Please Analyze Game with Stuck Bishop

As recommended by the chess.com staff, I didn't use a computer to analyze this 15 10 Live Chess game. After opening with 1.e4, I commented on all of my moves, along with my thought process during the game, and in those annotations are questions. One big question is: what did I do wrong to have my light square bishop completely shut out of the game?!

Answers to my questions, as well as any ideas on how I could have played better in general, are greatly appreciated!  Thank you.

You played a good game really, the opening was kinda wonky though (is that a word lol). 

I've come to realize that many mistakes for any level stem from having these bad tapes stuck on repeat in our heads.  For example once we decide a certain pawn break or outpost or piece is strong, we can continue to think so even long after the situation has changed.  In this game your bad tape was that diagonal for your bishop :)

You say you want the bishop on a good diagonal for when the position opens up, great!  But when and how it opens up is decided by the players, don't count on it as an inevitability that your bishop will be well posted.  Fight for your ideas!

So for example on move 6 consider the move d5.  He may lock it up with e5 but you have space and he has made passive moves.  Forget about your beautiful bishop (it was never guaranteed to you) and play with your new pluses (space and development).

6. h3  Another bad tape so to speak.  The strongest position for your king really really is to have moved no pawns.  Plus black has made many passive moves, no need to shore up the g4 square.  Finally, this move is too slow for the opening phase unless it addresses an immediate problem.

7.Bd2 -- e4 isn't under attack.  Bd2 is a passive square.  Better is 0-0 and Re1 if you're worried about e4.

9.Bb3.  The bishop, as they say, is biting on granite.  Bd3 was better, the a2-g8 diagonal is not useful in this position for white.

10.bxc3  d4 doesn't need to be defended immediately, so consider taking a few moves to defend it with the c pawn.  For example imagine something like this.

11.a3 and you're still stuck on the wrong idea, the bishop doesn't belong there and this move is too passive for the opening phase.  11.c4 works on your "problems" i.e. the doubled pawns, and freeing the bishop.

14.e5   The queen's diagonal was not an issue here, and neither player is aiming to make use of f5 or d5.  Locking up the position lets black off the hook for his passive moves.  This was a perfect time to play c4 and work on your "problems" again.

If your bishop had been on d3, you would probably have great attacking chances though (after e5 that is).  In the game though, it solved more problems for black than it did anything for you.  Anyway, check this fantasy position out, which side would you rather be playing?

And actually, in the game position, you can consider 14.d5 to open things up as you're ahead in development.  The only downside is your doubled pawns can immediately come under pressure.

15.Bxh6  Great move.  I like black's response too, very much to the point.

20.exf6 ep is a game changing decision.  Do you open the position with a piece trapped? (very dangerous).  Or do you leave it locked and work on your bishop by pressuring b4?

The principled and safe move is to definitely not take the pawn (move 20).

Opening a position when your pieces aren't "ready" (untangled, on useful squares, etc) is dangerous for the exact some reasons leaving your king in the center is dangerous.  When the position opens there's no time to sound the alert, all your men need to be ready before hand.   Your bishop was not ready, so basically you're betting everything on the attack.  It worked out in the game but you should be aware of what move 20 meant.  Vs a player who found a tougher defense, I think the game would inevitably turn on white.

26.f4 is great if black couldn't respond f5.  26...f5 locks it up and stops the attack at once just about.  26.Qd2 to Qf4 hitting on f6 is close to a knockout.

f5, Be8, and Qd6 were all great moves, continuing the attack, good job!  (notice f5 is so strong because it opens line and black is not ready!).  In fact 30.f5 was murder.  (30.Qh6 was not to the point).

Hi. I am not an expert on chess still I enjoy commeting other peoples games. So don't take everything I say for granted they just my thougs.

After you doubled the pawns on the c colum, the idea is not to use the front pawn to suport the d pawn but to break the center with the front one, and then use the back one to defent, so your move should had be better the c4.

In move 13 you are talking about defendingt the pawn, that is totally innecesary, if the queen takes that c3 pawn the queen is traped and lost after you play Bd2. blaks only place to move the queen is to b2 and then you move Ra2 and queen is gone for a Rock. After this comment, your move Qd2 is not a bad move, but was not the rigth reason.

Your move 15, that is is a crazy gambling. I used to do that a lot, but wen I started playing people with scoures 1300 I stoped that, they know tricks to make you pay for the gambling, so my advise is gamble less and don't do any sacrifice if to the best of your knowledge you will win, maybe they surprice you with something you don't know, but at least you where honest that you did the best.

In this specific game I thing this sacrifice on move 15 was good. I think if he takes the bishop you can win very fast.

Move 25, the reasoning is good behind the situatiation if the blacks take the pawn, but for that to work it is necesary they take it, if they don't you wasted a move. It is a pasive move of the queen, and you should avoid moves that depend on oponent moves and mistakes, becouse if they chossen no to do them your plans never happend, also consider that the Queen is protecting the bishop, along with the Knigth, but the N can be force to move out for example if the black instead moving the bishop to d5 they did f5 your N is force to move and the bishop is on the air, kinda uncornftable position, . Try to play more active and less pasive, for example Rae1. You never asked why that rock never played on the game.

Move 26 the idea of open the line for the Rock is good, But still I think you whould find better places for the small pices.

move 29 I don't think you have enougth material to do a mate, maybe Qe5+ was better becouse prevent the king form escaping, while bring the rest of the material to the game.

move 39 Qb7# or Bd6#

I think you played good, thanks for posting the game.

Excellent idea to try to annotate the game by yourself. Pretty good game overall, where you managed to build an attack and use your tactical knowledge to ground down your opponent

You've correctly noticed that after 16...c4! your bishop is entombed. This ...c4 idea materialized as a threat after 15...c5, but maybe you didn't noticed it during the game. With hindsight, do you see a better way to deal with this threat after black's 15...c5 ? What could be an improvement for white ?

On a more general note, I agree with wafflemaster's comment that this a2-g8 diagonal was maybe not the best one for your bishop, because Black can just play a quick ...d5 and blunt it (5...d5). As he didn't, 6.d5 was probably your best bet. Pattern thinking provides hints to the solution, but not always the solution

First, wow! So many excellent comments and a generous amount of your time taken to analyze my game, through the eyes of experience. I am most grateful.

1. Wonky.   Perfect word and characterization for the opening phase.  This is just a typical opening in the 1000 club, and it was only mildly wonky!

When I saw Black's first four moves, it looked like the plan was to have an extremely powerful center pawn at d5, defended three times by a pawn, knight and queen! The two rook pawn moves, only moving one square, is also very common to see in my rating range, preventing agressive knight hops to b5 and g5.

As a beginner, although my opponent's first four moves were passive, I could see the logic behind each move. But does my opponent stick with the plan and play d5? No. He moves his knight again to g6?!

2. "Bad tapes stuck on repeat in our heads" - That comment played in my head like a good tape all day today! I placed my bishop on c4 like I would place my knights on c3 or f3, because they are good squares, most of the time - AND - my opponent was playing what I call a bunch of nothing moves.

However, my opponent played 2...e6, so why on God's green earth did I play Bc4? A bad tape running in my head!  I see ...e6 in the French Defense, and the light square bishop, at least in the exchange variation, is very well placed on d3, but not c4.

"So for example on move 6 consider the move d5.  He may lock it up with e5 but you have space and he has made passive moves.  Forget about your beautiful bishop (it was never guaranteed to you) and play with your new pluses (space and development)." -  waffllemaster

Thanks for pointing that out. Even with the idea of gaining space, it's still tricky for me, knowing when to play d4-d5 or e4-e5. As a rule of thumb, I've heard that it's a good idea to advance a center pawn when it kicks an enemy piece to a less active square. 

In the Philidor defense after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nc6, the most popular response is not 4.d5, kicking Black's knight to e7, but 4.Bb5 or 4.Bc4. Taking a closer look at 4.d5, it doesn't look like a fun game for White after 4...Ne7.

Thanks, I'm really glad you found some useful info in there :)

In the philidor when white locks it up black's play seems to come pretty naturally to him with the f5 break and kingside play.

In the related position in your game after d5 black seems at least 3 moves behind though.  He needs to play e5, d6, and the knight on g6 isn't well placed.  Also his light squares have a chance of becoming bad because h6 is already played.  On top of this black is already behind regardless of what he does, and white's development will be smooth.

Ease of play is something to consider.  Some positions may be objectively equal, but to players like you and me we can often play much better with the side who is not cramped or whose ideas come naturally.

10.bxc3: to get rid of doubled pawns, it's easiest to block or make unfavorable an opponent's adjacent pawn advance, then push your doubled pawn and exchange it. For example, after 10...Bb7 you could have played 11.c4, and since 11...b4 loses material to 12.Bxb4, you would have exchanged your doubled pawn one way or another. This was also possible later, for example with 14.c4.

14.e5: the d4-e4 pawn center is more flexible because it leaves both options for central pawn pushes to you unless the opponent prepares a central break. But if you have good central control that should be difficult. Ceating a d4-e5 or an e4-d5 pawn chain determines your play to a large extent, orientating it towards the kingside or the queenside respectively, as happened in your game too, and determining both bishops' activity to a large extent. Therefore it was a bit stragge for Black immediately after your e4-e5 to castle kingside

16.Be3: I think you could have played 16.Bg6, so that you would have developed your bad bishop to a square where it would have been very valuable, as ...h6 is impossible due to the lack of Black's h pawn, and ...f6 loses material. Therefore 16.Bg6 could have allowed you to exploit Black's f pawn's weakness. In case of ...cxd4, you would have had cxd4 undoubling your c pawn; otherwise your dark squared bishop would not have been as active on e3 as on g6. You played 18.Bg6, but you could have also done that on the 16th move.

17.Ba2: your bishop's situation is not so hopeless. You could have attacked Black's queenside using the semi-open b file and an a3-a4 break, for example with 18.Rfb1, after that Qe2, Nd2 and a3-a4 (Rb2 and Rab1 as an option).

19.h4, 26.f4: those moves are good, White's play is on the kingside in similar positions, and it's good for Black to open files or gain more space there. You also managed to connect those pushes with pieces' play well.

30.Qh5+, 31.Qg5+, 32.Qe5+: you could have played 30.Rae1 to bring one more piece to your attack, then play f4-f5 to further open the kingside and then checkmate. You played 34.f5 but if you had done it earlier you could have better exploited Black's king's unsafe position.

38.Rxf7: yes, that move is good, it wins material and places an immediate checkmate threat. You could have also played 38.Qxd5 and then Rxf7 or e7, for example, but you had already won the game anyway.

39.Bg7: you could have played 39.Qb7# Black was trying to go for a desperate attack, so he also missed that threat.

As a whole you played well and managed to make use of your strengths, while Black put his counterplay in a deadlock because of his worse piece development and pawn structure weaknesses, that were to a large extent connected with each other and due to inefficient tempi usage and strategicqal mistakes (moving the same pieces many times early on with no obvious purpose; too many and too binding pawn moves in the opening, and so on). You created and played a strong attack. A good win for you!

No idea, but I think Musikamole is gonna be blushing with these NM accusations flying about.

Yes. 5.Bd3 was really the better idea. I was stuck on the idea of playing 5.Bc4. Also, you are correct in that I missed a chance to play 31.Bg5+, winning Black's rook on h7 with a dicovered attack.

Thanks for the tip on doubled pawns, and the idea behind the flexible d4-e4 pawn center. I never had it explained to me before. Your other comments will give me much to think about, and I plan to place all of these comments into one master annotation. Again, thanks!

Great analysis. Thank you!

I didn't reject the idea of moving my bishop to d3. It simply never occurred to me to do so. Like waffllemaster said, I had a bad tape playing in my head, stubborn as all get out to keep my bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal, thinking that the center would open up at some point and my bishop would see some action in the near future. Oops!

You provided four reasons for NOT playing 14.e5, and they all make sense, now. This is the main reason why I am so excited about taking the time to go over my games without a computer the first time around. It gives other people a chance to find out what I was thinking, and then correct those thoughts that are completely off base.

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Positional mistake?

On a  related note, I viewed one of your Live Chess games where your opponent played 3...Nge7, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, which I discovered is the Ruy Lopez, Cozio Defense. I have not seen that move before.

On the surface, the move 3...Nge7 looks like a positional mistake. This knight blocks two important diagonals for Black in a king-pawn opening, that being f8-a3 and d8-h4. Why?

I viewed a few top level games, and Black's bishop at f8 is fianchettoed to g7. O.K., so that bishop has a home, but why 3...Nge7?  To prevent doubled pawns on the c-file, like in the exchange variation? I doubt that, since Black doesn't seem to have any problems after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6. Re-capturing with the d-pawn opens the c8-h3 diagonal and the d-file, which helps Black. 

Also, White can't win a pawn with 5.Nxe5(?) because of the open d-file, allowing 5...Qd4, followed by 6.Nf3 Qxe4+.

BTW - Excellent win.

I don't often play the Ruy Lopez, but there are three possible purposes I think 3...Nge7 has that come to my mind:

- avoiding queenside pawn structure weakening for Black by playing 4...Nxc6 in case of 4.Bxc6 (not that there are no variations where Black allows 4.Bxc6);

- preparing a d7-d5 and/or f7-f5 pawn break to open the center;

- fianchettoing the king's bishop that won't be blocked by a f6 knight, in case of meeting White's d2-d4 with ...exd4.

3...Nge7 seems to be a move that avoids going into more tactical lines and making the game more positional. It's good if you want to avoid the other often played variations too.