Playing Against the English

Yesterday I got involved in my first competitive OTB match for over 10 years and my opponent played the English and since I prefer an aggressive match I employed a very dubious sac on move 6 and I'm curious to hear what you think of it:



I know I ended up winning, but I felt white probably had the advantage at around move 15 and if I lost my pawn on e3, my attack would have fallen apart.
Any input welcome.

Hi VE.

Welcome back after 10 years away from OTB.


Typical layout from a White system player who play that move order no matter what.
They adopt these systems so they won't have to learn a bucket load of theory. Good idea.
They then stop studying chess thinking they have the opening sorrted. Bad idea.

The bold 2...f5 could have been met with 3.Nf3 aiming for a d4. If Black plays
3...e5 4.Nd4.

Having a 'system' is fine but you must adjust to what is in front of you.

Of course the sac Bxf7+ was unsound and not needed.
(I think you are OK are 6...d6). But you did what you wanted to you.
It was not a blunder, you sacced to mess things up and to force yourself
to play an active game.

When you have sacced a bit for unclear complications it is all about activity,
tempo and trick shots.
Forget the arty-farty positional crap and endings. This is chess.
You will lose some...sometimes badly....but the wins...as here...will get published. 🙂

You kept the pot simmering over and waited for the blunder.
You have to have faith (as you did) that a blunder will come.
Just keep telling yourself if the guy is any good then how come he is playing you?

His blunder appeared on move on move twenty 20.b3?


You played 20....a5 adding; "missing...."

But infact you missed Mr Cute Shot here. Instead of 20....a5 look at a
backward attacking move and then a check.

Good OTB game. A roll of the dice to play the game you wanted to play.
Win or loss you always enjoy that type of game.

15...Kh8! seen too many game lost by players trying to save a tempo
by not tucking his Nibs into a corner.

Thanks for the tips, completely missed 20...Bc8 which was a much stronger move than a5.

I spent over 10 minutes before making 15....Kh8 (was looking quite intently at 15...Rxf3 followed by e2 for a while - debunked by 17.Kg2) before common sense prevailed.

Thanks again for the advice, I'll add another pint to my IOU list for you.

When I read the title of the thread, my first thought was "spike the tea".

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
When I read the title of the thread, my first thought was "spike the tea".

Or dump the tea into a harbor, that really pisses 'em off. 🙂

Anyone fancy some fishing?

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
When I read the title of the thread, my first thought was "spike the tea".

I would be gutted if someone spiked me tea with anything other than a slice of lemon. You know how to crush a man's resolve