Jythier's Head on Platter for NM Reb

 I now play more King pawn openings, and my rating has gone up about 200 points in a week, so maybe I should stick to what I know?

Anyway, I've annotated this game for the sake of learning.  If I made any mistakes that I haven't noted with ?'s, please let me know.

If Reb gives me a rematch, we'll see how much I've learned. 

In the main Reb game, I would have chased his queen more aggressively.

8)Rb3 and ....Qc7 is out as 9)Nxf7 wins the rook or his queen for 2 pieces. If

8)....Qc5 9)Bb5+ followed by 10)Nd3 may be fruitful.  Leaving

8)...Qa5

9)Qb1 a6 (I guess) and 10)exf and I think you stand well.

My point is, that the b2 pawn is almost universally at least half poisoned for the queen to take in the opening.

I fell into that B2 pawn trap myself the other day.  I think I came out of it alive, but I'll be on the lookout for that one - it seems to be a popular weak spot to hit.

 Mad props for taking his challenge.  I turned it down citing that I'd get drool all over his chess board at this point - hopefully later I'll be up to it.

... pawn moves almost never occur to me, honestly, unless it's to hold off a mating attack, or let one of my pieces out.  That's probably the weakest part of my game, effective use of pawns, pawn structure, and the like.

Best way to learn something is to watch a better player do it to you.  That's how I learned fool's mate, then how to avoid it, then to not even bother.  You have to figure, if they're fool enough to fall for a 4-move mate, they're fool enough to make a host of other exploitable mistakes that don't require bad play from you.

 When I was a kid I played in a couple tournaments.  Nobody had ever bothered to teach me how to mate with a Rook and King.  So I ended a game in a draw instead of a win because I don't have any innate ability to play chess. :P  I got his King in the corner and stalemated him.  Next minute, my teammate is showing me how to checkmate with a Rook and King.  Forehead slap time. :P  "Oh yeah, maybe I should have thought about it for a bit."

I think that was the only time I ever did better than lose in an OTB tournament.

 I guess thats one advantage of the Colle over the London System (Trompowsky and Torre); in the London System b2 is weakend because of the early bishop move and Black gets good play after Qb6.

It seems as though White needs some more experience and maybe to beat a 1500 player would be a realistic goal to set. I can understand some terrible blunders being made in blitz (by a player of any standard) but for correspondance my advice to Jythier is be more carefull with your moves. Its not every day you get to play against a National Master! 

No it isn't every day.  Unfortunately that one day happened to be a bad one, heh.  I asked him why he challenged me, and he said because I played fast and he liked to play fast.  But really I have no excuse over that terrible queen move.

Luckily for me, since then I have played much better due to careful consideration of moves.  I still make mistakes, of course, just not as often.  I think the intimidation factor hurt me, too.  My first comment to him was something like, "oh no, a titled player, I'm going to get creamed."  Reb came back with, "I put my pants on the same as you."  Which I could only respond to with, "That would make me feel much better if we were playing a game of pants."

Anyone with a rating higher than 1400 probably sees a chess board differently than I do at this point.

 I accidently looked at your other game instead  and thought Reb had lost his marbles as I assumed he was black! I think you've annotated well. You're right a4 was waste of time, ng5 wasn't great either as you pointed out after the threat to f7 could easily be met.  But after the pawn capture and Qe7 instead of retreating the knight why not nd5!?  I think that would have won quicker.  I know that's not your point but it just struck me as I looked at it..  You threaten Nxc7+ plus his queen so I think Nxd5 is forced, you capture with the pawn protecting your strong advanced knight and his knight has to retreat to a worse square.

I'd better look at the real game now......... 

 In Queen Pawn Game I don't like move Bf4,sometimes I played that move against Slav defense or Semi-slav but I don't have many experience because I usually play 1.e4 and on against 1.d4 I play Slav defense or Grunfeld. Your move 3.Bf4?! 3.In my opinion better moves are 3.c3,e3 or (g3).

3...c5  4.e3!? better is 4.c3! Qb6 5.Qc2 ( 4...Nbd7 5.Bd3)

3...c5   4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.Nd2

So to the real game....you're right Ne5 wasn't great.  After Qb3 and Nc3 taking the possibly poisoned pawn is interesting if Qxb2 Nb5 threatening Nc7+.... Na6

Rb1 Qxa2 Ra1 Qb2 Rxa6 bxa6 Nc7+is very complicated.  I'd love to know Reb's thoughts.  Would he have taken it or just played solidly???

Dalmatinac:

Why do you like to move the c pawn so early?  Trying to trade it up to a central pawn?

I can't see games from notation yet so I can't picture what MM78 is trying to say, will diagram it and get back to you. :) 

"It is your homework for next week."

 Maybe two weeks from now.

Where do you find info on openings?  I just play whatever feels right, which is obviously very wrong. :P

Sometimes I was sleeping in bar  lol

I go to sleep now.Good night and good fight :)