This is my 1st time typing my completed gamed from an OTB event, then posting them, so apologies for any typo's. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Oregon Class Championship Round 1
B. Elliott - M. Buckner
Mr. Buckner stalls my queenside push, and begins a kingside attack that I have no answer for.
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Be7 5. Be2 0-0 6. 0-0 d6 7. d3 Bf5 8. a3 a5 9. b3 Qd7 10. Nh4 Bg6 11. Nxg6 fxg6 12. Bb2 Nd8 13. Bf3 c6 14. Na4 Qc7 15. Qc2 Ne6 16. Nc3 Ng5 17. Be2 d5 18. d4 e4 19. c5 Qd7 20. Na4 Bd8 21. Nb6 Bxb6 22. cxb6 Ng4 23. Qc5 Rf7 24. Bc3 Raf8 25. Be1 Nh6 26. Bxa5 Nf3 27. Bxf3 exf3 28. Bb5 Qg4 0-1
Oregon Class Championship Round 2
G. Kenway - B. Elliott
I felt I was slowly gaining the upper hand in this game after move 16, then suddenly my opponent gives my a wonderful gift which I gladly accepted.
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. exd cxd 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. h3 Bf5 6. d3 e6 7. a3 Be7 8. Be2 Nbd7 9. Bf4 a6 10. Qd2 b5 11. 0-0 0-0 12. Ne5 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Bd3 14. Bg3 Bxg3 15. fxg3 d4 16. Nd1 Qd6 17. g4 Bg6 18. Nf2 Nd5 19. Ne4 Bxe4 20. dxe4 Ne3 21. Rf3 Rad1 22. Bd3 Nc4 23. c3?? Nxd2 0-1
Oregon Class Championship Round 3
M. Zhang - B. Elliott
9 year old Michelle Zhang (all 3 ft. 11 inches of her) shows she has tactical skill clearly superior to my own.
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. h5 Bh7 8. Nf3 Nf6 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Nbd7 11. Bf4 e6 12. a3 Be7 13. Ne4 Nxe4 14. Qxe4 Nf3 15. Qd3 Bb6 16. Bxd6 Qxd6 17. Ne5 0-0 18. 0-0-0 Rfd8 19. Kb1 c4 20. c3 cxd 21.cxd Rac8 22. g4 Qd5 23. f3 Nd7 24. Rhe1 Nxe5 25. Rxe5 Qc6 26. g5 hxg5 27. Rxg5 Rd5 28. f4 Rxg5 29. fxg5 e5 30. dxe5 Qg2 31. g6 Qf2 Qd8
1-0
Round 4 was a loss, but my messy writing made it impossible to recreate the game. Round 5 was a full point bye, due to my opponent withdrawing at the last minute. It's a good thing I went into this tournament with low expectations, my 1544 rating is clearly inflated, nevertheless, I'm so happy to be back in action. Looking forward to the next event.
One down - and a long way to go. 😳
Hi Bill (let me know if you prefer a different form of address),
My main comment on your Round 1 game is that White should have tried to get his rooks into play. White seemed instead to be focused on making tactical threats, but they were easily neutralized because they weren't grounded in a mobility or space advantage. Consequently, these "attacks" ended up merely losing time (e.g., 14. Na4 and 16. Nc3, and 13. Bf3 and 17. Be2).
Below the diagram (in which I substituted 28. Bb4 for 28. Bb5) are comments on a few specific moves.
9. b3
The c-pawn gives White a space advantage on the queenside. Therefore, White should formulate a plan for eventually opening a file there. This would suggest the move 9. Rb1, to prepare the advance b4.
11. Nxg6
This gains the two bishops, but White never opens the position for them. Interesting (but weakening) is 11. f4, threatening 12. f5.
19. c5
I can see being concerned about 19...Bd6, which would force White to weaken the kingside pawns. But the queenside is where White should be creating counterplay, so closing it down lets Black pursue his kingside plans without distraction.
To sum up, White's middlegame play seemed rudderless.
@fmdavidhlevin saidTo sum up, White's middlegame play seemed rudderless.
Hi Bill (let me know if you prefer a different form of address),
My main comment on your Round 1 game is that White should have tried to get his rooks into play. White seemed instead to be focused on making tactical threats, but they were easily neutralized because they weren't grounded in a mobility or space advantage. Consequently, these "attacks" ended up merely los ...[text shortened]... ue his kingside plans without distraction.
To sum up, White's middlegame play seemed rudderless.
That's because it was rudderless. After a fairly solid opening, and the beginnings of a queenside attack, I didn't know what to do once the queenside push was stalled. I saw his kingside attack coming, but had to decide either to push a hobbled queenside attack, or try to shift gears, and stop his kingside storm. This the result of little OTB action since 1992.
Many Thanks for your comments, and yes - Bill is fine. 🙂
Hi Bill,
A webpage that I find helpful in verifying the legality of a game score is https://www.apronus.com/chess/pgnviewer/ . After one pastes the game score into the input box and clicks "Absorb FEN or PGN", a popup will report the earliest illegal half-move (if any). The one exception I've found is that captures by pawns will be ignored if they omit the rank (e.g., "cxd" instead of "cxd5" ), which means that these need to be inspected manually.
Now to Round 2.
5...Bf5
If one were sure that the b-knight belongs on c6 in this position, then 5...Nc6 would retain flexibility in where to develop the light-square bishop. As revealed in the next note, it's not clear that it belongs at f5.
13...Bd6
Exchanging this bishop weakens Black's dark squares, given that all but one of Black's pawns is on a light square.
Here is how Black might have devised a viable strategic plan after 13. Bxe5 (which brings about the following position).
a. For each file, determine the number of ranks of "space" each player has. This would indicate that Black has more space on the b- through d-files.
b. Identify any open and half-open files. This would reveal that Black has a half-open c-file.
c. Identify any obstacles to attacking the opponent's pawn along the half-open file. The obstacle along the c-file would be White's knight.
d. Devise a way to eliminate or displace said obstacle(s). Playing ...a5 and ...b4 would compel the knight to unblock the c-file.
e. Devise a way to prepare (that is, make feasible) the pawn advance of the previous step. To play ...a5 without permitting Nxb5, Black must first protect the b5-square.
f. Determine where one's major pieces should be placed in anticipation of the above-mentioned pawn advance. (1) If White answers ...b4 by opening the a-file by axb4 axb4, then Black would likely want a rook on that file. (2) Playing ...b4 would yield control of the a4-square, but if Black first develops the queen to d7, where she would control both the a4- and b5- squares, Black's knight would have to retreat upon being attacked. (3) Black might want a rook on the c-file also, in which case it would need to be the f-rook (being that the a-rook would be left on that file).
This discussion suggests that 13...Qd7 would have been correct.
What if White were to answer 13...Qd7 by 14. d4, so that 14...a5 would lose the b-pawn? Black fortunately would have 14...Ne4, which would force the exchange of one of White's attackers of the b5-square. But if Black's light-square bishop were at d7 instead of f5, it would control the b5-square and in conjunction with ...Qb6 would prepare ...a5 and ...b4 without exchanging a White piece (the knight) that was about to be forced to a less active spot.
Black's dark-square bishop is useful also, protecting the b4-square in anticipation of Black's having an otherwise hanging pawn there. So, exchanging that piece diminishes the strength of Black's queenside pawn advance.
18...Nd5
Not bad, but I wonder whether Black anticipated 19. Bf3 or 19. h4. Also, Black never occupies the c-file with a major piece, even though White's c-pawn is no longer shielded by White's knight.
22...Nc4
This might have been answered by 23. Qb4, intending to meet 23...Qxb4 24. axb4 Nxb2 by 25. Rxa6, or 23...Qc6 by 24. a4, with play for White in either case.
It seems that as in the previous game, you never really formulated a plan. I think that if you were to work on this skill and apply it in games, your playing strength would rise hundreds of points in a short time.
@contenchess saidLearning from your own losses is just as good, if not better.
Looks like Mr. Elliott needs a strategy book 🤔
@fmdavidhlevin saidMany thanks for your comments on these games, as well as that website. I assure you I take them seriously. I'll be going over this information in depth multiple times this weekend. 🙂
Hi Bill,
A webpage that I find helpful in verifying the legality of a game score is https://www.apronus.com/chess/pgnviewer/ . After one pastes the game score into the input box and clicks "Absorb FEN or PGN", a popup will report the earliest illegal half-move (if any). The one exception I've found is that captures by pawns will be ignored if they omit the rank (e.g., ...[text shortened]... is skill and apply it in games, your playing strength would rise hundreds of points in a short time.
@contenchess saidMost of the strategy books I'm aware of address how to approach a particular pawn structure or family of pawn structures. Other than my own writings (and an article by IM Larry D. Evans that I got permission to post at my site), I can't recall any material that tries to impart the skill of formulating a strategy when faced with an unfamiliar pawn structure.
Looks like Mr. Elliott needs a strategy book 🤔
So, it might be that BigDogg's suggestion of learning from one's own games prevails almost by default. 😏
If he doesn't understand strategic play then him going over his games won't do anything.
He has to learn proper chess strategies.
Weak players can go over their games to find tactical mistakes and opening blunders but chess strategies have to be taught.
Once he learns proper chess strategies and positional judgement then he can find the mistakes in his own games.
Not everything is tactics.
You yourself said his play was rudderless.
That's because he doesn't know how to read the position and formulate a plan based on proper chess strategy.
Him going over his own games won't show him the proper plans. He has to be taught. Or a strategy book can be a guide.
He's like Zukertort...just moving pieces and hoping for tactics.
Steinitz crushed Zukertort with STRATEGY.
"His other weakness was that, while no one had greater attacking flair, Zukertort never approached Steinitz' understanding of positional play, and Steinitz often outmaneuvered him fairly simply"
- Wikipedia
@contenchess saidLearn strategy and positional judgement and once you reach the better position the tactics and combinations are there waiting to be discovered.
Mr. Elliott
You focus on tactics too much.
Tactics and combinations come after you reach a better position.
Learn strategy and positional judgement and once you reach the better position the tactics and combinations are there waiting to be discovered.
Interesting idea, but FMDavidHLevin's comments are also valuable. Several GM's have said having a strong player analyze one's completed games, would keep one from making the same mistakes over and over. I consider this important.