It's really hard to see your problems with your opponent blundering so often. Only thing I really saw was your C-pawn hanging. Most of the rest of the game was you exploiting your opponents weaknesses.
At 15. Nxe5, which lead to you winning a pawn, I was even impressed. I don't think I would have found that move.
all of what they said is great, but in terms of blundering the biggest help to your game will be taking an extra minute to look over the board after you have thought about the move you want to play. Expecially in slow chess (the best I think for learning) there is no reward for moving fast, only blunders will result
I was leaving the c pawn thinking I could win the bishop. I didn't even think of b5 for some reason
Alright, all in all Im so lost I dont know how to word this lol. How do I practice/study the middlegame?
Get this book it's the best........
Middle Game in Chess by Zonosko Borovosky
If you practice and apply the principles he teaches in your games the middle game won't be an enigma or myth to you.
OP is 1000 live standard.
You probably don't have as large a repertory of tactical shots as you imagine. Thousands of tactical puzzles are needed now.
You probably also would benefit from picking a tiny repertory of openings, and learning the pawn structures and the characteristic pawn breaks in those. Even Heisman's novice nook article on pawn breaks is probably not specific enough to your particular level. I say learn pawn breaks for specific openings if you feel confused with pawn breaks once you have chosen a limited repertory of openings.
15 Nxe5 is a clever idea, but I believe it would lose to 15... Qf6.
On your 26th move there is an interesting possibility: 26 Rfd1 (since Black isn't really threatening to take your queen anyway). Forced seems to be 26... Qg5--since if he tries 26... Rf8 instead there's 27 Qxa8. After 26... Qg5 27 h4 Qf6 28 Rd6 looks winning.
Earlier, your opponent's peculiar juxtaposition of pieces allowed for some nifty ideas. For example, there's 7 Ne4. Now your idea is to play Nxc5 followed by Nxe5; his only option to hold onto the e5-pawn--7... Qf5--unfortunately runs into 8 Nxc5 dc 9 Nh4, eyeing the b7-pawn (and trapped rook behind it) with your bishop. This is why he should never have left his b-pawn untended like that by the move Be6 (without playing c6 or Nc6 first).
On your 8th move if you try 8 Nh4, Black can murk things up a bit by playing 8... Qxg3. I think I like 8 e3 best.
Unfortunately your 8 e4 shuts off your bishop...although it's not necessarily a bad move in and of itself. Certainly he should not have played 8... Bxc4 unless he was prepared to go into the hair-raising complications which occur after 10... Bxf1. Yes, you do have a couple of double checks, but he has some threats himself; I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.
Oh yes, one more thing: you had 12 Qb7.
I thought it was opening like a book, midle game like as artist, endgame like a machine?
I thought it was opening like a book, midle game like as artist, endgame like a machine?
correct.Or middlegame like a wizard. Opening like a book.
But I am going to disagree with people here and say you do need oepnings. You dont need to studt them, but you need one or two as white and one or two as black so that you can get to the middle game in good shape. Once you get higher up you may change openings, but expecially as black I think you need one starting out
It's really hard to see your problems with your opponent blundering so often. Only thing I really saw was your C-pawn hanging. Most of the rest of the game was you exploiting your opponents weaknesses.
At 15. Nxe5, which lead to you winning a pawn, I was even impressed. I don't think I would have found that move.
15...Qf6 and he loses the knight.
But yeah, I thought he played better than his rating.
I used to run with 1 e4 for my openings for white, but I think thats where a lot of my problems started. Fried liver was usually the attempt but there are so many different defenses(philidor slowed everything right down for me), that I decided I wanted to change. I think I started out playing a little too aggressive(reckless more/less, since I didnt really know what I was doing). I felt I needed to change and learn to play more positionally. I feel like tactics come from the better position anyway so it just makes sense? So now I try to run QG and have been attempting the English
On the black side I run french and slav. And a quick little trap I found that I cant remember the name. Out of the italian, place your knight on d4 I believe, 3rd move, baiting white to take the hanging pawn, then bring the queen out. Usually a quick mate to people who dont know it.
And thank you to the people posting more than once, I really appreciate it
Well, it doesn't really matter which openings you play, you can't really run away from the tactics issue. You can only play positionally if you're tactically competent. Better to just bite the bullet and work on your tactics, there's no avoiding it.
In other words, a positional mistake might cost you a fraction of a pawn, but a tactical mistake will cost a pawn, a minor piece, or a major piece. The tactical mistakes tend to swamp the positional mistakes.
I just looked it up. Blackburne Schilling trap.
Would it not be counter-productive playing gambits to understand piece safety?
yea thats the line. If white takes the hanging pawn, Qg5.
I think he must be talking about this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburne_Shilling_Gambit
The problem is, these kinds of traps are "cheapies", and they won't work often, especially as your rating goes up.
Its not used often either. Concerned about middle game anyway, not a trap I use on weaker players for fun
So I'm just wondering, are you getting any useful ideas out of this thread?
If your experience follows mine you are not due to have some breakthrough moment when all suddenly becomes clear. Rather you gain some insight by imperceptible increments as experience gradually grows.
Which leads to the simple advice to use your time playing games rather than studying.
I will offer one tip. When getting into the early middle game don't spend your time looking for any very grand plan. Rather look for one or two or three simple ideas. How to improve the position of a particular piece; how to expand the space you have; how to cut down the options available to an enemy piece. If you come up with a couple of ideas like this tactical chances are quite likely subsequently to emerge by themselves. And once you have some advantage - a pawn majority on one wing or the other, the two bishops, an extra pawn, whatever, then a strategic plan may well follow.
So start out by thinking small.