Positional Q

Hi Chess Friends,

I played a 15/10 game today, and it involved some play by my opponent that I knew was inaccurate, but I was never really able to punish my opponents flawed opening play.  I know enough positionally to conclude (hopefullly accurately) that all his pawn pushes on the wings of the board were more or less just lost tempo.  According to the engine I went the wrong direction in my responses w/ e5 & then if I push e5, it appears d5 should have followed.  I wondered if someone could provide some insights  on whether this is just noise, or whether my play really missed the point of his inaccuracy.

Here's also a link to the game itself:  https://www.chess.com/live/game/2018976258

I ended up winning the game, but that's not really the point.  I'm trying to identify the point in each game where I fall off the rails.  I know in move 26 I blunder, but it looks like from the Chess.com analysis I really lose focus on the position on move 15 and then again on move 20.

Thanks again,

Para / Chris

I would call e5 a waste of a move... also it gives black a target, but it's sort of hard to explain why. First of all controlling f6 is not annoying to black, as he's already developed his kingside. So the dark square pawns aren't so annoying. Secondly opening the light squares is also not annoying (the b7 bishop becomes happy). The biggest thing I see is now your center is a target for moves like d6, c5, f6, and Nf5 (not immediately, just what the strategy will be in the middlegame). This might become annoying with your knight on c3 (this sort of french advance pawn structure likes to have a pawn on c3 for support of your main pawn chain).

With your pawns on d4 and e4 you're more flexible. Also it's the opening phase so moving the pieces and castling should get preference. You might already know this, and if so you might tune that out, but even I have to remind myself to play the most useful moves, instead of spending my move on something 2nd rate. All through the game pawn moves that don't have a clear purpose are often 2nd rate.

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That said, the engine's line with 0-0 has some very tactical justifications. A good move for a strong player in a long game who is willing to calculate a lot in the opening, but not what I think of as a human move, allowing b4.

I probably would have retreated my bishop to d3 on move 6, or played Qe2 (or a3) on move 7.

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So to answer how to punish black's inaccurate play, it's a common mistake to think poor opening play is punished in the opening. The opening is about getting more space, better development, and a safer king. If your opponent does worse than you at that, then you can punish them in the middlegame by opening lines, attacking, that sort of stuff.

Trying to punish them before your development is finished will almost always require a tactical justification.

Move 15 is fine, move 13 you miss that the opponent can play g5 to remove your knight and win your d4 pawn.

Move 20 is fine, an engine my criticize it, but whatever. More important are moves like 22, 25, and 26.

My first thought was also 7.a3, to keep the central pawns in their strong position. But if the engine recommends 7.0-0, maybe b4 was not even a threat, so let's see:

7.0-0! b4 8.Nd5 a5 9.Bg5, and now Black has to make a very awkward move to defend e7, as 9...Nc6 loses to 10.Qd2, hitting the knight on h6 and preparing Qf4, targeting both c7 and f7.

8.Bg5! is exactly right, to exploit the weakened dark squares on Black's kingside, but then after 10...h6, 11.Bf6 would have been the consistent follow-up. This is very promising, because the black king has no safety anywhere. Even if you lose the f6-pawn, you are still going to dominate the dark squares, with a close to winning position, e.g.:

11.Bf6 Bxf6 12.exf6 Qd8 13.d5! Qxf6 14.Ne4 Qe7 15.Qd2! (threatening Qc3) 0-0 16.g4 and you can even regain the pawn by capturing on h6, with a raging attack.

Instead, you allowed your dark-squared bishop to get sidelined, and then Black could have won the important d4-pawn with 13...g4, as noted above.

Thank you both for your time and your thoughts.  It's very much appreciated to gain insights from those who have seen further.

Para