Strategical OTB loss

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Avatar of Woodkiller

I just got back into OTB last week, and really just gotten back into chess somewhat recently. I haven't been working as hard as I should be on my game, but overall I'm happy with my performance at this current tournament. My rating is 1557 and I managed to beat a 1980 last week (the tournament only has 1 game per week, it's just a local chess club event) which is my highest win so far although he blundered away a clearly won position. Today I played another 1900 and had a much better game, almost possibly coming out with a draw in a time scramble but I blundered a piece. I'm not a good blitz player. Anyways, here is the game:

 

Feedback is appreciated, even in the time trouble part. Some people seem to think I am underrated, but I am not so sure. I'm still sorta getting used to the long time controls. I guess I will find out after the tournament is over.

 

EDIT: uhhhhhhhhhhhh oops, I'm black in this game. I'm tired.

Avatar of zirtoc

6. h3 does a couple of things.  It prevents Bg4 which can be an annoying pin for white.  It also sets up g4 for a kingside pawnstorm.  Notice that if your opponent would want to push the h pawn, it has a pretty easy time with h4 defended by the knight and h5 indirectly attacked by white's queen and bishop.  This is supposed to be the purpose of the move, although a lot of club players just play h3 to stop the bishop pin.

I think Nh5 is premature here because the bishop can move to g5.  If you really want to threaten the trade, think about playing h6 first so you can force the trade later.  Then your king can move into h7 and you'll have a very strong defense there.

I'm looking at something like 16..e5 17. dxe5ep fxe6 and now white's bishop is under attack and black suddenly has the center pawns.  Might be some interesting tactics there.

On move 18 you mention playing e5 again.  It is actually your bishop placement that prevents you from playing it, because the queen would guard the d pawn otherwise.  I agree with you - I think black should have tried to get better control of the center earlier in the game.  But after 18..Bc8, then e5 would be playable, I think.

So my sense is that you just need to challenge the center earlier in the game, and develop a few pieces.  (Note that your kingside knight moved 3 times in the first 10 moves while your queenside pieces are doing nothing.)  You did challenge with c5, but then white pushed you around with his pawn on d5 for the rest of the game.

I play the Pirc, which is a tranposition of the defense you opened with.  There are some excellent books and videos on the subject, with some specific ideas for black.  I recommend the excellent video series by Nigel Davies, and the book Pirc Alert, which might give you some new ideas on your opening.  Best of luck!

Avatar of Woodkiller

I'm actually a Gruenfeld player, formerly KID. I really just had no idea what to do with the opening after Nf3, so I decided to try to get into a KID type of setup since I was comfortable with that. Pirc was actually the first opening I ever learned... I don't think I need to say that I was quickly scared off. Never touched the opening again and I don't plan on it, but thanks anyways. The opening just has far too many excellent variations for white and in my experience playing against the pirc is one of the easiest tasks I could have as white.

Thanks for clarifying h3 to me, I did not really have Bg4 in my mind at the time although I'm not sure why.

I wanted to play e5 the whole game and I know I considered 16...e5, but I think I rejected it because I thought one of my pawns would be hanging. I've always had trouble with calculation. Now that I look at it, it seems to be a good move.

 

18... Bc8 is a move I never considered, probably because I just moved my bishop from there. Seems good, but how about 15...Bb7 to discourage Nd4 and leave the queen protecting d6? Not sure if I considered that, but it seems like a good move to me now.

Thanks for your input!

 

Edit: oh wait, 15... e5 16.dxe6 fxe6 17.Nc6 is probably what scared me off and maybe rightfully so. I think white ends up ahead the excange.

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