I posted this on my Chess Club newsgroup so the master+ players could help me out.
What do you higher rated players think?
I recently finished a CC game against another ECC memeber, Maroczy1
on this newsgroup. We followed book until move 22 when he played Ra3:
[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.02.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Maroczy"]
[Black "RahimK"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "2007.??.??"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3
b5 8. g4 h6
9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 b4 12. Na4 Qa5 13. b3 Nc5 14. a3
Nxa4 15. axb4
Qc7 16. bxa4 d5 17. e5 Nd7 18. f4 Nb6 19. Rh3 Nxa4 20. Bf2 Rc8 21.
Be1 Rb8 22.Ra3
He playes a lot of games at once so his rating flucuates a lot.
Around this time, his rating was about 200 points lower then mine. I
obviously did not want a draw because I would lose a lot of points
and I play very few games on there, but the position is quite and I
can't see black winning if white does not blunder.
What should black do here, plans/ideas ?
I'm amazed how Master+ end up winning these positions when it's
pretty even. Is there a good book on this subject? A book that gives
example on how to win from even positions? I'm reading Reasses your
Chess again and I read the workbook already but any other books on
that topic?
Thank you,
Rahim K
Alright, after 1.Ra3 Nb6 the position looks far from quite to me. White stands better because he has a lot more active position with better piece coordination - mobile pawns on the kingsside, more space, a nice knight, good row for the a3 rook etc. compare it to blacks position. White should take black off guard by simply playing f5 and breaking up the position for his more active pieces. Black can do nothing against this, let's say exf5 then after Nxf5 white can play Qe3 or Re3 and play for e6 following the same strategy. If white is permitted to take on e6 and black retakes with the pawn then white can possibly play Qf4, Rf3 or Qd3 to take advantage of white squared weaknesses.
How did the game continue?
Alright, I see the game was played here on this site.
Originally posted by sleightjackeI think white is slightly better but what is black suppose to do!
Alright, after 1.Ra3 Nb6 the position looks far from quite to me. White stands better because he has a lot more active position with better piece coordination - mobile pawns on the kingsside, more space, a nice knight, good row for the a3 rook etc. compare it to blacks position. White should take black off guard by simply playing f5 and breaking up the ...[text shortened]... knesses.
How did the game continue?
Alright, I see the game was played here on this site.
Anywho, game went
1.Ra3 Nb6 2.Bxa6 Bxa6 3.Rxa6 then white blundered couple moves later.
Pretty drawish then.
Easy. They just wait…they know sooner or later we’ll make a mistake. They know that even if they slip up we probably won’t recognize it. I’ve been victim of their strategy a few times. Once I was playing an IM who managed to drop a horse at move 12! Did he resign? No. He kept playing on until I blundered the piece back then he pounced. In another game I was a P up in a R&P ending against a former US Champ. competitor (not a big name, but he did have a draw against Fischer once and was rated 2400+ at the time). Eventually I screwed it up & lost . He knew I probably would. How many times have you looked at a game in progress at a tmt. that looked equal, come back later and they’re still playing? The master is grinding down his lower rated opponent.
Post us an example of a game RahimK where master gets a win out of nothing and we can discuss it.
Best strategy to do in equal position against a weaker opponent is try to not make commital moves. If you still can't get any play in the position, that is if your opponent doesn't play any moves that you can take advantage of then you will have to make a choice. Either your draw against a weaker opponent or you imbalance the position.
Take this Game 3238805 which I think is instructive. The game was dead equal since no one could make any real progress. You see me shifting around my king for a couple of moves hoping he will do something stupid. At the time I was rated 1800 here (I resigned all my games not long ago since lack of time for chess) and my opponent 1600 so I didn't want to draw. Instead I offered Q+p vs. 2R and I was able to win because he played bad just a couple of moves later.
Objectivly the exchange was probably bad for me but there was no other way to play other then a draw I think.
I lost the following otb game to a master. I’m not sure I would have lost to a lower rated player.
[Event "OTB Tmt."]
[White "Masscat"]
[Black "Master"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O
Nc6 9. a3 Bg4 10. Be3 Rc8 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5 13. Be2 Rfd8 14. Rc1 Qd7
15. Qd2 Nxd4 16. Rxc8 Nxe2+ 17. Qxe2 Rxc8 18. Bxa7 Qa4 19. Bb6 Qb3 20. Be3 b5
21. h3 Be6 22. Rd1 Qxb2 23. Qxb2 Bxb2 24. Rb1 Bxa3 25. Rxb5 Bd6 26. Nd4 Bc4 27.
Rb1 Bd5 28. Rc1 Rb8 29. Nc6 Ra8 30. Na7 Be6 31. Nb5 Be5 32. Nc7 Rb8 33. Nxe6
fxe6 34. g3 Kf7 35. Kg2 Kf6 36. Rd1 Bd6 37. Kf3 e5 38. Ra1 Ke6 39. Ra4 Bb4 40.
Ra6+ Kd5 41. Rb6 Rf8+ 42. Kg2 Bd6 43. Rb5+ Kc4 44. Rb1 Ba3 45. Rd1 Bd6 46. Rd2
Kc3 47. Rd5 Rf7 48. Rd1 Kc4 49. Rd2 Rf8 50. Rd1 Kc3 51. Rd2 Bc5 52. Rd5 Bd4 53.
Rd7 Rf7 54. Rc7+ Kd3 55. Rd7 Ke4 56. Bxd4 exd4 57. Kf1 Kd3 58. Ke1 g5 59. Rd5 h6
60. Rd7 h5 61. Ra7 h4 62. gxh4 gxh4 63. Rd7 Rg7 0-1
Originally posted by masscatSee something like that just amazes me. It was an ending though, so it's a bit different.
I lost the following otb game to a master. I’m not sure I would have lost to a lower rated player.
[Event "OTB Tmt."]
[White "Masscat"]
[Black "Master"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O
Nc6 9. a3 Bg4 10. Be3 Rc8 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5 13. Be2 Rfd8 14. Rc1 Qd7
15. Qd2 Nxd4 16. Rxc8 ...[text shortened]... 4 57. Kf1 Kd3 58. Ke1 g5 59. Rd5 h6
60. Rd7 h5 61. Ra7 h4 62. gxh4 gxh4 63. Rd7 Rg7 0-1
To the poster before you, example of master games.
Lots of the Capa games. The position is very quite, pretty equal and he musters out the win. I know he was a great positional play and probably that's why. Slowly increasing your advantage.
Ticks me off when you start a game with someone same rating as you, get a drawish position and his rating is way below yours. If it was the same, you would take the draw, no worries.
Anywho In my game, my friend blunders and I won.
i think its that they can calculate way far ahead to see what the position might be after say 10 or 15 moves. and you do know that the higher rating you have the better feel you have for a position. on wholesalechess.com you can look up books that are for 1000 to all 1200 to 1600 and 1600 to 2000 and i think it has some books for over 2000 but double check there might be something on there for you. good luck. or you could just pm one of the higher rated players with your question.
i just checked out the game and yes it is pretty even with white having a small edge. whenever i play a sicilian where i do not castle kingside quickly i find i almost always lose the game. your going for an attack on the queenside with a rook queen and knight. with that other rook you could put more pressure on that queenside. could you explain your reasoning? i'm tryin to help and also tryin to better my play as well. you've been help to many people and i hope people can help you get better as well.