Chess Game Analysis (really really long & 3000th post)

[TimM]

WackityWhiz reminded me that my next post was number 3000, and that I should make it special. I suspect he may have just been trying to get me to stop posting for a while, but I will fix him. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I know there is a lot of interest in poker from chess players, and vice versa. See the recent New York Times article, by the sister of 2+2 poster curtains. Also, perhaps especially made for OOT, there is an article on sex and chess. (Unfortunately login is required and bugmenot did not work.)

So for my 3000th post I thought I'd annotate one of my chess games for OOT, in a "move by move" fashion, in a style which I hope can be understood even by total beginners at chess. Often when there is a chess thread I get PM's by new players asking how to improve, and studying annotated
complete games is a good way. This game I am about to present is somewhat unique in that the analysis can be done with no long forcing variations, and a lot of general positional ideas are shown.

I hope that even players who are not interested in learning to play chess can get an appreciation of the game by seeing what kinds of things are thought about in a master game. Of course both myself and my opponent would be considered fairly weak by Grandmaster standards, so I don't want to in any way give any inpression that this was some perfectly played game or brilliant win. This game is from the first round of the National Chess Congress, held in Philadelphia each year on Thanksgiving weekend. My opponent, playing White, is Marlo Micayabas, a 42 year old International Master from the Philippines.

The best way to replay this game is to open this link in a new window and use this board to follow the analysis here. Moves actually played in the game appear in bold.

1.c2-c4

This is the English Opening. It is generally used by players who like a more quiet, positional game.

1...Ng8-f6

Black develops a piece to a good central looking square and prepares to advance his queen pawn to d5. Other common ways to meet the English would be to play symmetrically with 1...c7-c5, or classically with 1...e7-e5. It would not be as good to play 1...d7-d5 immediately, since after the exchange of pawns with 2.c4xd5 Qd8xd5, then 3.Nb1-c3 develops a piece while simultaneously attacking the black queen. After it moves White can continue by bringing out another piece, obtaining a lead in development.

2.Nb1-c3

White develops a piece and fights for control of the key central squares e4 and d5.

2...d7-d5

If Black wanted to play d7-d5 he needed to do so now, or White could have prevented this by playing e2-e4 on his next move.

3.c4xd5

White captures this pawn, forcing Black to recapture.

3...Nxd5

Now if White were to exchange knights with 4.Nc3xd5, after 4...Qd8xd5, the Black queen would not be poorly placed in the center, as it would be if White still had his queen's knight on the board.

4.g2-g3

White plans to develop in a hypermodern style, which entails controlling the center from a distance with pieces rather than occupying it with pawns. Instead he allows the opponent to occupy the center, hoping to attack his opponent's central position later with his pieces.

4...g7-g6

Black develops in similar fashion.

5.Bf1-g2

Now Black's knight is attacked twice and only defended once.

5...Nd5-b6

This is the best square to retreat the attacked knight. 5...Nd5-f6 would block the long diagonal where Black is preparing to post his king's bishop. Protecting the knight again with 5...e7-e6, 5...c7-c6, or even 5...Bc8-e6 is possible, but White can always force the knight to move by playing 6.e2-e4. After this, in the case of the pawn moves, it would be better if these pawns were back on their original squares, since they would now block either the development of the bishop or knight. As for the bishop move, the pawn on b7 which White's bishop is bearing down on is now unprotected, and this bishop on e6 is vulnerable to attack by the White queen's pawn with d2-d4 and d4-d5.

The most efficient way of dealing with the attack on the knight is to capture with 5...Nd5xc3 since the time Black loses by moving this knight again is regained by forcing White to recapture. 6.b2xc3 But now the b-file has opened, and White can place his rook on b1, combining with the g2 bishop in attacking Black's b7 pawn. Black will be tied down to the defense of this weakness and will not be able to develop his queenside pieces easily.

6.Ng1-f3

Another central developing move and White prepares to castle kingside.

6...Bf8-g7

Black continues with his plan of development as well.

7.O-O O-O

Both sides bring their kings to safer positions, while enabling the rooks to be used on the central files.

8.d2-d3

Again White continues quietly, opening the diagonal for his queen's bishop. He could have done so more actively with d2-d4, but the move played is not bad in any way.

8...Nb8-c6

Black develops his queen's knight. This move is also part of a coherent plan of playing ...e7-e5, ...Nc6-d4, and ...Rf8-e8, which black follows through with on the next few moves. If White ever captures this knight on d4, Black will retake with the pawn, both forcing the knight on c3 to move, and opening a line of attack against the backward pawn on e2. This pawn cannot be defended by other pawns, and cannot be easily advanced without creating other weaknesses. If White tried to advance e2-e4 for example, this pawn would be subject to en passant capture by the d4 pawn. White would be forced to have some of his pieces tied down to defense of this pawn.

9.Bc1-e3

White develops his last minor piece.

9...e7-e5

Continuing the plan.

10.Qd1-d2

By bringing the queen off the back rank, the White rooks are now connected and are free to move to the central files. White also plans to try to exchange his e3 bishop for Black's strong g7 bishop by playing Be3-h6.

10...Nc6-d4

Again continuing the plan. Black could have avoided White's idea by inverting the moves of his plan, with 10...Rf8-e8 and now if 11.Be3-h6, Bg7-h8 is now possible since there is no rook on f8 to be captured by the bishop. But I did not feel it is necessary to spend time preventing White's plan here. It is not very threatening, and it also costs White time to carry it out. I prefered to just continue my idea and let my opponent spend a couple of moves exchanging the bishops. The strength of my bishop is about to be lessened a bit anyway by the occupation of the central dark squares by my own pieces and pawns.

11.Be3-h6

Just for fun, note that White cannot reply 11.Nf3xd4? because after 11...e5xd4 his knight on c3 and bishop on e3 would be forked by the black pawn on d4. This is a typical example of a double attack in chess, and white must now lose a piece for a pawn. 12. Be3-g5 attacking the black queen, does not help since 12...f7-f6 still leaves him with two pieces attacked by pawns, and no way to save them both.

11...Rf8-e8

It is generally bad to play 11...Bg7xh6 in such positions. After 12.Qd2xh6 White can start organizing an attack on the black king, with moves like Nf3-g5, or h2-h4 and h4-h5. Here, Black can probably deal with these threats, but it is much better to just allow

12.Bh6xg7

when

12...Kg8xg7

keeps the white queen from invading on h6.

13.Nf3-e1

As we said, White does not want to capture on d4 because of the backward pawn that would be created on e2, and if he were to play e2-e3, chasing the knight, he would then have a backward pawn on d3 instead. With this move White intends to play f2-f4, to chip away at the pawn holding this strong d4 knight.

13...c7-c6

A very useful move that blunts the g2 bishop's attack on the b7 pawn. It also strenghtens Black's control of d5. Additionally, if White were to later play a rook to c1, this pawn is a lot less vulnerable on c6, protected by the b7 pawn, than it is on c7.

14.e2-e3

Chasing the d4 knight away. White is now not so worried about getting a backward pawn on d3, since he is about to play f2-f4 and remove the pawn that would have restrained his d3 pawn.

14...Nd4-e6

The move 14...Nd4-f5 was also possible, but of course 14...Nd4-b5 15. Nc3xb5 c6xb5 is very bad. The long diagonal for the g2 bishop is re-opened and Black's queenside pawn structure is damaged.

15.f2-f4

In addition to attacking the e5 pawn, White threatens to open the f-file for his rook.

15...e5xf4

Now the knight on e6 prevents White from recapturing with the rook and gaining an open file.

16.g3xf4

Much better than 16.e3xf4, leaving white with an isolated d-pawn and a big hole on d4.

16...f7-f5

Slowing down White's advances in the center.

17.Ne1-f3

Re-centralizing the knight and looking to hop into the strong e5 square.

17...Ne6-c5?!

Attacking the d3 pawn a second time. This was a mistake however, since White has a strong reply which he apparently did not see.

18.Ra1-d1

Better is 18.b2-b4!, attacking the knight, and Black cannot play 18...Nc5xd3? since 19.Rf1-d1 attacks this knight a second time and creates a pin - if the knight moves away, say with 19...Nd3xb4? 20.Qd2xd8 Re8xd8 21. Rd1xd8 wins a rook. Instead of capturing on d3, the knight is forced to retreat, and now White has many strong moves, like b4-b5, or Qd2-b2, threatening discovered check.

18...Bc8-e6

Developing the last minor piece and looking to perhaps occupy d5.

19.Nf3-e5

White occupies the strong e5 square, a hole in Black's pawn structure, but Black can counter this and force White to create holes of his own if he wants to maintain the knight on this square. 19.b2-b4 was still possible and probably better than the game continuation, but its strength is somewhat lessened by the fact that the bishop is developed now. Black can retreat with Nc5-d7 and would no longer be blocking this bishop in on c8.

19...Nc5-d7

The first step in countering this e5 knight.

20.Qd2-f2

A sort of waiting move. White moves the queen off the d-file, and waits to see what Black will do next. The move is vaguely useful since Black may later put a rook on d8, and the white queen will be a little uncomfortable opposing this rook. Powerful pieces are vulnerable to harrasment by weaker ones, which is why you generally do not want to bring your queen out early in the opening, for example.

20...Qd8-f6

Attacking the knight a second time and threatening to win a pawn with Nd7xe5.

21.d3-d4

White defends this knight and makes it undesireble for Black to capture it, since that would leave White with a strong protected passed pawn on e5. So White's occupation of the strong e5 square with the knight is nearly permanent. In exchange for this though, White gets a weak square complex on the light central squares, and a backward pawn on e3. This pawn is a bit less of a weakness than the other backward pawns we talked about previously, since the main line of attack, the e-file, will always be blocked by a knight or pawn on e5.

21...Ra8-d8

Centralizing the rook and perhaps looking to help control the d5 square later in the game.

22.b2-b4

White now plans to soften up the black queenside pawns with b4-b5.

22...a7-a6

Slowing the advance a bit.

23.Rd1-b1

Continuing his plan. An attack on the queenside with a2-a4 and b4-b5 is coming.

23...Be6-c4

Starting to occupy those light squares. Black attacks the rook and would be quite happy to trade this bishop for the strong White knight on e5. Of course White will not capture 24.Ne5xc4, or after 24...Nb6xc4 the weakness of the e3 pawn is much greater as both the e8 rook and c4 knight are attacking it already.

24. Rf1-d1

Instead White removes his rook from attack by the c4 bishop.

24...Qf6-e6

A very useful move. The c4 bishop is protected again in case the b6 knight wishes to move, while the f6 square is cleared for the d7 knight to pass through on its way to controlling or occupying the weak light squares on d5 and e4.

25.a2-a4

Final preparations for b4-b5.

25...Nd7-f6

Black will allow b4-b5 and count on occupation of the central squares to blunt the effect of the strong g2 bishop's attack on the black queenside pawns.

26.b4-b5

As expected.

26...c6xb5

Capturing towards the center, in this case with a6xb5, is usually recommended on general principles, but in this case I had a specific idea in mind.

27.a4xb5 Nb6-d5

As planned, Black blocks the long diagonal with his pieces and at the same time creates threats like Nd5xc3, forking the two rooks. Of course White cannot take the c4 bishop, which is hanging, because of this move.

28.Nc3xd5

Removing the threat.

28...Bc4xd5

Still blunting the g2-b7 diagonal.

29.b5xa6

White proceeds to open the queenside, hoping to invade with the rooks.

29...Qe6xa6

This is what I had in mind earlier when playing 26...c6xb5. Black will defend this pawn with the queen, and with Re8-e7.

30.Bg2xd5

Black was ready to capture the bishop on g2 next, so White does the honors. Exchanging the light square bishops generally favors the side who is trying to exploit a light square weakness, and White could not prevent the exchange. But this helps Black in another way as it allows him to bring his rook out in front of the queen with

30...Rxd5

31.Qf2-c2

Threatening to invade on c7 with check.

31...Re8-e7

Covering the 7th rank, helping defend b7, and prevent penetration by the queen.

32.Rd1-d2

Another waiting move, there is not much to do.

32...Rd5-b5

It is now Black's turn to make some noise. The d5 square is cleared for the knight. It was possible to go to Nf6-e4, but this square, while superficially strong looking, is not very useful. Other than forcing the e2 rook to move again, once White does this, the e4 knight will have no targets. Compare this to White's poor e5 knight. It reached a dream square and now has nothing to do but sit there and look pretty.

33.Rb1-c1

White avoids the trade of rooks, but Black has other ways to continue to get in on the queenside.

33...Nf6-d5

The knight comes to d5, a much better square than e4. From here it attacks the weak e3 pawn, and also covers c7 again, allowing Re7-c7 to become a threat later.

34.Rd2-e2

Protecting his pawn, White is already being thrown on the defensive.

34...Qa6-a3

This move makes Re7-c7 a threat, while also attacking the e3 pawn a secondtime.

35.Qc2-d2

Defending e3 and not allowing Re7-c7 with an x-ray attack on the c1 rook.

35...Rb5-b3

Continuing to make inroads on the queenside. The e3 pawn is hit a third time.

36.Ne5-c4

Defending the pawn and attacking the black queen.

36...Qa3-a4

The queen steps away and now Re7-c7 is a possible threat again.

37.Nc4-e5

The knight goes back to its pretty square. At this point it's obvious that Black is the side with all the winning chances. It is too early to consider Black's position decisive, but it is getting close.

37...Qa4-b5

Another threat to invade. Rb3-b1, exchanging rooks, will make it possible to bring the e7 rook into the attack via c7.

38.Re2-e1

White prevents this, but only temporarily.

38...Rb3-b2

Now he is forced to trade with

39.Rc1-c2

or the invasion will come along the 2nd rank.

39...Rb2xc2 40.Qd2xc2 Re7-c7

Bringing up the reserves.

41.Qc2-e2

Here I think White had to try to defend more actively with 41.Qc2-a2. In this case Black will be restrained a bit by the fact that the d5 knight is attacked, and the fact that the f7 square is eyed by the White queen, and protected by the e5 knight. Black will have to be careful about moving this rook up the board and giving up control of this square. Even if the d5 knight never moves, White has alternate routes into Black's position, like Qa2-a8.

41...Qb5-b3

Now White is in big trouble as the c7 rook is coming in to c2 next.

42.Qe2-f2

White tries to find something to do with this queen when it is forced to move off the 2nd rank.

42...Rc7-c2

Rolling in like a tank.

43.Qf2-h4

This move may look scary but the excellent knight on d5 covers the e7 square.

43...Qb3-c3

Hitting the e1 rook and preparing to get rid of the last defender with Rc2-c1.

44.Ne5-f3

Defends the rook, for now.

44...Rc2-c1

Now Qc3xe3+ is an immediate threat, the rook is pinned to the white king.

45.Re1xc1 Qc3xc1+

When the e3 pawn falls, the f4 pawn will be the next target. Black also has an outside passed pawn on b7 which will become a strong threat in the endgame should White choose to exchange queens.

46.Kg1-f2

If instead 46.Qh4-e1 Qc1xe3+ 47.Qe1xe3 Nd5xe3 48.Kg1-f2 Ne3-d5 49.Kf2-g3 b7-b5, Black has all the advantages. The White king is tied to defense of f4, the d5 pawn is blockaded and the b5 pawn is running in for a touchdown. White will try to stop this pawn with his knight, but then the black king will come around and run blocker for it.

46...Qc1xe3+

White's position is just hopeless.

47.Kf2-g3

The only move that holds f4.

47...Nd5-f6

Coming to h5 with check will be devastating.

48.Kg3-g2

The king steps away.

48...Nf6-h5

The pawn on f4 now falls.

49.Qh4-e1 Nh5xf4+ 50.Kg2-g3

Other moves allow Qe3xf3 with check.

50...Qe3xe1+ 51. Nf2xe1 Nf4-e2+

Another fork, this time the white king and d4 pawn. Once d4 falls Black will have three extra pawns. This is too much to hope to recover from, so White resigns.

[WackityWhiz]

Damn i wish i played chess so i could utilize this.

thanks for making it special tho [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] I've actually been searching around looking to see where you were. Thanks for coming through with this special post!

for the record, i could probably beat anyone in this entire forum at chess and would wager money on it.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
for the record, i could probably beat anyone in this entire forum at chess and would wager money on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't play anyone online for money because chances are I'd be playing against their computer.

In person though, if you are an active American player or titled foreign player and I do not recognize you by name or face, I like my chances. If not me, there is always curtains who is the best player I know of on 2+2, but there is always the possibility of a grandmaster lurking about anonymously.

[Bigdaddydvo]

[ QUOTE ]
for the record, i could probably beat anyone in this entire forum at chess and would wager money on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

OP just pwned an International Master in this game...in the absense of other information I take him over you without thinking twice.

[ChipWrecked]

Thanks for the lesson from an aspiring n00b.

This game looks so doable when you watch good players...

[vulturesrow]

TimM,

Awesome awesome post. Nice game, and I really like seeing people analyze their own games.

[Taraz]

Thanks for the post. It's really interesting to see a good player's thought process instead of just analyzing the moves on paper. Very interesting game.

[ QUOTE ]
OP just pwned an International Master in this game...in the absense of other information I take him over you without thinking twice.

[/ QUOTE ]

now that I did not know...

hey, where can I go or what can I study to try and learn about this game?

I would love to comment, but I honestly dont even know how to read the positional designations.

it's kinda embarassing.