I had a dilemma that day trying to decide what to do – go to the club or watch playoff hockey. I decided on hockey and then changed my mind. My opponent was a boy rated 1312. He surprised me with the opening, playing 3… c5 variation in French, Tarrasch. I got a gut feeling that he will play 7… Qb6 and he did. I decided to exchange the bishop and get ahead with development.
I missed his 11… Bxf3, but saw right away that he shouldn’t take on c2, though probably he will get greedy and take it. I considered 14. Bd2, then played Qc3. Suddenly he played 14… Kd7. I knew that it was a crucial mistake, looked carefully at the position and found Re6. I calculated only until I saw that I can get back the rook with a check. He spent quite some time and played the best move, giving up the queen for the rook and the knight.
Then I played Qxg7 and seriously regretted it right away. After a few moves I “restored the order” and started again to attack his king. Computer thinks that the best was 32. Kh1, not Bf2, anyway he resigned on the next move.
Rolling Pawns 
April 21, 2018 at 2:01 pm
I fixed that link to my Wednesday game.
I played in the Quick-chess event last night, was highest rated player there and won it, 3.5-.5. I should have won the fourth game as well, in the sense that at the end of the game all I had to do was promote a pawn (c7-c8 Q), and it would be rook vs pawn, which i win in two moves, and inexplicably retreated my knight to end up in a rook and knight vs rook endgame (where I immediately offered the draw)
I haven’t looked at your game yet, nor posted my games from last night (went over all four of them with Alex today, so that was fun). I should do those things sometime today.
April 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm
I replied to your comment, and have the first two games up from Friday. I’ll have the last two games up on my blog shortly.
April 22, 2018 at 11:14 am
This game is full of intuitive positions, positions where one intuitively wants to play a move in the first five seconds, and then analysis is basically there to back it up that it works. Then later, when choices become limited, or the position more stuck, analysis is required to extricate oneself from the logjam.
12…Qxc2. I didn’t see this move either, but it’s not strictly necessary to see a move like this, as I too would be quite pleased to see Black play this move, whether it’s best or not.
13.Nd4 I imagine your intuition told you to play this, and it looks very logical, as it attacks both queen and c6. My intuition (first five seconds – that’s pretty much what intuition is, one’s five-second take on a position) told me to play 13.Bf4 with idea of 14.Bd6, or at least 13.Bf4 in the first five seconds. Black took a pawn, so I want to develop and coordinate dark bishop with queen. I could just as quickly care less about the b2 pawn as well. So, variation time. 1.Bf4 Qxb2, 2.Bd6 Qf6, 3.QxQ gxQ, 4.Nd4 Kd7 (say), 5.Nxc6 Kxc6, 6.BxB NxB, 7.RxN. Now White has a simple advantage, regardless of how strong it may be.
14.Qc3! The position here is a little more complex/demanding than the previous position. A simple developing move like 1.Bf4 could now be met by 1…Qf6, but then 2.Rad1 g5??, 3.Be5.
15.Re6! Nice deflection sac! I also felt that his move 14…Kd7 must be a mistake.
17.Qxg7 I immediately didn’t like this move either, but I’d wanted to see Bf4 played for four moves in a row. I’m guessing you were playing this opening more slowly than you typically would because he has a much lower rating, and you sensed you could possibly end this one quickly – all in all, that should have probably been the case.
22.Bf2 I thought that 22.Bxa7 was possible here, which makes me think that either this was a quick move, you overthought it, or I’m just wrong about the move.
27.Qd3 It took me a while to find this move, but found it on the basis of “What else is there(?)”
28.Bg3 I chose 28.Bc5 here, but perhaps your move is better. IMHO, the difficulty rating of this game is beyond what people might expect if they only looked at the ratings of the players. You are playing this game at Expert level.
29.Re1 I was only looking at 29.Rc2, wanting to keep that pin for now. If or when he moves his king to e6, then I might want to react to that.
30.Bxe5 I wanted to play this move, too, but looking at the position again going after the king should be the top priority, not worrying about the e5 pawn or a3 pawn as much. 30.Qf5+ could possibly wrap this game up sooner.
31.Bg3 I was surprised by it, but this is a solid defending move. 31.Qxh7+, you probably already know this was the move, I’m supposing it is, and I would have played it on a ten-second delay, let’s say. If he blocks with the rook, you only have to spot Qh3+ or Qf5+, and if he blocks with the bishop, then that bishop is “passivated” (as Pata Gaprindishvilli might say), and if king to the back-rank, then Qg8+ picks up his Bg5 – LPDO as Nunn might say “Loose pieces drop off”, his not yours. 😉
32.Bf2 I would play 32.Kh1 at delay speed, and not consider anything else, was surprised that your move was even possible. I think you must have spent at least some time here, finding a most sure-fired way not to spoil the game, possibly due to the low-rating of your opponent. Psychologically speaking, I think it’s natural to be more concerned over messing up and losing to a lower-rated opponent than it is to defeat a much higher-rated opponent. I think that Masters are actually less-concerned about “messing up” in this sense, than is say a 1700 or 1800 player.
Great game! You can be proud to display this one, as you found some nifty tactical moves in it! 🙂
April 22, 2018 at 11:19 am
Thinking again, I realize that Nxc6 doesn’t work in that line above, which I would catch OTB, because of BxBd6. I think the point I am trying to make is not which variation is best, but that I am not worried about the pawn-situation as much, besides his king is away from his doubled kingside pawns in this variation, and his Rg8 would be less useful without queens on. It’s more of an evaluation of the position (those pawns will fall at the least opportune time for Black, with the reduced pieces) than it is a concrete analysis/specific line.
April 22, 2018 at 9:28 pm
Congratulations on your result, I left a comment.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, I will answer in detail.
April 23, 2018 at 9:38 am
Thank you! I left a reply to your comment.
Check out my mornings “gotcha” game. hehe.
https://lichess.org/Vjm6ncVW7gBx
April 24, 2018 at 8:08 am
Congrats on your Leafs! The last time I remember them doing well in the playoffs, Steve Thomas was their clutch goal scorer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Thomas_(ice_hockey)
I wonder if Thomas Kaberle ever saw more than one playoff series in his career in Toronto, if that.
It seems like every year Boston is trying to put away a Canadian team, it was Montreal for a while. I hope the Leafs take Boston in Game 7! Leafs are perrenial underdog team, last Canadian team left standing. Only east-coast teams left, so if they make it further, no time-zone change issues.
April 24, 2018 at 12:29 pm
Thank you!
I had a real dilemma yesterday again. Then I thought that it will be pitty to get a zero point bye having 3.5/4, with a few people behind having 3/4, and give up my first place, so decided to play. I guessed right my opponent and thought I have a 0.5 : 3.5 score with him. Still I wanted to play whatever happens. He had White, played Slav Exchange. I made one careless move, didn’t see all the consequences, got under attack and could lose material, but even in the post-mortem we didn’t find it, only computer at home. So I escaped into a completely equal R + 2B endgame. Then he was careless and got into a same-colored bishops endgame with a bad bishop. I started to press, then he offered a draw. I refused first, looked at the position and found a pawn sacrifice, but it looked a bit risky.
I had about 40 minutes left, but felt that I don’t have energy and also didn’t want to screw up a good tournament. So I agreed to a draw and shared first place. Computer told me that that sacrifice was correct, but he could defend and offered another way to use my advantage. Also I found that my score actually was 1.5:2.5 with a win and a draw with Black.
April 24, 2018 at 7:52 pm
After 13. Bf4 Black can’t play Qxb2 because of Be5.
Computer prefers Nd4, but still wants to play Bf4 instead of my sacrifice.
I didn’t want to be greedy after Qxg7, theat’s why didn’t play 22.Bxa7, computer wants to play here 22. Qa6.
31. Bg3 was a pre-move intended to save the bishop from the pin after Bxe5.
April 24, 2018 at 11:29 pm
Thanks! I missed that simple Be5 threat.
It’s funny, at first I am surprised that computer wants 15.Bf4 you say (you’re move was strong, of course), but what is Black to do(?) 15.Bf4 Rc8, 16.Rc1 c5, 17.Qa5, hitting a7 and c7 appears crushing; Black just can’t generate any real threats.
Yeah, I know what you mean about 22.Bxa7 being not necessary, it’s just amusing how bad Black’s position is, for example 22.Bxa7 Ra8, 23.Qa6 Bc5, 24.Qb7+ appears to pick up the Ra8. I’m seeing more of this now, as subconsciously I have already looked at the position a few times, of course.
31.Bg3 Right, you are playing with your chess strength instead of opportunism. You were outplaying him in this game based on chess strength.
Congratulations on tying for first place!
Technical endgames require the most energy, and also give plenty of chances for one or both sides to go wrong, plus it’s extended tension in the game, so that will often favor the lower-rated player who has more energy.
If you have energy, you could spend half an hour on that move, get down to ten minutes, and then wait for your opponent to try and blitz you with bad moves in your time-pressure. It’s funny how people will even forgo wins in order to blitz their opponents. You tend to keep your positions all shored-up, though. I tend to let it get looser in time-pressure, where both sides have chances, which one isn’t supposed to do of course, but it also usually gives more chances to the higher-rated player (unless the opponent is truly under-rated).
That’s great that your rating will go up after that tournament!
I didn’t play tonight. It was rounds 3-4 of the Cabin Fever G/45, d/10, and I had already missed rounds 1-3; I ended up taking an hour-long nap instead, and watching some video from GM Mesgen Amanov’s program. I’ll play tomorrow night, last round, will probably get a decent opponent (1400+) but possibly not.
April 25, 2018 at 6:54 am
Thank you! You are right about the energy and endgames.
But the funny thing is I ran a deep analysis of that pawn sacrifice and it is winning. On the first stage all my lines and analysis are right and then I just don’t realize how bad White’s position actually is.
You know, if not a long period of bad play due to the circumstances you know about … I just wanted one good tournament under my belt, without losses and shared first place. Yeah, my rating should go over 1700.
April 25, 2018 at 9:58 am
Nice, good going!
In general, I would say if someone below Expert offers you a draw, and it looks equal, then just play on and you ought to get winning chances down the road, if not sooner than that. I sort of look at it like all equal positions against below Expert should win, and all equal positions against Expert and above have a way of turning into losses.
As your unnofficial “second”, I think you should try this line in a game:
https://chess-db.com/public/game.jsp?id=4142527.1104306.59820032.27886
GM Mesgen Amov was a friend of the player with the White pieces, who was only 20 when he played this game, and got hit by a car and died three years later, surprisingly.
In any case, this 5.Re1 line looks very strong, and it seems to lead to a freer game than doubling pawns on c6. I think you may have played this line before, but I notice that Stockfish agrees with Mesgen, and it doesn’t really like Black’s possible replies at move ten. You could learn this position, what to do after each of Black’s replies, and really spring it on some players, I should think.
This is actually not a bad game for someone to blindfold memorize, since it’s rare to find such a clear-cut type of game that one can potentially memorize.
I guess you can play in the Over 1700 section now. Wow, that would be great! Nice opportunity to, particularly since it’s still slow-chess.
April 25, 2018 at 10:05 am
Ah, I must have heard him wrong. He died at the age of 28, three months after this game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Kurnosov
April 25, 2018 at 2:20 pm
I will definitely look at your line at home.
We do not have 1700+ section in any of the clubs.
Next Mondays tournament the current U1800 section will be actually the top one, as almost anyone rated 1800+ plays in the Toronto Closed, Championship or Reserve section. I can’t do that because you have to commit to come every time and I can’t.
On Thursdays it is U1800. So, I have to climb up. 🙂
By the way, regarding Thursdays club, we have Championship now with a lot of low rated (down to 600) players. I found that a couple of 1100+ rated ones got 3/3, beating a few guys rated essentially higher than them.
So, I have a dilemma again. Should I play in the next round knowing that I probably will get one of them, risk to lose 32 or 16 rating points just to get 1?
From another point of view avoiding seems not quite right too.
What would you do? 🙂
April 26, 2018 at 12:36 pm
Regarding Kurnosov’s line, I kept forgetting the move order, or I would have had a chance to have tried it in blitz and my game last night. It’s a Bb5 Sicilian, but I kept playing the d4 break too early. Bb5, then Re1, then c3 (assuming Black plays …Bd7).
Regarding playing down, for example I just played this horrible game, should have lost a piece even, and go into a rook ending two pawns down.
https://lichess.org/edb08ytZ8ze8
I accidentally blundered my rook pawn on move 85, but after the game noticed that I actually could build a bridge here with Kh4, Rh5 when he checks with rook on h-file, and his king is too far away to stop it (of course, should never be winning with just an h-pawn, mind you. hehe).
Last night, I watched Jesse (1500, now 1600) and Calvin (1800) play an endgame, because if Jesse draws I get another $15 prize money. Calvin is winning, should be without too much difficulty, but allows a NxB trade, and now it’s a king and pawn endgame, which is a draw (Calvin is up a doubled pawn on the queenside, but it can never promote, gets blockaded). Okay, so there are two ways to draw it, one is a race, and the other is if both sides play babby-sit the kingside pawns. Calvin takes away the race, by pushing pawns on queenside, so only he can win the race, but somehow allows Jesse’s king to penentrate the kingside, where he can sac a pawn to promote a pawn, while the other king runs to the other side of the board. Instead, Jesse chooses to babysit the pawns and draw that way, but plays it wrong and has to go for the race, which is losing.
My long-winded point is that lower-rated players do a whole lot of things wrong, it’s not just one thing. I had a fun game last night, where I still went wrong against a lower-rated player. There wasn’t much he could do after a certain point, it was I who had to play the board right, regardless of whether my opponent was rated 200 or 2200, it would have been the same situation right there, as chess doesn’t discriminate by ratings. hehe.
If you throw 1100’s into an Open section, a certain percentage of them will shoot up in ratings (one could say because their talent-level is higher than their rating). If they play fast enough, yet know when to slow down, and when to speed up, they can simply hang around for their opponent’s blunders and slowly climb the ladder that way. IOW, they don’t need to play overly remarkable chess games, in and of themselves – they can win some pretty boring games against high-level players, where high level players don’t pull the trigger, or etc. (get blitzed).
I think you said that you have to climb up, but that it’s U1800, maybe you meant over 1800(?). hmm, it’s a dilemma, yes. Well, the best (more sure-fire way, anyway) way to get rating points is by playing up, no doubt about it, although even that’s not guaranteed. This weekend I will play in that five-round round-robin, and like you say there are no byes allowed for a round-robin.
I mean, for me, a lot of the difference, besides the added positional strength of higher-rated players, is just that they will move faster without blundering, essentially, so there will be more pressure on the clock. Incidentally, my upcoming round-robin will be played at G/70, 30 sec inc.
As an aside, you’ve been getting great games against these lower-rated players, as it’s obvious that many of them, well more than half I’d say, are up and coming players who won’t be there for long, so in a way you are like in the “preview” section, getting that early read, scouting view of these players.
It’s kind of weird, but once I’ve beaten someone I tend to think of someone as that player, rather than their rating, many of them have gone on from 1700 to Expert or Master, for example. I think that a lot of chess growth comes from playing new players, and even top players have said this. In some ways it can be more stressful to play the same players, too. If you look at American GMs, for instance, from USA, I bet if you checked their statistics you would find that they have played many more different opponents than Experts on down; strike that, they have played many more opponents than Masters on down.
In some ways, a variety of opponents, openings, situations (endgames, blitzings) will help your game your game more than anything else, if one could somehow put ratings to the side for the moment. I mean, a lot of these kids who quickly go from 1400 to Expert are probably doing a lot of the same things, habits at both rating levels. It’s almost like getting to play an Expert for cheaper when they are young with low-ratings because essentially that same person is going to be the one with the Expert rating. hehe.
There are Experts here who are kind of ‘artful dodgers’ who only play up in big tournaments. There are Experts and Masters in CO who I have never played a single game of chess against. I’ve seen there games, and I don’t think they are better me than me in terms of wealth of chess knowledge. However, some of them do specialize in their openings, and even when I can see the flaws, and perhaps likely beat them if I were to play them in some instances, other Experts or Masters, well it’s good enough to beat them if they fall into any other their opening traps/lines. So, if life isn’t fair, then chess definitely isn’t either.
Gosh, I don’t think I’ve even answered your question, but I hope maybe I have or that this helps. I definitely think it helps to play, more than not, as slow, classical-rated time-controls. The slow games are what improves someones chess. There are probably some Masters who got their strength at home by slowly going over books, but how many among us has the self-control to do anything slowly like that? I’ve tended to go over master games too quickly, and have had to force myself to slow down – plus, it assumes you’ve got a good pile of material to go over. Right now, when I can discipline myself, that means going over Jimmy Adams book on Chigorin.
April 26, 2018 at 1:08 pm
https://lichess.org/qZzVLQ9neyhx
This is what I mean. lol Black plays this …e5 move, hoping that I fall into a trap in the Albin counter-gambit. This is a great line to study as my roommate Alex played a couple training games with me last week in this line. 6…Qh4+ is the idea of this variation. So it’s easy to tell that this is a very specific position to study (of course, I’m lazy like most everyone else and don’t actually crack open MCO).
But, okay, you know me, I am like practically a 1.d4 virgin, rarely play it even in blitz, it’s like maybe 2% of my games, although I am trying to change that, otherwise why even bother to play online blitz? I play 1.e4 e5 as Black all the time too, and I also shouldn’t do that. Still, I get a miniature as White against a higher-rated player who was probably looking for a trap. So, it’s not a bad idea to see new positions if you ever have the time to. hehe.
April 26, 2018 at 3:41 pm
I would play the 1100 kid, or as Class C veteran Dean B. basically says “Beat ’em while you can.”
I think it’s cool to play with a high tournament score, it’s “the big game” just between you two. Playing down, I feel like I am sitting on an arsenal of chess weapons, and if I play nervously/weakly in the first couple of moves, then there is a good chance they will over-react to it, anyway. It’s kind of neat because the amount of theory could be shallow, and you could be on your own quickly, like I was last night in the Open Sicilian. Generally speaking, the long lines are best for when playing up.
I like to bring my whole game when playing down, not afraid of drawing an endgame, etc, because they are going to have to prove/earn it because it’s not easy, and will generally be instructive for both players anyway, and perhaps this is the best time to work on endgames or calculation, or whatever the challenge is. 😉
April 27, 2018 at 6:34 am
I did, lol, got 1165 rated boy. He played Ruy Lopez.
My attack on the kingside didn’t succeed and I went into a rook endgame having a protected passed pawn in the center.
Unfortunately the position was closed and I couldn’t do anything, so in the end had to agree to a draw. Yes, there were some lessons to be learned.
April 27, 2018 at 12:21 pm
He won’t be 1165 for long. It sounds like you were Black, a draw as Black is even more of an achievement than a draw as White.
It takes a lot for Black to win in the Lopez, that’s for sure. Fabiano seems to be winning games with the Petroff, so we may see a revival in that, another solid choice.
It’s cool you got a decent game out of it as Black.
April 27, 2018 at 12:43 pm
Yes, I had Black. The computer evaluated my position as +0.27 max, so maybe the plan was wrong, though it was a classical f5 with a closed e4-d5-c4 center, maybe just implementation was wrong. I exchanged my knight on h5 to a knight on g3, so he got h3, g2, g3 pawns and “f” vertical became open for rook exchanges instead of just being a vertical for my attack.
The boy is underrated for sure, he played well I have to say. But of course, playing that game a second time, having two bishops (I got his “Spanish” bishop) I would try something more effective.
Another 1100+ rated, a girl, beat 1700+ rated guy.
April 27, 2018 at 11:11 pm
hmm, game sounds interesting.
1100 girl beating 1700 guy sounds like he missed a tactic.