Tactics Trainer taken further.

When I do the non-mating TT puzzles, I try to figure out what I would do next if I was playing in that particular game. Sometimes I work it out in my head, or with a travel Chess game that's handy; other times I work it against the Chess.com CPU (does that actually have a name?) or against the Chessmaster game I have. It depends on the complexity of the position, really.

I can usually see lines pretty clearly when doing puzzles, but find myself making really ridiculously bad mistakes when playing. I hang pieces or leave strategic squares open for my opponent to ruin my day, while I think I'm making an awesome move in the process. ;) I feel confident with puzzles, but feel like a fool when playing sometimes, so I've been trying to learn as much as I can, from a variety of sources.

I did a TT puzzle last night that lead me to explore, and then explore, and then explore some more. For whatever reason, this particular position became a valuable learning tool for me. I thought I would share it so that others who are learning, like me, might get something out of it. I also thought it might get some responses from veterans who see even better tactics or insight.

I'm going to post three versions of this. I lost the fourth one when my computer went into standby or I would post that also. Why three? Well, each one follows different lines, and it's interesting to explore the possibilities, when it seems like there should be one way to go with it. I'll add some annotation to the first two, but since the final one is CPU vs CPU, I don't think I can add much to it, being a novice myself. ;)

The first version is me playing against the Chessmaster, mostly with the help of the advice of the Chessmaster. I tried doing this on my own, but had much trouble finding the right tactics to overcome the opponent's protection. I managed to take the h-pawn and get my both of my Rooks up to the 7th rank, but found making progress from there with Black's Bishop, Knight, & Rook harassing me, very difficult. After failing with that strategy, I started asking for help.

The second game is my second attempt to beat the Chess.com CPU. I had played against it, using Chessmaster's advice to see what would happen. I lost the move list from that, so I replayed it this morning. I'm not sure how to qualify this game as I started out using what I remembered from last night's advice, but the game went much differently after about four, or so, moves in and I was relying on myself from that point on. I used the general strategy, but not the exact move list. Admittedly, I made blunders while doing so, took them back, and made different, more successful moves. So, no, I'm very much not as good as it will look in this game, but I did figure out a couple of winning moves with some trial & error. :)

The third game is a custom Chessmaster personality that I made playing against the Chessmaster personality. It Mated in less than half the moves than it took me.  hehe

[Note: My annotation is designed to help players who are learning the intricacies of the game. I point out things that are obvious to veteran players, but might not be obvious to new players. It is my hope that those new to the game will get something out of this.]

Game 1 Me & Chessmaster vs. Chessmaster

Game two Me vs. Chess.com CPU:

Game three: This really shows how inefficient my play was on game two. It's a computer personality that I created on Chessmaster vs. the Chessmaster personality. It Mated in less than half the moves that it took me. It wasn't toying, but still, I wasted tons of moves. ;) The personality I made has a 3000 rating and basically hates drawing in a game. Other than that it's pretty much the Chessmaster

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There you have it. How would you play from this position? What advice can you give me or others for situations like this? Did you notice mistakes? Did you notice anything good? Etc. etc. Feel free to comment about anything, I'm eager to learn more. :)