Hope Chess
This morning at about 10am, I played a blitz game on Chesscube following a migraine that had lasted me the night. (Don't worry - I slept fine after this.) I get migraines often, and have suffered them for about half my life. So far I've found no correlation between my strength in the aftermath, and the pain itself. I haven't been playing often online recently since it can be quite hard to get good games. Certainly this is no corker but it demonstrates a number of points and made me cheer up at least!
Before I show the game though, let me alert you all to one of the fundamental purposes of this blog: If you see me writing crap, tell me!
thearbiter2 (1971) vs nsshetty (1859) - Chesscube game, 21.06.2013
15 minutes each for all moves.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 f5?
A weak move: his Bishop will be made to suffer now or become a static irrelevance.
Black is playing Hope chess!
Black is waiting for us to blindly exchange on e4, because of the recognition that this is a Knight grounded in cement, and expects us to translate that thinking into 'this is a strong piece, my Bishop on d3 is not'. Admittedly, this is the sort of morphing of textbook thought that is very common among players, for many reasons: in my case, this sort of thing often comes about partly because of my Aspergers. It's a curiosity that although I'm wizard with human languages, I can't learn computer languages at all easily. And yet these days at least, or perhaps always, but hidden; I need remarkably specific instruction on things. This may also explain why it took me so long to absorb the dogmatic generalities of a Silman's work as opposed to that of a Soltis: Silman uses broad brush strokes to outline the grand plans and features of a position, without going as much into their interplay except in specific examples. Soltis on the other hand, goes from the bottom up, and I tend from his work to get the message of 'there is an overarching positional structure/battle here, but to maximally wring the neck of the position, do xyz' - perhaps Silman is like Machine Code, Soltis is Assembly haha.
Anyways, if White takes on e4, the following will happen:
Black is playing Hope chess!
Black is waiting for us to blindly exchange on e4, because of the recognition that this is a Knight grounded in cement, and expects us to translate that thinking into 'this is a strong piece, my Bishop on d3 is not'. Admittedly, this is the sort of morphing of textbook thought that is very common among players, for many reasons: in my case, this sort of thing often comes about partly because of my Aspergers. It's a curiosity that although I'm wizard with human languages, I can't learn computer languages at all easily. And yet these days at least, or perhaps always, but hidden; I need remarkably specific instruction on things. This may also explain why it took me so long to absorb the dogmatic generalities of a Silman's work as opposed to that of a Soltis: Silman uses broad brush strokes to outline the grand plans and features of a position, without going as much into their interplay except in specific examples. Soltis on the other hand, goes from the bottom up, and I tend from his work to get the message of 'there is an overarching positional structure/battle here, but to maximally wring the neck of the position, do xyz' - perhaps Silman is like Machine Code, Soltis is Assembly haha.
Anyways, if White takes on e4, the following will happen:
1) Thunderclouds will appear instantly and start to make a lot of noise and rain.
2) Black will let out a Bowserian (is it Bowserian? Or would it be Bowsery?) Gwa Ha Ha, and grin at us.
3) Black would play fxe4. This last part is critically important.
I noticed a long time ago (for what it's worth) that whenever a computer is looking my game over, it often indicates the opposite pawn recapture to the one I play, if given the choice. I'm confident fxe4 is correct though. It installs a powerful candidate passed pawn, and opens the f-file for Black to make use of. He can also threaten the fracturing ...e3 at some point in the future.
2) Black will let out a Bowserian (is it Bowserian? Or would it be Bowsery?) Gwa Ha Ha, and grin at us.
3) Black would play fxe4. This last part is critically important.
I noticed a long time ago (for what it's worth) that whenever a computer is looking my game over, it often indicates the opposite pawn recapture to the one I play, if given the choice. I'm confident fxe4 is correct though. It installs a powerful candidate passed pawn, and opens the f-file for Black to make use of. He can also threaten the fracturing ...e3 at some point in the future.
By contrast, if I keep the Bishop, I will be able to:
1) Threaten to open the position with a timely c4
2) Save it for a happy endgame where Black will have the worst Bishop in the universe trapped on the other side.
2) Save it for a happy endgame where Black will have the worst Bishop in the universe trapped on the other side.
So, what SHOULD White do? Well if you're keeping your thought processes open, you'll remember that we agreed Black's Knight on e4 is strong. So exchanging it in a vacuum (by this I mean in a way that avoids positional imbalance transfer, so don't go to your local Santander) would help us statically. Nbd2 also gives us the chance to threaten a deeper installation of a Knight on e5, when Black's now weakened Kingside may be vulnerable to assaults.
Remember - Black's primary sin has been a STATIC sin. Forbidding transformers, or any robots in disguise (looking at you Borislav Ivanov), it will be impossible for Black to undo this shabby knitting.
Remember - Black's primary sin has been a STATIC sin. Forbidding transformers, or any robots in disguise (looking at you Borislav Ivanov), it will be impossible for Black to undo this shabby knitting.
7. Nbd2 Qd6
Qd6 makes very little sense. I can't understand it even after I slept unless he's trying solely to dissuade c4 and is fearful.
To deconstruct this, remember that often in a Petroff, an early c4 can be met by giving a Bb4 check and quickly seizing some power with ...c5 in the vein of the Tarrasch. Here no such option is available, although c4 itself won't come for a while yet, not least because Black would be able to respond Be6.
To deconstruct this, remember that often in a Petroff, an early c4 can be met by giving a Bb4 check and quickly seizing some power with ...c5 in the vein of the Tarrasch. Here no such option is available, although c4 itself won't come for a while yet, not least because Black would be able to respond Be6.
If instead he takes the Knight, I have a lead in development. 7...Nxd2 8. Bxd2
Many people would stop here and say 'this is a lead in development' and start to play flowing open chess. Many others, me from a few years ago included, might look and be worried about the idea of 8...Qe7+ because there might be a pattern-ingrained reflex to automatically bosh out 9. Qe2 Qxe2+ 10. Bxe2 Bd6
when although White has the lead in development, he isn't attacking much. This would be an error of thinking.
White can still open up, and more importantly, Black still has the
worst Bishop in the universe, so as long as you deal with that theme,
you'll be fine.
8. O-O Be7 9. Ne5 Nc6? 10. Bb5 O-O 11. Bxc6 bxc6
If we remember our philosophy of having a target, we can see that Black's light-squared Bishop is still weak - what can it do down an empty diagonal? c5 Is now a potential weakness so we take some time to clamp down on it.
12. Nb3 Ba6
Instead of this, Black should try 12...c5 13. Nxc5 Nxc5 14. dxc5 Qxc5 15. Nd3 when he has gone some way to unraveling his troubles.
13. Re1 c5 14. Nxc5 Nxc5? 15. dxc5 Qxc5 16. Nd7 Qd6 17. Nxf8 Rxf8
Smoke has cleared, White has a Rook for a Bishop. So he needs to open lines straight away. The one annoying feature of this position is Black's threat of ...Bf6. So why not just stop it?
18. Bf4!
A stunner. When I'm doing well in a game I can find this sort of move. He's trapped: if he takes I win a pawn, if he doesn't I seize another doughnut.
18...Qd7 (avoiding 18...Qxf4 19. Qxd5+ Kh8 20. Rxe7) 19. Be5 Bb7 20. c4 d4 21. Qxd4 Qc6 22. Qd5+ Qxd5 23. cxd5 Bxd5 24. Bxg7 Rf7
More cröonchy stars for the Bishop. Black cannot afford the swap of one of his pair.
25. Be5 c5 26. Red1 Be6 27. Rd2 Kf8 28. b3 Ke8 29. Rc1 f4 30. Bd6 Bxd6 31. Rxd6 Ke7 32. Ra6 Kf6 33. Re1 Re7
And now it's time for everybody's favourite motif, liquidation!
34. Rexe6+ Rxe6 35. Rxe6+ Kxe6
Welcome to Pawn Ending!
It's White to move, and you're a pawn up with no weak points. I'll leave this as an exercise for those of you willing to tackle it. Take as long as you need, move pieces on a board if it helps. I've always been fairly fluent in pawn endings such as these so I'll play it out later against Houdini and post you the result in a couple of days. In the game itself, I easily Queened but ran out of time just before delivering mate. If that's how someone wants to claim a win, let him!
Any questions or comments will be appreciated - do bear in mind this isn't the highest quality game but I've played over 1500 games online so there will be some better stuff soon ;)
Any questions or comments will be appreciated - do bear in mind this isn't the highest quality game but I've played over 1500 games online so there will be some better stuff soon ;)
Well done on starting a blog! Something I've always been "just about" to do but never quite done (maybe soon!)...
ReplyDeleteI like Bf4 - nice move! But not sure why you gave back the exchange - of course you ought to win the pawn ending but don't you just mop everything up after something like 34 Rc6?
Hehe thanks :) One reason I liquidated was that I was already deeply short on time - I had taken a while to get my bearings post-f5, and I'm lucky that I can play pawn endings like that one by hand. It reduces the number of unexpected mouse moves you have to make as well since you can of course just program yourself with 'if he plays x, I respond y' while keeping yourself poised for the expected best move and response. Though I ended up losing on time anyways it doesn't bother me when it happens that late in a game - I know then that I've spent my time properly in the opening/middlegame. Stay tuned for lots more endings actually - that will be the theme along with annotated games right now!
ReplyDeleteJust a thought about the liquidation to the K&P ending. With everything pinned, his pieces aren't going anywhere, so why not spend a few moves improving the starting position for the pawn ending? It probably makes for a faster win in terms of move count, which can be of practical importance. The actual K&P ending reached although obviously winning, will take a while to play out.
ReplyDeleteBack in the opening, f5 has been played a few times. It appears best to just meet it with the usual idea, in other words play 0-0 and c4.
RdC
Hello,
ReplyDeleteas mentioned by someone elsewhere, the blog doesn't fit on my (netbook - only computer I have) screen so it's difficult to read.
Chesswise, could you perhaps have gained a tempo before swapping off? Black can't move the rook away and the bishop is pinned. Not sure it matters too much here as I'm sure the pawn ending must be winning anyway, but in principle it must be good to delay swapping off if Black is so tied down. Think I'd have been tempted to play f3 and then when the king moves out of the pin swap everything off.
That said - good luck with the blog.
J
Hey Jonathan,
DeleteI've shrunk the width of the blog - hopefully this is narrow enough for your screen now (: It's frustrating that I can't somehow set a max and minimum or that it won't script an intuitive layout for different spec, but I suppose so long as I keep the presentation sharp it'll be fine. =)
As for the pawn endgame, by then I was down to maybe one minute and twenty five seconds, so most of the motivation behind my swapping was to put the game in Go to Bed mode where I could autopilot without any complications. Great to have you reading!
btw: we use http://chessflash.com/ for play through games if you ever want to add that.
ReplyDeleteJ
Although the player you use in your next post shows up on mobile phones and chessflash doesn't.
ReplyDelete