Tough Game

Two weeks ago I had a chance to play a very tough opponent.  The start of the game went pretty well overall and then I started to fall apart.  It wasn't that I made massive blunders but I just didn't find the best moves and after going over the game I realized that my real issue was.

I never had a good plan.  I think this is one of the key elements I need to work on.  As I sit around and talk to other plays I always comment about my lack of Opening knowledge.  I often mention that I lose a game in the opening and then just play until I am completely lost.  My plans for work around this has been to purchase books in openings that I think I like and to work through them a bit. 

I have books on the French, King's Indian, general openings and standard theory.  But I think I realized that I'm working this from the wrong angle.  I think I need to determine where I want to get in the middle game.  What things are important to me?  I know that I prefer the Bishop pair.  I play best when fighting for the flanks then centering all my pieces on the center.  I have become more of a positional player than tactics meaning that endgames with a simple pawn advantage are where I end up most of the time. 

I need to start from the middle.  I'm not sure how to do that.   I think, I need a new plan for studying.  So I'm going to add something new to my training.  I have decided to use my Chess Master software and start a tournament and try to play an additional game there a week.  Try something new and learn something else.  I guess I will see.

Now, to get back to the beginning.  Here is my game I wanted to show this week:

Have fun.

Play chess online

A Bad Game

This past week, I had the opportunity to play a good player who is close to my rating.  Given my current rating this isn't something that occurs that often in the club so I was pretty excited about it.  With the two hours per side, I was hoping for nice long game with a lot of complications, something I could really dig into and have fun with.  But, that was not the case.  Instead I resigned after 15 moves because I couldn't stand to look at the position any longer.

After it was over, Jim sat down and showed me that my second move was bad (1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Bg4??)  And from there it went down hill.  So, other than being complete annoyed at myself for two full days, I have decided on two main items.

The first will be to learn to play something against Nf3 so I don't lose so quickly and the second is to play ever game for the rest of the year out until either I get checkmated, it is a draw or I win.  This second item will be most difficult I fear as I tend to resign positions that I believe are completely lost but I think this is something that I need to do to become a better player.

I guess I will have to see about that.  But until then, time to hit the book and see what Larry Kaufman has recommended against Nf3 in "The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White". This is my opening logic book as of now.

Have fun...
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A new year once again

So it is a new year which means that I will start again with my blog.  I'm not sure if anyone really looks at this but the best way to improve your game is to review the games that you play.

The game that I'm showing here was played last week.  It was the start of a new year and a new tournament.  This tournament is of the Swiss format and being the person right in the middle it meant that I was paired against the lowest rated player in the section.  Typically that means for an easy game however one of the main things that I need to work on this year is winning games that I'm supposed to win.

When I play a lower rated player, I tend to be a bit sloppy in my games.  Perhaps in the back of my mind I just think that they are going to blunder something to me so I can just move quickly until that happens.  From experience, this is almost never the case and I have been known to drop games against lower rated players just for this reason. 

So here is my game with some notes.

Play chess online

As you can see I was able to pull this one out but this game is still a great instructional tool as it outlines a very key point that many lower rated players see, the key of developing your pieces.

Have fun all.