Wednesday 17 September 2008

Chess blindness

Last night I had a nice game against Howard Bradbury in the club championship, another long game where I hung on for a while but was gradually outplayed towards the end when he launched his attacks. I'm not too disappointed as I can see myself improving and learning from these types of games. I'm holding on for much longer in games and making less mistakes. These sorts of games will give me experience and hopefully I can improve my mid to end game technique.

HowardBradburyvDeanMadden.pgn


I allowed too many of his pieces to assemble around my king and on move 29 had to sacrifice rook for knight due to a mating threat.

On move 39 I had the position below. For the life of me I have no idea why I played Ne5, can't remember what I was thinking at all. Must have been a moment of chess blindness. If I would have played Nf6, Fritz thinks I'm back in the game. His rook is close to getting trapped and the e4 pawn is the only thing defending it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see you know your openingtheory and can hold your fort in that part of the game but after that it goes downhill.

When one puts his king into safety by 0-0 one doesn't push the pawns that are in front of the king so that the opponent can attack them and so create open lines towards your king. So for me the blunder in this game (and even loss of tempo) was g5. Also h6 seemed unnecesary, i think Qd7 was playable at that moment.

You react to much to the threats of your opponent and due to that you forget to search for counterplay which i think could have been found at the queenside.

So i would advise you to stop looking at openingtheory, that part of the game is covered enough. Now it's time to learn first endgames (positions with little pieces and the amazing combinations that can happen) that way you learn how to let your pieces work together and to what positions you have to strive for in the middlegame.

Goodluck in your next games!

Dean said...

Hi chesstiger, thanks for the advice. I haven't done a lot of opening study, and just try to remember what should have been the book move after I play each game. Since I've played the same openings for over a year some of them are starting to stick. Apart from playing I've mostly just been practicing tactics. I agree the endgame is where I need to learn more and practice. I've got the Silman Endgame book and tend to play through some of the earlier chapters now and again, but tend to forget what I've learnt quite soon if I don't stick with it. Is there anything people would advise on how to get better at the endgame? I'm guessing it's just a lot of hard work playing out positions from books and trying to understand the concepts?

Anonymous said...

I think it's first learning the little rules of the endgame (like if there is an even number of squares between the kings either on rank, file or diagnal the king that moves first has the opposition) and then its put them to use in the endgame.

Offcourse, for practise you can always set up positions in your chess program and then take first the winning side and the second time the losing side so that you can see it from both sides.

Dennis said...

From what I have read the King's Indian Defense is more of an advanced defense which requires excellent positional play on blacks part since you are giving up so much of the center in the beginning.

Overall you played a pretty good game. I can't really tell you where you went wrong. I would run the game through fritz or whatever program you have for some help in analyzing the game.

Glenn Wilson said...

Some thoughts playing over the game:

Normally in a KID each tempo can be critical. Typically, black with attack on the k-side and white on the q-side. Because of of 3.e3 then 8. e4 Black gained a tempo.

I'd consider ...a5 before playing ...Nc5 to try to keep the knight there and prevent b4. White just wants to get those q-side pawns rolling. Although, White did not get the q-side pawns rolling in this game.

11...Na6. It's third move and its on the rim. It could have gotten here on one turn. It later completes the circuit by returning to b8. 11...Ncxe4 wins a center pawn for an h-pawn and looks better to me.

15...Bb7 this bishop has no future on this diagonal.

16...g5 makes a hole for white's pieces and in a critical area. Often black will want to play for ...f5 in these positions and the g6 pawn can support that.

An interesting game. Thanks.