Annotation Experiment

This is one of my favorite games but only because I won. Otherwise it would just
be another game where I blundered away a good position. It’s not everyday that
you lose your queen and can still pull out a victory. I also wanted to post this to try
out a new way to post annotations on this site since incorporating notes in the PGN
viewer is still on Russ’ to do list. I think this will make it easier to follow the game
and the notes at the same time. Hope you enjoy. I was the playing the black pieces.


4..Qe7 is played to maintain the pawn at e5. Paulbuchmanfromfics informed me
this is called the ‘strong point variation’. The alternative 4...Nf6 surrenders the
center to white. For after 5.d4 black is forced to exchange pawns. Having said that
4...Nf6 is the most popular move.



7.Bg5 seems natural enough. White develops a piece with a threat. But the bishop
won’t be able to stay there for long. I considered 7...f6 for awhile but went with
Nf6 only because I was more familiar with the position.



8.h3 was a waste of time. There was nothing to fear from the pin created by black
playing Bg4. White can simply close the center with tempo by d5 then play the
queen’s knight to d2. After 8...h6 the exchange is forced. If white retreats the
bishop to h4 then black plays g5 and wins the e pawn next move. 9...Qxf6 may
have been better but being able to attack along the open g file appealed to me.



I didn’t understand the purpose of 10.dxe5. It undoubles my pawns and gives my
queen access to join the attack on the king side. It is now important to point out
that black can safely win the e pawn by 14...Qf4+. However this will lead to
exchanges. White will be able to play Nxb6 and Bxe6 removing both of my
bishops. I want to preserve as many of my pieces as I can for a king side assault
so I played 14...Bc5.



Remember when I said it was safe to capture the e pawn. Well it was back then
but it isn’t now. After Qxe4 my queen doesn’t have any safe squares to move to. A
fact my opponent quickly capitalizes on by playing 18.Bc2. Things are pretty dismal
now. Resign? Never! Not with so many pieces on the board and open lines of
attack against the enemy king. I was trying to decide if I should trade my queen
for one of the knights or the bishop when I saw Rxg3! You can take my queen but
I’m going to smash open your king side and go down swinging.



I think here white is tired of defending and wants to create some counter play by
occupying the open d file. White is up a queen so I guess he feels safe giving back
a bishop. It would have been better to preserve the bishop. As Capablanca states,
sometimes when you obtain a material advantage you end up relinquishing the
initiative and can do nothing but submit to your opponent’s attack. Successfully
defend the attack and then you can use your extra material to win the game.
Indeed that is the case here. As soon as my attack runs out and white regains the
initiative there will be little hope for me.



26.Qe3 loses. I was worried about 26.Qb5 which would have caused me problems
since I had so many loose pieces. Hard to say what white was hoping for here. He
must have been expecting Rxe3 but I don’t see the merit of trading the queen for
the rook unless he thought mate was inevitable without the exchange.



White resigns. So what do you think? Show a pgn with 4-5 moves then write some
notes. Show a pgn with the next 4-5 moves then more notes and so on and so on. It
is a bit more work to do it this way but I do think it makes it easier to follow the game.

Thanks for this - very clear annotation. The 4-5 moves PGNs work very well. Nice game too 🙂

Pleasure to read through this game in the format you used.

If relevant, it was also a really fun game.

I really enjoyed it. The format is quite nice like this too.
Well Done

I like this too - it is a lot of work you did though! Thanks for the game. I think it would be nice to have a final pgn with the whole game too, just to see the whole show at once 🙂

Thanks everyone!
Here's the complete game.

Hi Knee Caps.

This is good.

Just be aware that the more PGN things you have in the same
post then it slows it right down - they go very very slow.

I think 5 is the max. (and it will not work with Black moving first)

Use diagrams and the bold as well. One diagram can replace a 100 words.

Throw some white space in the notes.
The notes are more important than the moves.

This:

Remember when I said it was safe to capture the e pawn. Well it was back then
but it isn’t now. After Qxe4 my queen doesn’t have any safe squares to move to. A
fact my opponent quickly capitalizes on by playing 18.Bc2. Things are pretty dismal
now. Resign? Never! Not with so many pieces on the board and open lines of
attack against the enemy king. I was trying to decide if I should trade my queen
for one of the knights or the bishop when I saw Rxg3! You can take my queen but
I’m going to smash open your king side and go down swinging.

Would read better (in my opinion) as:

Remember when I said it was safe to capture the e-pawn.
Well it was back then but it isn’t now.

After Qxe4 my queen doesn’t have any safe squares to move to.
A fact my opponent quickly capitalizes on by playing 18.Bc2.
Things are pretty dismal now.



Resign? Never!

Not with so many pieces on the board and open lines of attack against the enemy king.

I was trying to decide if I should trade my queen for one of the knights
or the bishop when I saw Rxg3!

You can take my queen but I’m going to smash open your king side
and go down swinging.

*********

Also when it's laid out like this you can check it better for spelling mistakes
and missed words before you post.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Knee Caps.

This is good.

Just be aware that the more PGN things you have in the same
post then it slows it right down - they go very very slow.

I think 5 is the max. (and it will not work with Black moving first)

Use diagrams and the [b]bold as well. One diagram can replace a 100 words.

Throw some white space in the notes.
The n ...[text shortened]... out like this you can check it better for spelling mistakes
and missed words before you post.[/b]

While GP does not specifically say this, you will note that he breaks the text down into one sentence paragraphs.

When I was younger I worked as a political consultant (I'll leave the politics out), and the one-sentence paragraph is a central feature of any successful fundraising letter. Studies have shown (as have the financial successes) that people will not finish a fundraising letter with lengthy paragraphs, and that one-sentence paragraphs draw people "forward" into the letter. They are more likely to finish, and more likely to contribute.

To a certain extent, newspapers follow this same format, especially for articles in the first section of the paper, and absolutely for stories on the front page.

It's a good technique to add to one's literary repertoire, as it has many useful applications.

Paul

Worthy of Rec'd, thank you. "Last moved 46 days ago"? I hope you will be more active at RHP. 🙂

Hi greenpawn and paul,


Thanks for the comments.


I have to agree that some of the notes do look a bit wordy and crammed together.


I'll keep that in mind for next time. More space is more pleasing to the eyes.


As for the pgn moving too slow, did anybody else have this problem?


The speed of the pgn's is ok on my computer.


And greenpawn, what spelling mistakes??

Originally posted by MontyMoose
Worthy of Rec'd, thank you. "Last moved 46 days ago"? I hope you will be more active at RHP. 🙂

Thanks. I've been playing at a different site but I'll be back as soon as the second round of the tourny I'm in begins.

I did not see any spelling mistakes.

(doubt if I'd recognise them anyway, I was just saying it makes
checking for such things easier. I find I often miss out a word or for
some reason I always spell position postion )

It may be a players kit thing but the more PGN movers you have in one
post it does slow down. Try putting them on play all at the same time,
that gives you an idea.

Another Site? Where? What other site?

Originally posted by greenpawn34
I did not see any spelling mistakes.

Oh. Then I reread my post 6 times for nothing. 😕

This was so neat! You'd broken up the game nicely with cliffhanger like pauses. It was like I was watching a video tutorial instead of a text one!

Plus the game was something to be proud of too!

Originally posted by Tiwaking
This was so neat! You'd broken up the game nicely with cliffhanger like pauses. It was like I was watching a video tutorial instead of a text one!

Plus the game was something to be proud of too!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.