We need more amateurs to post their annotated games.

I think Epi's game was very well played by him especially considering he gave himself a rating of only 945

Hi 

I just started a chess channel on you tube and would love to share some of my live chess games and get some feedback.

heres my first video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIzGatHhlGE&list=UUE3LfMvrt4N_CBvyidERhjA&index=1&feature=plcp

Would love to build a community where we can share each others videos and comment on them.... 

I have seen it Those are interesting games, but unfortunately they're too many to comment on (16 if I'm not mistaken) You played well in all of them.

I remember some of your earlier games too. I think you have a good developed opening repertoire which is also not very common, and it helps you to have good middlegame positions which are often not expected by your opponent. You play well tactically too, so once you have good opening and middlegame play what you have to do is work on the endgame The games you have posted end in the middlegame or in the very early endgame, so in them (save for 1 I think) there was practically no endgame It's good if you are able to win in the middlegame, you should do it if it's possible (early Kramnik preferred to jump into the endgame, where he was and is a machine, and he was criticised on that), but you should be prepared to play an equal endgame. I think you can do it, but just as a note because I haven't seen it

http://youtu.be/UIzGatHhlGE

 analysis and help greatly appreciated.

This thread has been alive for ages it seems. It's what inspired me to analyze about 15 of my games actually.

You should improve your "visualization" and "calculation" skills. "Visualization" the ability to imagine the chessboard and see the lines, squares, diagonals, pawns and pieces, without looking at the board, or with looking at a board without moving the pieces. "Calculation" is the ability to exactly choose and "expect" the following moves from both sides. I'm sure that you misplayed most of the moves where you could have done better only because of not seeing an immediate threat or a good move from the opponent that he could immediately play.

Before making the move you have chosen, imagine you have already played it, and have an imaginary look at the board. It will be your opponent's turn, but it doesn't quite matter, because in chess you should play both sides Think about your opponent's best reply in the position. Then see if you'll be able to meet it. If you will be, chances are the move you are about to make is good.

This is an iterative process, you can go as many moves further as you are able to. But you needn't go deeply into the variation, try to have a shallow but exact calculation rather than a deep but inaccurate one which will only waste your time, as your opponent will most likely diverge much sooner than the depth you have calculated to.

What is a "best move"? In general, your move is as good as bad is the opponent's next move This is also applied in chess programming. The sense is that if you have a choice of moves, you should choose the one which, after the best reply from the opponent, will lead to the best position to you, compared to the other positions resulting from the other two (or more than two) half-move sequences. There are two important things: first, always take into account the opponent's moves in addition to yours and try to expect them, and second, never rely on the opponent to make a mistake, expect he'll always play as best as possible. If he strays away, you'll be able to exploit the mistake; but you should be able to meet his best reply.

If you can't say for sure what is the "best" reply, then go over different moves that seem to be good; if you can't determine the good ones you can go over many other ones. The ability to choose the "candidate" moves results in better time efficiency, but if you have time you can go over not so good moves too, to make sure you won't miss something.

You should try to imagine your move, then think about the opponent's possible moves, and then search for a move you will then make. This is enough deep as a basis. You'll come up with a "tree" of moves. Then you'll choose the move that leads you along the "branch" which ends most favorably for you (of course, with best play from the opponent). For example, at some position, if you are playing White:

1.Ne4 Bc3? 2.Qd4 - good for me; I'm going to win a piece next move. So that's not best play from Black, and I shouldn't rely on that. Let's see what other he can play as a response;

1...Nf3! 2.Rc1 - relatively equal, because Black has some kind of counterplay; I can't win the piece here, and I don't have other advantage. Let's reconsider my first move;

1.Bf5 .... and so on.

If you train yourself to be able to think in a similar way, you will definitely avoid many inaccurate moves, because you'll be able to spot your opponent's moves that take advantage of them. Many people think calculation is difficult and elaborate, or rather they make it difficult and elaborate. But it isn't Don't overwork yourself with calculation, because as with everything else it has diminishing returns (the deeper into the calculation you go, the less benefit it begins to add) - make sure you won't miss the next move, only then think about the subsequent, and further subsequent moves.

I believe if you improve your vizualization and calculation skills, you'll get a big development of your chess skills as a whole. For improving visualization, there are different exercises, the most simple ones involve closing your eyes and imagining a chess board, then imagining the a file, the 5th rank, the a1-h8 diagonal, the center (d4, e4, d5, e5) and so on; imagining some piece on some square; trying to "see" what the color of a square is , for example is f4 light or dark? Then there are more difficult exercises, for example where do the c1-h6 diagonal and the f file intersect, what is the color of the square? Then there are exercises with pieces - imagine a knight on c5 or a rook on b6. Where can they go? Then even further difficult exercises - imagine two or three pieces at the same time; see whether some of them attacks another or is under attack? Then can some of them be moved to attack another or go to a place where it's not under attack? The ultimate exercises involve imagining some pieces, choosing their moves, and doing that for several moves, for example, you have a rook on g5, a knight on c4, a bishop on d6 and have to move them so that on every turn the one you move will attack another one - until you make a mistake

It may sound strange or useless to train in a similar way, but it is neither of them. This actually is how chess is played. Also, this is very fast and easy to train - you can spend a few minutes in doing a similar exercise. Get a random simple position - over the board, in an internet game, in an arcicle - and forget about strategy, tactics, etc - try to imagine how to move the pieces according to a certain rule, but don't move them on the board. The aim is to improve visualization, not calculation or evaluation. Calculation is improved by training to visualize different outcomes from a certain position. Evaluation is connected with strategy, and it is the ability to say what are the strengths and weakensses of each side, and how to use or defend them.

Visualization, calculation and evaluation is what you need to play chess. Work over the one of them that you consider to be weakest, but start maybe with calculation and visualization because they can improve faster.

Good luck!

A game where I got a lot of learning exp today :)

This is a very good idea. Making a video can save much time on typing, and it's possible to say what you think while showing it on the board.

I have watched your video. It was an interesting game. I think your opponent misplayd the opening, you developed quickly and had good center control, after that your game was almost won, especially after you won a pawn and got ahead in material too.

Maybe 15.hxg3 could have been better instead of 15.fxg3, so that you could have increased your influence in the center.

15...Re2 is a mistake by Black. On your 16th move, you could have played 16.Bc4, winning a tempo on the rook, forcing it to retreat along the e file (16...Rc2? 17.Bd3 winning the rook or winning Black's knight for the c3 pawn).

After that you had a good advantage and respectively won. Simplifying couldn't have helped Black, he also had no threats. 24...g5?? is the move he lost with, because that move let you win the f6 pawn. Black shoulsn't have advanced on the kingside, he should have tried to lock it, and to activate his king to try to help his pieces defend against your queenside pawn majority. Then it was a matter of time for you to win

I finally noticed that tha a4 pawn was hanging lol, then I found that I missed the Nxe7 at move 19. with Nxe7 if Kxe7 then Nf5 check winning the game.

As a side note, after 2...Nc6 it's the Old Sicilian. I used to play it often, but later abandoned it in favor of other openings. It later transformed into a Maroczy bind formation, something that Black could (and maybe should) have avoided with 13...b5 instead of 13...Rc8. The queen maneuvers Black did afterwards didn't help him improve his development, and he could have omitted them in favor of ...Bh6 or ...Rg8.

After 18.c4, you had a very good position. After Black castling at his weakened kingside with 23...0-0?, it was a good idea to use the rook lift against Black's weak king position, but maybe you could have played Rf3 before f4-f5, and you could have the option not to play f4-f5 at all in order to keep control over e5 and g5, and because ...e5 after f5 from Black could have closed the position, something that could have made your attack more difficult.

It's bad that you didn't play 26.Raf1 as you intended, and that you made a mistake at move 28. Black was then able to win material and then he had a fine game. Anyway, until then you played well, and maybe you would have won otherwise.

About the a4 pawn: maybe Black didn't notice that too, but even it it was otherwise, he shouldn't go pawn grabbing while his king is under attack

I may be wrong... but I think your "blunder" was salvagable if 29 - Nxc6 you threaten his queen and if he doesn't take your knight you come out of the queen exchange a piece up. If he does you have time to move your queen to safety, having swapped a knight for a bishop...

Might be missing something, and even if not I would really doubt I would have seen that in game.

well by playing f5, I was intending to lock the f6 pawn, and make it weakness so I can target with knight and queen, but alas no cigar :)

any ways u were a exchange down 

this was my welcome game (and still the only game I have actually completed on here). The annotations are my reading of the game.

well done TeePeeDee

you played not like a 1200 at all 

most of your moves in the game are good

I think instead of Qd7 your opponent could play Nd4, but after Qd3 with c3 coming, your position is alright.

Nice game!

Thanks, I guess it is too early to figure out what my actual rating should be (beyond this unrated game the only other 2 games I have played on here both ended in my favour because of time outs). This is my first non computer/smart phone (sadly my smart phone proves to be smarter than me even on what are supposed to be fairly simple levels) game in a long time.

His knight on d4 would have definitely given me more problems... I was glad when I was able to push the c pawn to protect it.

thx Glex for the feedback

Learnateverygame, in your last posted game, 19. Nxe7 seems to get met by a rude shock with 19...f5!  Your Nd4 can't really move without losing an exchange and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see an outright knockout for you with your e4 pawn clogging the e file.

Yes

 Yes, most definately!!

I could learn a lot from this thread.....