Wednesday, September 19, 2007

New Video: Chess Match

I have uploaded a new video going over a chess match I had tonight that highlights just how important assessing material trades can be. You can view the video here or from my YouTube channel here. Full PGN's of all my videos are located on the links to the right.

3 comments:

TVTom said...

I watched your game on YouTube and had several comments, so I watched it again and wrote down the game with my comments. Here goes:

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 a6
4 Bxc6 d7xc6
5 c3?

This move is really weak in this position because not only is it not developing a piece, but it creates a hole at d3 which black could have immediately exploited with 5...Qd3!

Much better here is to castle with 5 O-O. Then the rook can come over to e1 to defend and the king isn't in the center when you open things up. Better also is the move you considered 5 Nc3. Black will play ...Bb4 or ...Bg4 or ...f6.

Your c3 was to prepare d4, but actually, you can play d4 right now, before the bishop pins the defending knight on f3, and it's much better for you than wasting a move with c3 while letting black develop his bishop and pin your knight:

5 d4!? and if ...exd4 6 Qxd4 QxQ 7 NxQ Bd7 8 O-O or 8 Be3 and you have a great game. No need to waste time with the useless 5 c3? in this position.

5 (c3) Bg4 -- ok, but again black missed ...Qd3! occupying the gaping hole you had created with 5 c3.

6 d4 BxN
7 QxB exd4
8 c3xd4? -- I don't like this because you give up a pawn for nothing and let black centralize his queen and prepare to castle. I would castle here instead and after ...d4xc3 play Nxc3, so that while losing a pawn, you gain in development, having now two pieces developed to black's none. No need to always recapture without thinking in cases like this.

8 ... Qxd4
9 O-O Nf6
10 Be3? -- why let the pawn go so easily? Either Nc3 -- defending the pawn and blocking the queen from b2 so that the bishop could develop -- or Re1 protecting the e-pawn and bringing the rook into play -- were much better moves here.

10 ... Qxe4
11 Qe2 Bc5?? Very bad on black's part. Even though the white bishop is pinned, this is very dangerous and in fact loses the bishop. Better was either to castle queenside now and get the king to safety and end that nasty pin, or else move ...Bd6 where the bishop is protected and castle kingside next.

12 Nc3!! -- very efficient game-winning move that develops a piece, attacks the black queen, and unpins the bishop by protecting the white queen -- and all at the same time. Now the black bishop is lost.

12 ... Qe5 (the bishop is lost no matter what here, as the queen is under attack)
13 BxB QxQ
14 NxQ b6
15 Bd4 O-O-O
16 BxN g7xf6
17 Rad1 Rde8
18 Nd4 Kb7
19 Rd3 Rhg8
20 Rf3 Re4
21 Nf5 Reg4
22 g3 R8g6
23 Ne7 Rh6
24 Kg2 Rg5
25 h4 Rg7?
28 Nf5 1-0

Instead of ...Rg7? black missed ...Rxh4, as the g-pawn is pinned. Then after 28 Rxf6 white is still up the knight for two pawns and white should eventually win.

jrobi said...

Excellent feedback tvtom! I totally agree with your assessment. C3 was a very weak move and caused me a lot of problems there, and I need to look into more exchange variation lines. I think your 5 0-0 is a solid move which prepares a number of possibilities. Thanks for the feedback - looking forward to more of your thoughts as videos come up!

TVTom said...

You may even want to publish the game here first, and maybe get some feedback and ideas from me and others and then make your video after some comments, instead of before all the comments. Just a thought -- I've never blogged nor made a YouTube video, so I don't know how practical that would be.