Stupid blunders!!!

(sigh) 😕

It seems every time I play this one guy at work, I end up blundering a piece and losing. We play quickly (15 min on the clock per side), but that's no excuse. In this game, I blundered my queen (double sigh 😕😕) on move 17. At least I put up a good fight afterwards, but it was all uphill and I ended up losing on time. I made a note that 11. Qc1 was questionable, probably better to plant it on d2 instead, but that pales in comparison to the subsequent blunder. Any suggestions for improvement in the opening would be welcome:



Wow...on second review, this was a cavalcade of errors! Triple sigh!!! 😕😕😕

I am guessing this is more or less it:

Why are you letting darv win?

Thanks, heinzkat. I'm wondering, every player must got through a stage like this, where "chess blindness" is rampant and strategic considerations give way to tactical blunders. Has anyone here struggled in these situations OTB? If so, how did you deal with it?

Originally posted by Palynka
Why are you letting darv win?

Lol, it's actually another guy. I think Darv plays much better OTB, tell you the truth, but this other guy "ZT" wins much more frequently. ZT's strategy is to lie in wait for the other player to make a mistake, then pounce on it. He's actually quite good at tactics I think, but his positional playing leaves something to be desired. If he ever worked on it, I think he would be a very good player. Not that I'll ever tell him, of course. 😉

Quote:
"Has anyone here struggled in these situations OTB?
If so, how did you deal with it?"

It happens when you start to improve....

EH?

You do not turn into a bad chess player over night

I'm guessing but you may have started reading or studying about
positional play or even endings. Or playing over games by a player
who is starting to influence you. It could be anything.

New things for the brain to consider and the new ideas are pushing
out, or mixing up the what was in place.

Your thinking process has changed and you are giving positions
new priorities.

You ability not to leave pieces hanging has deserted you, the wee
inner eye that you spent a year or two training to automatically
avoid one move blunders has been 'numbed'.

It's usually the first instinct 'don't leave bits hanging' that suffers.

A diagram of how a chess players improves.

You are the white pawns reading from left to right.

you go up a bit, slip back go higher, slip back, go higher etc etc



Don't worry about it, things soon gel and you end up a better player.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Quote:
"Has anyone here struggled in these situations OTB?
If so, how did you deal with it?"

It happens when you start to improve....

EH?

You do not turn into a bad chess player over night

I'm guessing but you may have started reading or studying about
positional play or even endings. Or playing over games by a player
who is starting to 8 w - -[/fen]

Don't worry about it, things soon gel and you end up a better player.

Thanks greenpawn34. I hope they gel by next week, I want to wipe this guy off the board!

He always starts with an extremely quiet and slow opening, which I really should be punishing in terms of development and open lines against his king (which he always leaves in the centre until late in the game). Any advice for playing against the opening used in the posted game?

EDIT: You were bang on about reading up on new concepts! 😲 Positional play and planning I'm sad to say have been absent from my playing up until now, so I've been trying to improve with Silman's "Reassess Your Chess", "The Amateur's Mind" and recently "A Complete Endgame Course", along with the recent acquisition of John Nunn's "Understanding Chess".

Had a quick look at game - why is it on twice?

Anyway:

Yes he is a slow developer so quick development castle and bounce him.

He is also not the great tactician you think he is.

You had a chance to ruffle him in this position.



You played Nxc5 but Bxd7+ THEN Nxc5 would have given him
something to think about. Still a lose but he is in blunderland.

You lost 'cos you dropped your Queen - he did not win it - you lost it.


Close the books.

Go here.

http://www.gambitchess.com/semi/dbbooks.htm

and get

du Mont, 200 Miniature Games of Chess, McKay, 1942 pgn

If you can strip off the PGN junk and print them out - play them
over a normal set - this will sharpen you up and give scads of
attacking ideas v slow developers.

You are the better player, he's trickier nothing more.
You have to take him on in the hand to hand fight - with your
new knowledge gained from studying short games you will cream him.


Edit1 Looking at diagram if after Bxd7+ Qxd7 then Nxe5 looks
even better than Nxc5.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Had a quick look at game - why is it on twice?

Anyway:

Yes he is a slow developer so quick development castle and bounce him.

He is also not the great tactician you think he is.

You had a chance to ruffle him in this position.

[fen]2kr3r/pb1n4/3Pq2p/2p1ppp1/B3N3/5N2/P4PPP/2R1R1K1[/fen]

You played Nxc5 but Bxd7+ THEN Nxc5 would have give ...[text shortened]... him.


Edit1 Looking at diagram if after Bxd7+ Qxd7 then Nxe5 looks
even better than Nxc5.

Great!! Thanks greenpawn34, I will definitely take a look at those games. 🙂

w00t! I just played ZT again, and thanks to Greenpawn's advice the games went much better for me - 1 draw and 1 win! I did make one obvious blunder in the second game (blundered my bishop on a pin), but I was already ahead by 3 pawns with advanced pawns on the kingside and no queens on the board, so I was able to hang on for the win with a pawn storm. 🙂

I have to say, playing on an actual chess board (especially while playing the computer) is a fantastic learning tool! 🙂 I'm not blunder free yet, but I feel much more confident now.

I started this series with an extra point because of some administrative details, but the score is now 5 to 4 for ZT (first to 8 points wins, 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). I play tomorrow, so I'll let you know how things go!

Good Luck and if you win tell ZT to join up here. 😀

personally I would avoid playing e4 on move 5

and also IMO - 15min play will not improve your game, playing longer games will improve your 15 min game

Originally posted by john47832
15min play will not improve your game, playing longer games will improve your 15 min game

Always interesting such statements ("if you want to get better at speed chess don't play speed chess but longer games"😉. If you want to get better at chess, play chess. If you want to get better at lightning chess - play lightning chess. If you want to get better at correspondence chess - play corr. chess. If you want to get better at draughts - play draughts. If you want to get better at running, run. It's so easy 🙂

Originally posted by heinzkat
Always interesting such statements ("if you want to get better at speed chess don't play speed chess but longer games"😉. If you want to get better at chess, play chess. If you want to get better at lightning chess - play lightning chess. If you want to get better at correspondence chess - play corr. chess. If you want to get better at draughts - play draughts. If you want to get better at running, run. It's so easy 🙂

I tend to agree, but when first starting out it's much easier to take your time learning the ins and out of chess during a long, slow game with plenty of time to think. Once you know what you're looking at (and what you're looking for!), you can start to increase the speed.

I happen to think 15 or 20 minute games are good.
I often play 15 minute games with a friend for hours on end,we try out ideas,allow takebacks,brief discussion afterwards.It's fun and we pick up lots of stuff from each other.
It's sort of an analyses/play session.