Chess lessons.

Originally posted by DeepThought
Then I lose, the games were meant to illustrate the principle rather than be perfect. I could have done a bit more checking when I was writing the post, but it took quite a long time to write, and I was doing the annotation inside the post rather than using the database tool. In my defence the game was from ages ago and I just couldn't remember what I' ...[text shortened]... you're right, 46. ... a5 was result changing. I need a minor miracle to even draw without that.

In your line 7...Ne5+ 8...Ne5+ wins immediately.

Instead of rushing your king up you should have traded your f pawn for his e pawn asap and then rushed your king over to win the kingside pawns. In endgames there is no need to rush. If you can, go win all of your opponents pawns and then queen yours. You made it unnecessarily complicated by removing your king from the action. Another way of thinking about it is that you had a pawn and bishop tying down his king. Thats a good thing because your king is a better attacker than his knight is a defender...and then when you rushed your king up you needed your king bishop and pawn just to tie his king down. Aslo by saccing that f pawn when you could have just traded it is another act of hastiness.

The act of this plan may be hard in practice because of his outside passed a pawn but wothout calculating anything my intuition says you can somehow swing your bishop over in time to stop his pawns. Maybe not though. Its difficult but still, being hasty threw away any winning opportunity except by the opponent playing bad moves.

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
Chernev is OK, but he tends to have the annotator's bias that the winner must have played good moves throughout the game, and writes with "hindsight bias".

I gave away my last copy, but I remember that there is a position after move 3 that appears twice in the book, and he thinks it is great when the winner played it, but not good when the loser pl ...[text shortened]... ll a treasure trove of knowledge in it, and worth reading.

I just think Nunn's is far better.

Thanks. I'm going to give it a go.

Originally posted by iChopWoodForFree
In your line 7...Ne5+ 8...Ne5+ wins immediately.

Instead of rushing your king up you should have traded your f pawn for his e pawn asap and then rushed your king over to win the kingside pawns. In endgames there is no need to rush. If you can, go win all of your opponents pawns and then queen yours. You made it unnecessarily complicated by removi ...[text shortened]... still, being hasty threw away any winning opportunity except by the opponent playing bad moves.

Taking a better look at it i think. 1.Bg2 in the initial position is best. You trade your d pawn for his e pawn and you can easily halt his qside while you push your majority down the board. Black may hold on though.

Also 1.Be6-f7 is interesting.

Originally posted by DeepThought
K+B v K+N is a dead draw, checkmate is not possible. With K+R v K+N checkmate, or at least helpmate, for the side with the knight is possible:
[fen]5K1k/7r/6N1/8/8/8/8/8[/fen]
Checkmate is not possible for the side with the bishop in K + B v K + R:
[fen]5K1k/7r/8/8/8/8/8/B7[/fen]
here black is forced to interpose with the rook and after white takes ...[text shortened]... board. It's the whole position that matters, not just whether you've got a knight or a bishop.

Yeah black draws easily. Posts the knight on c5 the king on g6 and then uses a timely a5 push when whites king gets too far. If white ever plays Bc2+ black goes ...Kh5 and if ever h5+ then ...Kh6.

So I'd play Be6-f7 idea. Leaves one more set of pawns on the board and keeps white with a more mobile pawn mass which gives more winning chances.

Originally posted by iChopWoodForFree
In your line 7...Ne5+ 8...Ne5+ wins immediately.

Instead of rushing your king up you should have traded your f pawn for his e pawn asap and then rushed your king over to win the kingside pawns. In endgames there is no need to rush. If you can, go win all of your opponents pawns and then queen yours. You made it unnecessarily complicated by removi ...[text shortened]... still, being hasty threw away any winning opportunity except by the opponent playing bad moves.

Yes, you are right, it's a consequence partly of analysing using the "preview before post" function and looking at the board in the preview and partly a current blindness to knight moves. My brain's just failing to register them at the moment. You're also right about the line, but that was what I did in the game. There was another one I could have posted and should have.

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
Chernev is OK, but he tends to have the annotator's bias that the winner must have played good moves throughout the game, and writes with "hindsight bias".

Also, he has a bee in his bonnet on two points: 1. e4 (or rather, P-K4, I've never seen a version not in Insane Notation) is The Best Opening Move Ever (tm), and 2. moving a pawn in front of your king is Always Bad, Always Bad, Always Bad, Bad Bad and Wil Always Contain The Seeds Of Your Inevitable Destruction. Always, Ever!!!!
Of course, in both cases there is some, or even quite a bit of truth to his arguments, but I found the unrelenting repetition and unwavering belief in their absolute truth rather off-putting. After all, in some cases moving a pawn in front of your king is not only necessary but strong; and some players prefer other openings.

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Also, he has a bee in his bonnet on two points: 1. e4 (or rather, P-K4, I've never seen a version not in Insane Notation) is The Best Opening Move Ever (tm), and 2. moving a pawn in front of your king is Always Bad, Always Bad, Always Bad, Bad Bad and Wil Always Contain The Seeds Of Your Inevitable Destruction. Always, Ever!!!!
Of course, in both cases ...[text shortened]... in front of your king is not only necessary but strong; and some players prefer other openings.

What's funny about this is that the e4 moves a pawn in front of your king. 🙂

I thought Chernev was a 1.d4 player. If he recommended 1.e4, he probably meant that beginners should focus on that to start with.

If I remember correctly, I read Chernev say that Fischer claimed 1.e4 was best by test.

Free beer available if anyone lives local to me.

And crisps if required.

Willy......

Originally posted by Sirdubalot
Free beer available if anyone lives local to me.

And crisps if required.

Willy......

Now THAT is the best move!