Lichess4545 Game Analysis 7

Summary
I finally turned in something besides a loss to my 4545 team! Hoo. Ray. I was black and opted for a Sicilian defense, something I don't really play but I'm trying to keep my opponents from doing any prep work--maybe not the best idea. I briefly looked at the najdorf and dragon, openings I'm vaguely familiar with just because I watch a fair amount of the Super-GM tournaments and I've at least seen some of the general ideas play out in those games. The problem with just "trying stuff" in my opening is that I don't really have a reliable opening repertoire. I think so far in almost all my 4545 and Lonewolf games this season, I've got out of the opening down a pawn or in an awkward position. I can't recall a feeling of "I'm solid here" at all.

In this one, my opponent played an unexpected bishop move pretty early and we never went down any kind of classical open Sicilian type game I was thinking. I ended up castling pretty late because my opponent rightly opened the position while my king was in the center. Then I got a weak c-pawn that I ended up losing. After some trades I then lost another pawn to some intermezzo tactics and then the endgame I had to chase down two outside connected passed pawns with my king. I'm sure that was completely losing but I gave it a go because we both had one knight and I knew if I could collect the outside pawns and get my king and knight back over without losing too many of my pawns, there were promises of getting it down to rook-pawns which are very hard to promote. That's what happened and we ended up drawing after a nearly 3-hour game.

I think the most telling fun fact of this game was that 8 of my first 9 moves were pawn moves. After 9 moves I had 3 pawns out, my structure was weird and all my pieces were on their original squares. White had one piece out, they were castled, and their structure was better. A totally winning opening for white I think. My 4th, 6th, and 7th moves were the most careless.

My annotations without engine assistance:
Copy and Paste this into a lichess study or the ChessTempo PGN Viewer. My opponent also informed me they added a lot of "whisper" notes into the spectator room so I'll try to track those down when I'm home and add them in!

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ { B51 Sicilian Defense: Canal-Sokolsky Attack } Nc6 {I'm okay with doubled c-pawns, it'll help with my center. Plus I didn't want to allow bishop trade with Bd7} 4. O-O {Safe king. I wouldn't castle until move 16, lol} a6 {I should've developed a kingside piece instead. If 4. ...Nf6 I didn't like 5. e5 dxe5 6. Nxe5 hitting c6 twice but 6. ...Qc7 should work there, and if Qf3, I have Bd7 if I need more support.} 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. c3 e5 {Not sure why I played this, I don't think e5 from white would hurt, and my move only delayed my kingside development. At this point, AKA move 6, I have five pawns off their original squares and no pieces developed (one traded off)} 7. d4 {probably correct from white to open up the center} exd4 {Bg4 might be best here. I shouldn't let the center open up. Bg4 gets a piece out, slows white down some, and protects the queen in case a queen trade ever happens.} 8. cxd4 cxd4 9. Nxd4 c5 10. Nf3 Ne7 {10. ...Nf6 11. e5 dxe5 12. Qxd8+ Kxd8 13. Nxe5 with a good knight for white and Nxf7 threat} 11. Nbd2 {I didn't see 12. Nc4 idea} g6 {11. ...Be6 12. Ng5 so perhaps Nc6 is okay with Be7 and 0-0 to come} 12. Nc4 d5 {12. ...Nc6 protects d6. I feel like I'm just reacting with no attack of my own but I think d5 isn't the right move. I recall being worried about e5 at some point but d5 would work in response I think.} 13. exd5 Qxd5 {Trying to take off some attacking pieces to get my king safe} 14. b3 {Unexpected. I was expecting the queen trade and calculating, I like black's position if 14. Qxd5 Nxd5 15. Rd1 Bb7 16. Ne3 Rd8 or 0-0-0. so maybe that's why white didn't go down that. Black's c-pawn is a weakness though.} Bg7 {Trading queens just gives white the d-file and I didn't see another move that'd prevent Bb2 from white which would be sadness.} 15. Bb2 Bxb2 {15. ...0-0 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. Re1 Qxd1 18. Rxd1 and that must be losing for black.} 16. Nxb2 O-O 17. Rc1 {Simply attacking the weakness. I didn't give white much trouble in the opening. They dictated play well and I mis-played a few moves. It's equal material but white is centralizing rooks and has targets whereas I am not fully developed and my pawn structure is bad. Seeing how the game played out and the c-pawn weakness, I think one of my biggest errors was 12. ...d5} Rd8 {I don't see how to save the pawn so my strategy will be to get pieces off the board and trade off pawns. I'm playing for a draw at this moment.} 18. Rxc5 Qxd1 19. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 20. Nxd1 {Here is the endgame. The obvious imbalance is material, white has two connected queenside pawns to my one. White's rook is also more active but I do like that I have a bishop. I feel okay about holding this.} Nf5 {if Be6 21. Nd4} 21. Nc3 Be6 {Looks like a good square. I missed the next simple move though. I guess ...h6 was better} 22. Ng5 {Oh. Shit.} Rc8 23. Nxe6 {Missing tactics now.} Re8 {I felt I was getting clever, noticing the knight is pinned to stop back-rank mate. I am, however, not looking ahead to 1 and 2 move tactics.} 24. Rc6 Nd4 {Played quickly, thinking I had cool tactics with the back-rank mate issue. I attack a pinned piece a second time, but I was getting too cutesy with trying to just get the piece back. Best is Rxe6 which trades rooks or 25. Rc8+ Kg7 26. f3} 25. Rxa6 {Another missed intermezzo} Nxe6 {Rxe6 forces the rook trade but I'm now down two pawns so I play to keep the Re1# threat open. It is hope chess though, a good player will see that in a long time-control game.} 26. Ne4 Nc5 27. Nf6+ {This forces consolidation and was completely missed by me. My goal was to get pieces off the board and hopefully draw a pawn-down endgame but I dropped a second pawn and this should be losing.} Kf8 28. Nxe8 Nxa6 29. Nf6 {A bumpy road to get to a losing endgame. I have to corrall the connected passers. White likewise should have raced his king over there.} h5 30. Nd7+ Ke7 31. Nb6 Kd6 32. f3 Kc5 33. Nd7+ Kb4 {I'm getting close to gobbling} 34. Ne5 Ka3 {I have to sac the f-pawn for these two pawns, they were white's big threat.} 35. Nxf7 Kxa2 36. g4 {White must find some maneuver to capture black's two pawns while black's king and knight are so far away: 36. h4 (one pawn freezes two) Kxb3 37. Ne5} Kxb3 37. g5 Nc5 38. Ne5 Ne6 39. f4 Nxf4 40. Kf2 Nh3+ 41. Kg3 Nxg5 42. Nxg6 Kc4 {42. ...Ne4+ 43. Kh4 Nf6+? 44. Kg5 losing the pawn} 43. h4 {white did well not to play Kh4 here. This must be a draw.} Nh7 44. Kf4 Kd5 45. Kf5 Kd6 46. Nf4 Ke7 47. Nxh5 Kf7 48. Ng3 Nf6 {If black can keep his knight here, white can never play h5} 49. Kg5 Nh7+ {Still drawn, but there is no need for me to move my knight. I can just hover with my king to keep it protected and white never can safely advance the pawn. These plans are hard to come up with in time pressure but they're essential in endagmes.} 50. Kh6 Nf6 51. Nh5  Nxh5 52. Kxh5 Kg7 53. Kg5 Kh7 54. h5 Kh8 55. Kg6 Kg8 56. h6 Kh8 57. h7 { Draw by stalemate. } 1/2-1/2



Here's the raw PGN:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ { B51 Sicilian Defense: Canal-Sokolsky Attack } Nc6 4. O-O a6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. c3 e5 7. d4 exd4 8. cxd4 cxd4 9. Nxd4 c5 10. Nf3 Ne7 11. Nbd2 g6 12. Nc4 d5 13. exd5 Qxd5 14. b3 Bg7 15. Bb2 Bxb2 16. Nxb2 O-O 17. Rc1 Rd8 18. Rxc5 Qxd1 19. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 20. Nxd1 Nf5 21. Nc3 Be6 22. Ng5 Rc8 23. Nxe6 Re8 24. Rc6 Nd4 25. Rxa6 Nxe6 26. Ne4 Nc5 27. Nf6+ Kf8 28. Nxe8 Nxa6 29. Nf6 h5 30. Nd7+ Ke7 31. Nb6 Kd6 32. f3 Kc5 33. Nd7+ Kb4 34. Ne5 Ka3 35. Nxf7 Kxa2 36. g4 Kxb3 37. g5 Nc5 38. Ne5 Ne6 39. f4 Nxf4 40. Kf2 Nh3+ 41. Kg3 Nxg5 42. Nxg6 Kc4 43. h4 Nh7 44. Kf4 Kd5 45. Kf5 Kd6 46. Nf4 Ke7 47. Nxh5 Kf7 48. Ng3 Nf6 49. Kg5 Nh7+ 50. Kh6 Nf6 51. Nh5  Nxh5 52. Kxh5 Kg7 53. Kg5 Kh7 54. h5 Kh8 55. Kg6 Kg8 56. h6 Kh8 57. h7 { Draw by stalemate. } 1/2-1/2

Lichess4545 Game Analysis 6

Hey I won another Lonewolf 30|30 game! I'm on 3.5 out of 4 so I'm doing well in the U1800 division. This was an Italian Opening where I played a few slow pawn moves and had to end up dropping a piece in less than 10 moves and my king was still in the center, ugh. But right as I was saying goodnight to my girlfriend and saying it'd probably be a quick game, (the game started at 10pm local time), my opponent developed his pieces and I was able to get his bishop trapped ad things got interesting. There were some tactical fireworks, probably mis-played, and then I ended up a pawn up. Endgame went okay. I'll be the first to admit that I benefited from some big blunders from my opponent and it wasn't perfect by any means on my end but I played better than my opponent and took the win.

https://lichess.org/qr4dEy8b

I was the black pieces. Please note that these are all my thoughts sans engine and sans analysis board. So i'm evaluating on my own and with my own visualization. I go through the whole game like this and write down my thoughts and lines I see. Then I go back a second time with an engine on and with the ability to play out lines on the board and add notes in. So anytime you see "The engine/stockfish/SF says...." that's only my notes after I've seen the engine eval and lines.

(4) Evans Gambit. Pretty sure it's okay to take the pawn. If 4. ...Bb6, white can play for c3 and d4 and have a big center. If 4. ...Bb6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Qe2 maybe then d4 coming for white.

If 4. ...Bb6 5. b5 Na5 and white has to address the bishop attack and also the lonesome b-pawn. As an aside, just because I used to have problems with this line, if 4. d3 Nf6 5. Ng5 d5 6. exd5 Na5 is the move to play here!

(5) ...Ba5 is only move yeah? If 5. ...Bc5 then 6. d4 is strong, giving white a big center. I think black is okay so far.

(6) White is castled and black plays a slow ...d6. I was paranoid about the fried liver attack coming, and now that a5 was occupied by my bishop I didn't have that important Na5 move. I wanted my light-squared bishop handy and ...d5 just loses a pawn. But ...d6 must be bad too. I wanted my kingside knight out and to castle, but the line I was fearing was 6. ...Nf6 7. Ng5 d5 8. exd5 and here I don't have the Na5 move-ENGINE SAYS SIMPLY CASTLING. Hmm but after 8. exd5 I do have Nxd5 which blocks the bishop's action. Granted, that d5 knight is now pinned by the bishop to the weak f7 square but the important distinction is that 9. Nc3 is not possible. Therefore, 6. ...Nf6 is probably best move here to help me castle. I played ...d6 to hope for Be6 bailout if necessary to trade off white's light-squared bishop and I had time for it because Ng5 wasn't playable yet. I over-looked the d4 push, giving white a big center. 6. ...Nf6 7. Re1 0-0 8. d4 isn't as potent for white because the c-pawn is pinned to the rook. So 7. d3 is probably necessary. NO, ENGINE SAYS D6 IS GOOD!

(7) My failure to play ...Nf6 last move and castle my king lets white strikeout in the center, correctly opening lines while my king isn't safe. Shoulda been calculating this. I can't take on d4 and allow that pawn duo which will be annoying to develop around. White is threatening d5 and if I move my knight, Qa4+ will come. Unfortunately, I was still paranoid about the fried liver attack and so my reply is egregiously slow. Taking on d4 doesn't look good: 7. ...exd4 8. Nxd4 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 hitting g7 and also threatening Qa4+. I think 7. ...exd4 8. Nxd4 Nge7 might hold for black, but if 7. ...exd4 8. cxd4 and then 9. d5 is coming. Perhaps the bailout move for black is 7. ...b6 to protect the bishop, then 8. d5 Nce7 and it's probably better for white but I'm not dropping a piece.

(8) the threat I didn't see. 8. ...Nce7 9. Qa4+ picking up the bishop. I save it the best way I can find by trying to get a good square for my bishop and now i'm considering castling long. ENGINE SAYS THIS IS NOT A THREAT, I KEP MISSING THAT PUSHING C6 WOULDA BLOCKED THE CHECK AND GUARDED A5

(10) White is up a piece, but because of the gambit line, he is down two pawns. He proceeds by trying to trade and threaten Qa4 (If I allow 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. Qa4 I don't see how I save the a5 bishop and c6). I like my tenth move but I'm still not castled, sheesh. 10. ...Ne7 may have been better so I can castle next move hopefully, and if bishops are traded, Nxc6 guards a5. My game move preps castling long, guards f7 and if trading bishops, I'll take back with queen and hit c3 twice. There's also a Ba4 follow-up idea maybe. I considered 10. ...Bb5 as black here to hit the rook, but I see a line in which white gives the piece back but gains a pawn and makes black's king very exposed. 10. ...Bb5 11. c4 Ba6 (idea 12. ...c6 bishop trap) 12. c5 dxc5 13. Bxf7+ Kxf7 14. Nxe5+ and there are some trouble squares for black's king. I didn't see that in-game. Hard to see and not sure if that's best for black to go down that line because of king safety.

There's also this easier-to-see line: 10. ...Bb5 11. Bxb7 Bxf1 12. Bxa8 Qxa8 13. Qxf1 and black loses a pawn in that exchange because 13. ...Qxe4? 14. Qb5+ will lose the bishop.

(11) Ahh, missed this move from white. He's developing with tempo and I'm behind because my king in the middle. A principle violated! I now can't castle long

(12) ...0-0 praise the lord! I saw the queen and rook on the same diagonal immediately but c4 shuts that down. I tried calculating for tactics for a bit but decided to finally castle. ENGINE SAYS I MISSED A TACTIC HERE. QUEEN AND KNIGHT ARE FORK-ABLE BY THE PAWN SO IF BXD5 EXD5 E4 WINS A PIECE

(13) I go for some active play. I was actually close to resigning here, expecting c4 but maybe there's some complications with that after c6 from black to trap the bishop. There's also 13. ...Ng4 hitting the other bishop

(14) White pins the knight. I was expecting either c4 or Bc4.

(15) White takes some time here, I was deeply calculating a desperado 15. Bxf7+ Qxf7 16. Nxd6 Bxd3 17. Nxf7 Bxf1 18. Kxf1 Rxf7. I saw that in-game, The trick is to continue on and take the rook at the end! I somehow forget or look past that while this combo plays out. White plays Nxe5, importantly leaving his bishop under attack. So white attacks my queen but willingly chooses to open up the attack on his queen and also leave his bishop hanging. So I'm on move and I should see we each take the other's queen, then we each take the other's rook  but then once again I'm on move and there are two of white's pieces hanging. I can take the bishop and his knight is actually trapped. The line after white's in-game move is: 15. ...Bxd3 16. Nxd7 Bxf1 17. Nxf8 cxd5 and white can't save his knight.

(16) I don't play the rook capture for whatever reason. I think I see that I can take the knight and white will have two pieces hanging still but that's not the case.

(17) Ahh right, white finds the move. 17. ...Bxc3 18. Rc1 and I think white's losing one of the bishops and I'd actually be giving him a choice. So I'm now one pawn ahead when I shoulda been slightly more but okay. At least I turned it around but not as much as I could. I see 17. ...Be2 is interesting, if complicated. ENGINE SAYS 17. ...BE2 IS THE IMPORTANT MOVE TO SEE!

(20) I saw this whole line from move 18, getting the c-pawn all the way to f3 and I thought it was fine in my head, white is getting a rook on the 7th though, and I didn't see that it was hitting b7 until it was played in-game. I recall being low on time and this gave me some minutes back at least. I did know that white would have 4 pawn islands after it, whereas mine would be strong. I was worried it wasn't as good for me as I thought, see notes on move 21

(21) I was expecting 21. gxf3 Bxc3 22. Rc1 Rc8.

(22) After Kxg2, white indeed has 4 isolated pawns while black has 2 solid pawn groupings

(24) I was somewhat close to playing 24. ...Bd2 forcing a bishop trade but I'd cry with 25. Rd1. I think 24. ...Bb4 was played with Bc5 in mind

(25) Get king over to help with white's dangerous-ish pawns

(26) Strong move from white. If ...Bc5 27. Bxc5 bxc5 28. Rb5. Maybe I wasted my time on move 25 and I should have played ...Bc5 then. Instead my 26th move is a blunder because 27. Rd1 as mentioned before. Tears.

(28) Yay for mutual blunders. White misses it too.

(29) a5 comes from white, probaly not good to just give me a pawn, even though he gets a passed c-pawn.

(30) white gets behind his passer but my rook should shut his king off and my king will march over. I start to feel better at this point finally.



Conclusions

I'm happy I fought back after dropping a piece in yet another bad opening. I have to be WAY more vigilant in my openings. I'm not getting good positions.

Weekly Chess Schedule

In a recent Perpetual Chess podcast, J.J. Lang mentioned an example of a 15 hour per week schedule for chess study for the 1500 rated-player.

J.J. Lang's Recommendation

6 Hours on Openings - Lang says don't spend six hours memorizing things. For the 1500-rated player, you moreso want to get a grasp on general ideas, plans and resulting pawn structures.

3 Hours on Endgames - This will be some memorizing of certain endgame techniques but also some study of techniques new to you.

3 Hours on Hard Tactics - The problems that you spend ten to twenty minutes per tactic!

3 Hours on Easy/Medium Tactics - Better for pattern recognition and morale as well.

* * * * * * * * * *

This got me thinking that I need a slightly more structured approach. I don't do well with extreme structure but I came up with a generalized plan that'll still allow for my own customization depending on what I feel I need to work on any given day. My plan at least serves as a guideline to ensure I'm covering the main areas of study every week.

My Plan
I'm fortunate enough to have some free time at work to tackle a lot of this stuff. I like to spend time with my partner during the evening so it's hard for me to spend hours and hours at night studying. I think having a defined schedule will help me better fill out my free time at work. I'm not good at following extremely specific schedules like "Do 1000-1200 tactics for 45 minutes on Wednesdays" and "Practice 2 pawns vs 1 endgames for 75 minutes on days beginning with a T." Instead, I'll set it up so each weekday gets a different area of study and I can choose on that day how to fill the time.

Monday - Openings

• Review my chess openings spreadsheet. Find some I haven't studied yet and learn about the general plans. Find youtube videos/articles on any given opening and take notes.
• Find 10 exemplary master games in those openings (use Lichess) and study them.
• Chess Structures by Flores.
• Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis.

Tuesday - Endgames

• Go over notes from Silman's Endgame Course and practice those things on a board. Do tests at the end of the chapters.
• Chess Endgame Training by Rosen.
• Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Chernev.
• Practice endgame positions on Lichess's board editor. 
• Review my excel spreadsheet of pawn opposition positions (see "Building Blocks for Opposition" blog entry). 
• Use the Chess Endgame Training mobile app.

Wednesday - Tactics

• Work to mix in tactics nearly every day.
• For 'hard' tactics, complete the five free chess.com tactics every day. Minimum 10 min/puzzle.
• One hour of ChessTempo puzzles. 
• Winning Chess Exercises for Kids by Coakley.
• Woodpecker Method by Smith and Tikkanen. 
• Practical Chess Exercises by Chang. This supposedly has tactical and positional puzzles.
• 5334 Chess Problems by Polgar.

Thursday - Strategy

• Review notes on Amateur's Mind by Silman. Work on the 25 tests in the back of that book. 
• Reassess your Chess by Silman. 
• My System by Nimzowitsch.
• Can you be a Positional Chess Genius? by Dunnington. 
• Annotated Master Games--play through books. 
• Chess Structures by Flores.
• Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis.
• World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book by Heisman.

Friday - Game Analysis

• Analyze my games from the week.
• Play through master games with annotations. 
• Kasparov v Karpov
• Games of the Young Grandmasters
• Understanding Chess Move by Move by Nunn
• Any other books recommended in this blog entry.