Around 1700 rating, I face a lot of king’s gambit opening (1.e4 e5 2.f4). I haven’t set time to study this opening, so when I face it, I just wing it, without really understand its goal and so I found myself many times with a lack of space and underdeveloped, struggling to find counterplay.
Game
Master’s games top response to 3.Nf3 from chess.com
and from Wikipedia: Joe Gallagher writes that 3.Nf3 Nc6 “has never really caught on, probably because it does nothing to address Black’s immediate problems.”
Points to take 1. Better understanding and a new response to king’s gambit is required. (This post helped me with that) 2. Make exchanges wisely, piece activity and positional aspects are sometimes more important then winning an exchange.
Opening – Sicilian defense (french variation) 1. After 7. .. 0-0 I missed the attack d5. At that point, I wanted to allow a king-side castle to avoid queen pinning, now that Re8 is available. 2 better options would have been e5 and Bd3 with protection on the pawns no the c and e files. 2. Instead of 11. Qb3 a better defense would have been Nd4. After 11. Qb3 dxe4 with a tempo on the knight on f3 and the bishop on e2.
Middle game 1. 13. 0-0 was an optimistic move. I hoped there will be no queen exchange since I felt I’m less developed. Eventually, this created a double pawn toward the endgame, which was critical. 2. Obviously, blundering the knight on 21. Ne4 didn’t help.
Points to take 1. Look for attacks in defensive situations 2. Dont be optimistic on evaluation
Opening 1. When looking at computer analysis and players’ history, 5. ..Qf6 is the most common move, so I will move to that. This adds pressure d4 and prevents tempo if Nxc3. Also, the queen can go to g6 and after white’s kingside castle, d5 followed by Bh3 attack on g2. See the optional flow above. 2. 7. ..Nf6 is just a waste of time since 8. e5 will force the knight back.
Middle game 1. 20. .. Kf8 is a big mistake that happened because of a lack of calculations. I am already a big time difference here, so it got an effect on me. 2. After 25. Qg7, I missed a free pawn Bxd5 3. And after 41. Kf3, I missed Rxh1 when I only had 20 seconds left vs 1:51 for my opponent. The decision took 1 second. Eventually, I lost because of “time blunders”
Points to take 1. Improve my calculation, even on time pressure 2. A better way to play the scotch.
From now on, instead of using the chess.com engine, I will work with stockfish, komodo, and deep fritz inside ChessBase. This will be more accurate and allow better analysis.
Opening 1. Whenever white plays 4.Nc3 after 3.Bc4 it allows 4.. Nxb4 and after usually 5. Nxe4 d5 and a fork, so good for me. The correct flow from white should be 6.Bd3 dxe4 7. Bxe4 and position is equal computer wise. However, I like it since it improves the black’s center and gains tempo, and it’s what my coach says :). Here white made a mistake. 2. 7. .. Ke8 is a problem according to all engines. I think that it keeps the king in the center and allows future pinning by Qe2. 3. 9. ..e4 and 10 .. dxe4 were a big mistake, where I missed 11. Nxe4.
Middle game 1. 17. ..Qf6 and 18. ..Qd8 were both blunders. Nc7 just waiting to happen. 2. On 30. Bb2 I missed tactics of 30. .. Qd2. If 31. Qxd2 Rxd2 and threat on mate in Rd1 with bishop hanging on b2 and black is winning. I can relate this mistake to time pressure. I had 1:20 vs 5:24 for my opponent and I made the move in 7.5 seconds. 3. On 32. .. Qh6 white missed 33. Re7
Endgame Eventually, I was under time pressure and my opponent wasn’t so I did many more mistakes and lost on time, even though I would have lost anyway.
Points to take 1. Remember Kf8 at the opening to avoid pinning, 2. Better calculations to maintain an advantage 3. Tactics and calculations need much more improvement, especially on time pressure.
Mistakes 1. 14. Nb5. In this phase, there is a threat fxe4 with fork losing a piece. I am offering to sac a knight and then mate in 3 (Qa3+, Qa7+, Qa3#). I didnt calculate what happens if my opponent will not take the byte, which obviously happend. 2. After that, I had another miss calculation hoping cxd6 followed by Qb6 (which happened), but I missed Nc8 to disolve the attack.
Points to take 1. Try to evaluate objectively as possible and dont rely on opponent to make mistakes. 2. Improve my calculations
Opening 1. Didnt need to wait to 11.d4, 10.d4 would have been ok as well, since I have bishop on c2. This was an auto-play that usually protects e4 pawn.
Middle game 1. 17. dxc6 is a mistake. No need to allow Nxc6 with a tempo. Instead I should have waited to cxd5, exd5. 2. 28.Nxe7+ is a BIG mistake and Im losing advantage I had from 26.. Nd4 mistake. My though was that I need to have check in order to prevent 28.. Nxd1 but I missed that I can threat the queen and gain the same tempo. So I missed taking higher ranked piece. 3. At the end, 35. Qc5 was a blunder. I didnt calculate the exchange and the fact that there will be no pawn of f2 for easy promotion by black.
Points to take 1. Need to improve my calculations and visualisation. 2. Timing: Second mistakehappened after 5 seconds, so no calculations whatsoever and third mistake happened after 30 seconds which were misused.
Opening 1. I am not that familiar with this opening, so I do not have a clear image of how should a final result of this opening looks in a way that I will be comfortable with. I was just winging it and it seemed to be ok at first. 2. I have missed the tactics of 7 Bxf7+. Having unprotected piece requires being extra careful. 3. 8..g6 is a problem since it totally messes the structure of pawns protecting the king, and since white still have light square bishop, this is a very big weakness.
General Once black king was out of his safe place, I should have put him back to safety fast (Kd7), this was the only way to keep playing.
Points to take 1. Create my ideal position in common openings, not necessarily the accurate move order, but the final system I want to get. 2. Maintain king in safe place 3. Pay more attention to check sacrifices when I have hanging pieces on the board.
Opening 1. According to chess.com analysis, instead of 6. ..b6 should be Bd6. My assumption is that it advance a piece and prepare faster castle. If 7.Ne5 Qc7. Open question here, who needs dark squares bishop more here, black or white? 2. 11..f5 is ok, but h6 is better, probably since it doesn’t harm pawn structure around the king. Position after 11 is favours white. Pawn structure is about the same but in space and pieces activity, white has an advantage. Also black king has castled, but in a risky place, where either pawn storm or white minor pieces can easily strike.
Middle game 1. 15..Bxe5 is not good, since it activates the knight further. A better tactics would be 15..Ng4 and force bishop trade on better conditions. 2. 17..Nd4?? blunder 🙁 The original idea was to cut the connection between queen and bishop, but even if 17. Re1 for example, the pawn on e5 can be easily pinned, so nothing good can come out of this. I took 20 seconds for this move and didn’t notice the pin.
General On early stages, white controls strong diagonal and has more space on king side. In such cases, when Queen on c2 and there are many white pieces on king side, maybe castling long is preferred.
Points to take 1. Better accuracy in the opening. 2. Improve piece activity 3. Adjust castling side to the action 4. Stop blunder pieces
Last week I was on a losing streak. After achieving 1834 in rapid game in chess.com, I started losing games and my confidence.
This blog is part of my resolution to spend more time analysing my games in order to get better. I will upload games as much as I can, hopefully to get your feedback.
