Improvement plan #10

Another loss. I didn't think I played that badly but I must have done. I have gone over the game again without the aid of a computer to try and improve my analysis skills and look at other variations with my own eyes. Although it isn't a very interesting game, I may have missed something important and so I thought it might be worth posting. Any thoughts are appreciated.

- So far I have nothing much to say for the first 9 moves.

- 10. cxb4 is not really necessary; I prefer leaving the pawn on c3 as it is. This pawn prevents the b4 and d4 squares from being occupied by either the knight or the bishop. As White I will play something like 10. Be3 (just my personal preference), with the ideas of having a pawn mass after 10...Bxe3 11. fxe3 and developing the b2 knight to d3 without having to block the path of the bishop temporarily.

- 11...Ng4 has not much purpose other than trying to attack f2, although this plan is also not good in the first place. At the moment the h2 square is sufficiently defended, and it is not easy to Black to invade White's kingside with the Black queen.

- 12. g3 was not exactly necessary, since the kingside is well defended and the possibility of Bh3 by Black at some point in the game is not very good for White. No need to be overly cautious in this position. As White, I would play 12. Nd4 (again, my personal preference, with the idea of the knight heading for the e3 square if necessary).

- 14...Bxf2+?! is not a very good sacrifice. I am sure that White's knight and bishop can overpower Black's rook at this stage, and Black's extra pawn is, well, not good enough as compensation. White is somewhat winning, but not fully winning yet, and must quickly develop the queenside forces into action.

- Contrary to your notations, I feel that there is a good degree of coordination amongst White's forces. After 16. Kxf2, White's pieces are somehow coordinated together even though the pieces are scattered all over. I actually like the king's position at f2 better than at g1, since White's bishop can move to e3 safely (protected by the king). All White needs to do is to develop his pieces without hanging any material.

- 17. Bc4 is actually more intuitive than 17. Be3 in light of Black's next move 17...Ne7, attacking the d5 bishop and the a4 pawn at the same time.

- Nothing much can be done by White on move 18 since the a4 pawn is dropping. The good news is that White no longer has to worry about that disturbing e7 knight. Black'ss 18...h6 was probably not the best move, considering that there is a free a4 pawn to be captured.

- 20. a5 ensures that the passed pawn remains fighting to the finish line. White is somewhat winning.

- 21. Bb7 or 21. Bc4 looks good. I would probably play 21. Bb7 Ra7 22. a6 and the a7 Black rook is trapped.

- After 22...Ra7, all White needs to do is to develop his pieces and protect the a-pawn adequately. This pawn can be decisive since the promotion threats can possibly cause Black to lose important turns trying to attack or catch the pawn, giving White the time to launch another attack of his own.

- 23...d5? obviously hangs the pawn with not much compensation. Now the e5 pawn is on its own, and with no d-pawn in play, the e4 square is completely controlled by White at the moment. White is winning at this point, without a doubt.

- After 26. Qxb4, the queenside of the board is fully dominated by White. Two passed pawns, bishop assisting the queenside and so on. Only White can win the game with best play by White and Black.

- On move 27, any reasonable move other than 27. Ne4?? should win the game. Perhaps as White, trading down should be ok, althogh I feel that the bishop performs very good guard duty for the a8 promotion square.

- White should defend the d3 pawn first. There is no hurry to promote the pawn since there are still many pieces guarding the squares towards promotion. The d3 pawn is actually vital to White's defence since this pawn prevents Black from playing e4 safely. 28. Qc4 or 28. Qe4 will do the job, forcing Black to either move the rook or defend the rook.

- After 28...Rxd3, Black is threatening to dislodge the great wall of defence by White, all due to the pin by the Black queen on the f3 knight. Simply moving the king out of the way with 29. Kg2 ensures that Black's e4 pawn push becomes ineffective.

- 29. Ne4? was the decisive mistake of the game. White has probably overlooked that the diagonal and horizontal lines towards the White king is completely exposed, and whatsmore the a1 rook can be in danger, as it actually happened in the game.

- 31...Qxa1? blows away the win. Surely the Black rook can take along a White knight with 31...Rxf3 to the graveyard?

- After 32. Nxd3, the game is completely equal, since White has two knights for Black's rook, but Black is also two pawns up.

- All the remaining moves up to 34. Kh3 is normal, and the game should end in a draw.

- 34...g5?! is not very good, as this actually weakens the Black pawns and exposes the Black king to some degree. White can simply play 35. Qf5 preventing 35...f5, and Black will find it hard to progress on the kingside. Having said that, it is worth noting that Black sets a checkmate trap if White is not very attentive.

- 35...Qf1# was something really unexpected, but it's a pity that the check cannot be blocked at all and White's king has run out of squares.

Thanks Eric,

I like your idea at move 10. Sometimes I find it difficult to keep the tension, not always but often.

Yes 12. g3 felt like a waste of a developing move, this was immediately obvious in my analysis.

Looking again perhaps I could have played Nbd4 at move 18? This would've enabled the queen to help out with the protection of the pawn at a4. I would lose the bishop on d5 most likely though.

Hmm nice combination at move 21 Eric, wish I had seen that rook trap!

Aaargh your comments at 23 and 26 leave me feeling disappointed, you felt that I was in a good position here. I am not sure during the game I was so optimistic!

Yes 28. Qc4 or Qe4 look very strong now. I will admit I did not spot that the d3 pawn was hanging which is a fundamental error by me.

Again you are right 29. I missed the check possibility along the diagonal even though I picked up on this weakness earlier in the game. Frustrating as a couple of bad moves in a row killed it for me here.

Move 31. I can only think that black missed the knight attacking his rook as it has just prevented a check? Obviously by moving his queen he lost sight of that fact that the knight could move again?

I think I should have spent more time at move 35, I had no idea there was a checkmate on. 

I have started to notice this in my games, a cluster of poor moves can completely throw a game for me, usually towards the end of games where my opponent can play tactics that I fail to see.

18. Nbd4 is okay, but the d5 bishop is already doing a very good job of pinning the f7 pawn, so you may not wish to trade it for the Black knight (the other bishop is not on g5 since 18. Nbd4 is played instead of 18. Bg5). In the end you traded the dark-squared bishop for the knight.

35...Qf1# was just unfortunate. All the squares around the king seems to be defended well, except for g2 (yes, it is a pity, there is that sense of injustice that Black can launch checkmate single-handedly (despite the fact that White's queen and knight are nearby). Surprisingly, the queen and the pawns prevent the White king from escaping safely.

To many players, positions are usually easier to process in the brain as the number of pieces on the board reduce, since there is less room for counterplay or unexpected moves. Take for example, an endgame of king and rook versus king is much easier to play than if White is simply up a rook while there are still many other pieces on the board. Then, they feel more confident at throwing tactics, especially those involving forks, pins and skewers, where these themes are much easier to see in positions that are very open.

21. Bb7 works because the rook must move to avoid a loss of exchange. Well, if Black refuses to go down the exchange with 21...Ra7, then 22. a6 encloses the rook completely. Yes, Black has not gone down the exchange, but more or less the barrier is extremely effective, and it is a matter before the exchange has to be made anyway.

After handling such positions for a while, I can roughly predict that White is winning at this point. All White needs to do is to support the pawns towards promotion, and Black's pieces should not be able to overcome the pawns effectively.

The d3 pawn is necessary in preventing sufficient counterplay from Black, while Black still has to worry equally about the passed a-pawn regardless of whether it is on a5 or a6.

Sometimes when we plan certain moves, we may have already forgotten to avoid certain bad moves that we have listed out previously. This happens to me at times also, but don't be disheartened by this. It is just one unfortunate incident, and it can be a good learning point.

Interesting game Dan. After move 16 I think you are better. But I think perhaps you lost some advantage by trading the dark square bishop and the game became even. Instead of pinning the knight with Bg5 and then exchanging Bxe7 after h6 you could have gone Bc4, preserving the bishop pair, winning a tempo on the rook. After Ra8 you would have a lovely position, the black knight has little future, black is way behind in active pieces, his rooks have no play, you have the bishop pair, it looks great for white.

Apologies...after Bc4 black has Rxa4 and its a tricky position.

I think 27.Bxf7 was at least worth looking at.

I think 27.Bxf7 was at least worth looking at.

I like 27.Qe4, keeping the great Bd5, paving the way for b4 and the advance of the 2 passed pawns. Nc4 is also a dangerous move in the air.

I think Bc4 is still reasonable. In fact, Stockfish recommends Bc4. Still, as a human player, I like to preserve my passed pawns, so I may decide to surrender one of the bishops to keep the promotion chances alive.

Not exactly. 27...Qxf7 and the mighty White bishop disappears for good.

Thanks GN!

12. g3 was to prevent the queen from coming to h4 - I saw afterwards that my knight was already guarding that square (see my own notes)

34. Kh3 looked like the best move to me at the time?

While your variation at move 35 doesn't lose the game outright as mine did, I am not sure I want to just give my knight away for free here? I prefer Eric's suggestion of 35. Qf5 but I am still not sure I would have found it!!

Play a simpler opening, instead of one with 500 years of analysis behind it.

Then you won't go blind in a sea of complications and waste thousands of keystrokes in this thread.

Unless of course that's what you prefer.  End of story.  And Best Wishes.

Thank you for your short story. I don't think the opening was the issue here.

Paul Littlewood, Chess Tactics (1984) and John Nunn, Chess Endings (100 Essential Positions), (2009), will push up your rating much faster than playing the Ruy Lopez, and typing feverishly in post-op analysis.  Your choice entirely.

And Best Wishes, yet again.

The start of losing your edge here was directing your focus on pawn movements instead of Knight/Bishop development. By move 9 you had 2 minor pieces on the back rank and Blake only had 1.  This is because the a5 move was necessary, which then led to 2 more pawn moves.  True it was a small loss of 0.25-0.30 pts, but it's more about the path it led you down (focusing on pawn movements).  

zborg I try to vary my openings, I don't just play the Ruy Lopez. Also I type quite slowly, not feverishly, but enjoy writing in here - it is a forum after all - and enjoy the discussion and debate that goes on within the analysis section, not just my games either. Thank you for your kind wishes.

royalspoil4 - fair point mate

It was a dicey game.  All I can say is that you should learn the basics of the Ruy Lopez.  Usually you keep the pawn tension fluid and wait till your opponent does this instead allowing you to get a better center.  I suggest you find Danny's video on a crash course of classical chess openings.  In it you will find quick commentary of 40 different common openings.  This should be your second bible for awhile till you learn the basic ideas behind these lines.  I myself now plan to start watching it religiously just to remember the old times and brush up.