tMetzler

tMetzler and I made a deal. This is all just a part of our sinister bargain....

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.timeforchess.com"]
[Date "2005.02.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "tmetzler"]
[Black "Cheshire Cat"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "938360"]

1. f4 e5
Bird's opening. And now the From Gambit!? You and the Cat want the gloves off early eh? ok.

2. fxe5 d6
Gambit accepted.

3. Ng1-f3 Bc8-g4
Nothing wrong with Nf3 here. Looks like the safest move on the board to me. At this point you two are already out of any book I have. Bg4 from black is very aggressive. Looking for a future pin on your queen I suppose and probably trying to scare you a little by plopping the bishop down on your kingside.

4. Nb1-c3 Bf8-e7
Black is playing strictly for development and for the attack on your kingside. Your dark squares are weakend there because of 1.f4. Black has slapped an undefended piece down on g4.


5. d4 dxe5
d4 looks good from you. I don't like black's dxe5. It allows 6.Nex5 regaining the pawn and attacking the undefended g4bishop. ALWAYS keep a close eye on undefended pieces. Yours and your opponent's. They almost always lead to tactics.

6. dxe5 Nb8-c6
dxe5 regains your pawn and keeps you ahead in material, but it saddles you with doubled and isolated e-pawns. This is usually
very bad. Positionally this is a big mistake, but in a tactical battle like this one is shaping up to be it may not matter.

Nxe5 is better. If black throws in a check after that you just block with the g-pawn and black loses a piece. Your king would be exposed, which is what I'm guessing kept you from playing Nxe5, but if you're going to accept gambits that's a risk you'll have to take. Black develops another piece here and attacks your e5 pawn. Black has 3 pieces developed to your 2, courtesy of his gambited pawn.


7. Bc1-f4 Be7-b4
I like Bf4. You developed a piece and propped up your e5 pawn. Black now moves his dark-squared bishop twice, but pins your c3 knight.

8. g3 Ng8-e7
g3 is pointless. I'm assuming the plan here was to play the bishop to g2 so you could castle, but you didn't attack or develop with this move. In a game that opens up this early you should be looking for moves that do 2 things; develop and or attack. Qd2 or Qd3 with the plan of castling queenside would alleviate your problems and give you an open d-file to attack down. Black develops another piece and prepares to castle short, and I assume to begin attacking your e5 pawn.


9. Bf4-g5 Qd8xd1+
Bg5 isn't helping you. You should have continued with your plan of Bg2. Your f4 bishop was on a fine square so moving the bishop again in order to pin the black knight wasted time there. Black trades queens anyway which eliminates the pin. Once you start a plan you should stick with it unless tactics dictate otherwise.

10. Ra1xd1 Bb4xc3+
Rxd1 is forced there. Black trades bishop for knight and causes further weaknesses in your pawn structure. Your c-pawns, despite being doubled, are nowhere near as weak as your e-pawns. Your e-pawns sit on a half-open file. Black can attack them from the front and tie you up with defending them for a long time.

11. bxc3 O-O
Your move is forced. Black castles and continues developing. At this point black's pawn structure is perfect. If you set up this position on a board and take all of the pieces off the differences in the pawn structures will really stand out. Which pawn structure would you rather have in an endgame?. Being up a pawn here doesn't mean much I'm afraid.


12. Bf1-g2 Ne7-g6
Both fine moves. You develop the bishop on a good diagonal and black develops the knight to a much better square where he begins an attack on the e5 pawn.


13. Bg5-f4 Bg4xf3
you moved your bishop again to try and defend the e5 pawn (3 times now), but at this point development is your only hope. Black removes one of the defenders of the e5 pawn and forces your recapture.


14. Bg2xf3 Ng6xe5
Recapturing with the bishop was correct. Black snags back his pawn and material is even. You probably shouldn't have ever tried to hang on to the extra pawn. I think you would have been much better off developing early and as quickly as possible. It would have saved you from making some of your last few moves that you felt you had to
make.


15. Bf3xc6 Ne5xc6
I would rather have seen you castle here than grab the knight. It doesn't do anything except trade down and remove the bishop that you just spent time developing. Your g2 bishop was pinning the c6 knight to the b7-pawn and it's a great diagonal to control. You can win the c7 pawn after the trade, but you can't hold on to that advantage. The black rooks are too strong.

With the board so wide open, and with you having the 2 bishops, I would have tried to retain the two bishops and fight it out on an open board. 2 bishops can handle 2 knights, even with your bad pawn structure. This would have given you a pretty good fighting chance.

16. Bf4xc7 Ra8-c8
You win a pawn, but black pins your bishop and will easily win back the pawn. Plus black now has a rook running wild on the board after the c6 knight moves.

17. Bc7-f4 Nc6-a5
Black gets his knight out of the way and makes room for his c8 rook.

18. Bf4-e3 Rc8xc3
Now you're pawn grabbing. Here is a golden rule to live by and that I learned the hard way: Do NOT grab pawns if it gives your opponent counterplay. I don't care how tempting it looks. Pawn grabbing will cause you many more problems than any good it could ever do. I think you would have been much better off castling here. You still have a bishop versus a knight on an open board so getting your rooks into the game is extremely important. Much more important than one pawn. You can grab them, but in your position you will never be able to hold on to them. And you certainly do not have the ability to convert a one pawn advantage into a win in this position.

19. Be3xa7 Rc3xc2
You capture a pawn. Black captures a pawn. This also opens the a-file for black and weakens your a-pawn

20. Rd1-d2 Rc2-c1+
Trying to trade here and take black's pawn gobbling rook off the board. Black plays a check and skewers your king to your h1 rook.

21. Rd2-d1 Rc1xd1
Rd1 is forced. Black trades rooks.


22. Ke1xd1 Rf8a8
Kxd1 is forced. Black goes after your weak a-pawn with his rook. If your a-pawn falls black will have a passed b-pawn that will be very annoying for you to deal with.

23. Ba7-c5 Na5-c4
Down goes the a-pawn. This ties in directly with your lack of development earlier in the game. Black has a very active rook. Your h1 rook still hasn't moved. There was nothing else you could do here though. The a-pawn was a goner either way.

24. a3 Nc4xa3

25. Bc5xa3 Ra8xa3

26. Kd1-c2 Ra3-a2+
Now black's rook is ruling the board. You had to move your king to prevent the skewer.

27. Kc2-d3 Ra2-b2
Black grabs the b-file to keep you from attacking his b-pawn.

28. Rh1-c1 g6
Rc1 is solid. Your best shot is a backrank mate. May as well go for it and see if black blunders.

29. h4 Rb2-b3
h4 isn't good. You have no hope of any kind of breakthrough on the kingside. Your king is in the middle. Your best hope is to fight for a draw by preventing black's b-pawn from advancing.

30. Rc1-c3 Rb3-b1
Black should have traded rooks here. After the trade black can use his b-pawn as a decoy and make your king march all the way down the board to capture it. Meanwhile black would be advancing and gobbling your kingside pawns.

That endgame is winning for black.


31. e4 b5
e4 looks good. Black shouldn't have moved the b-pawn though. It just makes it easier for your king and rook to try and attack it without having to march down the board to get it first.

32. Kd3-c2 Rb1-b4
Good move. Make the black rook move and you can start trying to gang up on the black b-pawn.

33. Kc2-d3 Kg8-g7

34. g4 Rb4a4

35. e5 Ra4xg4
Oops. e5 hangs the g-pawn and now you can't stop black's kingside pawns. Almost any move was better. Attacking the black b-pawn again with Rb3 would have forced another defensive response from black.

36. Rc3-c7 Rg4xh4

37. e6 Kg7f8

38. exf7 Rh4f4
Rxf7 was better. I like the fact that you were so aggressive with the e-pawn though. You scared black a little here.

39. Rc7b7 Rf4xf7
I see no way to stop 2 connected passed pawns. Unless black blunders badly you can't stop him.

40. Rb7xb5 h5
41. Kd3-e3 Kf8-g7
42. Rb5-e5 Kg7-h6
43. Ke3-e2 h4 0-1

Summary: Development cost you this game. All of your problems in the middle game, your pawn structure, and the endgame could have been helped by developing pieces earlier. Move #8. g3, was especially bad. It's too slow for an open board position like the one you were in there. Trading off the two bishops hurt your one good chance to put up a fight later. 2 bishops are almost always better than 2 knights on an open board. Hanging on to them would have delayed the endgame which positionally was very bad for you because of the lack of active rooks and your poor pawn structure.

Your opponent played well, but really he beat you with development. Tactically I thought you played well. Positionally you got into trouble early with the isolated and doubled e-pawns.

After that you should not have tried to hang on to a pawn advantage. Give back that pawn and develop instead and most of your problems would have been solved in this one.

I'll do the second game tomorrow. I hope this helps! If anyone else wants to analyze feel free.

See ya,

Wib

Originally posted by wib
tMetzler and I made a deal. This is all just a part of our sinister bargain....

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.timeforchess.com"]
[Date "2005.02.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "tmetzler"]
[Black "Cheshire Cat"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "938360"]

1. f4 e5
Bird's opening. And now the From Gambit!? You and the Cat want the glove ...[text shortened]... me tomorrow. I hope this helps! If anyone else wants to analyze feel free.

See ya,

Wib

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
I have the novelty as 4. ... Be7. 4. ... Bxf3 has been played once before (game proceeded as 5. exf3 dxe5 6. Bc4 Qh4+ 7. g3 Qxc4 -+, 6. Qe2 is the improvement Fritz suggests.)

Awesome!
I'm going to play along with this and a board over my morning coffee.

You should have a present in your inbox. Best deal I've made in a while.

--tmetzler

Originally posted by wib
Thanks Xanthos. I wish I knew more about From's gambit, but unfortunately I don't. And I don't have much literature on it either. i found a little on the web about it, but after the 4th move I just flew by the seat of my pants on this one.

I don't have fritz so could you put the endgame in there and see what it says? Maybe start at move #30 for whi ...[text shortened]... rting to wear down at that point. The b-pawn looks vunerable though after black plays 31...b5.