Queen Alice Internet Chess Club - Play free turn based Correspondence Chess in your web browser!

Topic: Anotated Games

Author

Message

anyone4chess

Here are a few games I finished recently the ratings dont mean much just the notes may help some players. Comments are always welcome. Also the notes are as written while playing the games. This was written a few years ago, I always annotate my games for instruction, this is a habit I started when I used to teach and I can't seem to stop it...grin. 08/19/06 - Barry

1) JMaeris 2204 - Barry 1624

[Barry]

1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 The Caro Kann. If you study this line you might be tempted to take the pawn with 3...dxe4 because it looks familiar. However, it is not the same as in the main line Caro Kann and white hopes to get an advantage with that exchange.

3.Nf3 Bg4 4.d4 e6 5.h3 Bxf3 Actually 5... Bh5 is more accurate ... however, when I used to teach, I would recommend that students save time on study (if they had no interest in studying) and choose a line that would be easy to remember.

6.Qxf3 dxe4 7.Nxe4 Normally taking the d pawn in the Caro Kann invites problems with Nf3 and an attack with both knights on f7. However, in this case one knight is off the board and the win of a center pawn is worth some development problems if you can make it out of the opening without getting crushed...<<Grin>>

7...Qxd4 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.Be3 Qb4+ Maybe a good game for students to review the issue of development or in this case lack of development. By offering me the b-pawn white is saying, "Ok, you want pawns, let's see if you can make it out of the opening." After white castles you could consider that he has developed 5 pieces to my two. However, in the Caro Kann, if you're very very careful you can live to fight. Students should remember the knight moves in a varation of the Caro Kann that appears to break opening principles. Dreev (2690) tried 9...Qd5 and did well but I want to try something different.

10.Bd2 Qxb2 A good example of being commited to a line of play, if you feel you don't like this type of play (un-developed) then don't take the pawn on d4. It is like when you start an attack if you don't see it to the end or chicken out at the last moment your game falls apart. You must ask yourself these questions, can black catch up in development yes or no? and if yes what would his short term and long term plans be? You may have heard or been taught not to take the b-pawn with your Queen and this is good advice. How many so called rules have I broken in this game and will I pay for my errors? Only time will tell.

11.0-0 Ne5 If you play caro kann or slav pawn structures you must understand why black might be drawn to this type of line even though it is still unproven. Black is undeveloped, white has no strong center and black is using the e5 square that is normally used by white. It is almost like black has decided to use white's tactics in this opening and defense.

12.Qg3 Nxd3 13.cxd3 Nf6 You could probally find a better move than ...Nf6 however, for my style of game this appears to be the most logical choice.

14.Bc3 Nxe4 15.dxe4 Qa3 16.Rab1 0-0-0 So here we are on move 16 and you could say black has made it out of the opening a little behind in development. I judge the position as equal. You might ask, black is two pawns up how can you say the position is equal? The issue is black is behind in development, to put it another way white has an advantage in time, black has an advantge in material. 16...0-0-0, if you look at the position, what else is there? I guess you could try ...b6 but that only creates a target at c6.

17.Qf3 Bc5 To be honest I never considered the move 17.Qf3; however, the move has some good points, it gets the queen off the g file and attacks the f7 pawn. It also indirectly hits on b7 (theory of squares) . Review my last comments (on move 16)and you will understand why I played bishop to c5.

18.Rb3 Qxa2 19.Bxg7 Rhg8 Black knew he was going to have to give back some material to catch up in development (time).

20.Rb2 Qa6 As I said in my comments earlier b7 is a target that must be watched. Just for interest white may have considered the f-pawn and wisely rejected that idea. This is an interesting time to explain how you can spot moves quickly using the theory of squares as a quide. I mentioned b7 in my comments, why to I consider b7 an issue, well if you look at the board quicky you will notice that b7 is being attacked directly by the rook on b2 and indirectly by the queen on f3. This information is enough to warrant a close look at this square. I also mentioned the f-pawn would be a bad choice for white and using the same theory you see that black attacks d4 directly with the bishop on c5 and directly with the rook on d8. Using this information which took about 3 seconds to find or notice gives you valuable information about what is happening on the board.

21.Qxf7 Rxg7 Read my comments on move 20 as to why I feel this capture is wrong. I like this game because it is different in the sense that black used a lot of ideas normally used by white to take control of this game. White was not allowed to setup an attack and with every exchange blacks game became better and better or should I say safer and safer (for black). I was online commenting on a Kasparov win today (while it was being played) and was the only one to see c5 was the key square for his game and moves like Ne1 and then Nd3 to cover off c5 were the key moves in that game. (theory of squares). 0-1

(2) tonyalme 1879 - Barry 1633 [D15]

[Barry]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 One of the gambit lines in the Slav. White hopes to form a strong center and hopes that his fast development will outweigh the disadvantage of being down one pawn.

6.a3 Bg4 Not sure about a3? a4 or e5 is more common here. Normally the bishop will stay back in these lines; however, if you are giving the chance to play this standard type of move with no risk why not take the opportunity.

7.Be2 e6 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 Be7 10.d5 e5 The idea of this move was to lock in the white squared bishop so that I dont have to worry about my rook on a8 because it may have to stay there for awhile.

11.0-0 0-0 A little bit off beat but the moves are easy to find for black.

12.Bg5 a6 13.Bxf6 It would appear white has similar ideas about locking in my dark squared bishop.

13...Bxf6 14.d6 Creating a passed pawn is always a nice thing however, this may have been too soon.

14...Ra7 A move you should be familiar with made famous by an Englishman..<<grin>> This may or may not be the best move; however, it is so common in the slav that the idea is almost payable at any time.

15.Bg4 g6 This move allows a little more freedom for the bishop and provides a stronger fortress on the kingside when and if a wall of pawns decides to invade the kingside.

16.a4 This move could have been played on move 6. If the idea was to prevent Bb4 and now the idea is to break up the queenside it doesn't make sense at this time.

16...h5 17.Bxh5 gxh5 ...b4 was considered here as well; however, I felt the win of the piece for two pawns to be the best move at the time.

18.axb5 cxb5 19.Nxb5 This move was expected or this type of move, back on move 14.

19...Rd7 20.Nc3 Rxd6 ...h4 might have been more accurate.

21.Qxh5 Bg5 The idea behind this move is simple, it clears the 6th rank to allow pieces to move across to the kingside.

22.Nd5 Kg7 Without giving too much away (since I am annotating while I am playing) I was drawn to g7 because it helps support f6 which appears to be supported by 3 pieces aready. Also I have never liked my king on squares that allow knights to check even if the check is not possible at this time.

23.Rfd1 Rh8 Two moves to consider here were 23...Nbd7 and 23...Rfh8. 23...Nbd7 helps control f6 again and is playable. 23...Rfh8 helps support the square h6 for the forth time and adds a little more force because the queen must move. The rook move also allows the knight to move to c6 at some point with the idea of supporting d4 square for the fourth time and tactical ideas.

24.Qe2 Qc8 The position is starting to get a bit complicated and I looked at several canditate moves; however, the striaght forward move ...Qc8 protecting the attacked pawn seemed to be the best move with little risk. There are better moves I believe, example: ...Rh4 or even ...a5 but they seem to give white the best chance to mix things up and create some problems for black. I need to get some pieces off the board so that I feel a little safer.

25.Ra4 Rdh6 To tell you the truth I was going to play 25... Rc6 without much thought; however, at the last moment I spotted something.

26.Qf3 Nc6 27.Rxc4 Qe6 28.Qg3 Rg6 29.Qd3 a5 30.Nc7 Qe7 31.Nd5 Qb7 32.Qc3 Nd4 33.Kh2 Rh4 34.f3 Qd7 35.Rf1 Rhh6 36.f4 Bh4 White is doing everything he should to keep the game complicated and black keeps hoping white will take the bait..(in my dreams at this level of play but one must always try...grin).

37.f5 Rg4 38.f6+ Kh7 Black has 2 main choices out of 5 possible moves. ...Kh7 or ...Kg6 however, if you review some of my earlier comments you would understand why I did not choose ...Kg6.

39.Rc7 Qe8 40.Rb7 Qg8 41.hxg4 Bg5+ 0-1

Actually I don't remember finishing this game but it was posted online (another online chess system) as a win for me....old age must be catching up to me....grin

razoman

You have beaten the best of 2 sites. You must be good. But the annotations are great!

sakhan

I have put his first stated game in more readable form.

1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 The Caro Kann. If you study this line you might be tempted to take the pawn with 3... dxe4 because it looks familiar. However, it is not the same as in the main line Caro Kann and white hopes to get an advantage with that exchange.

3. Nf3 Bg4 4. d4 e6 5. h3 Bxf3 Actually 5... Bh5 is more accurate ... however, when I used to teach, I would recommend that students save time on study ( if they had no interest in studying ) and choose a line that would be easy to remember.

6. Qxf3 dxe4 7. Nxe4 Normally taking the d pawn in the Caro Kann invites problems with Nf3 and an attack with both knights on 7. However, in this case one knight is off the board and the win of a center pawn is worth some development problems if you can make it out of the opening without getting crushed...<>

7... Qxd4 8. Bd3 Nd7 9. Be3 Qb4+ Maybe a good game for students to review the issue of development or in this case lack of development. By offering me the b-pawn white is saying, "Ok, you want pawns, let's see if you can make it out of the opening." After white castles you could consider that he has developed 5 pieces to my two. However, in the Caro Kann, if you're very very careful you can live to fight. Students should remember the knight moves in a varation of the Caro Kann that appears to break opening principles. Dreev ( 2690 ) tried 9... Qd5 and did well but I want to try something different.

10. Bd2 Qxb2 A good example of being commited to a line of play, if you feel you don't like this type of play ( un-developed ) then don't take the pawn on 4. It is like when you start an attack if you don't see it to the end or chicken out at the last moment your game falls apart. You must ask yourself these questions, can black catch up in development yes or no? and if yes what would his short term and long term plans be? You may have heard or been taught not to take the b-pawn with your Queen and this is good advice. How many so called rules have I broken in this game and will I pay for my errors? Only time will tell.

11. 0-0 Ne5 If you play caro kann or slav pawn structures you must understand why black might be drawn to this type of line even though it is still unproven. Black is undeveloped, white has no strong center and black is using the e5 square that is normally used by white. It is almost like black has decided to use white's tactics in this opening and defense.

12. Qg3 Nxd3 13. cxd3 Nf6 You could probally find a better move than ...Nf6 however, for my style of game this appears to be the most logical choice.

14. Bc3 Nxe4 15. dxe4 Qa3 16. Rab1 0-0-0 So here we are on move 16 and you could say black has made it out of the opening a little behind in development. I judge the position as equal. You might ask, black is two pawns up how can you say the position is equal? The issue is black is behind in development, to put it another way white has an advantage in time, black has an advantge in material. 16... 0-0-0, if you look at the position, what else is there? I guess you could try ...b6 but that only creates a target at 6.

17. Qf3 Bc5 To be honest I never considered the move 17. Qf3; however, the move has some good points, it gets the queen off the g file and attacks the f7 pawn. It also indirectly hits on b7 ( theory of squares ) . Review my last comments ( on move 16 ) and you will understand why I played bishop to 5.

18. Rb3 Qxa2 19. Bxg7 Rhg8 Black knew he was going to have to give back some material to catch up in development ( time ) .

20. Rb2 Qa6 As I said in my comments earlier b7 is a target that must be watched. Just for interest white may have considered the f-pawn and wisely rejected that idea. This is an interesting time to explain how you can spot moves quickly using the theory of squares as a quide. I mentioned b7 in my comments, why to I consider b7 an issue, well if you look at the board quicky you will notice that b7 is being attacked directly by the rook on b2 and indirectly by the queen on 3. This information is enough to warrant a close look at this square. I also mentioned the f-pawn would be a bad choice for white and using the same theory you see that black attacks d4 directly with the bishop on c5 and directly with the rook on 8. Using this information which took about 3 seconds to find or notice gives you valuable information about what is happening on the board.

21. Qxf7 Rxg7 Read my comments on move 20 as to why I feel this capture is wrong. I like this game because it is different in the sense that black used a lot of ideas normally used by white to take control of this game. White was not allowed to setup an attack and with every exchange blacks game became better and better or should I say safer and safer ( for black ) . I was online commenting on a Kasparov win today ( while it was being played ) and was the only one to see c5 was the key square for his game and moves like Ne1 and then Nd3 to cover off c5 were the key moves in that game. ( theory of squares ) . 0-1