I would like to start things off with a recent win I had playing Bird opening. Giving every respect to my opponent the open e-file was just to go for me not to use it. My plan was simply to push up the file until I checkmated the Black King.
And it worked. Once the file was opened on move 8 i went about building a pawn structure on the queen side to protect my bishop and to put pressure on the d file. Then I deployed my rook onto the file, followed by the fatal move of pinning the black bishop on e7 with my bishop. After that it was a matter of me being cautious of not over extending myself to complete the job. With my queen side pawn structure in place there was no escape.
Here is the game link Game 496221.
-trekkie
Nice one! Here's mine:
Game 487157
My opponenet played a bit of an unorthodox opening with White (1.e3) so I just developed my pieces in a natural and comfortable way. When I saw that he was planning to take my knights with his bishops to mess up my pawn structure, I simply let it happen, and I welcomed the queen trade. I moved my king to a nice spot on c7 where it watched over the penetration point d7. I made sure his knights had no useful outposts in my camp. I took advantage of a tactic against his king, which gave me a powerful passed pawn that ended up forcing the win of an Exchange. Now with a technically winning game, I got both of my rooks active, and forced some more trades while still improving my position. Ultimately my opponent blundered away a piece, but the end was not too far off anyway.
allrightey :-)
Game 500476
This is my first latvian gambit win. It followed the most traditional simple straightforward plan of all: opposite side castling? Time to pawn storm! Things weren't going well until move 22, when my opponent opened up the 5th rank, allowing my queen to shift to the other wing.
Both players aimed queen and rook at opposing king, but I had more support, the bishop pair, and the opportunity for a nice tactic winning a piece. The attack on the g file stalled, so I shifted it to the h file... then to the 8th rank, both of which he was forced to weaken to defend the attack down the g file. Faced with the forced loss of a second piece, plus his queen, with mate inevitable shortly after, my quite good opponent resigned.
Here is another three simple plans leading to wins:
1) Game 487847: Bird opening, normal development. The battle was for the centre of the board. My opponents mistake came on the 15th move, Bd7 blocking his queen's influence on the centre. Several pawn captures later my queen breaks through the centre and then checkmate. Another note about this game is the danger of leaving your King in the centre.
2) Game 477564: This is not particularly a nice or neat example of the french exchange variation. In fact it is ugly filled with mistakes on my part. Anyway about move 13 after I lost control of the centre I think I must have woken.
With being one pawn down, not much but i still had to be careful, i played positional chess to take control. From move 27 my plan to checkmate becomes evident. Helped by a kingside pawn push to remove the obstructing white pawns. My opponent did make a fatal mistake on move 32 by moving the king to h1. Then it was a matter of just sacrafising the pawns leading a checkmate with my bishop making the final blow and my queen holding station.
3) Game 487893: This is my favourite out of this group. It is again a Bird opening but this time the very dangerous for white From gambit line. Black sacrafises a pawn early in order to open an attacking route directly to white's kingside. My opponent played the game extremely well , only a very crowded placement of his pieces in the saved me and cost him the game.
By my 11th move we have both castled on oppposite sides, with mine on the kingside (the natural place for Bird). So the game turns into a Queen and bishops diagonal push to capture the oposing king. My major criticism of my opponents positional play here is I have both long diagonals under control of my bishops. Whilst he has his bishops placed in the centre of the board. A positional mistake rather than a tactical one but still in this largely positional game it cost him.
My huge positional advantage is my Knight on e4. With my long diagonal control put off for now the game becomes a battle for the centre and the removal of my knight. With my 16th move black gets my knights but I get the centre and the position to use a 1-2-3 checkmate combination. Black also loses tempi with a bad double queen movement on moves 17 & 18.
The combination for me went: 18 Qxb7+ 19 Bc6+ 20 Ba3#
I do not think I have played a better combination to win a game ever.
Here is an example of a game in which I lost. One of by good friends (both here and in real life) beat me with a simple plan. We have played each other many times and this is an example of someone knowing my style too well 🙂
Game 483320: I resigned because of the passed pawn which was going to be impossible (i thought) for me to recover from. My opponent even admitted to me his plan though it is obvious in the analysis. I traded very early my knights for his bishops intending on playing a semi open match. What I was unprepared for and what my opponent then used against me was his position and ability to then close the ranks. Making my lost of knights very costly.
The game was very much against me then, I was waiting for a mistake which never came. In the end the game was really over long before I resigned.
A friend of mine provided a more expert analysis on my previous comments in this thread. I will now show them with you. It just goes to prove how much I have to learn.
Game 496221
1.f4 d6 2.Nf3 c5 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.0-0 Bd7
6.b3 better d3.
6. ... e5
7.e3 better d3. After e3, black could get the initiative with e4!
7. ... exf4
8.exf4 perhaps better gxf4 to use the open g-file
8. ... Be7 9.Bb2 b5
10.d3 a nice tactical move would be: 10.Nxe5! dxe5 11.fxe5 Ng4 12.e6! and black cannot cover all pieces (Ng4, Bd7, Nc6) and there is still the threat Ra8.
10. ... b4 11.Nbd2 g6? gives white chances. Simply 0-0 equalises
12.Re1 good move. But Ne5! was still in the game.
12. ... h5? blunder. 0-0 necessary.
13.c4?? White wins a piece with the simple Bxf6.
13. ... Bf5 14.Bf1 With Bxf6 white still wins that piece
14. ... d5 15.Bxf6 (at last) Rf8 16.Qe2 Rc8 17.Bxe7?
With cxd5! white wins another piece because Nc6 covers Be7, and so does the queen.
17. ... Nxe7 18.cxd5 Kd7 19.Qe5 Qc7?? the final mistake. With f6 there was still a lot to play.
20.Qxe7#
Game 487847
1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.e3 Nf6 4.d4 Ne4 5.Nbd2 f5
better Bf5, now the bishop is weak
6.Bb5 Bd7 7.Bxc6 Bxc6 8.0-0?
better 8.Nxe4 fxe4 9.Ne5 Qd6 10.Bd2 and white can already exploit the knight advantage
8. ... Bb5 9.Re1 b6 10.Nxe4 fxe4 11.Ne5 c5??
blunder. Qd6 was a good defense.
12.c3?
this move, and in the next 7 (seven!) moves white would win easily with Qh5+ g6 Nxg6 hxg6 QxRh8. That explains all the questionmarks. Black doesn't prevent it, white doesn't do it.
12. ... e6? 13.b3? a5?
14.c4! even here Qh5+ was winning, but c4 was even better
14. ... Bd7 15.dxc5? (Qh5+) bxc5 16.Bb2? (is ok, but Qh5+ better)
16. ... a4? black has no idea what to do
17.cxd5? exd5 18.Qxd5? axb3?? blunder Qc8 was necessary
19.Qf7#
Game 477564
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.Bg5 Nc6 8.0-0 Re8 9.Re1 Ne4?
Loses a pawn. Better Nb4
10.Bxe4 dxe4 11.Rxe4 Bxg5 12.Rxe8+ Qxe8 13.Nxg5 Bf5 14.Nd5?
Bad move. d5 or Qd2 maintains advantage.
14. ... Qd7??
no! Qd8 wins one of the knights
15.c4 Ne7 16.Ne3 Bg6 17.d5 Nf5 18.Qd3 (better Qg4) Nh4 19.Qd4 Nf5 20.Qg4 h5 21.Qh3 f6?
Better Qe7 or Qd8.
22.Ne4
Winning attack with Ne6!
22. ... Qe7 23.Nxf5 Qxe4 24.Ng3 (Ne3!) Qxc4 25.Qe6+ Bf7 26.Qe4
Qd7 maintains equality with Qxd5 Qxc7 or Bxd5 Nxh5
26. ... Bxd5
better Qxe4 Nxe4 Bxd5 Nc3 Rd8 clear advantage for black
27.Qe1 Bc6 28.Rc1 Qd5 29.f3 g5 (h4!) 30.b3 g4 31.Rd1 Qc5+ 32.Kh1
this was no mistake! although Qf2 is safer
32. ... gxf3+ ? gives away the advantage. Right is 32... Qe5
33.gxf3?? blunder. After 33.Qe6+ the game is draw. Black can't escape from perpetual check.
33. ... Bxf3#
Game 483320
1.f4 e6 2.Nf3 Bd6 3.e3 Nf6 4.b3
again: b3 is stereotypic. better d4.
4. ... b6 5.Bb2 Bb7 6.Be2 Bxf3?
gives up bishop and long diagonal without compensation
7.Bxf3 c6 8.0-0 Qe7 9.d4 Bc7 10.Nd2 d5 11.c4 Nbd7 12.Qc1 (better Qe1) 0-0-0?
castles into the storm
13.Ba3 Bd6 14.b4?
Strong was cxd5 Nb8 (Bxa3? Qxc6+ Kb8 dxe6!) Bxd6
14. ... h6 (Bxb4) 15.c5 Bc7 16.Nb3 (b5) 16.b5 17.Na5 (Bb2) Bxa5 a6 19.Bb4 Nb8 20a4 g5 21.axb5 cxb5 22.Rb1 Nc6 23.Ba3 g4 24.Be2 h5 25.h4?
plays in black's game instead of following qeenside plan
25. ... Ne4 26.Qe1?
No! f5
26. ... f6?
misses the easy win g3! and Qxh4
27.g3 Rdf8 28.f5 Qd7 29.Bd3 exf5 30.Rf4 Qe7 31.Rxf5 Qe6 32.Rf1 Rf7 33.Bxe4 dxe4 34.Ra1 Rg8 37.Bb2 b4 38.Qd2 Rgf8 39.Qe2 Kb7 40.Kg2 Rf6 41.Ba1 Nax5
White resigns??
Why? The pawn difference is not very important with black's king in the open. The passed pawns look dangerous but have no chance to make progress. This should probably be a draw
Originally posted by trekkieAfter 12..h5 you could have taken the knight on f6 as the bishop can't retake cos of the expossed check 😉
I would like to start things off with a recent win I had playing Bird opening. Giving every respect to my opponent the open e-file was just to go for me not to use it. My plan was simply to push up the file until I checkmated the Black King.
And it worked. Once the file was opened on move 8 i went about building a pawn structure on the queen side to prot ...[text shortened]... tructure in place there was no escape.
Here is the game link Game 496221.
-trekkie
Originally posted by Natural ScienceWhat's unorthodox about it? This is just the english with a slightly different move order.
Nice one! Here's mine:
Game 487157
My opponenet played a bit of an unorthodox opening with White (1.e3) so I just developed my pieces in a natural and comfortable way. When I saw that he was planning to take my knights with his bishops to mess up my pawn structure, I simply let it happen, and I welcomed the queen trade. I moved my ki ...[text shortened]... osition. Ultimately my opponent blundered away a piece, but the end was not too far off anyway.
Originally posted by trekkieActually, it's a blunder game for black. It didn't deserve a fair analysis. Every move you made just seemed to be good, because every move black made were bad.
I would like to start things off with a recent win I had playing Bird opening. Giving every respect to my opponent the open e-file was just to go for me not to use it. My plan was simply to push up the file until I checkmated the Black King.
And it worked. Once the file was opened on move 8 i went about building a pawn structure on the queen side to prot ...[text shortened]... tructure in place there was no escape.
Here is the game link Game 496221.
-trekkie
How about analysing your losses?
Game 487893
1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nf3 g5 5.b3?
I believe that you are implementing an automatic queenside fianchetto in your bird, whereas this is not appropriate in most variations. g3 or d4 were better alternatives.
5. ... h6?
black doesn't punish. Example g4! Bb2? gxf3 Bxh8 Qh4+ g3 Qxg3+ hxg3 Bxg3#
6.Bb2 Nf6 7.Nc3 (or e4!) Nc6 8.g3 Be6 9.Bg2 Qe7 10.Ne4 0-0-0?
Nxe4 was necessary
11.0-0??
A blunder. Instead of winning a full rook (Bxf6 and after a queen move Bxd8 or Bxh8) black could have a winning position with Nxe4 Bxh8 Rxh8
11. ... Ne5? see above
12.Nd4?
white doesn't fully exploit: Nxf6 Nxf3+ (Qxf6 Nxe5!) Rxf3
12. ... Bc5?
better Nxe4
13.Nxc5 Qxc5 14.c4?
better Rxf6 Rxd4 Bxd4 Qxd4+ e3 wins
14.Nc6? black should have tried Rxd4
15.e3 Nxd4 16.exd4 Qd6 Qf3 Qe7?
allows for a quick checkmate
18.Qxb7+ Kd7 19.Bc6+ Kd6
20.Ba3#
Actually, the game was won after your opponent's blunder 14...d5, giving away a piece for nothing. And 19...Qc7 allowing mate in 1 is a disaster.
But, in theory, your plan is correct: exploit the open e-file for all it's worth. With the bishop on e7 and king still on e8 you must have felt like you were taking vcandy from a young child.
Playing the Bird, I suppose you know the opening well enough not to fall in the trap 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nf3 g5 5.h3. Seems natural, White wants to avoid 5...g4, but allows 5....Bg3 mate in stead. And it's time for White to sing the Beatles song "Norwegian Wood", also known as "This Bird has flown".....
I have had the great pleasure of playing this 5-mover as Black in several blitz games!
Best of luck from a Norwegian Beatles-fan!!
Originally posted by trekkienow i know why you are destroying me in our game :'(
A friend of mine provided a more expert analysis on my previous comments in this thread. I will now show them with you. It just goes to prove how much I have to learn.
Game 496221
1.f4 d6 2.Nf3 c5 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.0-0 Bd7
6.b3 better d3.
6. ... e5
7.e3 better d3. After e3, black could get the initiative with e4!
7. ... exf4
8.exf4 p ...[text shortened]... passed pawns look dangerous but have no chance to make progress. This should probably be a draw