Bedlam's Tutorial offered

Originally posted by cmsMaster
It started by blondes being dumb. 🙁

Yes, but are they? Surely they are some others with different coloured hair who're also dumb? But in the end, only blondes got branded as dumb?

Originally posted by ckoh1965
Yes, but are they? Surely they are some others with different coloured hair who're also dumb? But in the end, only blondes got branded as dumb?

Because blondes tend to do dumb things.

Originally posted by cmsMaster
Because blondes tend to do dumb things.

Oh OK, I'll take your word for it. Well, I must say from where I am, I can't tell the difference. We get to see blondes in the movies, of course. And they are generally beautiful people. What a waste if they are really dumb. Thanks for the info. OK. so much of a detour from the main topic.... please proceed with the original topic.... hehehehe.

Originally posted by ckoh1965
Oh OK, I'll take your word for it. Well, I must say from where I am, I can't tell the difference. We get to see blondes in the movies, of course. And they are generally beautiful people. What a waste if they are really dumb. Thanks for the info. OK. so much of a detour from the main topic.... please proceed with the original topic.... hehehehe.

LMAO, it really depends on the person - not all blondes are dumb. 😀

Originally posted by cmsMaster
I think 5.f4 is the most common move there, taking complete control of the center - but it also creates a big target for black.

5.f4 is not bad, but I think 5.d5 is best

1.e4 Nf6
2.e5 Nd5
3.d4 Nc6?!
4.c4 Nb6
5.d5

Originally posted by Varenka
5.f4 is not bad, but I think 5.d5 is best

1.e4 Nf6
2.e5 Nd5
3.d4 Nc6?!
4.c4 Nb6
5.d5

I'm not very familiar with the Alekhine's Defense. But a friend once told me the idea is to provoke the white player to keep attacking the black knight with his pawns. To the extent that those pawns might later become targets themselves. But I thought white is still better in most cases. He has more space; the black knight chased to the queenside etc. 5. d5 also looks manacingly strong with the support of that c4 pawn. Anyone has the statistics of winning percentage of the Alekhine?

The idea of 5.d5 is to follow up with c5 next. Black will have to give up a knight. He can get some compensation, but it's not worth a knight.

Originally posted by Varenka
The idea of 5.d5 is to follow up with c5 next. Black will have to give up a knight. He can get some compensation, but it's not worth a knight.

Wow... thanks for the info, Varenka. I'm fascinated! I must look into it more seriously. Amazing how much one can learn on here.

Originally posted by ckoh1965
Amazing how much one can learn on here.

The line is annotated in Chernev's "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" for the game Fischer-Berliner. That's where I remember seeing it. Great game, and book in general.

Yeah THANKS GUYS 😛

Hey Bedlam, can you give me some general advice on my game? I have quite a good grasp of opening principles and some tactical knowledge. But I don't like my own style of play. I think my game is usually too timid. I just don't have the guts to take chances. As the result, I normally prefer slow games. When I develop, I have the tendency to develop passively. I play a waiting game a lot of the time. I try to get a bit of advantage here and there, and hopefully can finally gain a big enough advantage for the endgame. I hardly take risks, so I hardly ever make fancy sacrifices (unless of course such sacrifices are just to plain obvious!). Whenever I am up material, I tend to play simple by trading down pieces and hope for the endgame advantage.

BUT! against a strong player this can't work most of the time! How do I break free of my timid inclination? How do I start to overhaul my entire game plan?

Have a look at this game.

Game 2540464

I had white pieces here, but because of my timid opening inclination, I almost lost this game. I had to work really, really hard to recover lost grounds. And bear in mind that my opponent's rating is quite substantially lower than mine! Can you help?

Oh yes, just in case you are wondering why I handled that opening in such a manner, I can say the reason is I was affected psychologically. Immediately before that game above, I played another game with the same player, and he adopted the same opening. In that earlier game, I chose a different plan, but I only managed a draw in the end. Have a quick look at the earlier game.

Game 2529002

That's why I played differently in the above game. As it turned out it was even more disastrous! I really need to analyse this games again to find out where I went wrong exactly.

Originally posted by ckoh1965
Hey Bedlam, can you give me some general advice on my game? I have quite a good grasp of opening principles and some tactical knowledge. But I don't like my own style of play. I think my game is usually too timid. I just don't have the guts to take chances. As the result, I normally prefer slow games. When I develop, I have the tendency to develop passively ...[text shortened]... bear in mind that my opponent's rating is quite substantially lower than mine! Can you help?

I'll get around to looking at them over the next few days, flicked through them really quick and in the first there seems to be an awful lot of shuffling around....moves that dont really do much.....almost like cheapo shots instead of trying real things. The second you just let him run all over you in the opening by move 11 blacks position just looks yummy.

I yapped about pawn stucture and double pawns a bit in a good way and a bad way. Decided to clarify what I ment



Blacks c pawns are doubled and the a pawn might be weak, if you get this in an opening a lot of beginners might think blacks pawn stucture wasnt great. However blacks pawns are fine the doubled c pawns give him a semi open B file for the rook and c6 adds to the central control not to mention it gives black the chance to play d5.

Again nothing to worry about, I often get a simlar pawn stucture in the KG where the B pawns are doubled. Its not a problem 🙂