@ vladamiriduce - The Dragon! I didn't know you could get in d7-d5 in the Sicilian - or - more likely completely forgot about that possibility. It's so cool. After 8.Qd2 d5! - it's a thing of beauty. Thank you!
@ orangehonda - I have books written by IM's and GM's that don't explain the Sicilian as well as you do, unless your screen name is some ghost poster name for a guy who writes chess books. :) Man, those themes you explained to me in the Sicilian make so much sense. I get it! Cool!!
Help With Getting Crushed
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Drum Roll....................................I hit 1004 in Live Chess after the game below, playing a slower time control, 15/15. I could actually see every square this time. It was real chess, not a bunch of guessing!
As part of Learning Chess by Getting Crushed, I forgot that when you change the time control from Blitz to Standard, you must also change the ratings. So, my opponent was in the range of 900-1200, but on the low end, entering in at 916. My standard rating entering the game was 905.
I don't know how I jumped from 905 to 1004 in one game, but I'll take it. :)
With this slower time control, I hope you will see a different side of my chess play, playing better moves and making fewer mistakes. Fritz 12 had me at a decisive advantage when I examined the game after my opponent resigned.
Here I am with the Sicilian, yet again, playing c5 and d6. I'll try the other Sicilian systems out later, like the Dragon.
Nov 24, 2010
0
#24
Well, well, it looks better 
Although there is still a piece en prise (13...Rad8? allowing cxd5), so I don't understand what you had in mind at this point ?!
But keep up the longer time-controls, and now try to analyze by yourself !
I think you played well until those blunders. Keep playing and I'll bet you see a major improvement soon. Don't forget too keep an eye on all the posisble moves of your opponents queen... you seem to only see her as an attacking piece and fail to see the defensive reources she provides your opponent. Also you need to see those discovered attacks with check before they happen. If your queen is being x-rayed by an opponents piece (like whites queen was "x-raying" your queen, with his knight inbetween) make sure the inbetween piece can not give check or make any other serious threats... This is a good tactic, to try to set up for yourself.
collinsdanielp wrote:
I think you played well until those blunders. Keep playing and I'll bet you see a major improvement soon. Don't forget too keep an eye on all the posisble moves of your opponents queen... you seem to only see her as an attacking piece and fail to see the defensive reources she provides your opponent. Also you need to see those discovered attacks with check before they happen. If your queen is being x-rayed by an opponents piece (like whites queen was "x-raying" your queen, with his knight inbetween) make sure the inbetween piece can not give check or make any other serious threats... This is a good tactic, to try to set up for yourself.
I never gave much thought to the idea of the queen being a defensive piece. You are correct in that I see her as only an attacker. Great comments. Thanks for taking the time and the help.
hicetnunc wrote:
Well, well, it looks better
Although there is still a piece en prise (13...Rad8? allowing cxd5), so I don't understand what you had in mind at this point ?!
But keep up the longer time-controls, and now try to analyze by yourself !
Yep. My opponent missed a free knight. What was my idea? It was positional, why worry about those little attacking pawns? 
My idea was simply to place my rook opposite of my opponent's queen.
O.K. I get the hint. I'll start using my own brain for analysis. It obviously needs the exercise!
I find analysing my own games very difficult. The chess engine on this site is ok, it will point out some good moves you missed and what else can you really ask for?
collinsdanielp wrote:
I find analysing my own games very difficult. The chess engine on this site is ok, it will point out some good moves you missed and what else can you really ask for?
I do like the chess engine analysis on this site. I'm going to develop some sort of spreadsheet to keep track of my chess.com analysis summary stats, and look for, I hope, a positive correlation between that and my tactics trainer rating.
Example - This from a Live Chess game I lost.
Inaccuracies(?!): 0 = 0.0% of moves
Mistakes(?): 4 = 33.3% of moves
Blunders(??): 4 = 33.3% of moves
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On a positive note, I made no moves considered to be inaccurate, so I got a perfect score on that part of the analysis.
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I copied and pasted your post regarding how to better use tactics trainer on this site into Word and read all 818 words. I liked all of your suggestions and will implement all of them. The idea to always keep White on the bottom is brilliant!
"Why always have white on the bottom? Because tactics aren't always about offense. In fact, probably the most important use of tactical skill is when testing whether one of your candidate moves is safe: if I move my piece here, does my opponent have any tactics against me? Keeping white on the bottom means that any "black to move" tactics are giving you practice recognizing tactics from the other side. For some tactics that's not too hard, but I don't mind telling you that I have a way harder time recognizing some patterns like the Philidor Legacy mate from the other side!"
- collinsdanielp Again, thank you.
Not deep analysis, but just enough for this beginning chess player - and it's perfect for me, the reason behind the move analysis, for free! I'm plugging your annotation into ChessBase. Thanks big time!
I was hoping it would be a good type of advice to give :)