If anyone wants to do my “chess homework” for me. Try to describe for me why Crafty says that Black is up a -1.00 score when White is up 3 pawns. That is like saying White needs 4 more pawns here to be equal, not just 3 more pawns than black.

Move 29. White to move and is down -1.00 score according to Crafty

The game

Most of this game was modeled after a game I lost in time-pressure as White.

It’s remarkable how effortlessly that Black can win from this position. White is up a lot of material and yet it’s hopeless, even the 3 pawns for bishop is.

It’s okay, I figured out why, it’s just hard to believe. If this doesn’t impart the value of initiative to someone, I’m not sure what will.

1837 FICS rating. Maybe I can make an improvement in my OTB rating now.

Or however it’s spelled.

I played almost a carbon-copy, pawn structure game. First one I blew it and lost to a guy on FICS just under 2000. Second one was a quick win. Here is the Game

Outside of the French Advanced var. as White or QGD, most of my games get very tactical. Someone who is just thinking strategical and technique-wise isn’t going to do well in these, I don’t think. You can’t just be a good bean-counter in these, but have to play with some feel.

The thing about this Schev var. of the Sicilian is I find the only way to gain traction is to castle-queenside and get that g-pawn going, beat Black’s b-pawn that is trying to do the same thing. In my first game, I had Crafty find where I went wrong; it took 104 moves for Crafty to produce the win, so open and tactical does not mean game over after 30 moves necessarily!

In this game I showed where I won, I really suckered him into that pin, didn’t I (?) I was more worried about Black playing …f6, but the near 2000 guy played the same way, and his Black bishop was even more hemmed in than this one.

I don’t know, but lately, the last few days, everytime I attack a queen, the other guy attacks mine back instead of moving their own. Oftentimes, you can move your queen out of it where you are winning a piece, so look for it and don’t make any fast moves until you find it!! You’ll see, and remember my tip. 😉 But in general, people love to attack your queen when they are busted (instead of thinking of something better), so remember that.

Here is how the game should have gone – Game_Shoulda It’s important to remember this because in open positions you usually get your one chance and are strategically busted if it progresses past that point without pulling the trigger.

If the king had simply taken the rook on g7 instead, then White plays Bxe5+, trades on f6, and then lines up for mate on g8 starting with queen sac there, but there is no way out, all the other defenses lead to a different mate.

I played a game on FICS, yesterday, here is the game. I am simply trying to play more accurately than my opponent, and that is what happened.

In an opposite-side castling against the Sicilian Dragon, I am trying to make a sound attack, but my opponent strikes first. Yes, I figure it’s even easier to refute an attack than to carry out my own from this position, even though I normally throw caution to the wind and play bad chess going for my own attack. But really, what does it matter, I simply need to play better than him/her in some way to win the game.

The time-control was 20/5, IOW 5 seconds was the increment. We both had < 2 minutes by the end of the game.

Once he gave me the overwhelming advantage, the last chance to keep it interesting was on move 34. He could play Qa7, but then I probably play Nd4; not sure after that, Nb5 is threatened, with c4 to back it up, Nc6 even looks semi-attractive if BxN, exB, but sounder seems recapturing with a rook and then perhaps simply N back to b3.

There is a nearby tournament in Manitou Springs the beginning of next month. 5 rounds at standard time controls. It's close and it's unusual to even have a tournament at standard time-controls nearby. 5 rounds will be a lot (that 2nd day may be tough), but I will try. Also, next month I will try my hand at this monthly/wednesdays meeting, club I guess you could say, see if some 1200 level player can kick my butt for all my trash-talk on these blogs. hehe.