The everything CHESS thread - Page 15 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Superfraggle · 03-21-2023, 01:05 PM

I won't, haha, but if there were one way to ensure people would go search them out themselves...

TheIronMaiden · 03-21-2023, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

I won't, haha, but if there were one way to ensure people would go search them out themselves...

In my defense, I only started learning the Caro Kann.

Superfraggle · 03-21-2023, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

In my defense, I only started learning the Caro Kann.

Superfraggle · 03-21-2023, 01:15 PM

I really like the Caro Kann, actually. Seems to be very popular within our group for this tournament.

TheIronMaiden · 03-21-2023, 01:17 PM

I run into it in rapid all the time as a counter to my Italian. I'd like to to learn the ins and outs of it for when I play white.

Scornfire · 03-21-2023, 02:12 PM

It's comforting to know I'm not the only person with browser tabs open at work literally all day

TheIronMaiden · 03-21-2023, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scornfire

It's comforting to know I'm not the only person with browser tabs open at work literally all day

It is kind of embarrassing how bad I am compared to how much chess I play.

Scornfire · 03-21-2023, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

It is kind of embarrassing how bad I am compared to how much chess I play.

I think it's definitely a game that requires much more intentional practice than most. I suspect I could probably play 50 games a day for 3 years and not be able to climb more than a few hundred ELO from where I am now at best without studying Theory

Iowa_Flames_Fan · 03-21-2023, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

It is kind of embarrassing how bad I am compared to how much chess I play.

If it helps, the above describes how I feel to a T. I play online all the time, my kids are both in lessons (which I listen in on and pretend I already know what they’re learning… I do not…) I do a chessable course at night and I read chess books, and the result of that is…. I’m slightly better than I was a year ago. And I mean slightly.

It’s a hard and humbling game. And for some reason, I can’t just go “yeah, this is too hard, I quit”, as much as that would probably be psychologically healthier on some level.

Iowa_Flames_Fan · 03-21-2023, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scornfire

It's comforting to know I'm not the only person with browser tabs open at work literally all day

I’m somehow playing 6 games at once right now, plus one with my nephew on lichess. It’s getting a bit much. Need to close my door so people don’t interrupt me while I’m…. Er… working.

Slava · 03-21-2023, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

It is kind of embarrassing how bad I am compared to how much chess I play.

I identify with this entirely, and....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

If it helps, the above describes how I feel to a T. I play online all the time, my kids are both in lessons (which I listen in on and pretend I already know what they’re learning… I do not…) I do a chessable course at night and I read chess books, and the result of that is…. I’m slightly better than I was a year ago. And I mean slightly.

It’s a hard and humbling game. And for some reason, I can’t just go “yeah, this is too hard, I quit”, as much as that would probably be psychologically healthier on some level.

I think my record against IFF is roughly 5-110 at this point!

I just like playing, and maybe one day I'll figure things out a little more and stop making so many dumb mistakes!

Iowa_Flames_Fan · 03-21-2023, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

I identify with this entirely, and....

I think my record against IFF is roughly 5-110 at this point!

I just like playing, and maybe one day I'll figure things out a little more and stop making so many dumb mistakes!

It’s probably harder for you to see it than me, but you genuinely are improving.

Superfraggle · 03-23-2023, 11:21 PM

FireGilbert and I just finished our first game, and I wanted to write up a bit about it, as I found the whole game very interesting.

It started out as a fairly standard London. I played it slightly different than I usually do, going with a Jobava-style setup, with the knight on C3 rather than the pawn. FireGilbert showed right away that he knows his stuff, and we were off!

Once we both developed a bit and castled on move 10, I settled on going for the king-side attack, putting my bishop in position for my dearest wish of a classic Greek gift sacrifice. Unfortunately, FireGilbert was not on the same page and never allowed it. The ease with which I was able to move my queenside knight over to join the other in front of my king may have made me a long-term convert to this Jobava style.

You would think a double rook lift and getting every single piece involved into an attack would be enough to break through, but every time I thought I had built an overwhelming attack, it seemed like FireGilbert had the answer. Stuffing all those pieces into the small area between both sets of pawns came with the drawback of needing to be constantly aware of the threat of the pawn moving up to f6, forking my knight and rook and potentially trapping my g5 rook even if I managed to get my knight out of there beforehand. Not that I wanted to…that was a glorious outpost square and the key to the counterattack that prevented f6.

After some shuffling around to set up our offense and defense the way we liked them, FireGilbert brought his bishop back to e8. I had largely ignored this piece as a bad bishop, since it was locked outside the pawn structure with nothing to attack, but after he made the move I realized that it added defense to the g6 pawn and made f6 suddenly possible. This was after midnight and I was too tired to calculate properly, so I went to bed on my own turn for the first time ever, pretty sure that I was lost.

Fortunately, a new day and a fresh look discovered the intermediary move Qd1, triggering Kh8, which made Qd3 work, thanks to the knight check available on g6 if f6 was played. Of course, it turns out that stockfish didn’t see f6 as a problem at all and just wanted me to continue with my original plan of bringing the queen up to f4, rendering all my doubt and uncertainty pointless. Following the analysis line, If they played f6, I end up losing slightly on the exchange, but it seems to be a nightmare of revealed and double checks for the opponent.

Some more shuffling and on move 34, my queen was able to get to f6 and get in position to make some pretty dangerous threats on the other side of the board. This led to a trade of my knight for his rook, and a seemingly hanging bishop. If I had taken the bishop, I didn’t see a way to avoid losing my rook to f6 on the next move. I had a bit of trouble deciding between what I saw as a choice between queen vs queen with a pawn advantage and exposed opponent’s king or a double rook vs rook and bishop endgame, and landed on the latter.

The end game was not particularly of note. I had the advantage to begin with, but after the bishop was blundered, it became pretty straightforward to create a passed pawn and FireGilbert resigned. The post-game analysis confirmed that most of what I did was fairly sound, and actually gave me a pretty solid advantage by move 26, but it really didn’t feel that way at all until I finally got the rook ten moves later. It felt like things could fall apart at any moment and I would end up losing a piece to being too aggressive. Probably to the ever-terrifying f6 fork at just the wrong moment.

It felt like it took probably the most solid positional attacking game I have ever played to come out on top. I am genuinely nervous about the next one.

https://www.chess.com/game/daily/492019159

Superfraggle · 03-23-2023, 11:24 PM

FireGilbert · 03-24-2023, 02:28 AM

Lol I played like 40 solid moves in a row before blundering the bishop. Thought I had a chance to grind out a 100 move draw before that. Definitely speaks to how hard the mental focus aspect of chess can be. Good game!

Iowa_Flames_Fan · 03-24-2023, 08:02 AM

Very interesting game—thanks for sharing!

Can’t help noticing how accurately both players played. Very few huge mistakes, just a lot of maneuvering until white had an advantage in the late middle game.

Superfraggle, I also noticed that stockfish didn’t like Qd3 (calls it a “missed win” apparently) and preferred the more direct Qf3. Can’t say I completely get why—what does Qd3 allow that Qd3 doesn’t? Have to think the engine finds some defensive resource for black there, but I’m not really seeing it.

Superfraggle · 03-24-2023, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Very interesting game—thanks for sharing!

Can’t help noticing how accurately both players played. Very few huge mistakes, just a lot of maneuvering until white had an advantage in the late middle game.

Superfraggle, I also noticed that stockfish didn’t like Qd3 (calls it a “missed win” apparently) and preferred the more direct Qf3. Can’t say I completely get why—what does Qd3 allow that Qd3 doesn’t? Have to think the engine finds some defensive resource for black there, but I’m not really seeing it.

My theory is just that it's just more direct in getting to f6. I'm using an extra tempo and giving FireGilbert a extra move to defend. A move previously, it wanted me to go straight to f4 rather than go to d1.

The top line for black seems to be the very f6 move I was trying to prevent, losing a pawn but triggering a bishop/knight trade, which I think just lets the steam out of my attack. I am up the pawn, but don't have a strong path forward to get at the king with just the rooks and queen left.

Superfraggle · 03-24-2023, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Lol I played like 40 solid moves in a row before blundering the bishop. Thought I had a chance to grind out a 100 move draw before that. Definitely speaks to how hard the mental focus aspect of chess can be. Good game!

Yeah, I was completely shocked when that happened after everything up to that point. I felt good about my chances with the rook over the bishop, but it wasn't going to be easy.

It was a pretty draining game to play up to that point.

TheIronMaiden · 03-24-2023, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Lol I played like 40 solid moves in a row before blundering the bishop. Thought I had a chance to grind out a 100 move draw before that. Definitely speaks to how hard the mental focus aspect of chess can be. Good game!

It is especially tricky when there are three games on at the same time. I think next tournament I will change it so that there are only two games being played at once.

Scornfire · 03-24-2023, 11:01 AM

It'd be really fun to try to put something together for an OTB tourney at a microbrewery or something over the summer. Not sure how many people live in/are able to easily travel to Calgary though (I live in Kelowna but I'm back out there every couple weeks to visit people in the summer)