[White "J W Schulten"]
[Black: "P Morphy"]
New York 1857
1. e4 e5
2. f4 d5
Falkbeer's Countergambit. Black is going to sac a pawn to get the initiative.
3. exd5 e4
The black pawn puts alot of pressure on white's position here. It's hard to remove and keeps white from developing like Nf3.
4. Nc3 Nf6
5. d3?!
Attacks the pawn on e4 for a second time, but this allows black to pin the knight on c3.
5. ...Bb4
6. Bd2 e3!
Black sacs another pawn to disturb white's development and get an open e-file against white's king.
7. Bxe3 0-0
8. Bd2
Prevents a pin after Re8, and takes the pin off Nc3. White can then place the knight somewhere on the e-file to block the rook.
8. ...Bxc3
black wants to prevent the knight from doing so ofcourse.
9. bxc3
If 9. Bxc3, then 9. ...Nxd5 and white loses another pawn (Nxf4), after which black has a big lead in development.
9. ...Re8+
10. Be2 Bg4
White is terribly cramped now. He should play 11. h3 and try to get looser, but instead he tries to keep his material advantage, as compensation for his positional disadvantage. This is even worse though.
11. c4?! c6!
12. dxc6?
Terrible. This helps black to complete his development. Again 12. h3 would have been the best.
12. ...Nxc6
Threatening Nd4, and white can't do anything anymore to stop this.
13. Kf1 Rxe2
Wins 2 pieces for a rook, without losing the attack.
14. Nxe2 Nd4
15. Qb1 (white can't do anything anymore) Bxe2+
16. Kf2
After 16. Kg1, black wins with 16. ...Nxc2!, threatening Qd4+ and mate. 16. Ke1 loses to 16. ...Qe7, followed by a deadly discovered check.
16. ...Ng4+
17. Kg1
Or the artistic mate 17. Kg3 Nf5+ 18. Kh3 Nf2#. Also, white is mated soon after 17. Ke1 Qh4+! (this is necessary, white has to move g3, and then square f3 isn't guarded anymore.) 18. g3 Qe7 with the inevitable threat Nf3#.
17. ...Nf3+
18. gxf3 Qd4+
19. Kg2 Qf2+
20. Kh3 Qxf3+
21. Kh4 Ne3
22. Rg1 Nf5+
23. Kg5 Qh5#
Just like the first game, white lost because a lack of development, and he only cared about material.
BTW: are there some GM games that someone would like to see analysed?
Originally posted by razor2007Not bad, you got the main idea 🙂
Alright, I'm not quite sure about this, but it's worth a guess.
Yaz plays 8.f3 for three reasons.
1. It seals in black's QB as the only square it can now develop to safely is d7, which does not help black becasue white is in total control of the queenside light squares.
2. It prevents Black's Idea of ...f5 trying to generate kingside counterplay. ...[text shortened]... .f5 which gives black at least soem semblance of an attack OR it loses tempo after 8 ...Ng4
Here's the solution:
8.Be7 Ng4 9.Bd2 it's important to keep the dark bishop since the dark white squares are weak.
9...f5 and black has gained time to start a kingside attack.
If white neglects the Knight attack on the bishop with a natural move like
9.0-0 Qh4! threatening mate on h2
10.h3 Nxe3 11. fxe3 which is horrible for white. Black's bishop would dominate after 11...Bh6 since it can't be challenged.
Originally posted by razor2007Almost on the money.
Okay, time for another real quickie.
12. 0-0?
Bad because after
12...cxd5
13. cxd5 Qb6
and white is either forced to trade queens, losing a developed piece for an undeveloped one and allowing black to play...O-O OR he must sacrifice the b pawn because the queen is pinned and any move to protect the pawn would lose the queen. Even Nd1 is bad b ...[text shortened]... t the d-file..
I honestly have no clue if I'm even in the ballaprk here, so I hope I am.
12.0-0? Qb6
Which forces a queen trade. Once black trades off queens, black's king is safe and he can use the dark squares to his advantage, namely b6, c5, b4
12...cxd5 isn't a great move because it allows, 13.Nxd5 and the knight is a thorn and very hard to remove. This can be followed by 14.Nc3 supporting the knight incase Black try's to trade knights.
Also, you don't want to open the position when your king is in the center and your pieces aren't developed.
As for the rest of your line, i'm confused.
13...Qb6 14.Nd1 Qxb6+???
it's Black's move here. I think I get what were saying though. This is what you meant:
14...Qxe3 14.Nxe3 Nc5
Originally posted by razor2007Not quite. There are bigger threats.
Okay, last try.
Here white would like to play Nc7, forking queen and rook, even after the exchange of knights.
Nc7 followed by a queen move also allows white to discover the rook and use it to pin the bishop and hold the king.
Black can not capture on e4+ becasue of the bishop so conveniently placed on b1.
White's threat is 23.Qb6+ Kc8 24.Nd6+ winning the queen. Note that the black queen is tied down to the defense of the f8 rook who would fall with check.
If black try's 22...Nxe4 protecting the d6 square
23.Bxe4 Qxe4+ 24.Kf2 Qh4+ 25.Kg1 and the white king escapes.
Black can't meet the threat of, count these:
26.Qxf8+
26.Nxf6
26.Nb6
26.Qb6+
When you have a winning position, there are several ways to win.
Lessons for the Yasser-Ivanchuk Game
1. Black spend to much time trying to play on the queenside. He didn't think much of white's kingside attack and paid for it.
2. Black's king got stuck in the middle of the fight. This started with black trading of the fianchetto bishop which created weak dark squares around his kindside which white took advantage of by playing Qh6! denying the black king from castling. Trading of a fianchetto bishop is rarely a great idea unless it give you a specific advantage.
Hope you guys enjoyed the game.
Wow, very nice commentary.
I just started reading "Best Chess Lessons from a Chess Coach," and what you're saying makes a LOT(!!!) more sense after reading about outpost squares, weak color complexes, and the like.
Sorry about my misconstrued line. I am often guily, particularly agregiously during recording a game, of playing or "recording" the move in my head and then skipping straight to my next move.
Thinking about all these variables now makes me understand why even players like Karpov, pasky, Morphy, etc. spend upwards of ten minutes on some moves.
Originally posted by razor2007Thanks, I'm glad some people take the effort🙂
Wow, very nice commentary.
I just started reading "Best Chess Lessons from a Chess Coach," and what you're saying makes a LOT(!!!) more sense after reading about outpost squares, weak color complexes, and the like.
Sorry about my misconstrued line. I am often guily, particularly agregiously during recording a game, of playing or "recording" the move ...[text shortened]... y even players like Karpov, pasky, Morphy, etc. spend upwards of ten minutes on some moves.
No worried about the wrong line, everyone make that mistakes now and then.
You know I spend more then 10 minutes in my otb games during middlegame positions. Does that mean ...... 🙂 Great minds think alike eh?
Nice work razor
Heh, i guess they must. You're an expert at least, right?
I've never really had the opportunity to spend 10 mins. on a middlegame position. I just started my first tourney 3 weeks ago and so far in both my games I've dropped a full piece (Rook in the first, Bishop in the second) before move 20 🙁. My "mentor" says give it a few mroe games and I won't be dropping full pieces anymore. I just get really nervous playing otb.
Originally posted by razor2007Expert is my goal, 2000+
Heh, i guess they must. You're an expert at least, right?
I've never really had the opportunity to spend 10 mins. on a middlegame position. I just started my first tourney 3 weeks ago and so far in both my games I've dropped a full piece (Rook in the first, Bishop in the second) before move 20 🙁. My "mentor" says give it a few mroe games and I won't be dropping full pieces anymore. I just get really nervous playing otb.
I'm a high class b player but i'm having a good tournament and hopefully will crack the 1800, class A mark. Got 3 games left to go in the tourney and it's getting stronger.
I joined a chess club 2 years almost and the time sure takes getting use to. It's a very different experience and you won't play great at the beginning but ones you get use to the time and atmosphere, you'll be fine. You learn way more from OTB then you do from anything esle. I'm not sure if you're playing just fun games or the actual rated ones, where you gotta write the moves down?
If its the writing moves down then I strongly suggest after each game, go over it with your opponent. That's one of the best part of OTB. You can figure out what he was thinking and he knows what you were thinking and you can find out why you lose etc..
Originally posted by RahimKI agree with rakhim here, this can even be more effective if you ask a player who has a few 100 points more to join your table because he will probably notice things that both you and your opponent missed 😉
Expert is my goal, 2000+
That's one of the best part of OTB. You can figure out what he was thinking and he knows what you were thinking and you can find out why you lose etc..
PS. Even if you haven't written down the moves you could still try to replay the game, it can be surprisingly easy when you do it right after the game in the company of your opponent.
Originally posted by Positional PlayerI presume you're talking about attacks which go wrong because of good defense?
What about some games that show good defending? The art of defence is a skill very lacking in the average club player. Perhaps one of Karpov's French games?
Check out the morphy vs Carp. game where morphy gave odds of a rook in the beginning. I haven't come across any great games of defense except in art of attack book which I don't have anymore.
I'll see what I can do though.