Chess Meanderings

Even though I ended up winning this game, I missed a wonderful opportunity when Black blundered. This is shown in Figure 1 where I thought I'd blundered by allowing my Queen and Bishop to be forked by the Black pawn. Figure 1 I captured the pawn with my Bishop, reasoning that I'd at least get two pawns for my lost piece. However, this was a blunder because capturing with the Knight leads to a catastrophe for Black if he captures my Knight. The Black King is brutally exposed and must block the Bishop's protection of the Knight. See Figure 2. Figure 2 I totally missed this unfortunately but it goes to show how great opportunities can be missed. I'm currently rated at 1464 after two wins and one loss for the day.

After a disastrous game with White where I lost 12 rating points, I played a good game with Black using the French Defence which I've decided to use consistently against White's e4 . I made no blunders and only one inaccuracy on the very last move, after which White resigned. I was a little annoyed that my last move was deemed an inaccuracy. However, looking at Figure 1, I can see why. Figure 1 The recommended move was Nexd2 and not the Ng3+?! that I played almost instantly because it forks Black's King and Rook. However, by eliminating the White Bishop on d2 , the second Knight on c4 is ready to move to d3 and fork the King and Queen. The lesson to be learned here is to not jump at the first opportunity that presents itself. As in this case, there was a better opportunity in the position and I had plenty of time to consider it as I was not under any time pressure.  White was clearly uncomfortable with the French Defence and that set me up for a relatively easy victory ...

Lichess provides a computer analysis of ones moves and, where appropriated, labels moves as inaccuracies or blunders. Fortunately in my latest game on the platfrom I managed to avoid any blunders but I did commit three inaccuracies. Figure 1 shows the first of them. Figure 1 It's interesting to analyse why the computer regards the move I made as an inaccuracy. Black has advanced his pawn from e7 to e5 attacking my d pawn twice but the computer regards this as an inaccuracy, hence the ?! . The move caught me by surprise and so I played the questionable d x e5?! The computer recommends c4  which now attacks Black's d pawn twice. If White's d pawn is captured then c x d5 dislodges the Knight after which the pawn on d4 can be captured. Figure 2 shows my next inaccuracy. Figure 2 I played b3?! to liberate my Bishop and attack the Black Knight. However, e4 is recommended and it does indeed look better. The Bishop will be liberated after the Knight blocking it is moved and the...

Here is a crazy game for which I made the following comments on Lichess: Another comedy of errors in which I made four blunders compared to White's five. I should have lost but managed a draw by three-fold repetition in severe time pressure. My mistake was advancing my e-pawn instead of my d-pawn. The opening was a Sicilian after all and Black needs to advance his d-pawn if he hopes for equality. After White's advance of his d-pawn to d5, my position became hopelessly cramped. It was a miracle that I was able to salvage a draw but once again it reminds me to never give up no matter how hopeless my position looks. A draw by repetition is what saved me in this game. I was happy with how I handled the time pressure. By the way, both of us received zero points for the draw. I haven't played the Sicilian for a while, preferring the Caro-Kann or Pirc Defence, both of which lead to fairly cramped positions for Black. However, before I start a game I should have a definite idea as ...

I started the day with a rating of 1425 but promptly lost 12 points playing the Black pieces against an opponent who was only rated at 1393. Even though I lost, I had excellent chances of winning after White's 12th move. I failed to exploit the vulnerability of the White Knight on c3. Figure 1 shows a screenshot. Figure 1 I should have captured the pawn d4 with my Knight but unfortunately I didn't. Again I'm not noticing my opponent's weaknesses. Once White moved the b pawn, the Knight was unprotected and my Queen was bearing down on it. Better still, the capture of the Knight would come with check. I would have better keeping the King in the centre of the board and not castling as I didn't have enough defenders, especially after my disastrous 20th move where I forgot my Knight was threatened by the pawn. I've embedded the game below: After this loss I played two very odd games in which both my opponents seemed to be intent on losing. Overall, with one loss and...

In all the games that I've played online I haven't encountered an opponent with moves as bizarre as in this game. Black, after advancing both Knights, promptly retreated them to their original squares and then proceeded to fiancetto the Bishops which could have been done straight away of course. Here is the game: After this, Black allowed an obvious pawn fork that cost a piece. Later I lost a Bishop to Black's pawn advance but this opened up Black's Kingside and, none of this mattered, because there was obviously suicidal motivation at work. In the end, the Rook that was protecting Black's Knight in front of the King, was sacrificed and checkmate followed instantly. I can't complain because my rating increased by 12 points from 1413 to 1425 and so I'm happy with the day's effort but still puzzled, unsettled even, by Black's obvious intent to lose the game. The advance and retreat of both Knights was the most bizarre feature, conceding White four move...

I've started a new blog dedicated to chess. My previous chess related posts have been on my Pedagogical Posturing blog and I'll link to these posts at the end of this current post. In the meantime, Diagram 1 shows a screenshot of a position that was reached in my latest game as White on lichess.org  in a 10 + 5 time control. I'd just played Re7, attacking Black's Queen, totally forgetting how vulnerable my Queen was. All Black needed to do was to play Qxe7 and it was game over for me. Fortunately, Black didn't spot my error and instead played Qb6, after which I had an easy win. Diagram 1 Prior to this move, I still had 3:55 on my clock so I wasn't under too much time pressure. The position is instructive because it shows how dangerous it is to have a Queen on the same file as the opponent's Rook. Furthermore, the Queen is unprotected. I've embedded the game below. So far I've managed to steadily increase my rating to a 1413 for the 10 + 5 time contr...