(Admit it, you sang the song in your head a little)
This is a continuation from a conversation Astro and I were having in the Who invented logic thread. I decided to create another thread so as to not further hijack the other one.
So I thought you played pretty well. Quite a bit better than I expected given you've only been playing for a week. I'm going to give you my commentary without looking at a computer, because you can use that as well as me and I think it taints the human perspective. That being said, some of my commentary may be wrong as I might have missed some tactic that the computer sees.
One of the ways computers have revolutionized Chess is to show that a lot of openings which were long considered subpar or even broken are in fact playable. I would imagine 2...d5 is like that. I haven't seen it before, but I doubt it's bad. 3... dxc4 looks subpar to me as it hands white the center and it doesn't look like black can hold the extra pawn.
You stated 4 ...e5 was good, and it took me a little bit to catch why. In light of it, maybe white should have played 4. e3 instead. It's pretty thematic to play that in queen's gambit games, and is probably good here for the same reasons. It's one of those moves where you have to check a few lines to make sure it works. e6 looks like another solid move to me. Locking in your light-squared bishop is not usually bad in closed positions, and it gives you a pretty solid pawn structure. It's an alternative I think. Do you like the closed-game style of play?. In my opinion it's pretty strong and a lot of moves come more "naturally," whatever that means.
As was demonstrated in the game 4... Bg4 is probably weak because it allows 5. f3 which consolidates white center. It also forces your bishop to retreat to either h5, where it's basically taken out of the game, or forces you to retreat to d7 where you could have just placed your bishop in the first place. Probably always a good idea to check tempo-gaining moves your opponent has right after your turn. That said, it does make the g1-a7 diagonal pretty weak, especially if black decides to castle that way. If black castles kingside after that he'll probably want to use an extra turn to get the King tucked away safely on h1.
One of the things I like to do, especially in long games, is to check all ranks, files, and diagonals along the square my opponent moved a piece from and the square he moves a piece to. I like to look at all the square one knight move away from those two squares to. I do the same thing before I move any piece of my own -- just a quick glance. It helps me understand many relevant details on how a particular move changes the structure of the board, and also helps me immediately see a lot of tactical ideas that I can then tuck away into the back of my mind and try to make them relevant. Once you get used to the process you would probably immediately see a tempo gaining move like 5. f3 and might have reconsidered 4... Bg4.
After 8. Nge2 it looks like white does intend on castling kingside. It might be a good time to strike at that diagonal we talked about earlier with 8 ...c5. Even if he doesn't castle, it'll be good to break up those pawns in the center. Note that white can't play something like 9. d5 because of 9... Qh4+ forking the king and bishop. After the fork yea, white will get your light squared bishop too, but the bishop you're getting is probably far superior to the one you're losing. That f3 is really a double edged sword sometimes. Also, note that after 8... Bg4 you give black an extra tempo by abandoning g7 since if black takes with his knight he takes it with check. Therefore, after some calculation it looks like c5 is no longer immediately possible after white castles due to a line like 9...c5 10. Nf4 cxd4 11. Nxh5 dxc3 12. Nxg7+. If instead 9...c5 10. Nf4 Bg6 then 11. d5 is possible as that queen check is no longer available. Of course all of this analysis is just to check whether that c5 pawn advance is good or not. I think the analysis may be good to look at for tactical ideas, but something like a well-timed pawn push to break up a strong pawn majority is the key idea here. Opening up that diagonal also gives you a very strong avenue to build an attack.
I don't like 10... g6 at all. It weakens f6 and h6, and after 11. Nxh5 gxh5 black probably has a winning endgame with the bishop pair and the better pawn structure. I get that you get to open up the g-file, but 10... Bg6 11. Nxg6 hxg6 allows you to open up a pretty powerful attack down the h-file too, have a much better pawn structure, and allows you to retain the option of castling kingside. After Nf4 white looks like he probably has some sac ideas on e6 too. However, note that the d4 pawn is very weak here due to the King being on that diagonal. The queen can't protect it because of the potential bishop pin. It's an idea to tuck away I think and maybe play towards.
12. Bh6 looks useless to me. I think white should have used this opportunity to play Kh1. You can take the d4 pawn here if you want it as far as I can tell.
After 16. Rd1 the hole on f6 and the centralized king is a huge liability for you. Wherever you move your queen white can send his knight to that square and basically has you in a vice.
Nice job in seeing his blunder though.
A few take-aways:
Personally, I would also say to avoid trading central pawns for flank pawns/ less central pawns, but there are some openings where you want to do that. But in general I think that's probably also a good principle.
I enjoyed your game, and I think you have a knack for it.
This is a continuation from a conversation Astro and I were having in the Who invented logic thread. I decided to create another thread so as to not further hijack the other one.
So I thought you played pretty well. Quite a bit better than I expected given you've only been playing for a week. I'm going to give you my commentary without looking at a computer, because you can use that as well as me and I think it taints the human perspective. That being said, some of my commentary may be wrong as I might have missed some tactic that the computer sees.
One of the ways computers have revolutionized Chess is to show that a lot of openings which were long considered subpar or even broken are in fact playable. I would imagine 2...d5 is like that. I haven't seen it before, but I doubt it's bad. 3... dxc4 looks subpar to me as it hands white the center and it doesn't look like black can hold the extra pawn.
You stated 4 ...e5 was good, and it took me a little bit to catch why. In light of it, maybe white should have played 4. e3 instead. It's pretty thematic to play that in queen's gambit games, and is probably good here for the same reasons. It's one of those moves where you have to check a few lines to make sure it works. e6 looks like another solid move to me. Locking in your light-squared bishop is not usually bad in closed positions, and it gives you a pretty solid pawn structure. It's an alternative I think. Do you like the closed-game style of play?. In my opinion it's pretty strong and a lot of moves come more "naturally," whatever that means.
As was demonstrated in the game 4... Bg4 is probably weak because it allows 5. f3 which consolidates white center. It also forces your bishop to retreat to either h5, where it's basically taken out of the game, or forces you to retreat to d7 where you could have just placed your bishop in the first place. Probably always a good idea to check tempo-gaining moves your opponent has right after your turn. That said, it does make the g1-a7 diagonal pretty weak, especially if black decides to castle that way. If black castles kingside after that he'll probably want to use an extra turn to get the King tucked away safely on h1.
One of the things I like to do, especially in long games, is to check all ranks, files, and diagonals along the square my opponent moved a piece from and the square he moves a piece to. I like to look at all the square one knight move away from those two squares to. I do the same thing before I move any piece of my own -- just a quick glance. It helps me understand many relevant details on how a particular move changes the structure of the board, and also helps me immediately see a lot of tactical ideas that I can then tuck away into the back of my mind and try to make them relevant. Once you get used to the process you would probably immediately see a tempo gaining move like 5. f3 and might have reconsidered 4... Bg4.
After 8. Nge2 it looks like white does intend on castling kingside. It might be a good time to strike at that diagonal we talked about earlier with 8 ...c5. Even if he doesn't castle, it'll be good to break up those pawns in the center. Note that white can't play something like 9. d5 because of 9... Qh4+ forking the king and bishop. After the fork yea, white will get your light squared bishop too, but the bishop you're getting is probably far superior to the one you're losing. That f3 is really a double edged sword sometimes. Also, note that after 8... Bg4 you give black an extra tempo by abandoning g7 since if black takes with his knight he takes it with check. Therefore, after some calculation it looks like c5 is no longer immediately possible after white castles due to a line like 9...c5 10. Nf4 cxd4 11. Nxh5 dxc3 12. Nxg7+. If instead 9...c5 10. Nf4 Bg6 then 11. d5 is possible as that queen check is no longer available. Of course all of this analysis is just to check whether that c5 pawn advance is good or not. I think the analysis may be good to look at for tactical ideas, but something like a well-timed pawn push to break up a strong pawn majority is the key idea here. Opening up that diagonal also gives you a very strong avenue to build an attack.
I don't like 10... g6 at all. It weakens f6 and h6, and after 11. Nxh5 gxh5 black probably has a winning endgame with the bishop pair and the better pawn structure. I get that you get to open up the g-file, but 10... Bg6 11. Nxg6 hxg6 allows you to open up a pretty powerful attack down the h-file too, have a much better pawn structure, and allows you to retain the option of castling kingside. After Nf4 white looks like he probably has some sac ideas on e6 too. However, note that the d4 pawn is very weak here due to the King being on that diagonal. The queen can't protect it because of the potential bishop pin. It's an idea to tuck away I think and maybe play towards.
12. Bh6 looks useless to me. I think white should have used this opportunity to play Kh1. You can take the d4 pawn here if you want it as far as I can tell.
After 16. Rd1 the hole on f6 and the centralized king is a huge liability for you. Wherever you move your queen white can send his knight to that square and basically has you in a vice.
Nice job in seeing his blunder though.
A few take-aways:
- Castle your king asap!
- f3 leads to good attacking ideas. Look for tactics! On the other hand, if you're the one castled kingside and your f-pawn is not on the rank right in front of your king, consider moving to h1/h8 to blunt those tactical ideas. I won a game a couple of weeks ago where I was otherwise down positionally by exploiting this diagonal.
- g6 potentially leaves h6 and f6 very weak.
Personally, I would also say to avoid trading central pawns for flank pawns/ less central pawns, but there are some openings where you want to do that. But in general I think that's probably also a good principle.
I enjoyed your game, and I think you have a knack for it.
