Purposely losing a tempo?

Anyone else find themselves burning a tempo on purpose?  Techinically losing a tempo is moving a piece twice to get the desired result when you should have moved only once.  But for the sake of discussion let's also include needless pawn pushing.

I find myself doing one or the other when both defenses are solid and my offensive plans require action on my opponents part.  General Longstreet anyone?  Of course, I understandably go on to lose some of these games because I failed to continue the initiative regardless of my brain lapse.

Estragon more or less spelled it out.  I would just add that while sometimes you have a situation where you can put the opponent in a bad position by passing the move back to them, don't use this as an excuse to play passively.  Zugzwang is one thing, hoping the other guy moves his knight to a less effective square is another. 

Ok, this is the position after 17.Bxe4  I'll evaluate what's going on, then judge/suggest moves based on the evaluation.

So now is a good time to stop and evaluate the position.  Silman likes to list imbalances, in parctical terms that means you're noticing any difference between the two positions.

First thing that pops out at us is white's "good" bishop compared to black's "bad" bishop.  A good bishop is one whose pawns don't block it (center pawns on different color) a bad bishop is one whose pawns inhibit it's movement or even imprison it on it's own side (center pawns on same color).

Second thing  that jumps out is white's weak backward pawn on d4 which is certainly a target.

Third, white has a nice space advantage.  Because black is a bit more cramped, he'll have problems maneuvering to meet threats -- also if the position opens he may have trouble getting his pieces to that area quickly (somewhat of a theme throughout this game actually).

So now we know how both sides will try to proceed with the position.

Black will be playing to pressure d4 and to activate his bishop (moving pawns off of light squares to get bishop to an active diagonal) and white will be playing to fortify his weakness on d4 as well as trying to keep black from moving pawns onto dark squares if he can.

Lastly, looking only at the position above, it's important to notice what side of the board you will be seeking play on (queenside center or kingside).  Silman suggests looking to the side your pawns point (because you'll have more space there).  In this case you could probably try to play on either the kingside or queenside (queenside you have more space, kingside your pieces can outnumber the opponents because of black's stuck bishop) .  Neither side has any real weaknesses for black so it's almost a tossup however --

When considering which side to play on or opening, other than weaknesses players look at if they can out number (or outmaneuver which is why space is such a big consideration) the opponent's pieces after the position is opened somewhere.  (In the opening this is always a question, develop and castle before opening or you'll be caught off guard).  But some players don't realize this applies through the whole game.  If you could open on the kingside you would outnumber your opponent (black's bishop is stuck on the queenside), but that plan is difficult because your rooks can't quite get there.  To open on the queenside looks slightly more favorable because you can make all your pieces bear down and black's lack of space will give you a slight edge (he can't maneuver to meet attacks if you shift around).  White can eventually do this with a4.

Black to move could accomplish a few positional goals by playing e5 immediately (followed by Bc8 and Be6) but before opening the position he should try to maximise his rooks by pressuring your d pawn.  White to move wants to keep blacks pawns on light squares (white will play more pawns to dark squares such as b4 as played in the game) and needs to fortify his weakness on d4, because he want to also play on the queen side a rook on a1 is nice as well as keeping the bishop on the kingside where it observes the queenside squares.

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Ok, that was a lot -- but now that we have an idea of what's going on we can look at the actual moves.

So both players 18th moves were logical.  White's 19.a3 was a waste of time though.  White's 20.Qe3 ignores black's strong reply e5 which activates both his rooks and helps to free his bishop -- luckily for white, black also missed this move.  White needed to play 20.f4 for sure.  Both sides ignore this for a few moves.

After 25.f4 black will also look which side of the board he could possibly play on -- the center is out and the kingside is out -- he should try like white and put a rook on the a file and play his pawn break (pushing the a pawn).  Instead black plays a terrible move.

Here black has just played the very poor move 25...f5

First of all, we notice black seems determined to keep his bad bishop inactive.  "Bad" bishops can be redeemed by getting outside their pawn chain but the move f5 really seals black in for good.

Secondly we see now black has a backward pawn on e6 which is a subject of attack.  (f5 was a really terrible move).  The two backward pawns cancel each other out, and now white has a good advantage.  White should maneuver to pressure e6 as well as support his advance a4.

White plays 27.Qb3 which is logical, but hangs the f4 pawn (neither player notices for a few moves).

The position after 31.h4 black is begging to be punished... he's put all his pawns on light squares... he's definitely losing now (not that I'd always win this with white, but a GM would ).  White can also pressure e6 a lot with moves like Re5 and doubling there -- I'm not sure why you didn't try this e.g. 34.Re5 would have been very good.

White's moves 35 and 36 are bad.  Even if you're out of ideas don't move your king into the center when all the heavy pieces are still on the board --  now if white ever wants to open the position and pursue an advantage he'll have to take time to move his king back to the side.

39.Qe1 it was an excellent idea to triple against the pawn, but you left your d pawn hanging with check.  39...Rxd4+ the position has finally opened, black should swarm his pieces into activity around it (opening positions favor the side who is more active there) but he immediately retreat his rook back which is really puzzling.  Fast forward to move 44 after 43...Rd7

Here it's white to move -- the position has opened and white's pieces are better.  Although it's difficult to prove it, it's important to notice white definitely has an advantage.  He has to stay active and pressure black -- as soon as black's pieces get active white will actually be a little worse because his pawn targets (a3 and g3) are more advanced and a little bit weaker.  If the rooks come off it's probably a draw because in queen endgames if the kings are too exposed, neither player can increase any advantage due to perpetual checks.

So white wants to cram his queen into black's territory also (44.Qe5 looks very strong).  Again it may not be easy to actually prove your advantage OTB, but your move 44. Re5 is terrible -- it immediately activates black's queen and takes pressure off black's c6 pawn.  It also guards no weaknesses from e5.

After the queens come off at move 54 it's true you're a pawn down, but it's pretty drawish (in rook endgames you need more than a pawn to win such as a more more active rook or king or a passed pawn etc).

Black lets your rook in and not only gives you 2 pawns for his 1, he gives you an advanced passed pawn and has deactivated his rook in the process of winning a pawn of yours that does nothing.  You're easily winning from here until the last move when your rook drops.  For example 66.Rg7 and you'll promote shortly.

^ That was the most helpful analysis of a low level game I have ever seen... orangehonda that was incredibly informative and I learned a lot of good bits and ideas even though I had nothing to do with the game... thank you o.o

Thanks!

Looking again at the 3rd diagram, I guess it was an optical illusion to say your pawn weaknesses were more advanced being on the 3rd rank... black's anchor pawns are also on his third... how funny of me

I guess it's because your king seemed more exposed.  Anyway if black did activate his pieces white may be slightly worse due to that (his king being so open) but even so black's is also open so it would probably be equal anyway.

Anyway that's another middle game tip -- be aware of the approaching endgame where pawns that gave you a lot of space in the middle game start to work against you in the endgame because they're more exposed.  In general, it's ideal to have the base of your pawn chains still on the 2nd rank... not always possible, but something to be aware of.