I've noticed that almost every game I lose is lost within the first 15 moves. It's almost always a case of me failing to develop my pieces in time.
I really am trying to put a lot of emphasis on developing my pieces as fast as possible, but it's hard sometimes, especially when I see my opponent left a pawn hanging or my opponent is threatening to destroy my pawn structure and I need to respond to that threat ASAP.
How do you deal with situations like this?
12. Ne7 makes your position pretty uncomfortable. By playing 12. Bg7 you still threaten to capture the pawn with, check and develop. With Ne7 you're moving the same piece twice. At some point you should have tried Kf8 and manually castled. I do like 4. Bf5.
The reason I played 12... Ne7 was to prepare for 13... Bg7 and 14... 0-0.
I wanted to fianchetto my bishop and castle kingside as fast as possible, however, I anticipated that my opponent was going to play 13. Re1+ and I'd be forced to block it anyway.
Like if I played 12... Bg7 instead, then my opponent is still going to move 13. Re1+ regardless and I'm going to have to block with 13... Ne7, which puts me in the same position either way.
I think the key thing here was that I was always just 1 move short of achieving what I wanted... if I could just take 1 extra move, then I'd have time to castle and my position would be completely different.
Here is what would've happened in the hypothetical scenario that I fianchetto'd the bishop first. We see that I'm pretty screwed either way:
I tried my best to develop all my pieces, but I just couldn't see how to do it.
Moves 11 and 13 were bad, and both had nothing to do with development. Your sense of danger should have told you these moves were bad.
8...Bg6 is better than 8...Bf5 but that may be too much to expect from 1600 (or not, I don't know).
4...Bf5 is not a normal move. I had to check a database to verify that, so that's something you can remember for next time.
After ...Qxd4 I stopped looking, black is clearly much worse already.
Often, when I play other 2000 rated players, we chicken out.
We don't capture material even when it's safe, just so we can finish development.
I remember one annotation to a tournament game between two masters where one offered a pawn and the other declined.
The annotation was that taking the pawn was good, and that any 1200 player, and any GM would have taken the material, but in between, at master level, they were good enough to know the danger (unlike the 1200), but not good enough to see beyond it (like the GM).
IMO part of getting better at the sub master level, is simply following principals more dogmatically.
Follow them even when you're unsure. Worry about the exceptions after you're more familiar with the rules. At your level (and pretty much my level) following the rules = winning.
Just a quick note for 4... Bf5, it's already a mistake as it loses a pawn via the reply 5. Qb3, hitting the weakened b7 pawn and if 5... dxc4, 6. Bxc4 is looking dangerous and 6... e6 is basically forced. 7. Qxb7 follows afterwards. The reply 4... Nf6 is much better.
Also on a more general note as a Caro-Kann player, try to make it a priority to develop your kingside ASAP because kingside development tends to lag behind in a lot of Caro-Kann variations. That's where Caro-Kann players get in trouble usually as I have been in a lot myself haha.
So would you guys say that I made these 3 major mistakes?:
1) Got too carried away with developing my light squared bishop. Should've just left it inactive for a bit and prioritised developing the king side.
2) Destroyed my f7-e6-d5 pawn chain by moving my bishop to f5 when I should've played Bg6 instead.
3) Got too carried away with recapturing the pawns on d5 and d4 when I should've just sacrificed a small amount of material to prioritise castling ASAP instead.
I'm just trying to make sure I have some key takeaway points for next time, so that I can prevent a similar thing from happening again in the future.
you just have a bad attitude, that's all
I'm going to judge you harshly for this comment.
Why is it your opponents responsibility to allow you to develop your pieces.......? New to chess and this seems odd to me. In the blitz games if you can't adapt on the fly you are toast.
8.Bf5 was wrong, it allows your opponent to open the centre while your king is in the centre. You should have played Bg6.
11, 12 & 13 moves were wrong. You were pawn grabbing instead of putting your king to safety. And opening more lines of attack on your king in the centre.
Deranged, no problem if this is a blitz. In any case after 11. Bd3 you protected the f5 pawn with 11... g6. In a classical game you should have considered that after 12. Bb5+, Nc6; 13. Qe2+, Be7; 14. Qe5, the Queen attack the Rook in h8 and the Knight in d5 twice, so you loose a piece. Instead of 11... g6, you should have tried a counterattack with 11.. Bb4 (you attack twice the Knight on c3 and pawn d4 is always very weak). So the lesson is: if someone attack you a weak pawn, remember that maybe you can also not protect him. Just try a development move, try to castle and think that also your opponent can have troubles if he just takes "weak pawns". The correct line could be 11. Bd3, Bb4; 12. Qb3, Nc6; 13. 0-0, Ne7 (now the Knight was "en prise"); 14. Be3, 0-0. Your position is a little bit worst (not to loose) because of 8,. Bf5 (better 8...Bg6; and if 9. Nxg6;hxg6 your position is fine).
7. Nh4 proved to be a bit of a curve ball. This does two things attacks the bishop and exposes the d-pawn. With that delta about the move in mind 7. ... Bg4 and if 8. Qb3 then 8. ... Nc6 attacking the d-pawn.
I'm lower rated than you are but I still can't understand why you've moved Bf5 instead of Bg6 and why you've kept defending the f5 pawn.... in terms of developing your pieces. My impression (w/o engine) is that you've lost all initiative.
from a non computer, non-gm perspective, working with what you did, ...
- my approach to the bishop problem is h6 before e6. I know you did e6 because of the pawn issue, but this is a generalization of one way to handle the problem of getting trapped on the other side of your pawns. Solve the pawn issue another way. The bishop out there (outside your pawns) is powerful, if you can keep it out of trouble, even poked in a corner for a while it will come back to life soon enough.
- bishop in front of king allowing castle (12, Be7). When you blocked up your bishop and king, you got into a piece anti-coordination snarl that, while not directly resulting in the loss, contributed to it a lot. With your king stuck in the middle and your rook unable to contribute, ... ouch.
I'm black and my opponent is white.
I lost this game because I was trying to develop my pieces, but my opponent didn't let me! He kept attacking me relentlessly and didn't give me any time to fianchetto my bishop and castle king side.
We're both roughly ~1600 blitz rating:
Where did I go wrong? I tried my best to develop all my pieces, but I just couldn't see how to do it.