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

Jaglavak wrote!!: <You should never waste time regretting a move you did not play while playing the game. We these feeling of regret arise, that is the time to play the board and not the man.>

my score sheet for this game is very telling. After many of my first ten moves, I wrote beside my move the move I thought I should have made, and regretted not making. In other words, during the game when I should have been looking for targets and pinpointing threats I was busy regretting. I will correct this bad habit NOW.

I´ve started to look forward to Tuesdays, and I haven´t been let down. Congrats Somebodysson on your first win, that must have felt great. And from what I can see, you´re definitely playing in a different class now to that in your first posted game here, keep it up! And thanks to all commentators, who are continuing to make this thread a great read!

After 3...e6 better than 4.e3 (which as you mention in your note hems in your DS Bishop) is 4.Nf3. Remember on your before I make a move list there is an item that you ask yourself: Are all my pawns and pieces directly or indirectly defended. I can take a good guess and write that your concern for your pawn on c4 which seems to be undefended motivated your move 4.e3. But, rest assured when you check your list in your next game that results in a QGD opening, you will know that your pawn at c4 is indirectly defended. Let's say that Black instead of playing 3...e6 he chose to play 3...dxc4 you can calmly play either of 2 lines: 4.e3 or 4.e4 followed by 5.Bxc4. Black cannot defend his pawn at c4 directly or indirectly. A direct example would be 4...b4 loses another pawn to Nxb4. See if you can find Black's faulty indirect defense of his pawn at c4.

That is enough for now, except for information purposes only. Black, whether consciously or by accident chose to play the Semi Slav Variation which is for lovers of violent tactical chess. The initial position of the Semi Slav is arrived at in your game after your move 5.Nf3 with one big difference. In the Semi Slav White's e pawn is still at e2. In your game it is at e3. Once again I refer you to your list, the item: pawns cannot move backward, pawn moves change the pawn structure/position permanently, be very careful before you make a pawn move.

I will post more a little later

Come on people 7...Ne4? does lose material. 8. Nxe4 dxe4 9. Bxb4 exf3 10. Bxf3 and Black is down a pawn.

White wouldn´t play 10.Bf3 in your line aggressivesociopath, he´d take the Rook, and material would be equal after the exchanges:

aggressivesociopath wrote:

Come on people 7...Ne4? does lose material. 8. Nxe4 dxe4 9. Bxb4 exf3 10. Bxf3 and Black is down a pawn.

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I was going to post that analysis with my next post. Chess Information is best communicated in small portions, the (KISS) system.Thank you for saving me another post

... and I just saw that White of course would play the line which wins material, I got my sides mixed up ...

hehe, thanks everyone. Interesting, the analysis of McHeath, agressivesociopath, (and Yaroslavl ). oh, and McHeath's correction...awesome. 

ok, I need a little help. Everyone seems to agree that my f4 was unnecessary, that my knight was safe. I'm missing something. If ...BxN and dxB, then ...Rxe and I am down a pawn. what am I missing? That is precisely why I moved f4, to prevent ...Rxe. What am I missing?

One more thing, for now. Was I supposed to 3. cxd, forcing  3...Nxd?

I have more questions, but I have to go to work. I"ll come back to this later tonight. We're going to work this game so hard that next time I have white I'm going to have all of my (current, beginner) questions answered. 

@McHeath: I Love that you post you look forward to Tuesdays! That's exactly the kind of thing I'd post! Thank you!!

somebodyss

Jaglavak wrote <2...Nf6 the question that Black has to answer is not 3.Nf3, but 3.cxd4! (the main positional threat in the Queen's Gambit) when it will be very hard for Black to maintain any pieces in the center with  Nc3 and e4 coming up. Here you need to add a better 3rd move to your repertoire, and move on.>

I will analyze this later tonight (to the best of my ability). thank you sir. 

on another, perhaps related/unrelated note: when I say I'm going to analyse this, I mean with my eyes and my mind. I will not use engines for a simple reason; I will not have engines when I'm playing. I will consult the database at 365chess.com and I will try to understand the popular moves. And I will ask you, my coaches, when I am aware I don't understand (there's clearly a LOT I don't understand that I'm not aware of not understanding, and of that, I cannot ask...). 

yes, Yaroslavl. Umm, ...Be6 would 'defend' the pawn at c4, blocking in his kingside bishop. That seems pretty direct though. I'm not seeing the indirect defense. 

Somebodysson wrote:

yes, Yaroslavl. Umm, ...Be6 would 'defend' the pawn at c4, blocking in his kingside bishop. That seems pretty direct though. I'm not seeing the indirect defense. 

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Ok, after 3...dxc4 4.e3 Be6 5.Qa4+. Now tell me what move would Black make? I'll post on the rest of your post alittle later

Jaglavak wrote

2...Nf6 the question that Black has to answer is not 3.Nf3, but 3.cxd4! (the main positional threat in the Queen's Gambit) when it will be very hard for Black to maintain any pieces in the center with  Nc3 and e4 coming up. Here you need to add a better 3rd move to your repertoire, and move on.

Somebodysson wrote

I will analyze this later tonight (to the best of my ability). thank you sir. 

on another, perhaps related/unrelated note: when I say I'm going to analyse this, I mean with my eyes and my mind. I will not use engines for a simple reason; I will not have engines when I'm playing. I will consult the database at 365chess.com and I will try to understand the popular moves. And I will ask you, my coaches, when I am aware I don't understand (there's clearly a LOT I don't understand that I'm not aware of not understanding, and of that, I cannot ask...). 

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What you are doing by playing 3.cxd5 is transposing into the Gruenfeld Defense after Black plays 3...Nxd5. The Gruenfeld Defense is a complicatedd opening which fine in a super GM event, less good in club play or local weekend OTB tournament. Not to mention White's c-pawn is off the board so the thematic White center of ( c3, d4, e4 ) is not possible any more unless Black cooperates when White plays 4.e4 by playing 4...Nf6 and when White plays 5.e5 by playing 5...Nd5 and when White plays 6.Nc3 by playing 6...Nxc3 then White can transpose to the Gruenfeld by playing 7.bxc3

That opening itelf is called the "Creepy Crawly Formation",  or at least that is what its called when white plays it.

So all this preaching about maxims being misleading and here you are recommending that somebodysson should blindly follow a maxim?  Make up your mind.

After 18.b4 white goes from advantage to equality immediately.  The DSB that was carefully preserved is now a prisoner with no prospects.  (Indeed, it never moves again.)


Nxe4 was winning for like 5 moves in a row.  I thought you realized it already so I didn't even comment on it, sorry about that.  We really need to walk you through setting up SCID vs PC with Stockfish to blunder-check your games for you.  Generally beginners are encouraged to stay far away from engines but they are invaluable for showing you obvious mistakes that you may not be able to see yourself.  It's like having a grandmaster personally look over your games and report back to you the important points.

FromMutoYou, I just got home from work, and set up a chess board, and looked at this NxNe4 proposition, and I played it out, and immediately saw the error of my ways. I don't need a chess engine for this; I need to move pieces around chess boards in my head, and when my head cannot suffice, I need to pull out the board. It is so simple, yet so difficult for a beginner like me to see without playing it out on an actual board. So  after being hit over the head with 'it's winning for five moves' I had to see for myself. Yes, totally, I see now.  Black's bishop is hanging, and taking on e4 leaves my knight perfectly placed to retake on d2 if Black decides to respond with ...BxBd2. Either way, I'm ahead a piece. Thank you for hitting me over the head with it! And this only supports Jaglavak's contention that I didn't trust Black's Ne4 but not enough to calculate out the consequences of my Nxe4. 

Now about your little targetting of Jaglavak...we're working hard on this thread to find targets on the chessboard; we're not targetting each other. And we're learning together to make better moves, and avoid making bad moves. So let's keep at it.  Jaglavak didn't write that Be1 was the best move available to 'White'; he wrote that it was the best move available to 'me', given that I could not find a more profitable target. This thread is recalibrating my thinking; it is not a search for theoretical best moves. There are likely many other better threads for such an endeavour; unfortunately, I would not be able to follow such threads, and neither would some of the other new players who are likely lurking and enjoying this thread (waves...Hi!).

I also looked at Yaroslavl's suggestion of 3.Nf3. I will not make that 3. e3 mistake again. And if I do, and if I play an opponent who plays his knight to e4, I will know to take it and enjoy my piece advantage earlier in the game than I did in this one just played. 

Now back to my little chess board and everyone's notes.  And I still have to go back to last week's game and learn the CaroKann notes and the comments to that game. 

ahh, so I just checked this out on the board, and yes, totally. Thank you. You fleshed out Jaglavak's shorthand when he wrote 'Black has cxd to fear'. I didn't understand why until now. So many phantom fears borne of assumptions untested by cold calculations... amazing. 

@Jojopo: thanks for the friend request but I already have accepted more friends than I wanted to. I have to accept friend requests when I play in live tournaments on chess.com; they need us to become friends in order to find each other for playing our scheduled live game. But a stable of friends in a friend's list is more than I want to think about now; so let's be friends anyway! On this (especially) and (possibly) other threads. thanks. 

Somebodysson wrote:

FromMuToYou wrote:

2..Nf6 is actually an inaccuracy.  I know it seems crazy but after 3.cxd black has to recapture with either the queen or the knight and both can be harassed later with a tempo.

ahh, so I just checked this out on the board, and yes, totally. Thank you. You fleshed out Jaglavak's shorthand when he wrote 'Black has cxd to fear'. I didn't understand why until now. So many phantom fears borne of assumptions untested by cold calculations... amazing. 

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Did you read and understand my post #161?