what the #$%^was he playing and how did he win?

hi everyone. just a five minute check in. I thoroughly enjoyed reading aronchuck's response to jojojopo's long post. jojojopo, don't worry at all about long posts. this thread IS the long post thread! we;re talking about real stuff here, and your long post is definitely real stuff, and aronchuck's answer is sooo important and instructive. the difference between going for the jugular vs, patiently improving the pieces...its going to be a while for me to get there, but I hope to get there. 

I haven't been playing any games, but will resume after Feb 9. I have two games scheduled for the following weekend. Meantime I just have to work a lot, and squeeze in packing in the evenings after work.

QTKO, I look forward to waching that Seirawan video. thanks for referencing it.

I also look forward to learning some of the opening ideas of the English, and playing some games with it. 

thanks everyone. I'm so glad the thread is continuing the way it is. 

Very well, I'll post the game then. Replies to the last comments will be on my next post so that they don't get mixed with the game.

I hope you enjoy it!

@QTKO: I looked at the Seirawan video you suggested, and it was really the best example that could have been given on what aronchuk just commented. That game is incredible, and he is a great lecturer. I write this to encourage everyone interested in it to watch it. Thank you for the recommendation!

I'll search for some basic material on the English to understand what is it about, and then I'm going to analyse your game, and other games you care to post as well.

@aronchuk: I'm going to do my best to break "the old habits" and, to do that, what you shared in your last post is key. Over the course of this thread I have learned to start to think more in terms of strategic goals instead of the one-dimensional "all-out attack against the king" approach that I use to have, so now I have to make another step and make peace with the fact that probably most of the moves in a game are going to be non-forcing, so I have to learn to evaluate moves not only by their tactical value, so I'll try to use more the 7 key aspects to be evaluated in a position.

If you allow me a question respecting this, the 7nth item is "Direct Threats". Is this about threats currently happening in the position, or potential threats? (for example, my knight is about to fork the king and queen but the forking square is currently protected, so this is a potential threat since the opponent has to be careful). If this includes potential threats, I kind of understand why I've seen many strong players sidestep potential tactics by, for example, removing their queen from a file where it is aligned with an enemy rook, to avoid future pins and discovered attacks.

@SBS: Only two days to go, so good luck! We all hope to have you back :).

@ jojojopo

Glad you enjoyed the Seirawan video. The whole series is worth watching & guess what? One of his favourite openings is the English! A couple of the lectures feature English openings & he also explains how he came to like it in one of them. The only videos I couldn't get anything out of are the few where he uses a board instead of a computer, you can't really see what the moves are on the old style board which is very annoying because I particularly wanted to watch his lecture on Pawn structure.

I've just installed the new Stockfish DD engine in SCID vs PC so I'm going to do my games on that as soon as I get it configured for playing strength & style. Its getting very good reviews so I can recommend it as a better alternative to the Chess.com computer for anyone wanting computer games or something to help in analysis.

@ aronchuck

Very valid points about lower level players “Going for the Jugular” too quickly & I think I know why I am doing it. It goes back to a different era of Chess where we concentrated on Openings & then after studying a lot of GM games you tended to choose a style that suited your temperament. For me after getting some early success with the Stonewall attack I chose a very attacking style of play inspired by Fischer & Tal. We made a lot of mistakes back then but thats what almost everyone did to learn the game. Now I know what the problem is it's just a simple matter of breaking years of old habits & taking a new approach to the game. Its also the reason why I avoided certain types of opening. I didn't want closed games where a lot of strategy was involved I wanted to kill my opponent in 20 moves, sign scoresheets & get to the Pub early for a beer while we did the game post mortum.

I look forward to watching those seirawan videos and getting back to you guys. It will be a couple more days. Movers come in a half hour; I just wanted to check in. There will be a lot of catching up to do on the thread, but in my new place I'm going to have a dedicated area for chess study! I plan to improve a TON in the next six months to year. 

Welllll, if you are going to have a dedicated study area we'll post 50 or 60 games to get you started

Lol. We'll have to make sure that the dedicated room is used.

Ok, I analysed QTKO's game. It was fun! I'm going to read the other analysis of the game now and see what the others think.

@QTKO: I watched the lecture on pawn structure and it was amazing. Maybe I can suggest that you pause the video when he sets up a position to be able to understand the board better?

@ jojojopo

Nice analysis. I'm up to the endgame in your last posted game, should have it done later today. Then I'm going to calibrate Stockfish DD against the chess.com computer & switch to that for computer play.

Thanks, I'll try it again today, maybe with a board in front of me instead of a beer

Jojojopo's 4 Knights, Rubenstein, Henneberger Variation (Yeah I had to look it up, too many years since I tried to memorise the entire contents of Modern Chess Openings)

This is a very interesting game. Black plays an aggressive line in the opening & gains the Bishop pair which he preserves & uses to full advantage in the endgame. Nicely played endgame by Black keeping all his pieces active, using the Bishops to full advantage & exploiting Whites misplaced Knight. It also exploited my rusty endgame analysis so rather than post a miscalculated variation I kept the comments general. It does point out how difficult these games can be if you aren't playing them regularly because of the open board & mobility of the long range pieces. Many variations to calculate & not an endgame you want to be in under time pressure.

hi everyone. I just finished the mother of all moves. I poured myself a tall glass of wine and was too tired to start drinking it. I'm now rested up . I'll be back for real on Saturday, in my new digs, back in the saddle. 

Welcome back, I wondered if you were going to be ready to play immediately after moving. I've been tweaking the new Stockfish DD engine last day or 2, I'm going to try the English opening against it soon. We are taking up our internet probs with our ISP in a day or 2 then I may actually be able to play some humans apart from my family. Watching the new Chess movie Life of a King tonight.

Look forward to some more games to analyse.

SBS, it's good to have you back!

@QTKO: If you want I can post my notes on the game now. I agree with your comment of the game being difficult with all the possibilities, I constantly felt that the game could turn over in any minute pretty much until the last sequence. I can't imagine the tension of playing one of those REALLY long games, where the endgame alone lasts for about 70 moves!

@ jojojopo

I'm not doing much at the moment, post your analysis if you like then we can be ready for SBS's next games

@ aronchuck

I'll throw this question in now while its quiet, but its only a matter of time before Somebodysson gets to endgames so maybe this will get us prepared as more of them come up for analysis.

Endgames for me have always been the hardest part of Chess because I just don't get to play them too often. I liked endgames & didn't find the study tedious I just couldn't get OTB practice. I looked back over some of my old games & the only endgames were draws against equal opponents & there weren't many of them. I know I'm rusty on them now after a long break hence my lack of analysis on jojojopo's last game. I did all the study years ago & all the basics are still there. King & pawn endings, all the basic Mates, K & Q, K & R, K & N + B etc. But more complex endings like jojojopo's game are still difficult especially after many years absence. Same goes for 2 Rook + several Pawn endings. I'm lacking human opponents so I'm working on tweaking the new Stockfish DD engine for computer play to use in endgame study.

Do you have any more advice on how to tackle the problem? Or a book or 2 to recommend?

Its interesting looking back at my remaining old games, almost all were sharp aggressive openings, the Stonewall Attack & Kings Gambit as White & the Grunfeld & Sicilian as Black & they all lead to middle game Mates or an occasional passed pawn & resignation by my opponent before the endgame was played out. The same can be said for my losses.

Yasser Seirawan says everyone should have a classical opening in their repertoire, do you think something like that would increase the number of endgames or is it purely a function of the ability & style of my opponent or simply just playing 100's of games to increase the % of endgames reached?

awesome, aronchuck. Stunning advice. 

I'm very rusty, haven't done any tactics in over a week; I play a game in an hour. I'll post it. Welcome back everyone. 

I'm halfway through the analysis but its getting too late to think. Interesting game & I'm working on where it started to go wrong. I'll post my results tomorrow.