Your last move seems to be a mistake, since after Rd8, your queen and bishop are both hanging. But before that, don't you just have a clean extra passed pawn? You don't need a clear way forward - just don't blunder, occupy open lines, and if black exchanges all the pieces you win the pawn ending so black will be forced back.
Also, you are very underrated...I'm not quite sure what misfortune befell you that you attained a 256 rating, but it should be rising quickly, lol.
You could've had a big advantage with 24.exd5 instead of cxd5. Black should play Ba4 or Be8 and now you have 2 connected passed pawns. With proper play, this is a winning advantage. Another mistake was 12.Kh1... Nxe2 was the move to play, no need to fear 12.Nxe2 Bxe2 because after 13.Re1 black can't play Bxd3 because Qb3 would trap the bishop. By playing Kh1 black could've punished you with 12...Nxc3 13.bxc3 Be2 and now after Re1 black CAN play Bxd3 due to the pawn on c3 (Qb3 no longer hits the bishop) Re3 would also fail to Ng4. Luckily your opponent didn't see all this or he could've had a very nice position. There's other little things I could nitpick at but these were the two main things I wanted to mention. Overall you played a pretty solid game considering your rating.
White can play Qc5 pinning the bishop, black will get the a pawn though so it's unclear to me who is better in that scenario. Probably about equal.
zezpwn44 wrote:
Your last move seems to be a mistake, since after Rd8, your queen and bishop are both hanging. But before that, don't you just have a clean extra passed pawn? You don't need a clear way forward - just don't blunder, occupy open lines, and if black exchanges all the pieces you win the pawn ending so black will be forced back.
Also, you are very underrated...I'm not quite sure what misfortune befell you that you attained a 256 rating, but it should be rising quickly, lol.
Thanks for the feedback and analysis guys!
Archie your analysis on 12. Nxe2 Bxe2 is very helpful. That situation is exactly what I wanted to avoid, but didn't realize the bishop would be trapped. I considered myself lucky that he traded his very active Knight for my DSB.
Smells like a sandbagger.
how is it possible to be rated 256
By losing on purpose your very first rated games since more points are deducted, so you can enter later U600 U800 U1000 etc and win 1st place easily on major tournaments with big cash prizes pretending to be real low rated.
300 ratedwould barely move pieces without braking rules or hanging them on every move...
256?
I'm definitely not a sandbagger. Only been playing chess "seriously'" for 4 months now, and have participated in 7 total OTB USCF tournament games. I went 0-5 in my first tournament, and this is now in Round 2 of my second. My current record is 0W - 6L - 1D. The game in my original post is the best performance I've had at an OTB tournament thus far.
I attended my first OTB tournament G/45 and got shafted 0W-5L by a bunch of 7-11 year old kids, and I did hang a lot of pieces.
I took 2 months, focused on tactics. Just finished Round 2 of a new G/120 tournament that plays weekly. Lost my first round to a 1500 whom i had a hugely winning position against: 2 rooks + bishop vs his queen and i lost it. This second round got paired vs 1k player (the game i posted), and couldn't find a W.
I'm 1300 on this site, but can't get a win against a 1k USCF player. I'm admittedly not as comfortable OTB yet as I am online. My goal is to reach 1500-1600 USCF by this time next year.
Based on my abysmal performance in my first tournament, and marked improvement since then, it's safe to say I'm underrated, however it wasn't intentional or planned.
Will happily take critique of the following OTB USCF game. I played as White. Felt like I had a small positional advantage in the endgame. Opponent offered me a draw twice.. I ultimately accepted after seeing no clear way forward.