Targeting 1400

Hi all,

I'm M and I will use this thread to post some of my games. I hope we can discuss and analyze them together.

Background: I'm 33. I never really played "seriously", but I found myself quite interested in the last 3 months. For this period I played a few hundred games and got hooked.

What I do now: I play 2-3-4 games per day and I do some puzzles here and on other sites. Sometimes watching streams and I've got "Logical Chess" by Irving Chernev, which I read occasionally.

What's the point of this thread: Discuss and analyze my games. Will try to post 3-4 times a week with focus on losses. Figure out more effective way of playing and studying. Hopefully other people around 1000-1300 will benefit as well.

Goal: Rating of 1400 by end of 2019.

P.S. I kind of got the idea for this thread from @Giasira. This is his thread, which is more advanced as he is targeting 1600. Just wanted to say Thanks! And of course, thanks to anyone who will contribute to mine.

Moving onto the games.

Game #1, black, 10 min, loss:

10... g5 chasing the bishop:  You can't catch the bishop, but it's tempting anyway:  you may want to bring those pawns forward eventually, to attack the enemy king.  But there's a a downside:  you are weakening your own king's defense.

12... Bxf6:  Did you consider Qxf6 instead?  Defends Be6 without doubling pawns. 

By move 14 your king has a lot of open space in front of him.  The center is closed, but you should be very vigilant for an attack on the queenside.  In particular, your pawn b2 is weak and undefended.  So i syour pawn e3, which is on the same diagonal as your king.

14. ...Kh7.  This does get the king off that diagonal, but it doesn't help the two weak points I just identified. It  does defend h6, but h6 is hard to attack, and you could defend it other ways.  Moving your king to the 7th rank makes your king much more vulnerable, because you have no rooks or queen defending the seventh rank.  If I'm white, I'm making plans to attack b7.

15. ...a6.  Why?

16. b4 looking to open the b-file.

17. ... bxc5 you just did White a favor!

18. d4 Hm, trying to open the d-file too?  Or just looking to make some trades.  White has the more secure position, so trades are good for White.

21 Rb1 DANGER! DANGER!   b7 is targeted!  Your options include Rb8, Rf7, and Qd7.  I think Rb8 is my first choice since it prevents Qb3.

22 Rb7+ and you are in deep trouble.  An enemy rook on the 7th rank is always bad news.  Kh8 might be better than Kg6, but it's still bad for you. 

24.  ...Rfe8  Actually e5 is protected by *three* pieces before this move.  From now on you're failing to see and stop some really straightforward attacks.  Which of your pieces are actually vulnerable?  That's where your opponent will attack.  d6 is crucial and singly-defended.  a6 might be a consolation prize (also singly defended).  But don't neglect king safety.  Your opponent would love to point a battery at f7 or g7 or g8.  He may try to get both rooks onto either the sixth or the seventh rank.

26. ...Rf8  It's great to look for counter-tactics, but this one fails hard because your queen will be pinned.  You  have a chance with ...Ra7 then ...Rf7 (leaving the d rook guarding d6). 

I think I was unnecessarily harsh at a few points, excuse me for that . Good luck

EDIT: I can't figure out how to force the board to be flipped now, apologies for that too (you can click the flip board button at the bottom)

EDIT 2: Since I can't edit the board at all for some reason, typo: "14 ... d5 worth of consideration" should say worthy of consideration

Your opponent could have won a pawn in the opening.  Do you see it?  Anyway, you outplayed your opponent, but missed two critical threats.  First, RB1 taking the 7th rank with check.  Correct, as someone mentioned is matching rooks on the b file with RAB8.  

Later you played the correct RED8, to stop from losing your queen.  But then undefended D6 withRF8.  26...C4 is better.  Keep trying.

I'm around 1200-1300, so I can also learn from this as we go. Anyway, I'm going to annotate your game. Let's see your first game.

first 5 moves: good opening moves.

6...e5?!: leaves a backward d-pawn and a hole on d5 for a white knight.

moves 7-8: good opening moves again.

9...h6: not a lot of good plans here mainly because of 6...e5?!. 10.Nxf6+ Bxf6 11. Bxh6 Bg7 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 and you're a pawn down and to make it worse, you're very lucky that your opponent didn't castle queenside because of the pawn storm threat. 

10...g5: forces 11.Bg3(safe) or 11. Nxg5(sacrificial). 11. Nxg5 hxg5 12. Bxh5 followed by 13. Qd2 and Bh6, when your opponent will play 15. Qxh6 or Bxg7 when again, you're very lucky the opponent didn't castle queenside.

11...Be6: good/OK

12...Bxf6: 12...Qxf6 is considerable as it develops your queen and prepares a potential kingside attack as you have a spatial advantge there and also avoids doubled pawns. On the other hand, that can give you a strong grip on the center with the white e-pawn and black d-pawn exchange, giving you a new d-pawn along with a healthy pawn structure.

13...fxe6: good

14...Kh7??: only si;ver lining I can see is waiting move, but I think this wastes a tempo and allows white minor piece sacrifices giving you an exposed king. Also allows white to start a queenside attack. 14...d5 forces a pawn exchange and gives you a strong pawn center, which would make up for the awkward castling position you have.

15...a6?: waste of tempo; beginner mistake

16...b6: passive defence, result of having played 14...Kh7??

17...dxc5: still having hope of a pawn center, but gives white the b-file. mostly because of 14...Kh7??

18...exd4: first good move in a while: an obvious and good opportunity for you to gain material.

19...Nxd4: keeping up with the trade, good/OK idea.

20...Bxd4: at least a bit better for you now. OK move.

21...e5??: AGAIN?! BACKWARD PAWN ON D6 AND HOLE ON D5 AGAIN?! You should try to remember not to make this mistake. Luckily, white dosen't have a knight. Besides, this allows Rb7+ ruining your queenside, giving him the b-file and putting your king in quite some danger.

22...Kg6: OK

23...Qf6??: you should have played 23...Rb8 exchanging rooks and potentially the queen, nullifing the threat on the b-file.

24...Rfe8: your queen and rook is confined to lowly guard duty while white's queen and rook is agressive. 24...Rad8 was probably better.

25...Red8: more passive defence for you. Unfortunately, your position is starting to be resignable.

26...Rf8: you're finally starting some counterattack, but with all white's major pieces are in attacking formation, it's unfortunatly meaningless.

27...Bxf2+??: the play is razor sharp. The thing you probably didn't see is the pin, so it loses material.

28...Rad8: trying to stop the disaster, but to late; 70% people would probably resign.

29...Kxf6: OK, but 29...Rxf6 was better.

30...Rd2?? worsening your hope, 90% resignable(followed by 31. Qxf8+ 1-0)

That's about it.

By the way, your misfortune started at 6...e5?! and 14...Kh7?? when you probably became sad and played carelessly. Lesson: don't leave backward pawns, don't give your opponent free material or give him free strategic advantage(ex. open file).

7......Nf6?? Bad strategic mistake. In this position, black can expand only " b" file and "f" file. Blocking "f" fawn is choking yourself. 

7...... Ngd7 is a much better place.

9........h6?? mistake. Black lose one pawn. 10. Nxf6+ Bxf6 11. Bxh6( your opponent didnot see it).

Wow! Thanks for all your responses!

@IronIC_U I will consider longer games. Usually time is OK, sometimes I slip through the mid-game though.

@nartreb 12. I didn't consider it. Looks better than mine. 21. Somehow I missed it in the game. Also I don't have much theoretical knowledge about endgame and 7th rank rooks. 22. You are right. This was a bit annoying to deal with.

@MangoMankey 14. I moved the king, because I wanted it to be closer to the pawns. Didn't realize it would so quickly become a target. 16. I will consider this. Didn't think of it this way. 24 I think I had like 4 minutes, but I kind of collapsed yes. With the subsequent rook moves on the h file, which proved to be useless.

@Nwap111 Yeah, I don't know why I just let rb1, rb7 become a threat.

@ChessBoy513 You have a lot of good points as well. Seems now that e5 was a mistake I was not aware of. rb1 and open file was a thing I completely missed as well.

@drmrboss 7. Never really thought about this. Will try g/d7 for the nights.

@Aizen89 Actually I don't know the theory behind Sicilian as well. I open like that, just to experiment. 21. Yep, things fell apart after rb1 and my lack of response there.

I know a bit of opening theory on the Sicilian. If your opponent was REALLY fond of material, he/she would have won a pawn with the following combination.

That's why I play 2...d6 earlier. Just know that the fianchetto variation is quite sharp and I don't play e5 early because of the weakness on d5 and the d-pawn. Nothing else to talk about; all your other moves were good.

By the way, that's all you need to know.

Wait.

Sorry but there was a flaw in the game. 3...e6 gives black advantage.

I`m glad you were inspired by my thread to create your own one. I would second the advice already given; if you want to improve it is better to play rapid, at least 30 mins per side. After playing rapid and analyzing the games afterwards, I was able to to significantly improve my tactics puzzle solving rate, and I`reached around 2120 tactics rating after struggling a long time to break 1900. The same goes for my blitz rating. I`m not very good at blitz, but after getting my rapid rating up, I got a solid boost to my blitz rating as well. 

The most important thing when looking to improve is to get used to looking at the whole board and really think deeply about what is going on. If you have a blitz timer constantly hanging over your head, you won`t be able to calculate well.

It is like taking one lesson in math, then trying to solve math problems, given only a very limited time to solve each problem. If you fail to solve the problem you get a completely new problem, and so on.  It is far better to take your time with each problem, and really systematically find the solution, so your brain will recognize the pattern next time. 

By playing slower games you give your brain time to absorb the positions, and this way you really get to drill patterns and calculation, AND most importantly, you can drill NOT blundering. I can confidently say that pretty much all games up to 1400 level are decided by a blunder or a tactic. Many people treat doubling the opponents pawns or winning the bishop pair as some big deal at that level (and my level). Doubling the opponents pawns in front of his king can be decisive, but thinking about- and exploiting - long term weaknesses like pawn islands, isolated pawns etc comes long after having drilled the basics. 

This might sound like horrible advice, but I think it`s just pragmatic and saves energy. Contorting your position to avoid a bad pawn structure or to avoid giving up the bishop pair often leads to more harm than good. Honestly, I can`t remember a single game I`ve played where some long-term positional advantage decided the game. Nope, it came down to a straight up blunder or one side pulling off a tactic.

Just learning to play solid moves and not making obvious blunders is priority number one for me. Though I forget it sometimes and play some crazy, incoherent moves

I remember watching a video on positional advantage, where the teacher said that you can't just stand and admire your positional advantage for ever, at some point you have to give it up to initiate some sort of tactic or attack.

I understand the bishop pair thing. I had a bunch of casual games where I sometimes got too fond of the bishop pair because it's one of my most favorite advantages.

Uh... I thought we were supposed to comment on Mariyan's games.

You are right, I just wanted to share some thinking patterns which helped me at 1300 - 1400 level. I will remove the game I posted as it clutters the thread.

Sorry. I didn't know that. OK

What you do sounds a bit similar to me. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks all for the feedback @GritSuperstar8, @ChessBoy513.

I tried a few games 15/10 (Rapid). I started from 800. And I'm not kidding, I blundered my queen at least 3 times (and not to tactics). Now I don't know if it's me, but all games I played are against people who time out or just not play for a few minutes (possibly they play multiple games?). So naturally I get distracted (So there's a new lesson for me here) and ironically these games have been counter-productive. I think I will need some time to grind these out to a level above 1000. (Maybe not play 15/10, as the 10 second addition makes them feel comfortable about catching time?)

What do you guys recommend as openings (1 white, 1 black)? With my rapid games, now I'm experimenting with d4 (London system) and kingside fianchetto followed by d6/e6 or e5. I don't really want to get too theoretical about those, as it was mentioned multiple times that at my level that openings are not the solution. Just something solid I can get comfortable with.

Hey @Giasira!