Also if I didn't say earlier, this was a blitz game with a 5:5 time control.
I am great but I suck? Walk through my mind and please analyze my thoughts.
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I think instead of 7 Qc7 , Qb6 was better for a couple of reasons . it makes the bishop "unprotected" for one and is not going to be Xray by the DSB like happened in game . also it pressures d4. Once your opponent missed the tactic which is common in blitz game there was no more analysis needed really . whether blitz actually helps your chess is debateable, I dont think someone blundering a piece represents your skill that much . The reason some days you might play very well is because it's blitz and lots of mistakes happen . A longer game will help more to improve your game .
Migilla, as I stated before in most of my losing games I blunder badly. This game if I messed up I don't see where it is, thats why I posted it, not to show off. I want to see where I could have played better, in other words where is my thought process flawed making me move certain pieces for a flawed plan. Why post a game with bad blunders so you can just say, oh yeah, don't hang your piece like that..?
There is no "thought process" in blitz . Too little time , it is mainly intuition . There is no instructive value where your oppenent blunders a piece on move 14 and has no compensation . It is hard not to play perfectly when you are a piece up .
Something that might be noted. While most of the comments were logical, what they lack is depth. Most of the notes were on one or two move tactics, or were intuitive such as the ''march, march march'' or that you wanted to ''hulk smash his defense''.
I think the next step in progression, once you are consistently not dropping pieces, is to then create strategical consistency between your moves.
There was very little comment on ideas such as weak squares, prophylaxis, or tactical calculation beyond 2 moves. For example ..f6 doesnt work as well before castling because the knight can go to d3 where white has the knight on e2 defending the bishop as well, after Ng3 the pin works because white has lost a defender.
Thankyou BB_gum!!! Your comments are fantastic and what I'm looking for. Next time I will deffinately post a standard or correspondence game. I'm fairly new to posting so forgive me on posting a blitz game. Having said that, it is usually all I can squeeze in because of 3 kids. Thanks again BB_gum.
It might sound crazy and Your game was a nice game.
However, you did make some mistakes. That could of got you under some serious pressure. Your opponent just didn't do a good follow up. He played 1 slip up move that give you the chance to get into the fight.
I play the Caro-Kann. An it might sound strange but the move 4...Bf5 is seen as an inaccuracy or dubious move.
There are 4 acceptable moves for black in that position.
4...g6
4...Nf6
4...Nc6
or
4...Bg4 (pinning the knight)
However, 4...Bf5 is not one of those moves. It seems like having the bishop outside of the pawn chain in the Caro-Kann is the whole point of the Caro-Kann. Which is true. Yet in this position there is a problem with that idea.
The problem is your moving your bishop to early. An you do not know where it is best placed yet.
The second problem is if you do play 4...Bf5 you have to have a follow up to 2 critical lines.
Those 2 critical lines involve a c4 pawn push.
Either 5.c4 or 6.c4
In your game your opponent messed up. His line would of won a pawn if not more material. You both messed up to be fair.
His continuation was 5.Bb5+ your best move is Nd7 or Bd7. To block that check.
Since your bishop already moved to f5 I doubt you would move it back to d7. So you would more than likely play Nd7
5.Bb5+ Nd7
An than white would usually continue with 6.c4 and your position is still fairly equal.
In the game though that is not what you played.
5.Bb5+ Nc6 6.c4
and your position is on the ropes.
White is developing with tempo, he is faster in castling, he is hitting the center, and he is opening lines to put more pressure on you.
An engine might say white is +0.35 or even maybe 0.40
When you actually play that position is feels like +1000 for white.
The reason why is because when your knight goes to c6 you can't really add enough defenders to it.
If your knight went to d7 you can play Nf6 to add more defence or you can not move your e6 pawn becuase your bishop on f5 will still add defense to the d7 square. You have more defensive resources on d7 than c6.
Now after the move 6.c4 what white is planning to do is open the diagonal for his queen to add extreme pressure on you with moves like Qa5, Ne5, Bf4 and even Re1 becuase your king is still in the middle of the board.
If you count the attackers hitting c6 you will come to find out. He can have 3 pieces hitting c6 and you will have 1 pawn, 1 rook or 1 queen defending c6. You will lose something and what ever you lose will be bad. An your king will still be in the middle of the board. While white is castled with his rook on the E File with all kinds of discover attacks.
I would really consider other 4th move options or if you do play 4...Bf5 try and do some research on Nd7 against Bb5+.
It can save you for sure.
I just want to show you a position with basically similar features. Usually it can be done in the Exchange Caro-Kann as well. In this game I played bad and you will see how bad I played.
However, if you notice I delayed my bishop move. An by doing that I was able to find were its most useful at. It turned out to be most useful inside my pawn chain instead of outside of it.
When you look at your starting position at move 4 and my game starting position at move 4 you can see the only thing different is the knight on c3 vs knight on f3. So you can see it can be very flexible. By delaying my bishop. I found were it was most useful at.
X_PLAYER_J_X your comments were awesome, and your annotated game was brutally honest and hilarious. I usually develop the bishop outside the pawn chain as fast as I can because I want to play e6 and unleasn my other bishop. However your wait method makes sense, obviously, to see if it works somewhere else.
I like the g6 pawn move to prepare the bishop to have a more stable position when moved out. I have also noticed in a few other games I've played recently that pushing through the opening with memorized move orders doesn't work all the time. Usually those moves are good because of main line moves the opponent plays. In most of my games (lower rated players) main lines aren't used. I find that now if I use the general moves of an opening with a definitive plan (take hold of / attack / maintain center control) I play much better. This kind of goes into Godlike's comment.
I have to get out of 1 - 2 move plans, even in the opening where I move pieces to squares because that is what I memorized. Time to start playing some longer time controlled games.
As a low rated player, this is what I saw when I saw Bf5. Perhaps my thought process can be simpler to you.
Classically, the light squared bishop is the very last piece black developes, even in the caro-kann. The priority is the knights and castling kingside. Generally, there is very little that would cause you to flip black development on its head. Because I don't play the caro-kann (I tried it, it does not good to help my simple chess. I love it but I will start playing it later) I don't quite understand what everyone else is talking about with the ideas behind the caro-kann, but 4: ...Bf5 is a simple break of opening principles. This doesn't necesarrily mean it's a bad move, but when you break opening principles you have to have a logical and defendable reason to do so. The simple explanation that I see is that by playing Bf5, you were basically commiting yourself to e6 as well, and there was still time for e5 depending on what your opponent did. So it would be better to develope your knights and maybe even dark squared bishop first, thend develope the light squared bishop to a place that creates a commital pawn move.
xman720 wrote:
As a low rated player, this is what I saw when I saw Bf5. Perhaps my thought process can be simpler to you.
Classically, the light squared bishop is the very last piece black developes, even in the caro-kann. The priority is the knights and castling kingside. Generally, there is very little that would cause you to flip black development on its head. Because I don't play the caro-kann (I tried it, it does not good to help my simple chess. I love it but I will start playing it later) I don't quite understand what everyone else is talking about with the ideas behind the caro-kann, but 4: ...Bf5 is a simple break of opening principles. This doesn't necesarrily mean it's a bad move, but when you break opening principles you have to have a logical and defendable reason to do so. The simple explanation that I see is that by playing Bf5, you were basically commiting yourself to e6 as well, and there was still time for e5 depending on what your opponent did. So it would be better to develope your knights and maybe even dark squared bishop first, thend develope the light squared bishop to a place that creates a commital pawn move.
If you have ever played the French Defense before you will notice that often in the French the Light Square Bishop is considered the trouble piece(problem piece).
The reason is becuase of the early e6 than d5 pawn push which blocks in the Light Square Bishop.
1.e4 e6 = French Defense
The e6 moves helps support a d5 pawn push.
The Caro-Kann has a similar idea of playing d5. However, They try to avoid the problem Light Square Bishop.
They play c6 than d5 pawn push.
Instead of using e6 to block the bishop they use the c6 pawn as support.
Which is why in alot of Caro-Kann lines the Light Square Bishop gets developed. So his idea of bringing it out is a good idea. Its just in this specific position/structure it is better to wait with the bishop to figure out where it is better placed.
For example if you look at my game I played 4...Nf6 if my opponent responded with 5.Bb5+ my bishop would of not moved yet. So than I would be able to play Bd7 blocking.
Instead of having the issue the OP faced were he played Bf5 and than one of his recommended choices was to bring the bishop he just moved to f5 back to d7. It avoids that moving twice with the bishop scenerio.
Hello chess players, I would much appreciate some analysis on this game to help me improve. First of all, yes I did win this game. I debated for a while if this game should go into the showcase forum or here. The deciding factor was the fact that my average blitz rating is around 1000, and I thought in my mind that I played this game near perfectly. However if I’m playing perfect games from time to time then why is my rating not higher? Obviously I’m flawed in my thought processes during a game. Granted…I probably lose a copious amount of rating points due to horrible blunders.
I have annotated the game to walk you through my thoughts and you can bash them into smithereens if you feel so inclined. Enjoy!