How Do You Bust Through?

My opponent over at ICC did a number on me, taking away squares from my pieces with his pawns, making a bunch of pawn moves first and then locking down the center.  I finally got the bright idea to attack in the direction my pawns were pointing, which was queenside, and was able to pull a draw after 63 moves.

Time Control = 15 Minutes

My opponent had  5:03 on the clock to my 16.69 seconds!

Was there an easier way for me to bust through? What would you have done? Fritz 12 found my first mistake, bigger than an inaccuracy, at move 16 with Nd2. I had the right idea of going queenside, but Be3 would have been stronger.

Those guys play rough over at ICC. My 15 minute rating plummeted from the 1700's all the way down to the 1200's in just a few games.

You played too conservatively... you must seize a lot of territory with pieces while your opponent is pushing pawns. For example, you fianchetto your light bishop, which serves no purpose but to give your opponent an extra move. Put it on a diagonal that aims directly at the weakened pawn structure around black's king.

I'm getting NOWHERE with chess, whatsoever.

Inability to break through positionally was not the problem. As is almost always the case at our level, tactics were the problem.

On move 23, you speculatively sacced your knight for the rook pawn, losing materially and not really gaining any sort of initiative.

You then immediately exchange queens, losing the pawn back in the process. That's a full piece you are now down.

You won back 2 pawns with your opponent's tactical mistakes (and your taking advantage of them).

Then on move 37, you tried to push your passed pawn while leaving the bishop back. You left it exposed to a double-assault tactic, and lost that advantage. Now it's back to a piece for a pawn.

Your opponent mysteriously threw away his bishop, leaving you up a pawn.

Then you let him take take your pawn, another tactic missed, and all is even. Then you dropped another pawn to a tactic.

Then he kindly traded his last two pawns for your bishop. I don't know if that counts as a "tactic" or just a basic end-game misunderstanding. Either way, that sealed the draw.

Tactics tactics tactics tactics tactics. Study them, know them inside and out, and don't move without considering "is all my materially tacticall safe."

Thank you for taking the time to look at my game and making good, constructive comments.

How long did it take you to see all of that? It was a 63 mover! Maybe I don't want to know, but the way you wrote, it sounded effortless and automatic.

Will tactics training help with my weakness in calculation?

I can't calculate exchanges and tactics trainer doesn't seem to help. When there are many captures possible, I can't make sense of it all to know if I will be up or down the exchange when the clock is ticking.

I even struggle with this in correspondence chess, and have hung pieces when I have three days to think. So, this part may not be tactics, but some sort of chess-math, i.e., takes, takes, takes, oops...I will hang a knight if I push a pawn now, because a discovery attack is present after this capture. It gets complicated, thus hanging pieces can be so easy.

Does this chess-math come from years of playing experience and not tactics training?

Is 21. Bb6 instead of Nb6 better?

Musikamole, if you're not already familiar with this resource, you might want to take a look.  I really like Dan Heisman's monthly Novice Nook column, which is hosted and archived at chesscafe.com .  In particular, I remember two columns he wrote on counting for evaluating exchanges.  Here are some relevant links.

Novice Nook current column
Novice Nook column archive

The archived columns are PDF files.  In particular, look at these two columns:

A Counting Primer (April 2002)
Two Types of Counting Problems (April 2007)

Apologies if these are too simplistic for you.  In general, the Novice Nook columns are at just the right level for me where I can understand a fair amount if not most of what he's discussing and still learn something new.

Tactics training should help with exchanges eventually. I don't use the one on chess.com, but the one I do use (chess.emrald.net) will often have exchanges where only a certain move order will win material.

I don't want to say tactics training is everything to improvement at our level. But it's gotta be close to that.

I got lucky and played the first pick by my chess engines, 21.Nb6.

21.Nb6 gives White a +-(2.60) advantage.

21.Bb6 gives White a +- (2.20) advantage.

Both moves are playable. Here's the continuations.

I have a book by Dan Heisman and listen to his video lectures over at the Internet Chess Club. He is never too simplistic for me. A great teacher. Thanks for the links. I will download the files.

You are absolutely correct.

I broke with the wrong pawn. Dan Heisman covers what he calls break moves, and breaking with 9.e5 is exactly what is called for, followed by 9...Nfd7 10.exd6 cxd6.

10.Be3 is also just as good, followed by 10...Nc6 11.exd6 cxd6, or 10...dxe5 11.Nxe5 and so on. 

Regarding my premature queenside attack with b4, yep, playing Be3 would have been better. My idea with b2-b4 was to rip open the c-file. I felt cramped and got tired of all of those pawn moves by my opponent. I need to stick with the smarter plan of developing when possible.

Last, as to the fianchetto, I am experimenting with this system. I've seen other players use it over at ICC, but as you said, it might not have been a good approach in this game.

Thank you for your eagle eye on this position and your great analysis.

In my experience, from tactics training.  This can be done in a game, but that's a hard and not particularly efficient way of going about it.  

I've written a post about how I've used chess.com tactics trainer to improve my chess, which you may find useful:  http://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/tactics-trainer-use-suggestion

Executive Summary:

1. Turn off or hide the timer.  The goal is to get it right, (nearly) every time.  Only then is there any value in trying to go quicker.  
2. Play it like a slow game, and only make the first move once you've seen the line all the way through and know that it's solid.  This feels hard to do at first, but pays big dividends.
3. Don't worry about what "rating" you have in tactics trainer.  A better thought process is much more important than worrying about your tactics trainer score.  If you take this approach then your rating may plummet to start, which is fine.  Drilling basic tactics and playing them properly with no guessing is really good practice for improving your chess.

Thanks! I've been doing it all wrong. You just gave me the secret to how to use the tactics trainer on this site. This tactics trainer has been a huge frustration, as the timed test aspect stresses me out and I do make mistakes.

I'll forget all about the rating and pretend that it works like the one at chesstempo when set to standard. At chesstempo, they have a tactics trainer set to Blitz, which the chess.com one is set to, and also a tactics trainer that is set to slow play, as in, you can spend as much time as you want to on each problem and still chart your progress with a rating system.

Over at chesstempo, my tactics rating on the slow setting, they call it standard, is 1400.

I will read your article. A big thanks!

In combination with tactics training, I think you are only playing with half the pieces on the board: Your own. It's all well and good to learn about tactics and when to make your break moves and how to push your passed pawn and etc., but you also have to be looking at what your opponent is doing. That's probably even *more* important than learning what to do with your own tactics.

Try to think about your opponent's possible replies to your move before you make it. Say, "Okay, I've decided on this move. Once I make it, how can he respond?" You don't need to always predict exactly what move he will make, but you should be aware of all the possibilities. You should be surprised when your opponent makes a response that you hadn't considered.

The bad news is that it takes practice and discipline to do this well. The *good* news is that even when you begin doing it, it will be some of the easiest chess improvements you will ever make. You'll be shocked at how fast you get better.

Yep.

I'm so focused on completing my development before launching an attack. It has served me well against lower rated players, in that my superior development gives me much better attacking chances down the road.

With the better players, it is a different story. They see 1000 more mating patterns than I do, and also pay attention to my moves, finding all of the holes I have created after pushing pawns. They don't waste a single tempo. I got absolutely crushed over at ICC, going from a rating of 1765 to 1022 in just 12 games, losing every game! I was so angry and frustrated. I should have stopped after the first few losses, as I was sleepy as well, and the 15 minute games were going too fast for me to take in all of the information.  It was a horrible night of internet chess at ICC.

ICC does have a 45/45 time control, but dang, that is a very long time to sit down at a computer and play against someone you don't even know. I'd love to sit down with a friend at a pub and play a long game, but on the internet?

BTW - 45/45 means 45 minutes per side with 45 seconds added per move to the clock (increments). The game could go on for 2 hours or more! 

Look me up on ICC. KyleMayhugh. I play a lot of 45 45 there and we could find a time to play :)

Trust me, my ratings graph is hilarious like that. About once a month I'll have a night where I'm tired and I just keep loading up new games that I shouldn't even start, getting crushed, and repeating, thinking I can make it up. I drop a couple hundred points like that, then spend a few weeks building it back up.

You play 45/45 at ICC! I'm very interested to hear some of your experiences, as in, do you like it?  How much time should be set aside to be able to finish a game? With 45 second increments, I imagine a game could go on for 2 hours.

It can. One good game is your entire night of chess, which is what makes it fun.  After tactics training, that's where almost all of my improvement comes. It's a mental workout, stretching your chess brain.

What I do is get out a real board and play the game out on that, covering up the computer board until it is time to input my move. That way I get some OTB training in too.

D'oh, thanks Tony. That one comes up on the tactics trainer all the time too.

It has only taken me a year to start asking that question.