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Chess

I'm not sure if I'm done with chess entirely, but definitely with online stuff for a while. Lately I've been finding it frustrating when you lose (because it's my mistake) and barely satisfying when I win (because they made a mistake, so it's not really like I won - they lost).

The game that made me rage was really bad, though. It was at a strange time control (9+1 or something?) but I found this really nice non-obvious combination that won two pieces and left me with a dangerous passed pawn that my opponent traded another piece for. But to find that combination I used all but ~10 seconds of my clock and proceeded to blunder away pieces to really stupid stuff until I was down a rook.

EDIT: 13. Bb2
 
Vadsamoht said:
Lately I've been finding it frustrating when you lose (because it's my mistake) and barely satisfying when I win (because they made a mistake, so it's not really like I won - they lost).
That kinda sticks around for ever.. after all, if they don't make a mistake, you can't win.

I don't know, I think I'm just too unconcerned about results to really care about either of these - I just want to get better at the game;
If I lose due to something, and figure out what said something was, I'm happy.
If I win, clearly I must have learned something at some point, so I'm also happy.
If I manage the application of some new technique, I'm extremely happy entirely regardless of the outcome of the match.

I found this really nice non-obvious combination that won two pieces and left me with a dangerous passed pawn that my opponent traded another piece for. But to find that combination I used all but ~10 seconds of my clock and proceeded to blunder away pieces to really stupid stuff until I was down a rook.
See, I would be really happy after a game like this.
- I saw a nice, unobvious combination (wouldn't have seen this always -> Improvement!)
- I got a nice hint at what I need to get better at (time management, and moving under exteme time pressure -> Possible field for future improvement!)

And all of this at the cost of some silly internet blitz game, which I really don't give a shit about

EDIT: 13. Bb2
13. ..Be7
 
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14.Qf5
 
Vadsamoht said:
14.Qf5
This is just more confusing than doing it on a proper webpage :S
At least here I don't forget about it, though..
14. ..Nf8

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This Week in Pawn Structure Chess

Christmas Tree
B4lpGpjIAAAqMbt.png

After the Phalanx, now the Hollow Square?
B4L4kMNIYAIT3fj.png:large

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Bonus Note: What the Hell
B4QHDdjIQAA_6hg.png:large
 
@Vadsamoht Reading through Jansa's "Dynamics of Chess Strategy" is a really good primer on how Tactics are interwoven with and in no way removable from positional play - and as such, that they're the most crucial of things to learn.

2iek4ec6ujs48.png


Question (spoilered, so one can look at the position first):
The simplest, most direct try for an advantage would be 1.Be6:,
with the (positional) plan of 1. ..Qe6: 2.Nf1 and bringing the Knight do d5, where it reigns supreme.
Is this an actually strong course of action, ie is 1.Be6: a good try for white to maintain an advantage?

Answer:
Black will try to prevent this via 2. ..Bg5, a strong (positional) move which stops the Knight from getting to e3
However, it still works! After 3.Ne3 Be3: 4.Qe3: there is the (tactical) justification of a Doubleattack - the White Queen points both at c6 and h6, winning a pawn
BUT! It actually doesn't work, since Black can instead play 2. ..Qc6!, an important intermediate move - It stops 3.Ne3 due to the attack on e4, and protects c6 against a later possible Doubleattack. After eg 3.f3, Black can now play 3. ..Bg5, stopping Ne3 from happening and thus removing all chances of a white advantage
 
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That all makes sense, I missed the fact that
3.f3 doesn't work
which leads to the question
what should white do here? a3 preparing c4 looks good to me, but then BxB d5 and the resulting passed pawn doesn't look too strong.
 
How does a3 prepare c4?
Just c4 should be fine fine btw, it's a protected passer and going to open e4 or c4 for the Knight - if the opponent takes, which he most likely won't.
If he doesn't, you just have a really solid position you can improve bit by bit, while I don't really see much counterplay for black other than perhaps an attempt at a kingside pawnstorm with f5-f4, but I don't really believe that to be sufficiently threatening?

The game continuation was
1.a4 (opening the a-file prior to playing c4)
1.. Rfd8 2.ab5: Bd5:? (This just doesn't look like a good move ever to me.. whether the passer is truly strong I don't know at this moment; but currently White has two "problem pieces", namely a Knight without immediate prospects and the Rook on e1 being a bit lost; this will always give the Knight some light squares to land on, and the Rook becomes quite strong being parked on d1 behind the passer)
3.ed5: ab5:

What to do now?
Play energetically! 4.Ne4 (since ..Rd5:? fails to 5.Qf3) - as mentioned, free light squares for piece #1!
4..Bg7 5.Red1 - as mentioned, Rook is now active as well

- The white Q is ready to go anywhere and keeps a rook busy defending a pawn, white Rooks are on perfect files (open a-file, behind the passer), knight is centralized, passer on the 5th rank.
- Black on the other hand got a rook doing nothing, a rook defending his own pawn, a bishop that is currently locked in behind his own e-pawn, and an awkwardly placed queen which is currently stuck protecting the c5-pawn

The one real countermeasure black can spring would be a pawnstorm in the center starting with 5. ..f5; how would white react to that happening?
The only way to not just lose the c-pawn after 5. ..f5 6.d6 would be 6..Qf8, but that fails to
7.Nc5: Rd6: 8.Nd7!
 
Carlsen won Wijk aan Zee more-or-less convincingly.

Hinting at an imminent generation switch?
The Top5 was 24,24,20,21,22 years old;
B-Group was won by 15 year old Wei Yi

The best placed not-youngster was .. Ivanchuk! on #6.

Will be interesting to see how long players such as Kramnik, Adams, Anand, Gelfand keep themselves in the Top Ranks.

And what is going on with Aronian.. :/
 
So just for reference, we were at
r3kn1r/pp2bppp/1qn5/3pPQ2/3p4/1P3N2/PB1N1PPP/R4RK1 w kq - 5 15
which is here:
3gxdxj0usoisg.png


16. Qg4
 
Vadsamoht said:
So just for reference, we were at
r3kn1r/pp2bppp/1qn5/3pPQ2/3p4/1P3N2/PB1N1PPP/R4RK1 w kq - 5 15
which is here:
3gxdxj0usoisg.png


16. Qg4
Full movelist, for reference:

1.e4 c5
2.c3 e6
3.d4 d5
4.e5 Qb6
5.Nf3 Bd7
6.Bd3 Bb5
7.O-O Bxd3
8.Qxd3 Nd7
9.Nbd2 Ne7
10.b3 Nc6
11.c4 cxd4
12.cxd5 exd5
13.Bb2 Be7
14.Qf5 Nf8

15.Qg4
 
17.a3
5m0tpw8zj1th.png

Still don't have the desire to really get back into chess properly, there seem to be many things I'd rather sped my time on (like FGs). Probably means I won't start going to tournaments and stuff again until I eventually move interstate and get a job. I'll check out the commentary, though - bullet should be short enough to hold my attention.
 
I used to join tournaments, but quitted chess 2 years ago. Which website do you guys play on? I'd like to play with someone from here. I'm not very good but hopefully will put up a good fight.

My ELO is 1716 btw
 
I'm not playing online atm, but I know vulpes has an account on chess.com and I used to use lichess.org
 
IsaVulpes said:
Listen to these videos!
GRENKE Classic: Carlsen wins Armageddon | chess24.com

Grand commentary
Just started watching these videos and Short is already annoying me with his attempts to be entertaining. It's one thing to fill up time with jokes and twitter readouts during really long games, but 10+2 is short enough that you should be able to do almost non-stop analysis.
 
I play chess kinda seriously in a chess club in my town,I also won the U18 championship in my region.
Lichess is a great online side which I use alot.
 
@IsaVulpes Is there a site somewhere that has a list of upcoming tournaments or something? I want to watch some stuff and maybe start playing again when this semester is over.
 
Oh dang I forgot about this thing

Will do move in game after I have figured out WTF is going on in this position again @Vadsamoht

ELO 1716 is likely not worse than anyone else here @Azginporsuk
I have a chess.com account though I figured I may switch to chess24.com since it is a far less shady website and in general better

@Sanji hype, teach me how to play!

Also @Vad, https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments always shows the nearest upcoming tournaments (hover over "Watch" at the top)
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/2015-chess-calendar is an exhaustive(?) list of large supertournaments in 2015!
Often these have live commentary on c24 as well
For that matter, Kasparov vs Short was a treat to watch. Old man Garry still got it!
 
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Dime_x said:
Sorry to be OT. But does this extend to fighting games as well?

I ask because, like everyone else I guess, I think the same way. But the problem is when "I can't" figure out what said something was. I solve problems all the time of course, the rub is the problems we don't solve... Do you have any sort of system you use to identify and answer problems when it comes to fighting games?

If you reply, feel free to pm me, either way I'll delete this post within a day or so.
Ask more knowledgabe/skilled people for advice or if that fails find a coach who is dedicated (perhaps because they like you, perhaps because you're paying them) to helping you improve.
 
IsaVulpes said:
For that matter, Kasparov vs Short was a treat to watch. Old man Garry still got it!
Damn, I remember hearing about this - might watch the replays anyway.

Was this a rated event (I assume so)? If so, doesn't that make Kasparov an active player again and technically like #3 in the workld?
 
[USER=10652]@Sanji hype, teach me how to play![/USER]

@IsaVulpes Heh,I think I should get alot better myself bevore teaching other people something about chess. But we can play a game anytime,thats how you learn and improve the most after all,atleast for me.
 
I don't like the correspondence chess, but I'm ready for some blitz fun.

>discover lichess
>play a 1+0 match anonymously
>Enter king's gambit
>Opponent accepts it
>We both step out from the usual oppening moves early on
>We both play super aggresive
>After 20 moves he surrenders
>mfw we still have nearly 35 more seconds to play
watican-meme.jpg

It would be better if I could clearly understand wth was going
 
I just played a dead as fuck reverse coloured bishop endgame for 50 moves straight,he didn't even accepted my draw offer. People on lichess are weird
 
I'd prefer any of the three players on 6 points to any of the three in the lead, tbh. I doubt there's enough time to make up ground, so I guess I'm hoping for Karjakin to win for the most interesting match.

What was your opinion on the Benko in round 6?
 
Karjakin, Caruana, Aronian were my Top3 likely candidates, and also the top3 most interesting matches imo (although there in inverted order).
Giri imo has the best shot at actually beating Carlsen, but.. Just too safe to win a supertournament (currently, anyway).

What kinda opinion can I even have! It was nice to see everything work out, heh. Giri did the right things (naturally) and got what felt like a winning position kind of.. Easily. Dunno what else to say to that!
Was interesting to hear his opinion on the opening ("The Benko theoretically is a really really good opening, it just kinda doesn't work move-by-move. But when White wastes a tempo on smth useless like 3.h4,.. It works!" or smth along those lines).
 
Honstly I quite like Caruana and the way he plays, but I can't help feeling that an American WC challenger in a match held in America could be a bit too much. Just when people are finally banging on about Fischer a little less after the latest movie this could fire it up again, and frankly I'm sick of it to the point that I might just avoid the WCC if it gets too bad.

I've never really paid much attention to Karjakin, but his games in the candidates have been pretty enjoyable to watch at least. If he was to win and play against Carlsen in the same way I wouldn't complain.

--------

Unrelated, but I also went to a lecture by Nigel Short about a week ago. It was pretty good, and I was glad to find that he wasn't as arrogant as the image of him I'd built up in my mind.
 
I think Caruana has a very real shot of beating Carlsen, since their playstyles and approaches to the game are so diametrally opposing each other.

Karjakin on the other hand I don't think has.. any real chance; since he is "basically Carlsen", but riskier/worse.
His "shtick" sort-of is to take some questionable decisions, and either they work out and he wins, or they don't and he gets into a bad position but then is the best defender in the world and holds the draw anyway;
Which is incredible to watch overall IMO, but I .. just can't see a match against Carlsen going well when you "voluntarily" enter slightly worse queenless middlegames in half of your games.
Of course, extensive WC match prep could change everything -Kramnik transformed from quite a tactical player into Iron Tigran's successor during his prep for the match against Kasparov- but I still wouldn't rate his chances highly.

I'm not really concerned about the American supremancy yelling (much less given Caruana has been playing for the UCF for only a year or something now) and think Caruana would provide a better match, but I like Karjakin better overall so.. I'm happy with either of them, really.

Winning the Candidates IS now up to either of them; with the following possible outcomes due to tiebreaker magics:
Karjakin beats Caruana - Karjakin wins
Karjakin draws Caruana - Karjakin wins
Karjakin draws Caruana, Vishy beats Svidler - Caruana wins
Karjakin loses to Caruana - Caruana wins
 
Worth noting that Karjakin also has white, which should work in his favour.

I was surprised when I read about the tiebreaks being used instead of a playoff. I mean, it would make sense if you have more than two people tied for first, but if there are only two I don't see why they couldn't do the standard rapid/blitz/armageddon thing that other major tournaments have done.

Also it's strange that this is the case when there is a day set aside for tiebreaks as well.
 
Vadsamoht said:
I was surprised when I read about the tiebreaks being used instead of a playoff. I mean, it would make sense if you have more than two people tied for first, but if there are only two I don't see why they couldn't do the standard rapid/blitz/armageddon thing that other major tournaments have done.

Also it's strange that this is the case when there is a day set aside for tiebreaks as well.
No idea what that was about, either. Head-to-Head record being the first tiebreaker makes sense to me, but after that it should be a playoff

.. Although I am decently sure that Karjakin would've breezed through that one, Caruana is awful in Blitz and Karjakin's World Cup showed all that needs to be said
 
I didn't watch the first round of that because I figured Kasparov would just get steamrolled by three of the world's best (Yes, he beat Short in that thing last year, but Short is no Caruana/Giri/Nakamura). Not making that mistake again.
 
He also just finished winning the US championship, which probably took most of his energy.

It's also pretty unsurprising that Nakamura won the whole thing considering his record with faster time controls.
 
Ye, Naka first was to be expected as well. Kasparov/So was the only tossup for me, I figured they'd end up close together but gave the edge to Kasparov -- 50/50s, heh.

E: So's masterpiece against Kasparov certainly warrants replaying.. what a game.
Or, to say it in his own words:
https://twitter.com/x/status/726152613348044800
 
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Just noticed there's a guy in my local interclub tournament with a rating of 282. How, even.
 
Vadsamoht said:
Just noticed there's a guy in my local interclub tournament with a rating of 282. How, even.
An experiment whether it's possible to hit 0?

Further Opening Squabbles (this is harder than finding an FG main!):
Playing 1.e4 and having fun with it kind of makes me feel like I should at least dabble with 1. ..e5
The Sicilian is a load of interesting positions, but feels awful in Blitz since all the nuances of the positions are way too subtle; which also quite hurts when trying to punish people for "offbeat" tries (aside from those where Bc5/Bb4 basically win instantly).
Caught that an 1...e5 repertoire book with "active" answers to all white tries aside from the Ruy won Chesspub Book of 2015, so that was an easy buy. Will see if I actually like those positions; likely at least to be interesting to poke around with.
For the Ruy I suppose I'll play the Berlin for now, since theory ends after move 8 and it should give me plenty winning chances with black on my level still. If I end up disliking it, the practice won't have hurt (as I'll have to play it with White sometimes) and I can still pick up the Breyer or smth later~
 
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