Friday, July 13, 2007

Fixing the Leaky boat.

In reflecting over the self analysis of my games at the World open, I’ve benn making myself more aware of the 4 major areas where I seem to have leaks in my vessel. The four areas are:

1) Forcing Tactics that are not there
2) Getting too fancy in the opening
3) Not knowing the opening
4) Not reading the position correctly

On item 2 and 3, I hear other knights following the suggestion of Dan Heisman to look in the book at the point I went astray. I have been doing that. What I was doing at the World was trying to come up with my own novelty like I was some GM or something rather than stick with the plan. I think I am cured of that ailment. As for new openings I still need to familiarize myself with things like how to play against the Pirc, and odd variations of the Caro-Kann. I am working a new database for these.

As for item 4, this will come slowly over time as I practice going over and analyzing more master-level games. I can understand that one. Its item 1 that rears its ugly head and pours water into my boat more often than not. Here is a position I reached with a 1700 player at the club on Tuesday where I had white and played the Smith-Morra ( or as I call it for myself.. Smith-Moron) :



It is white to move and I couldn’t help myself with the beauty of this setup. Take my rook, Please. I wanted to move that Bishop so I push 32.h4. What followed was his push 32..f5. So I played 33. Qd1 Bxc1 34 Qxc1 Rd8 35 Qxh6+ Kg8 36. Qe6+ Kh8 and I offered a draw which my opponent graciously accepted and a BIG sigh of relief. I should have made my rook safe instead of h4 but I was bold and didn’t see the f5 push.

That hole is a big one to patch.

-BP

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Black has a check to look at, too. 32. h4 Qh1+ 33. Ke2 Qxc1 34. hxg5 Qxg5.

- Steve

BlunderProne said...

Actually, I am lazy and i don't have the score sheet in front of me. I had the King over on g1 not f1... I fixed the post.

I alos recall I had the a and b pawns moved too but that didn't change the dynamics of this position. The rest was from memory and seems to be relatively accurate.

so ...thanks Steve.

Anonymous said...

Instead of h4, would f4 have faired better? You attack the bishop and block the taking of the rook. If ...f5 then Qh5 with threats.

transformation said...

nice post... very nice. your blog is really so fresh, like coffee in the morning!

fyi!:::

i was within TWO elo of my goal for bullet, having started back stone cold from live play weeks ago, the other night, when all i needed was ONE more win and was up 80+ elo for the day, then i could rest, and, of course, write the second Blue Devil Dialoque, but, alas, the chess god kashia had no such plan for me.

i sunk 140 elo that night. :)

ouch, the pain!

so now i have 60 elo to go after a prompt recovery, and your essay is not too far away, i dearly hope--for both our sakes!

not before can i write.

362 bullet in 20 days can kill a man. 3 min each (0/4).

you asked me once, "I don't know how you do it" (i assume, play so much and blog in depth): shear drive, and singleminded disregard for other parts of life. :)

warmest, dk

BlunderProne said...

Thanks for the ideas everyone. My am is to take a hard and closer look at each and everyone of my games at tournaments to gain a better insight on these holes.