Chesslings

My father told me this story as he taught me the rules of the game.

It is frustrating, my development. I have two accounts, one is at above 1700 and the other around 1300.
I have often enough quickly defeated 1700 players and often honorlessly fallen against lowly incompetents - amongst whom I must thus still count myself.

Its been only half a year that Ive been playing with some regularity though.
But it tells you something about the danger of dwelling among lesser minds.

It seems chess is a different kind of animal lower down he ranks. There is a lot of hacking and blind luck.

A game by a high ranking friend here.

  1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 { D02 Queen’s Pawn Game: Zukertort Variation } f6? { (-0.09 → 0.95) Mistake. Best move was Nf6. } (2… Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. e3 b6 5. Bd3 Bb7 6. O-O Bd6 7. b3) 3. c4 e6 4. e3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bxd2+ 6. Qxd2 Ne7 7. Nc3 c6 8. a4?! { (1.06 → 0.42) Inaccuracy. Best move was Bd3. } (8. Bd3 Na6 9. O-O Nb4 10. Be2 O-O 11. e4 b6 12. a3 Na6 13. Bd3 dxc4 14. Bxc4 Nc7) 8… O-O 9. Bd3 Nd7 10. O-O e5 11. e4?! { (0.92 → 0.13) Inaccuracy. Best move was cxd5. } (11. cxd5 cxd5 12. e4 dxe4 13. Bxe4 f5 14. Bc2 Kh8 15. Bb3 h6 16. dxe5 Nxe5 17. Nd4 N7c6) 11… dxe4 12. Bxe4 f5 13. Bc2 e4 14. Ng5 Nf6 15. Rad1 h6 16. Nh3 Ng4?! { (0.14 → 0.67) Inaccuracy. Best move was Re8. } (16… Re8 17. Nf4 g5 18. Nfe2 Ng6 19. d5 cxd5 20. Nxd5 Be6 21. Nd4 Ne5 22. Nxe6 Rxe6 23. b3) 17. f3 e3? { (0.40 → 1.79) Mistake. Best move was exf3. } (17… exf3 18. gxf3 Nf6 19. Kh1 Nh5 20. Rg1 Qd6 21. d5 Bd7 22. c5 Qf6 23. b4 cxd5 24. Bb3) 18. Qe2 Nf2 19. Nxf2 exf2+ 20. Rxf2 Ng6 21. f4 Qc7 22. Qf3 Bd7 23. d5 Qb6?! { (1.73 → 2.24) Inaccuracy. Best move was Rae8. } (23… Rae8 24. g3 Qa5 25. Qd3 b6 26. Qd4 Qb4 27. b3 Nh8 28. Rfd2 Ng6 29. h4 Rf7 30. h5) 24. b3?! { (2.24 → 1.51) Inaccuracy. Best move was dxc6. } (24. dxc6 Bxc6 25. Nd5 Bxd5 26. Qxd5+ Kh7 27. c5 Qb4 28. Qd4 Qxd4 29. Rxd4 a5 30. g3 Rac8) 24… Rad8 25. Kh1 Rfe8 26. Re2 Rxe2 27. Nxe2 cxd5?! { (1.00 → 1.82) Inaccuracy. Best move was Re8. } (27… Re8 28. Nc1 cxd5 29. Qxd5+ Be6 30. Qd2 Bc8 31. g3 Ne7 32. Ne2 Qf2 33. Nd4 Qxd2 34. Rxd2) 28. Qxd5+ Be6?? { (1.98 → 9.09) Blunder. Best move was Kf8. } (28… Kf8 29. Qd2 Ne7 30. Nd4 Qf6 31. c5 a6 32. b4 Kg8 33. Nxf5 Nxf5 34. Qd5+ Qf7 35. Qxf7+) 29. Qxd8+ Qxd8 30. Rxd8+ Kh7? { (8.96 → 12.42) Mistake. Best move was Kf7. } (30… Kf7 31. Rb8 b6 32. Rb7+ Kf6 33. Rxa7 Nf8 34. Nd4 g6 35. Rc7 Bf7 36. Rb7 Ne6 37. Rxb6) 31. g3 Ne7 32. Re8 { Black resigns.
  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 { C41 Philidor Defense #2 } 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 h6 5. d3 c6 6. Be3 d5 7. exd5 cxd5 8. Bb5+ Nc6 9. Bd2 d4 10. Ne4 Nxe4 11. dxe4 Bc5 12. O-O O-O 13. a3 Bg4 14. Be2 Qf6 15. Qe1 Qg6 16. Nh4 Qxe4 17. Bxg4 Qxg4 18. f3 Qe6 19. b4 d3+ 20. Kh1 Bd4 21. Be3 Bxe3 22. Qxe3 dxc2 23. Rac1 Nd4 24. Rfe1 f6 25. g4 Qe8 26. Nf5 Rc8 27. Nd6 Qc6 28. Nxc8 Rxc8 29. h3 b6 30. Rf1 Qc4 31. Rf2 Qa2 32. Rd2 Qb1 33. Qg1 Nxf3 34. Qf1 Nxd2 { White resigns. } 0-1
  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. a3 Nf6 4. d3 d5 5. Nc3 Be6 6. Bg5 d4 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. Nb5 O-O-O 9. a4 Bb4+ 10. c3 dxc3 11. bxc3 Ba5 12. Qc2 Qe7 13. Be2 f5 14. O-O Kb8 15. Rfd1 f4 16. d4 exd4 17. Nfxd4 Nxd4 18. Rxd4 g5 19. Rad1 c6 20. Rxd8+ Rxd8 21. Rxd8+ Bxd8 22. Nd4 Bc8 23. Qb2 Qxe4 24. Kf1 Bh3 25. Bf3 Qd3+ 26. Ke1 Bd7 27. Be2 Qe4 28. Kf1 Bb6 29. Bf3 Qd3+ 30. Kg1 Bxd4 31. cxd4 g4 32. Be2 Qe4 33. a5 Bc8 34. Kf1 f3 35. gxf3 gxf3 36. Ba6 Bh3+ 37. Kg1 Qg4+ 38. Kh1 Qg2#

angry rematch

  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bd7 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. Bc4 Nc6 8. Qf3 Nf6 9. Nxc6 Bxc6 10. Bg5 O-O 11. O-O b5 12. Bd5 Bxd5 13. Nxd5 h6 14. Nxf6+ Bxf6 15. Bxf6 Qd7 16. b4 a5 17. a3 c5 18. c3 a4 19. Rad1 Qe6 20. Rfe1 c4 21. e5 Rfe8 22. Rxd6 Qf5 23. Qe3 g5 24. Qe2 g4 25. Qe3 Kh7 26. Bh4 Re6 27. Rxe6 fxe6 28. Qc5 Kg6 29. Bg3 h5 30. Qxb5 Kg5 31. Qxc4 h4 32. Bxh4+ Kxh4 33. g3+ Kh3 34. Qf1#

new opening

  1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 f5 3. a3 Nf6 4. b4 d6 5. Qb3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Ng5 Kh8 8. c5 h6 9. Nf7+ { Black resigns. } 1-0

pasteboard.co/I36set0.png

White’s move (me). What do you do? Hint: a bait move. But what?

rook takes knight looks appealing. q h 5 mate is threatened.
…rook X rook and the q soon destroys things
…pawn x rook leads to qh5, then h7

black can ignore the knight capture and move the queen to get an escape, but destruction follows…

indeed. you’re right, we’ve got options. bait move white knight to f7 would be premature at this point. if she sees the bait, she’ll not take the knight and instead move rook to h8. now we’ve got a knight in danger, as well as the h file being controlled by that rook. we’d now not be able to put white queen to h5… which is what we want. f6 seems to be the square where the exchanges will occur, so we should move white queen to f3 and see what she does. she’ll likely bring black knight to c6 to block that diagonal to her rook. we’d then bring white knight to d5. fortunately her own pawns are preventing her queen from quickly mobilizing to the right side of the board, but she’s a’comin… so we’ve got to act fast if we’re going to do this.

ol’ alla took the bait, karp. Figured she would… she’s still a novice. That’s mate in two moves. I told her to give me three weeks and I’d turn her into an alla Fischer.

Pshhh…

Knight to h7.

What do you do if black doesn’t take the bait and move rook to h8? You can’t bring your queen to h5 to protect it because of black’s knight. Know what you’ll do if she moves rook to h8? You’ll move that bait knight right the fuck back to where it was.

Now I did move knight to h7 because my opponent was a novice… but that shit wouldn’t work on an experienced player.

And you come in here talkin’ bout ‘pshhh’. Yeah you gonna pshhh alright… pshhh that knight right back to g5.

Nonsense. I would expect my opponent to move the rook h8. And they would already be playing my game.

Take the knight. What are you so insecure you can’t have the pawn facing an empty square? The position is improved manyfold, if the enemy is defending, swinging wildly the sword there, that’s a good place.

Rook takes the pawn. Now they have to deal with a passed pawn on 6, rook on the king’s ass, and the queen just waiting, hanging back with a crooked smile on her face.

i understand your logic and the order of moves. problem is, that passed pawn won’t stand as there is nothing there to defend it… and when it gets taken by the queen, the seventh rank will then be clear for her. also, when queen takes passed pawn, white will be in check… use it’s turn to get out of check (wasted move), and then black puts pressure on rook which is not protected. white then uses turn to retreat rook. you see here black is steadily developing while white is regressing.

in any case, your idea opens the seventh rank for the queen. this eliminates any chance for a mate on white’s king side.

… and let’s say we do it. Queen takes passed pawn, then white blocks check with knight. What happens next? Black advances pawn… white knight cannot move because it’s pinned against king, and pawn takes knight.

You must learn to think four to five moves head, young jedi.

Not sure why you insist the passed pawn is so vulnerable. that’s the beauty of it, all that black now has to invest to deal with it. Ok so I took the knight with knight, pawn takes, tell me, what can’t white do?

Why not queen on 4 or 2 or knight on 5? Suddenly, white is weighing a unierse of attack possibilities while black is just shitting bricks how to hunt that pawn without everything else getting out of hand.

That is one badly placed king there.

Simplest thing to get that Queen to move and take pawn on f6. It breaks the entire position of black. Then you can even piggy back on that pawn to get the rook on 7.

It just does not look good for black.

Your forward reading is - like - linear, dude.

Only the extremest of violence, which I have only seen one certain member of this forum do, can overcome the strictest of positional chess.

Read a 1000 moves, hatch a million plans. No excaping economy.

Usually.

Yes, that’s what I’m going with. After pawn takes knight, knight to d5.

Now vat?

I could always do Queen f3, but it’s always nice to pack the knights in there as much as possible. Like wolves smelling blood, sensing a kill.

Anyway, I guess my point is just that, even though that pawn is really sexy there with the opposing black one, king all entrapped, Absolutely nothing is lost and everything is gained by opening that square. Only perhaps the illusion of more space.

removed engine based comment.