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

Well for starters if you have a lead in development you want to start pushing a few pawns to try and open up the position to just crush your opponent. If he manages to prevent that, then your pawns will be a nice space advantage.

Oh, I saw the first game. Before analyzing I can say that it has happened to me against the french that I think I'm a little better and before I realize what's going on I'm on the other side of the equation. I haven't had much experience against (or with) it, but I find that I have to be extra careful.

@ Somebodysson

I had a quick look at your 2nd game & there's a couple of strategic points to address as well as the tactical ones.

Were you intending to play a Grunfeld defence when you went into this game?

Another interesting game, the French is tricky & your opponent seemed to grasp the strategic ideas behind it even though a few of his moves were questionable. But he still managed to execute the Queenside advance with success. More work is needed on converting advantages & understanding strategies which will mean a closer examination of the questions “What is my opponents plan” & “What are the weaknesses” I may expand on this after I do the next game. On a quick play through I thought I could see some patterns in it. Your tactics training seems to be paying off & sometimes this happens after a short break. When you come back the patterns have solidified in your brain & you suddenly see an improvement. As your tactics improve you can afford to look deeper into strategies, especially in openings like the French. The Yasser Seirawan videos may be of some help with this. Most people benefit from some variation in their study. I remember the guy who topped the State in University entrance exams years ago & he used variation as well as doing a hard week then an easy week to keep himself fresh. Maybe that works in Chess too.

What about the tactical shot 23. Ng6 (instead of Rae1)? The position gets rather complicated after 23. ... Bxf4 (retreating the Queen will leave the bishop on d6 hanging) 24. Nxe7+ Rxe7. Black has two pieces and two pawns for the Queen. He'll be slightly better (but not as much as after the actual move), but has to play rather accurate to not lose his small advantage, I think.

Interesting line & I missed it somehow, I played through a couple of variations & it seems to keep White in the game longer but the connected passed pawns are still going to be hard to stop & with White having a single Queen & Black having the Bishop pair I'm not sure White can win. It is definately worth a shot though. The problem as I see it is White is defending & has no attacking chances without a mistake from Black so its stop those pawns of die trying

Well that was embarrassing! I missed the most important line for White on move 23. As pointed out by Effdeh the situation becomes complex after

23 Ng6 Bxf4 24 Nxe7+ Rxe7

Too late to analyse it further tonight so I'll look at it tomorrow (or hope aronchuck has done it for me)

Looks like I need a better Openings data base.

1. d4Nf62. Nf3g63. Nc3d54. Bf4Bg7

I can't find a basic description for this.

Its described as a Queens Pawn : Anti Kings Indian

All I want is a basic intro that describes Whites strategy. I would like to get some idea of what the significance is behind Whites moves before I annotate SBS's game & if anyone knows of a good free downloadable database that would be a bonus.

@aronchuck

Thanks for the endgame advice, I'll start sourcing those books & get to work on it.

aronchuck, your annotation of my game was almost as funny as the game itself. I'm going to study it tonight when I get back from work. I'm kicking myself about not responding correctly to Black's f6. I knew it was wrong...it looked so worng. I knew it created a weakness. And , of course, I knew his early a6 was ridiculous. Unfortunately, when he played the f6 I couldn't figure out how to exploit it. So, my learning curve has to be...when I see a weakness, I have to strain my brain to try to find a way to exploit the weakness.

Your comments on the tension, and pawn play continue to be the most intriguing and important lessons for me. 

I need to learn how to exploit weaknesses when I see them. 

I will study this tonight when I get back from work. Thank you so much. 

I also think this is an interesting position! I made an analysis of the early moves yesterday (which took me a lot of time because I'd never seen this position and, while I feel that white's plan is quite natural, black's require much more thought). I also managed to find a game between two 2500 rated players which kind of confirmed the ideas (I'll give the link in the analysis).

I'm going to post it, I hope it helps you (or at least it can point you to a game). I'll analize the middlegame when I get more time.

@ jojojopo

Glad I'm not alone in finding that opening a bit unusual. What got me was White electing to play 3...Nc3 rather than c4 & also the placement of the DSB on f4

It creates a few headaches for Black if he was intending to play a KID or Grunfeld against 1d4 & has already commited to fianchettoing the DSB on move 2

I hope to post my analysis later today. It will be interesting to compare notes

The Barry opening, Hmmm no wonder I didn't know it.... sounds like something out of a Goon show like the Hotel Fred!!!!

@jojojopo, I am very impressed with your analysis of openings. You consistently write amazingly detailed analyses of openings. Its very very instructive for me. I did not consider c6 in this opening, choosing a6 instead to stop Nb5. As you say, I did 'miss' all the action in the center. 

It is a strange opening by black, a6 and h6 in the opening don't do anything for developement so are basically bad. However if black still has time to still develope before being attacked he can be ok . Your first real error was simply 12..Bxf4 since it looses your d pawn which is weak and a key pawn you need to defend (as you are then in danger of also loosing e5 also - which is what happened). If you had instead taken with the rook 12.. Rxf4, you can easily retain the d4 pawn and then have a great line to attack f7. You could line up your  two rooks on  the f file and put your queen on h5 and given issues with black's development  that means he would find it difficult to defend f7 (it would make h6 look bad since his knight cant go there to defend and the pawn cant get out of the way if your queen is on h5) it would almost certainly be a successful attack and fatal for black.

Note I am commenting on the first game and I do think it instructive in that black has almost ended up in a loosing position by move 12 if white ensures a couple of relatively simple things! Basically black has a weak kingside and white's pawn on e5 is making things uncomfortable. A plan almost guaranteed to succeed (after 12..Rxf4) is therefore white retaining pawns on d4, e5 since the pawn structure blocks of black's queenside pieces from aiding the king side. Then white attacks the kingside as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the weak f6 and f7 squares, black's undeveloped knight and rook, plus the bishop that has lost its usual protection of a pawn on g6 and blocked by the white e5 pawn. In contrast white's pieces are largely developed and able to move rapidly to the king side.

oh ho! That first game, on the first post!! Thanks...we've analyzed that one to death, and everyone agress with you. Maybe try reading the thread, see what Jaglavak and aronchuck and jojojopo and QueenTakesKnightOops and I have been doing for the last few months, and see if you're still interested ;-> I'm glad you found the thread though. It is very interesting, going through a bit of an evolution now, I think, and I predict it will heat up again soon. Welcome!

I thought I'd say something about Novice players & unusual openings before I post my analysis of SBS's Barry Attack game. As previously mentioned I had a lot of success at club level with the Stonewall Attack, it even worked fairly well in Correspondence Chess at about the 1200 level when I started.

The Barry Attack uses similar ideas to the Stonewall as a secret weapon in the fact that it sets up a rapid assault on the Kingside that many people will not see coming. There is a tendency to dismiss some moves as minor mistakes or just lack of experience when you face lower rated players & often this is true but every now & then your opponent has prepared a nasty surprise for you as in the Barry attack.

1^st impression on 3.Nc3 is that he has locked in the c2 pawn & may give Black better play in the centre. This move comes in response to Blacks 2....g6 committing him to fianchettoing his DSB in a Kings Indian or Grunfeld type defence.

This is where the 3 Q's are absolutely paramount. What is my opponents plan?????

Its very easy in some openings to play out the 1^st few moves mechanically especially as you become more familiar with your chosen opening repertoire. This is very dangerous when your opponent is not playing the exact line & has a plan.

As the opening evolves we need to ask not only Q1 but also, what are the weaknesses? If you haven't worked out what your opponents plan is then Q2 will help you work it out. In the Barry Attack White targets Blacks somewhat weak e5 square & tries to put a Knight on it supported by a pawn & Bishop. If the Knight gets swapped off White can recapture with his DSB & then exchange off Blacks fianchettoed Bishop depriving him of an important piece & weakening the Kings position. The key to many successful assaults on the King is the exchange of a fianchettoed Bishop. It took 2 moves to develop it, it controls the important h8 – a1 diagonal, the key centre squares e5 & d4 & it keeps the King safe protecting the dark squares weakened by the move g6. Once it is gone Black can be in a world of pain very rapidly.

The Barry Attack also uses 2 tempo gaining techniques. Not playing c4 gains a tempo over all the usual Queens gambit type openings & not Castling gains another tempo & keeps the Rook on h1 to support the pawn push h4 – h5. So White develops his attack very quickly, he can Castle Queen side after the attack gains momentum & get his Rooks connected to add more pressure to the Kingside assault.

Finally the 3^rd Q, what is my weakest piece? In this case it will usually be the piece farthest from the King. The attack can develop so rapidly that Black is often caught short of defenders.

So its never going to be easy when confronted by this type of situation OTB but its damn good practice & when it costs you 3^rd place in a tournament & you lose the prize money that was going to buy you a beer & your fuel to get home (as happened to me once) you will never forget it!!!!

Somebodysson's Barry attack game.

I took a bit of time on this because the Barry Attack has little info available on it. I have gained a bit of respect for the Barry Attack as a club level opening. Its a good secret weapon but not an opening I would play every day. In this game White demonstrated that he understands exactly what the Barry Attack is all about & plays it quite well. Although Black had chances to maintain equality it was difficult to find the right moves when faced with it OTB. The 3 Q's when applied do solve that problem but we are all human so its a good learning experience in how to apply them when you are out of your comfort zone & under pressure. Whites opening was far stronger than his ending (missed a Mate in 3 & a couple of other strong lines) which leads me to think he has studied this opening & uses it as a secret weapon.

So its a very good game to learn from & now we are all ready for the Barry Attack!!

He won because you resigned ;)

Just in case, I've been having very little time to participate actively here lately, but I too hope the thread doesn't die.