liver attack and don't really know what else to do with white....that's my theory, anyway. 

Looks like you need some endgame technique. You were definitely on the plus side with your b-pawn but you did not place your pieces in the optimal position to 1) drive it home and 2) bring your king to the center and use the rook to attack the kingside pawns - partially to win material and partially to see if you can draw his king away from the b-pawn to make way for your king to help queen the pawn.

One of the things that frustrated me the most was that I actually had 15 minutes still on the clock when I resigned.....I tried very much to pace myself and not make moves hastily, but I think I committed the age old sin of relaxing when I have a theoretically 'winning' position - I thought my opponent was a fool and would just let me promote......which is just blind arrogance. 

On a happy-ish note, I did get a totally crude tactical sequence in one of my games, so my blade is sharpening. 

Oh, I thought this was a thread on dance moves...

It happens to me a lot. It's why I only play slow games anymore (60/15) so I have enough time to catch tactical tricks and avoid them, because all it takes is one to ruin a beautiful game.

There is a system for avoiding blunders. You simply look at any and all attacking moves your opponent can make and evaluate them quickly--doing this vigilantly is the key. Calculate any that catch your eye to see what they yield. After that's out of the way, look at positional ideas based on the position and pawn structure. It's t a miracle cure, but it does prevent the great maority of straight up blunders.

Also, you were in a hurry to Queen that pawn. When you have more material in an endgame, don't be so hasty. "Enjoy the position" so to speak.

3...a6? Youre more worried about what your opponent will do than what you can do.  Instead continue controlling the center, and developing your minor pieces toward the center.  Lets say you play 3...Nc6, and at some ppoint your opponent play Bc6.  Look at what you have for the doubled c-Pawns.

1. The Bishop pair

2. The c6 Pawn now covers d5, and b5

3. You have the semi-open b-file for your Rooks.

Thats a heck of a return on your investment.

LOL don't resign in that position! why?

a. The bishops are opposite coloured. This is a huge drawing factor in games.

b. Your opponent probably has absoluetly no idea how to mate with a knight and a bishop, so sac your bishop for the pawn and hope for the best is worst case senario. 

c. you have two pawns, both of which will be hard to remove.

I could probalby draw this position against 1600 and lower, even 1800's it's possibly. 2000+ would be insanely hard, but B+N is hard to deliver mate with. most people over 2000 could win with white, but there's always that chance...

Alison wrote: "So there you go - there's not a lot of mystery as to why I lost this game - I made a bunch of really stupid moves in a won position......what do I do about this?"

When you have a won game, take a moment to sit back and assess the best way to grind it out.  Build on your small advantages.  Leave complex tactical calculations to games with more time.

If I can do it, I aim for a winning king and pawn endgame.  The middle game is where you turn an opening advantage into a winnable endgame.

On the first game after 32...b2 you should have 33. Rd1+... Sacrificing the rook to promote the pawn to a queen.

After 38...Rd1+ white can play 39 Nd2 -- he doesn't have to take the rook. If that's the part you were referring to.

1. e4 c5 2. Bc4?! e6 3. d3?! d5 and Black is already better.

Some really good content in this thread. 

I honestly enjoyed your play very much and, for the most part, you did great and definitely outplayed your opponent. Complacency is a competitive chess player's worst possible quality. A series of good moves for the majority of the game followed by a nexus of complacent moves was something I've had (occasionally still do) to deal with. I remember Daniel Rensch mentioning that when you are ahead in material, your opponent's threats are your top priority.

What I like to do is pick a move intuitively and check possible threats in that position, and after I establish the possible threats in that position, it usually helps with establishing the threats in a position with a different move that could possibly be better.

If it makes you feel any better, I once mouse slipped into a losing position after an really tactical game where I was defending but slightly better:

If I remember correctly, Dan Heisman wrote an article where he stated that the difference in rating between a player who puts all his effort into the game 100% of the time and the same player putting all his effort into the game about 95% of the time is rather large. Here's the article: http://www.chess.com/blog/danheisman/the-95-conjecture

Good luck!

Another Dan Heisman article. I never knew of it when I needed it, and only came across it long after discovering for myself the ideas inside, but it is really one of the best things any beginner (or non-master!) could ever read.

How to win a won game. (Click)

think you are overcomplicating things a bit but well played mostly.