How to improve from 1500 to 1700 on Chess.com Standard
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Mar 26, 2022
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#2
Hi, I would choose the following setup after white’s 8. Bd2 (c6, Qc7, Bg4, Nd7, and Rd8). I go for setups on how I can improve the placement of my pieces. The e5 pawn was weak so that’s my point of attack. White had a positional advantage after your Nc3, having two active bishops while your g7 bishop was inactive. Your queen exchange Qd1 also resulted in him gaining control of the important d file for his rooks. It was difficult for you to play after that. Hope that helps.
That helped a lot! Would you say it’s often a good idea to play c3/c6 when there is a semi or fully open d-file and develop the queen to c2/c7?
Additionally, was your sole strategy in improving the g7 bishop through targeting the e5 pawn - hoping to open up the diagonal? Would you have likely tried something else in addition?
Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask both where I went wrong in this game and what I can improve upon?
The first PGN is from the computer analysis. The second is annotated by me. It won’t let me load it on the chess.com analysis as I believe there is one minor error in the PGN text and I wouldn’t know how to fix it:
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "aram36"]
[Black "JamesY2525"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "8/8/4p3/4P3/6p1/K5P1/8/k1Q5 b - -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B08"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/ openings/Pirc-Defense- Classical-Variation-4...Bg7"]
[UTCDate "2022.03.25"]
[UTCTime "18:38:22"]
[WhiteElo "1713"]
[BlackElo "1532"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]
[Termination "aram36 won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "18:38:22"]
[EndDate "2022.03.25"]
[EndTime "20:06:01"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/ live/41972421335"]
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bd3 O-O 6. e5 dxe5 7. dxe5 Nd5 8. Bd2
Nc6 9. Be4 Nxc3 10. Bxc3 Qxd1+ 11. Rxd1 Nd8 12. O-O c6 {INACCURACY (+1.31)}
({(+0.28) The best move was} 12... Ne6 13. Bb4 c5 14. Bd2 Rb8 15. Rfe1 b6 16. h4
Rd8 17. g3 Bd7 18. b3 Nc7 19. Be3 Bg4 20. Kg2 Rxd1 21. Rxd1) 13. Rd3 {INACCURACY
(+0.03)} ({(+1.31) The best move was} 13. Bb4 Be6 14. Bxe7 Re8 15. Bd6 f5 16.
exf6 Bxf6 17. Be5 Bxe5 18. Nxe5 Nf7 19. Nxf7 Bxf7 20. f3 Bxa2 21. Rd7) 13... Bg4
14. h3 Bxf3 $16 {INACCURACY (+1.71)} ({(+0.65) The best move was} 14... Be6 15.
Re1 Rc8 16. Ng5 h6 17. Nxe6 Nxe6 18. Rd7 Rc7 19. Rxc7 Nxc7 20. Rd1 Rb8 21. Rd7
Nb5 22. Bb4 Bxe5 23. a4 f5 24. Bf3) 15. Bxf3 f5 {INACCURACY (+3.21)} ({(+1.70)
The best move was} 15... Ne6 16. Rd7 Nc5 17. Rxe7 Rfe8 18. Rxe8+ Rxe8 19. Re1
Na4 20. Bd4 Rd8 21. Bxa7 Nxb2 22. e6 fxe6 23. Bg4 e5 24. Bb6 Rd2 25. Be6+ Kf8
26. Bb3 Bf6 27. Ba5 Rd1 28. Rxd1) 16. Rfd1 Re8 17. Rd7 Rc8 {INACCURACY (+4.17)}
({(+2.98) The best move was} 17... Kf8 18. Be2 Ne6 19. Rxb7 Nc5 20. Rb4 Ne4 21.
f4 Bh6 22. Bf3 Nxc3 23. bxc3 Red8 24. Rd3 Rxd3 25. cxd3 Rd8 26. Be2 c5 27. Rc4
Rb8 28. Kf2 Rb2 29. Kf3 Rxa2 30. Rxc5) 18. Be2 e6 {INACCURACY (+4.90)} ({(+3.40)
The best move was} 18... Kf8 19. f4 Ne6 20. Rxb7 Nxf4 21. Bc4 a6 22. Rdd7 Nd5
23. Bd4 Red8 24. Bxa6 Rxd7 25. Rxd7 Ra8 26. Bb7 Ra4 27. Bxc6 Rxd4 28. Rd8+ Kf7)
19. f4 Bf8 20. Bc4 $2 {MISTAKE (+3.08)} ({(+4.77) The best move was} 20. Kf1 c5
21. a4 c4 22. h4 h5 23. a5 Be7 24. a6 bxa6 25. Ra1 Bxh4 26. Rxa6 Be7 27. Raxa7)
20... Bc5+ {INACCURACY (+4.17)} ({(+3.08) The best move was} 20... b5 21. Be2
Nf7 22. Kf1 Re7 23. Rxe7 Bxe7 24. Rd7 Bc5 25. Be1 Be3 26. g3 g5 27. Bh5 Rf8 28.
Re7 Nd8 29. Bc3 Bb6) 21. Bd4 Bxd4+ 22. R1xd4 b5 23. Be2 Ra8 24. Bf3 a5 25. Rc7
Rf8 26. Rdd7 Rf7 27. Bxc6 Rxd7 28. Bxd7 b4 29. Kf2 a4 30. Bxa4 $4 $12 {BLUNDER
(+0.14)} ({(+5.26) The best move was} 30. Rc8 Rxc8 31. Bxc8 Kf8 32. Bd7 a3 33.
bxa3 bxa3 34. h4 h6 35. Ke3 g5 36. fxg5 hxg5 37. hxg5 Nf7 38. g6 Kg7 39. gxf7
Kxf7 40. Kf3) 30... Rxa4 31. Rc8 Rxa2 32. Rxd8+ Kg7 33. Ke3 Rxb2 34. Rd2 b3 35.
c4 Rc2 $4 $16 {BLUNDER (+5.30)} ({(+0.13) The best move was} 35... Ra2 36. Rd7+ Kf8
37. Rxh7 Rxg2 38. Rb7 Rc2 39. Kd3 Rf2 40. Kd4 Rxf4+ 41. Kc5 Re4 42. Kd6 Rxc4 43.
Kxe6 Rc6+ 44. Kd7 Rc2 45. Kd6 f4 46. Rxb3 Kg7) 36. Rxc2 bxc2 37. Kd2 c1=$146 $2
{MISTAKE (+6.55)} ({(+3.73) The best move was} 37... h6 38. Kxc2 g5 39. fxg5
hxg5 40. Kd3 Kf7 41. Kd4 Ke7 42. Kc5) 38. Kxc1 Kf7 39. Kb2 Ke7 40. Kb3 Kd7 41.
c5 Kc7 42. Kb4 Kb7 {INACCURACY (+9.86)} ({(+7.51) The best move was} 42... Kc6
43. h4 Kd5 44. Kb5 Ke4 45. c6 Kxf4 46. c7 Kxe5 47. c8=Q f4 48. Qc7+ Kf5 49. Qg7
e5 50. Qxh7 Kf6 51. Kc5 g5 52. Qh6+ Kf5 53. Qxg5+ Ke4 54. g3 fxg3) 43. Kb5 Kc7
44. c6 Kb8 45. Kb6 h6 46. c7+ Kc8 47. Kc6 g5 48. fxg5 hxg5 49. Kd6 g4 50. hxg4
fxg4 51. g3 Kb7 □ 52. Kd7 Kb6 53. c8=Q Kb5 54. Kd6 Kb4 55. Qc5+ Kb3 56. Kc6
{FASTER MATE (♔ Mate in 11)} ({(♔ Mate in 7) Checkmate after} 56. Kxe6 Ka4 57.
Kd5 Kb3 58. e6 Ka4 59. e7 Kb3 60. e8=Q Kb2 61. Qb8+ Ka2 62. Qa5#) 56... Kb2 57.
Kb5 Kb3 58. Qc4+ Kb2 59. Kb4 Kb1 60. Ka3 Ka1 □ 61. Qc1# 1-0
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "aram36"]
[Black "JamesY2525"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "8/8/4p3/4P3/6p1/K5P1/8/k1Q5 b - -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B08"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/ openings/Pirc-Defense- Classical-Variation-4...Bg7"]
[UTCDate "2022.03.25"]
[UTCTime "18:38:22"]
[WhiteElo "1713"]
[BlackElo "1532"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]
[Termination "aram36 won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "18:38:22"]
[EndDate "2022.03.25"]
[EndTime "20:06:01"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/ live/41972421335"]
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bd3 O-O { This is where my knowledge of theory ended. I believe this is the Classical Pirc as recommended by the Pirc Defense series by Mac Molner here on Chess.com } 6. e5 { This is a line I haven’t come across before. It seems like a mistake as it will result in a weak pawn on the e5 square after trading pawns } dxe5 7. dxe5 { I considered Ng4 but calculated that after (7… Ng4 8. Bf4 Nc6 9. Qe2), there aren’t enough attackers on the e5 pawn to warrant the knights awkward placement on g4 } Nd5 8. Bd2
Nc6 9. Be4 Nxc3?! { Here I made an impulsive move and didn’t consider that the bishop would recapture the knight. I had erroneously thought that I would win the e5 pawn, but it wasn’t that simple } 10. Bxc3 Qxd1+?! { This trade gives up control of the open D file for no compensation, I might even say that this was between an inaccuracy and a mistake } 11. Rxd1 Nd8 { I wanted to eventually move the knight to e6, Nb8 would likely have been better } 12. O-O c6 13. Rd3 13... Bg4? { This is a case of just making theoretical moves without taking the implications of the position into consideration. The chess.com engine prefers the bishop to go to e6 after the next move, so it seems best to go there in the first place }
14. h3 Bxf3?! { Better would be Be6 as recommended by the computer } 15. Bxf3 f5 { Because of falsely trading bishops, my d7 square was incredibly weak and my knight wasn’t too hot, here I felt as though I was already lost but tried to defend as best as I could, I hoped that I could eventually free the knight by moving to f7 } 16. Rfd1 Re8 { I knew that Rd7 was coming so I wanted to play Re8 followed by e6. If I was not careful, the d7 rook could go to e7 and this would likely lose the lawn as my rooks aren’t connected } 17. Rd7 Rc8 { I wanted to defend the c6 pawn so I could think about eventually going a6, b5, and then c5-c4 } 18. Be2 e6
19. f4 Bf8 20. Bc4
20... Bc5+ 21. Bd4 Bxd4+ 22. R1xd4 b5 23. Be2 Ra8 { I was getting suffocated here and wanted to at least get some counterplay with my pawns, I did not see the next move - Bf3 which makes my c6 pawn hard to defend 24. Bf3 a5 25. Rc7!
Rf8 { As a result of my opponents great move, I knew the first material was inevitably going to fall. I wanted to prevent any quick mating threats on the 7th rank and make my opponent earn their win } 26. Rdd7 Rf7 27. Bxc6!Rxd7 28. Bxd7 b4 29. Kf2 a4 30. Bxa4??
30... Rxa4 31. Rc8 Rxa2 32. Rxd8+ Kg7 33. Ke3 Rxb2 34. Rd2 b3 { I had managed to somehow get to about an even game here, but I wasn’t sure how to proceed. In the next few moves I lacked focus and endgame technique which my opponent capitalized on } 35.
c4 Rc2 36. Rxc2 bxc2 37. Kd2 c1=N { I had fun with that one, the computer wasn’t so pleased with it } 38. Kxc1 Kf7 39. Kb2 Ke7 40. Kb3 Kd7 41.
c5 Kc7 42. Kb4 Kb7?{ From bad to worse, my endgame technique here was sloppy and left much to be desired } 43. Kb5 Kc7
44. c6 Kb8 45. Kb6 h6 46. c7+ Kc8 47. Kc6 g5 { I am now left with no good moves in my opinion } 48. fxg5 hxg5 49. Kd6 g4 50. hxg4
fxg4 51. g3 Kb7 52. Kd7 Kb6 53. c8=Q Kb5 54. Kd6 Kb4 55. Qc5+ Kb3 56. Kc6
56... Kb2 57.
Kb5 Kb3 58. Qc4+ Kb2 59. Kb4 Kb1 60. Ka3 Ka1 61. Qc1# 1-0 { I wanted him to earn the win. At my level of play there is always the chance of snagging a stalemate, so why not go for it. GG }
Thank you very much,
James