lichess.org
Donate

What to learn from a high rated player.

I really liked the first moves of your opening, you perfectly took advantage of the little-ambitious moves that your opponent played by invading the center.

The first move I don't like is 7... dxe4, I don't understand why you allowed him to break your center like that. It's true that he was putting a lot of pressure on your d pawn but I think that d5 would have been a great choice here, because the potentially weak d5 square would have been very well protected by your pieces, so I don't think that was a big deal.

Then, at move 10 you missed a great opportunity to improve drastically you c6 knight : the computer says that the best continuation for you was Bxf3, and after he recaptures 11... Nd4 offered you the perfect place for your knight, attacking the bishop on f3 and the pawn on c2. You should always try to find the best possible squares for your pieces, and create plans to put them where you want. But I agree that it's much easier said than done :)

12... Bxe4 is of course a really bad mistake, you were probably not concentrated enough. It happens to everybody. You probably need to do the "blunder check" : each time you make a move, try to guess what is your opponent going to answer to your move, and check if there are any tactics you're missing (pins, checks on your king, in-between moves, discovered attacks, unprotected pieces...)

Finally, 18... f6 was also bad but your position was already lost, so I don't think it's such a big deal. But don't forget that moving a pawn ALWAYS creates a weakness, because the squares protected by this pawn are freed once he moves forward. Don't forget to look if your opponent can take advantage of that !

I hope that it helps, even if I'm not the best player :)
"I think that d5 would have been a great choice here"

I meant d4 sorry
I'm really only going to mention the opening play since the blunder very quickly sent the game downhill. It's important that everyone sees that this opening is simply a King's Indian Reversed structure.

Both sides played standard moves and you did a good job keeping up with d5 and e5 to establish a big center. h6 is probably not the most accurate since you're already a tempo behind compared to the normal King's Indian (where h3 by white is uncommon still) but it's playable. The first opening mistake was dxe4, where you concede your center and open the position with your king still in the center. dxe4 is playable if white hadn't put his knight on c3 (this would result in a symmetrical structure where you would fight for more queenside space and he would fight for control of d5), but in this case his pieces are well developed so you lose any advantage you had. Better was d4! staying true to the mainline King's Indian. The blunder was unfortunate, but the nice thing about tactics and blunders is that they are very quickly fixed - the harder thing to study is the strategy and positional concepts in the opening and middlegame.
9. ...Bg4 is actually a strong move, but only if you take the knight. The point is to strengthen your control over d4 and also weaken his pressure on e5. After Bxf3 your knight can jump to d4, where eventually he'll have to play c3, when we transpose into another KID line with inaccuracies from both sides. The point is, if White hadn't played h3 (an inaccuracy) then he could get to this structure with an extra move or two compared to normal. This also reveals why your earlier dxe4 was inaccurate.

When you move your pawns, keep in mind how your bishops (and other pieces) will feel compared to their bishops and other pieces. In this case White owned an uncontested light squared bishop and you made its job a lot easier with f6. And above all keep in mind your king safety. For starters this will help you push pawns with greater purpose and clarity.
Thank you everybody. It is amazing to find such a great feedback from all of you. I am sure my play would improve very much with comments like this and one day I can challenge you guys to a match.

Thank you again everybody! :D
One last thing... seek playing an abundance of rated games with higher rated opponents. You can learn from how they handle the situation in practice. Also, make sure those games allow enough time for proper thinking.
I'm with #16 - play us now! You'll probably lose but you may learn something...!
Haha, Lol. Thx for analysing my game! Like I said, I'm waiting for an invite.
Maxami..you mean at a later time right? Now I can't challenge you because I am < 500 ratings than you. :)

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.