Wide Open King

Taken from one of my recent correspondence games - white is down a pawn, but very obviously winning. The game concluded with:


24. Qh2 f6
25. Ne6!! Resigns since black must lose at least a piece to avoid mate.

However, there is a much simpler way to finish the game. I had calculated it out before, but didn't write it down anywhere, so when it came time to make my move days later, I had forgotten all about it!

Solution:
24. Rh8+!! Bxh8 (If ...Kxh8 then 25. Qh2+ and mate via Qh7#)
25. Ne6+! Bg7 (If ...Kh7 we have the same Qh2+ mating idea)
26. Rxg7+ Kh8
27. Qh2+ Qh4
28. Qxh4#

What Actually Happened

This is the position from the previous post which we discussed. The ideas suggested were an eventual h4-g5 push to open the black king and the other was b3 to increase the stranglehold on the queenside.

Here is what I played:

27. Nxd6 Bxd6
28. Rxd6 Qxa4
29. g5 hxg5
30. Bxg5 Qxa5
31. Rxf6 gxf6
32. Bxf6 Qc5
33. Rd4 exd4
34. Qh4 dxc3+
35. Kh1 Black Resigns

There are some mistakes in here, but it sure looks pretty. Thoughts?

Position to Discuss

Hi readers, this time I thought I would try to do something more discussion-based. I am going to post a position from one of my recent games and we will (hopefully) have a discussion on what white can do.

There are a few options for white in this position, so there should be plenty to discuss. White is visually winning, so I would like the discussion to be more based around how white should continue to press the advantage. Once we have discussed for a while I will post what happened in the game (I think you'll enjoy the finish).

Here is the position for white's 27th move after 26. ...Qc6-d7.


Don't feel like you have to look for tactics or any deep positional ideas, just share your thoughts about the position and some potential ideas.

I'll even go first - I like the white pieces a lot more than the black pieces here. The black pieces are pretty tied down and aren't very active, while white's pieces are attacking and (mostly) well-placed.

Ending with a flourish

I have a couple positions for you to look at from some of my recent games. The first position I will give the answer to, but the second one I will wait a few days before posting the answer. Try your best to solve both!

Position 1 - Difficulty: 2/10, white to move:


Answer will be posted in a comment.

Position 2 - Difficulty: 9/10, black to move:


The answer to this one is much more involved than the previous one. As such, I will give you a few days to work through it before I post the answer.

**EDIT** The answer to position 2 follows.

1. ...Bg4!!
Deep, precise, and devastating. The white queen has no squares.
2. hxg4 hxg4!
3. f5
Only way for white to keep playing on. This is where it is easy to get stuck since it is hard to find the follow-up.
3. ...Qh7!
This is actually the hard part.
4. Qf4
In the game, white played Qe4?? and then tipped the king over.
4. ...Rh8!
Here it is very difficult to find a move for white. I personally think that the best try for white is 5. Rff1!? making black earn it, but black should still be winning. Any differing opinions or comments?

Getting back into it

I've been ultra-busy at work and with life in general the last couple months and more or less stopped playing chess completely. However, I've logged in to ICC a few times and registered for a couple Chess.com tournaments, so I'll be getting back into playing shortly. Wanted to play in the Chicago Open this year, but I would be so ill-prepared that it wouldn't be worth it.

I am hoping to test the waters in the next couple weeks and see if I am still relatively competent at this game. After all, that expert rating won't achieve itself.

Hopefully this also means that I will start posting here with a greater frequency, though it likely won't be as many videos as before (it takes about 4 hours to make and post a 10 minute video).

As always, let me know if there is anything you want to see.

Generic Title for Post

Its kind of funny how life gets in the way sometimes and certain things drop substantially on the priorities list. Making videos for this blog has been like that lately. I haven't forgotten about it, just haven't really had the drive to make them.

Anyway, I'm going to force myself to post a video by the end of this week. Until then, I will post a simple puzzle from one of my other games.

White to move:

The answer is (highlight the area after the colon to see the answer): Rxf6! then if gxf6 Qh6 will force mate. If anything else, just move the rook and white is a piece and pawn up.

What's this? I still know this blog exists?

I know, I know. It has been more than two months since my last post. I haven't really been playing very much while adjusting to my new job and life in Madison.

I've played in two tournaments since moving in September. The first tournament I tied for 3rd with 3.5/5.0 (+3 =1 -1) and one game that I will probably make a video out of [Theme: Gradual build-up of an attack]. The second tournament I tied for first (1st on tiebreaks!) and went 4.0/5.0 (+4 -1) with one game that I will make a video out of [Theme: Exploitation of pins, notable opponent].

I am hoping to be motivated enough this week to try and make one, if not both, of these videos.

As always, I welcome any input. As per a reader request I am going to try to put subtitles in my videos from now on. If there is one video of these two you would rather see, send me an email or comment on this post and if one is more popular then I will make it first.


**EDIT** Figuring out how to do subtitles without obscuring the board is proving difficult, so look for an ETA on a video for Monday.

Video: Viewer Submission: Pins Galore

The following game was submitted by Mathew Jacob and is a great example of pins, pins, and more pins. Some threatened, some actual, all of them scary.

Slight Delay

So, I went out with some friends after work and stayed later than I intended to, so I am pushing back my post to tomorrow night. I know you are all just dying because I didn't post tonight, but don't despair, it will just be that much more special when I post tomorrow.

The Adventure Continues, Video: Laugher/Fundamentals

So I decided to post a game of decidedly lower quality this time. Partially just so I post something and partially because it illustrates fundamentals pretty well. As I state in the video, I am going to start to check out some of the clubs in the area this week, so hopefully I can find one to regularly attend. I might post another video later in the week, a good game that ends after an abrupt error. As always, I welcome any comments and suggestions.

Enjoy the Archives, 'Like' the blog

I know I need to be posting materials, but what with moving and all I have a rather major hurdle to this: I don't have Internet in my apartment yet. So I will take this time to plug the Archive, located on the right side of the blog a few tabs down. From there you have access to every post I have ever made on this blog. I recommend looking at some of the earlier posts so you can see just how far I've come as a blogger.

Those of you with a facebook account, I would appreciate if you could take 5 seconds to 'Like' the blog if you enjoy the posts I make here.

Hoping to have Internet in the next 2 weeks, so until then I am forced back to the stone age of pictures and text commentary, or random posts like this one. Now would also be a good time to make suggestions, as I have little else to do with my blog until getting my own apartment Internet access.

Quick Post

Thought I would post a humorous position from my night game last night. It was a fitting end to a very long day of tough chess. White to move.


Things look bleak at first glance, however white can not only easily draw this, but he can do it with style. I played:

1. Rb6+! Kg7 2. Rg6+!! draw

The game is drawn because any capture on g6 results in stalemate. If the king moves, I can either keep putting my rook next to him giving checks or just take on g5 and have a very easy draw.

Imagination at its finest. Two more games today in the Iowa Open, then moving Monday and working Tuesday.

Huzzah!

Monday I got a job offer, so I am hurriedly making preparations to move to Wisconsin for my September 7th start date. On the plus side, I will start posting to here with chess things again in a few days.

Life Update

This has absolutely nothing to do with chess, but everything to do with this blog.

I'm part of the extremely unfortunate generation of recent college graduates who have to compete for entry level jobs against not only others like me, but also people who have years of experience that have been laid off in this economic climate. As such, I'm currently in month 8 of my job hunt, with no luck whatsoever. Needless to say, I'm pretty stressed out about it, and its seeping in to other aspects of my life, such as my chess.

To get to the point of this, I am not going to be making any more chess-related posts until I am employed.

Video: Psychological Play

So here we are again, with another new video. This game is not of particularly high quality, but it was more an experiment in psychology than an attempt to have a superb game. Also, I do not condone playing like I did in this game if you are playing seriously. This game took place during a lesson, so it is entirely for educational purposes. Something along the lines of the concept of a 'teaching game' in Go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the game and are able to draw something from it.

Vs. J. Zhang: Queens and Pawns and Diagonals, Oh My!

I did moderately well at the Iowa City Open, with 3.0/4.0. My horrible lack of sleep the night before made things difficult, luckily all four games were pretty straightforward. It also helped that the tournament was only about two blocks from where I live, so I got to go home and rest between rounds. In the third round, I played Jiahua Zhang, a young player who in early 2009 I told Hank Anzis was going to be a strong player sometime in the next few years. Here it is a year and a half later, over 600 points later for Jiahua, and him coming off a nice draw against an expert, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The opening and middlegame of this game were nearly nonexistent. It felt like it just went 1. e4 c5 2. Rxe8+ and endgame. Because of this, there was obviously no room for a flashy attack. So I just did what I always do when I'm playing a dangerous young player, I just out-endgame them. For all my flashy attacks, I actually think my chances are better in any given ending than any given middlegame. Don't get discouraged by this video being about endgames, I still try to keep it interesting by adding in lots of pretty colors. Enjoy and share your thoughts in the comments!

Video: Against Steiner: How do you reach these positions, you maniac?

Finally I have returned to making video posts. I had a rather successful North American Open in Stillwater, OK. I scored a solid 6.0/10.0. Yes, that's right, out of 10 rounds. With 3 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss, and 2 byes, I felt like I played pretty well. Of my games, I believe this one to be the most entertaining, played against expert Tim Steiner in round 7. Since when I made this video, it was over 20 minutes, I chopped off most of the opening, since it was just a ...Bd6 Evans Gambit. That cut it down to 16 minutes of listening to me drone on. If you want a pgn of the game in its entirety with my notes, email me and I will send you a copy.

Upcoming videos

Hi everyone who still occasionally check this! I've been gone a while continuing unsuccessfully to find a job. I've also been working through some personal problems as of late. Hopefully the job situation improves since I am close to having to start repayments on my student loans, but at least the personal problems are all done with for now. That means I can get back to making the super-duper-mega-high-quality videos that you have come to love. I played in the North American Open in Stillwater, Oklahoma over this past weekend and had several games worth making videos out of, so you should be seeing some more activity from me quite soon. I plan on having the first video up sometime tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon my time, so until then you will just have to settle for this text post.

Vs Tyagi: Light Square Attack

As the poll said, you wanted middlegame ideas, so I chose a game in which the weakness of a certain color of square makes a large difference in the outcome of the game. Enjoy!

Maybe in a day or so?

Sorry everybody. I have the next game ready for video, but I have not been feeling well enough to actually record it. For now, I will post the game in pgn form (for some reason you can't embed files on Blogger) and you can save the text as a pgn and view it if you would like. Once I get feeling a bit better I will turn it into a video post for those of you that are lazy or don't have a pgn viewer. What is below is more or less what I will say in the video, so if you want a sneak preview of it then you can go through what is below.

[Event "Cedar Rapids Leatherjackets"]
[Site "Cedar Rapids"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tyagi"]
[Black "Madison"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A40"]
[Annotator ",Jeremy"]
[PlyCount "36"]

{Annotated by Jeremy!} 1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 f5 4. g3 Bb7 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bg2
Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 {This is where we leave my database, although I am sure ..
.d6 has been played before.} d6 9. Bb2 ({The main alternative is:} 9. d5 e5 {
The e6 square is where the entire game revolves.} 10. Ng5 Bc8 11. Ne6 Bxe6 {
Black has to be careful not to lose this exchange with the light squared
bishops off the board.} 12. dxe6 c6 {Will this pawn mean victory or defeat?})
9... Nbd7 $2 {Sometimes development is wrong.} (9... d5 {
Immediately was much stronger.}) 10. Nd2 $2 (10. Ng5 {Outright wins a pawn.}
Bxg2 11. Kxg2) 10... Bxg2 11. Kxg2 d5 {Now the fight is being taken to white.}
12. e3 {This light square complex is a lot weaker without the light squared
bishops on the board, which is why black was more than happy to trade them off.
The difference is that the light squared weakness in black's position are in
an area that cannot be exploited anytime soon. White's light square weaknesses
are right around the king, where several black pieces can immediately attack
them.} c6 {
Indirectly supports the attack by tightening the grip on the light squares.}
13. Nf3 {Eyeing e5, but this game is about light squares.} Bd6 {"Defends" the
e5 square, but more importantly is aiming at the pawns in front of the enemy
king.} 14. Qc2 {An attempt at fighting for e4, but this needed to be done
earlier with the Knight on d2, so that f3 and e4 could be tried.} Ne4 {
Now there is just not enough time for white to get in all of the moves they
want. Black has an advantage no matter how you slice it.} 15. Nd2 {
f3 is the obvious followup, so what should black do?} Qg5 {Trying to get the
knee-jerk f4 played, when there are more permanent weaknesses around the white
king. This also sets a most devious trap on f3.} 16. f3 (16. f4 Qg6 {The idea i
s to throw the h-pawn to break up the pawns in front of the white king. If
Rook support is needed on the h-file, Kf7 is perfectly safe to play followed
by doubling on the h-file.}) 16... Nxg3 {Black is completely won now. White's
only option for continuing the game is to move the f1 rook and just hope.} 17.
f4 (17. hxg3 Qxg3+ 18. Kh1 Qh2#) (17. Rfe1 Ne4+ 18. Kf1 Nxc3 19. Qxc3 Bxh2 {
With a winning edge for black.}) 17... Nxf1+ {
But that's just losing for black right?} 18. fxg5 Nxe3+ {Black has seen one
move more than white, and that is the cause of this win for black. Notice that
black did not really have a particularly clear plan until the exchange of
light squared bishops, when the plan of light squared play became simple to
find. These are the kinds of things to look for in your own games. Slight
differences can radically change the correct ideas.} 0-1