Win and a Loss

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grembo10

Hey,

I've started to get back into chess recently. I am studying the game during study breaks over the board and playing regularly here on chess.com. In terms of studying, I like the sicilian and I play bad against it so I started reading 'Dismantling the Sicilian' and looking at Paul Morphy games since I love playing e4. That being said, I'd like to get the opinion of you guys on my game play and style. I don't really know what my style is or how I could improve tactical/positional wise, so I'd very much like all the critique you have. 

I'm posting a game that I've lost and a game that I just played and won. I'm sure I'll learn more from the loss but I'd also like to know good things I did in the win that I should continue to look for in future games.

Loss:

This game I felt positional wise I sucked. My knight on f6 got kicked around and my center crumbled quickly after 9...Kxe3. I also made some significant blunders in the end game, which is also a pretty weak point in my game, like 22...Bxh4. I'm not sure what I was thinking there, obviously nothing. I'm not very confident in my endgame because I'm suspicious of every single move I make since throwing away a win is the worst.

Win:

This one I tried to play a kings gambit line Morphy played against his dad that I'd been studying; I thought it looked cool and I like playing e4 anyways. The line didn't go that way and I just focused on establishing a center, but I felt I played solidly positionally and tactically. I think I messed up a little in the end game again with positional mistakes that allowed the fork with 19. Qc3 , Ke2+. 

Hopefully this post wasn't too long. I'd really appreciate all the feedback I could get as I want to progress much farther than 1000. 

Thanks

Ancares

In my opinion, at your level the focus has to be tactics, not studing openings.

In the first game you were doing ok untill 10. ... d4 (material was even and your position was not worse: you just have to play your bishops and castle).

It seems that you didn´t know where you were getting into with that move. After all the exchanges you get surprised by a double attack, but you could still defend with 13..... Nc6 and your position was fine.

You are not going to find this kind of moves in a book of openings, you have to think them by yourself, and the only way to do that is training tactics.

If you want to improve, read a book about what are the common tactics (double attack, pin, discovered attack, X-ray ...) and practise a lot of them. Also, play slow games from time to time, so you get used to think deeper.

That´s my advise. Your second game was great thumbup.png

 

grembo10

Both of these posts were super helpful. Thank you to both of you guys!