Losing to level 2 as a beginner -

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RainyHideAway

I have recently started playing a bit and so I'm a beginner.

Playing computer on level 2 I thought I started out well but was surprised at how strong it came back and how suddenly it happened. 

At times in chess, such as move 18 rook here, suddenly a position happens when it's too late to avoid losing a strong piece. In this way, the game doesn't seem intuitive to me, but rather like patterns you have to experience and remember - which is a negative for me.

EDIT: couldn't attached game, see comment below from user EscherehcsE


1) what seems to be my main weakness(es)?

EDIT: not sure how to best share game played vs engine?

 




total_oblyst

I feltet hvor man indtaster sit indlæg er der et lille skakbræt-ikon øverst t.v.

Hvis du klikker på dette ikon, vil du få lejlighed til at indsætte dit parti i indlægget, og således bliver det nemmere for læserne at gennemgå partiet og kommentere. 

Velkommen til, og lad os så se partiet! happy.png

RainyHideAway

Jeg var inde i den menu, men kan ikke se hvordan jeg kan dele et spil mod computeren?

total_oblyst

Det var da besynderligt! Dit parti mod computeren synes ikke at figurere på listen over afsluttede partier. 

Kan det passe, at du har tastet trækkene ind manuelt? - det er muligt at indlæse det noterede parti som .pgn fil, men det kræver nok at du først konverterer notationen til engelsk, dvs udskifter store S'er med store N'er, store D'er med store Q'er og så videre...

Ellers er jeg på bar bund, må jeg indrømme; jeg regnede egentlig med, at det ville fungere fuldstændig som det fungerer med et "almindeligt" parti :/

 

RainyHideAway

Jeg fandt en forumtråd hvor folk var enige om at spil mod computeren/engine ikke indgår i gemte spil. 
Vil lige forsøge med .pgn

RainyHideAway

Måske det er nemmere jeg deler et spil mod en modstander, hvor spillet gemmes. Det virker noget omstændigt at arrangere det det som et spil der kan deles.

EscherehcsE

 

 

RainyHideAway

Thanks EscherehcsE !
That's what I couldn't figure out.

EscherehcsE

Just skimming through the game, it appears that your main weaknesses are typical of the average beginner.

1) Not developing pieces quickly enough (and not castling soon enough).

2) Not taking advantage of basic tactical opportunities.

3) Moving the same piece too many times in the opening.

 

Regarding Move 18 - This was a basic tactic that you overlooked - the absolute pin of your queen to your king. After a while, you'll learn to start looking for situations where your king and queen are on the same file or diagonal (potentially bad).

RainyHideAway

Thanks for the feedback. Here is another game which was hard for me to analyze, because the suggestions in the analysis didn't make too much sense to me. This game was versus a human opponent.



EscherehcsE
RainyHideAway wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. Here is another game which was hard for me to analyze, because the suggestions in the analysis didn't make too much sense to me. This game was versus a human opponent.

Any particular moves that you were most interested in?

RainyHideAway

It seems to me to start out standard/well known. Then at his 9th move the balance seems to shift, as he has a piece more than me to hit g5/h4 with. 

Also there might just be general trends - but maybe they are the same as you mentioned above. 

JamesColeman

What colour were you in the second game?

RainyHideAway

Sorry, I'm white. I should have mentioned.

JamesColeman

So :

5.Qd2: pointless/clumsy 

7.g4: neglects development 

11.Nb5: not good, only works if he plays as per the game, otherwise it’s a waste of time 

14.Qc3: allows him to protect c7!!

20.Be2: the less said about that the better lol, you were still completely winning with any sensible move. 

One of those that got away happy.png 

 

EscherehcsE

Yeah, the same general ideas. You need to develop your pieces faster/better and castle earlier (at all?). Only consider attacking after development and castling, and only if you have a reason to attack. Of course, at any time in the game, if you see an immediate tactical opportunity, take it.

fpon

suggest working through the beginner lessons on chess.com, they are quite good.  Suggest play 1e4, and go for Scotch game or Scotch gambit.   Yes, they're not played often at higher levels and yes one could say Scotch isn't the best, but it's a fine opening to use to learn the game for tactics abound; you need tactics.  We all do actually.   Chess is a pattern recognition game and the more patterns you see in practice, in your studies, the more you'll see them in games, and use them to win, or avoid being beaten.   IF you can take lessons in person, do it.   Work with a friend to study, to practice if you can.   Good luck. 

Bulldogg9098

Something nobody here has yet mentioned but which is one of the earliest beginner strategies to learn is counting the number of attackers and defenders. It's an important skill, it applies to all stages of the game (opening, middle, and endgame), and is the most fundamental aspect of any board game that involves capturing pieces. Your second game has a couple very instructive moments for this. 

Consider move 11. After your opponent moved Rxh6 on the previous turn, you should have been thinking, "Okay, that rook is now out in the open, what can it attack?" It has an eye on the h4 pawn, which would then get you thinking about what else is attacking that pawn: a bishop and a queen. That's three attackers. (Note to other players who are analyzing his game, I know that the queen can't really be considered an attacker because it would be overworked as a defender of c7, but it still matters to the example.)

What do you have to defend the h4 pawn? A knight and a rook. That's only two defenders. If he captures that pawn (which he did), you won't have enough defenders to balance the exchange on that square. As a result, it allowed him to safely move his queen into a strong attacking position (yes, your opponent blundered by giving up the defense of c7, but that works against the point of this lesson.)
In itself, losing a pawn isn't so bad at this level of difficulty. You won a rook fairly easily soon after. But it becomes clear at the end of the game, move 20, that you panicked about an enemy queen behind your lines and neglected to count the attackers and defenders. You would have noticed that moving your bishop onto the e2 square lowers your number of defenders from 2 to 1 (your king counts as a defender!) and allowed your opponent to checkmate you.

The lesson here is that you can often win against low level computers and players by just making sure you have more attackers than your opponent has defenders, and vice versa, before going into an exchange. I wouldn't worry about learning more expansive tactics until you are confident in this skill, otherwise you'll stress yourself out looking for hard tactics five moves ahead that ultimately don't happen, when the simple ideas are right under your nose.

(And, as others have mentioned, consider learning an opening that provides you an opportunity to castle early like the Scotch or the King's Indian. Even if it's just memorizing three or four first moves, go for it every time you play and don't worry about being predictable. You'll learn better from your mistakes if they are obvious to you after you make them.)

EscherehcsE
Bulldogg9098 wrote:

Something nobody here has yet mentioned but which is one of the earliest beginner strategies to learn is counting the number of attackers and defenders. It's an important skill, it applies to all stages of the game (opening, middle, and endgame), and is the most fundamental aspect of any board game that involves capturing pieces. Your second game has a couple very instructive moments for this.

I agree. I used to link to this Heisman article about counting all the time, but I eventually stopped posting the link because I never got any feedback on it. (I could hear crickets chirping, lol.) Well, I'll post it one more time... happy.png

https://web.archive.org/web/20140615153114/http://www.chess.com/article/view/counting-vs-counting-material

 

Nwap111

Good point counting attackers and defenders is basic.