Chess thread

[wobbly]

Got curious if there were many chess players around. I started playing again & thought it might be interesting to have a thread where people can share games or ramble about openings or anything else etc. etc. Anyway, I'm far from the greatest player but decent (I'm around 1800 FIDE) & played this game at a recent Simil. My opponent's play wasn't the best (something to do with playing 15 games at once I guess) & it isn't the most exciting game, but hey, a win is a win. I'm trying to work out if there's a good way to exploit my odd opening play because on the 1 hand it looks pretty suspicious. On the other hand if he just plays a bunch of normal developing moves we end up transposing into normal theory for the K.I.D. or the King's English & if he tries to punish it & goes wrong, I get a great position.

not me - me
King's Indian Defense

1. c4 c6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nd7 4. Nc3 e5 5. e3 Ngf6 6. d5 cxd5 7. cxd5 g6 8. h4 Bg7 9. Bd3 Nc5 10. Be2 Bf5 11. b4 Nce4 12. Nxe4 Bxe4 13. Bb5+ Nd7 14. h5 Rc8 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Rxh8+ Bxh8 17. Qa4 Bxd5 18. Bb2 a6 19. Bxd7+ Qxd7 20. Qxd7+ Kxd7 21. Rd1 Bxf3 22. gxf3 Ke6 23. Kd2 Bf6 24. Rh1 Rc4 25. a3 Rh4 26. Rxh4 Bxh4 27. Ke2 Kd5 28. f4 exf4 29. exf4 Ke4 30. Bc1 d5 31. Be3 d4 32. f3+ Kd5 33. Resigns

[HugoVirtuoso]

When Fnord was around a year ago, we had some nice chats about chess on angband.live. Maybe you could re-introduce the topic sometime.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by HugoTheGreat2011

When Fnord was around a year ago, we had some nice chats about chess on angband.live. Maybe you could re-introduce the topic sometime.

I don't understand why you left out the person's name.

[judias]

Hi, I also play chess at amateur level, in that game white does several dubiuos moves, e3, d5, h4 and Bd3
e3 has logic to fortify d4 and does not combine well with d5, e4 is a very important point and must be controlled, for this positions a tipical layout is pawns in e4 and d5 bishop in e2 and knigth in f3, if e4 becomes under attack Kd2 defends and begin to transfer it to queen´s side (b3 or c4)

h4 Why? a tempo loss, it would be better to develop another piece

Bd3, it is attacked in the next move and retreat to Be2

So, we can see two move losses and a weakness in e4 in only ten moves

[wobbly]

Hi judias I pretty much agree and I also think b4 was suspect (just 1 weakness too many). It's strange because white's quite a high rated player but he's no longer an active player so maybe he just muddled half remembered systems in his head. Early h4 is normal in some openings but usually its the french/caro-kann structure which is completely different. Here I don't see what its meant to be doing. It's interesting, my only win against a master was a dodgy h4 move too. Must be the fashionable way to lose to weaker players. I might see if I can find that old game. It's pretty amusing to see a WFM hang their queen. It was a real gift.

[Sideways]

Agree with what was said above: d5 and h4 both look suspect, and Bd3 is just bad, it wastes time and loses any hope White had of following up on h4 with a further kingside push.

(At the same time, I can understand the logic behind playing h4: if you are - or think you are - the better player, sometimes you just feel that urge to bash the other guy's face in, especially if the game is not that serious. I doubt White would play h4 in a tournament game against an opponent of equal strength.)

14.Ng5 was a missed tactical possibility that would have made White's position less bad. I'm a bit surprised that White never really tried to complicate, he just died a slow death through his positional weaknesses and missing pawn. Maybe he thought he could miracle-draw the endgame just by being the better player.

Nicely played game from you! I don't think there's any way to really punish your opening play, but any attempt would likely involve 5.e4 instead of 5.e3. I don't think 5.e3 is necessarily bad, but it's not a punish-someone's-opening-play move. (Of course, 5.e4 does transpose into more-played lines, so it's unlikely White can really punish you there either.)

[judias]

e3 is not bad and can be played, it tries to go to a reversed colours french, the king´s indian attack line (1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nc65 .g3 Nf6). It is good played with black with one move less, it will be good with white. But white can not mix different ideas with d5.
There are good lines in different openings with an early h4 (two in caro-kann, two in french I remember now) but as a general rule I avoid every line with an early side pawn move. They are usually very sharp lines where one single suboptimal move means lost game.

Retired australian grand master? I can only think of one person, he played in my chess club like 20 years ago, one game he played shocked me, I still remember the opening (1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.Nc3 e5 6.O-O Nge7 7.a3 d6 8.b4 e4 9.Ng5 f5)

[Sideways]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply 5.e3 was bad, just that it's not the kind of move that wins a game right in the opening.

[DrWho42]

i'm bad at chess but i still play :P

[wobbly]

There's also a Smyslov/Petrosian variation with Bg5 & e3 but I guess he can't get into that position as I haven't played Nf6 yet.

Originally Posted by DrWho42

i'm bad at chess but i still play :P

Nice. Sometimes its good to be bad, easier to find someone else of the same strength.

Originally Posted by Sideways

Nicely played game from you! I don't think there's any way to really punish your opening play, but any attempt would likely involve 5.e4 instead of 5.e3. I don't think 5.e3 is necessarily bad, but it's not a punish-someone's-opening-play move. (Of course, 5.e4 does transpose into more-played lines, so it's unlikely White can really punish you there either.)

Thanks. It's certainly convenient if I can play that order because I hate the English (apologies for my racism), so if I can get to a slav after 1. c4 c6 2. d4 d5 without having to play a Reti after 1. c4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 then I'm happy.

Originally Posted by judias

Retired australian grand master? I can only think of one person, he played in my chess club like 20 years ago, one game he played shocked me, I still remember the opening (1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.Nc3 e5 6.O-O Nge7 7.a3 d6 8.b4 e4 9.Ng5 f5)

Untitled. Former WA champion. There's not a lot of GMs in this country, I see more foreign GMs at Australian tournaments then Australian GMs.

Anyway found that old game I mentioned. How to beat a master - step 1: get lucky & hope they blunder their queen. She quite helpfully puts her bishop on the queen's retreat square. Also 12. h4 for some reason. Never play h4. I was pretty happy to see 5. Nc3 as someone else surprised me with 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Bc4 & I got smashed. Still don't know how to deal with that line properly.

WFM - me
caro-kann (2. c4 line)

1. e4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. cxd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. Qf3 e6 7. Bc4 Nb6 8. Bb5+ N8d7 9. d4 Bd6 10. Nge2 O-O 11. O-O Qc7 12. h4 e5 13. d5 f5 14. Ng3 e4 15. Qh5 Nf6 16. Qg5 Bxg3 17. fxg3 Nbxd5 18. Be2 Be6 19. Bd2 h6 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Qg6 Rf6 22. Qh5 Bf7 23. Rfc1 Qb6+ 24. Resigns

Edit: That line you gave actually looks like the reverse of a closed Sicilian except for the pawn being on c5. You know: 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 & push all the king pawns like a barbarian.