Of course, we have to maintain balance and respect wishes of players who just "wanna have a good time". But I would make it a conscious effort to help younger players, esp. kids I encounter, since many of them show eagerness to learn and improve in their play (some are also registered with the Singapore Chess Federation for various training and theory classes. Things like recording your games would be good for review and learning.
Below are 3 of my games played today, with learning points from all of them. Again, do take my comments with a pinch of salt. I'm just a 1499 FIDE rated player who is seeking to learn at the same time.
Game 1: newbie_learner v.s. kiddo
Thoughts and Learning Points
- I'm heartened to see the kiddo 'challenge' me to a 90 + 30 game. Most kids prefer to player faster time controls, which arguably have more limited learning value. Unfortunately, I can't oblige as we may not be able to finish even game from 3-6pm. Hence, as the best alternative, I introduced QCD Adult Chess League's format of 30 + 30 (the fastest standard chess).
- I thought some of the in-game comments would be beneficial for newbies and learners just like myself. For instance, it would have been great if my opponent actually plotted the "fake gambit" which I took the bait. It would also be great if he could've refuted my play winning the pawn while compromising the position.
- In terms of choosing candidate moves, I hope some of my thoughts on my own decision making highlights some dilemma we face. For instance, both 9.c4 (challenge / weaken Black's pawn centre) and 9.e3 (support White's d4 pawn to deny Black from liberating the position easily with ...e5) are comparable, there's no need to spend too much time at the cost of compromising the thinking time remaining. Overall, I think the time management of this game was decent: White ended the game with 18 minutes and Black with 8 minutes.
- Another learning point was the demonstration of choosing between candidate moves at move 24. White chose the ordinary looking 24.Rfd1 to double Rooks instead of 24.Rxd8 Qxc2 25.Rxe8+ Bf8 which White felt was inadequate. While White deserves A for effort to at least bother to choose between the 2 candidate moves, unfortunately, White did not calculate enough to address the key issue: how to effectively double White's Rooks in the variation he rejected. To learn from this and hopefully improve in calculations (most importantly, don't be lazy and take the effort to calculate deeper!) would be something that newbie_learner would like to learn!
Position after 23...Qf5. A for newbie_learner's effort, but still not quite there yet.
- The position after 24...Rxd3 is also of interest for learning, in that White decided to play 25.Rxd3 instead of allowing for more exchanges following 25.Qxd3 Qxd3 26.Rxd3, whereby I'm uncertain whether the 1 pawn advantage is adequate for White to convert the position (Rook and Bishop of Opposite colour). This happens to steer away from the general principle: "When you are ahead in material advantage, exchange more pieces." If I followed this guideline (blindly), I fear I would reach a point whereby converting the advantage to a win becomes very difficult if not impossible. I guess it also says a little bit of the players mindset -- White is trying to maximise his winning chances. (chess psychology).
- Of course, 26...b5?! from my opponent was unnecessary. Cannot play such obvious "baits" in a long game (Opponent was hoping for 27.Qxc5 Qxd3). I hope my kiddo opponent will learn from this and improve his future play.
Game 2: Young Adult v.s. newbie_learner
Thoughts and Learning Points
- Again, in terms of choosing candidate moves, this time round Black abandoned the thematic idea of "Bringing out the light square Bishop before chaining the pawns with ...e6" because he saw that 6...Bg4 would fail. Yet he forgot to check another candidate move fulfilling the theme: 6...Bf5. He dropped this idea "feeling" that after 7.0-0 Black's light squared Bishop seems to be hanging, without bothering to calculate 7...e6. This highlights my current problem: lack of calculation, and allowing "feeling" to take over basic calculations.
6...e6 which was played, really cannot be compared to 6...Bf5 followed by ...e6
- Black lost objectivity when the position looked promising. Need to learn to stay calm. Having worked so hard to get a promising position, it hurts to spoil it so easily!
- Very poor time management from Black, surviving on incremental towards the end. Will never be able to play consistently well under time pressure (human tendency). Also, my opponent never fall into the trap of playing faster to "flag me". Instead my opponent took his time to improve the quality of his moves more and more.
Game 3: newbie_learner v.s. Young Adult
Thoughts and Learning Points
- I had my "revenge", LOL. Nah, it is good that the games did not go too one-sided. It can be rather demoralising at times, I understand. More importantly, as you better figure out your regular opponent's playing style, it should spur both to play even better in future games. For this opponent, he plays quite a wide variety of openings, so he was able to transpose here and there while keeping his options open. (This was evident in a subsequent mini series of Blitz games we played, with around 50% results on both sides.) I was prepared to see the Benko Gambit, but it became a King's Indian Defence (KID) "all of a sudden". But I'm glad I registered another win against my #1 hated opening, lol
- I know that White is spending ALOT of moves on this, but I really liked the idea of preparing for 9.Bh6 to trade off Black's thematically powerful fianchetto Bishop on g7. Based on this game, I actually feel that even without h-file open, this idea of trading off Black's fianchetto Bishop as early as possible is still decent.
If you are playing White, would you be spending so many moves like I did just to trade off Black's fianchetto Bishop on g7, even though you are not having the h-file open? Do you opine this to be more beneficial for White or Black?
Other / Final Thoughts and Experiences
- Grats to William for also winning his for the first time against Seng Chin. This unrated player with no tourney experience has been on hot form this week! We fellow Siglap South CC Chess Quarter players are happy for you!
- The "Young Adult" has been introduced to the QCD Adults Team Chess League. So far, there are 3 players I would be helping to source for a team. I just hope I can find them all in a suitable team.
- Just a happy shout-out to 2 other chess sites which also had a great session today:
PubXChess a record high 21(!!) player blitz tournament was held; and
Nanyang CC Chess Club -- Happy to see many new and familiar faces. Maybe we should try to organise some tournament between these 2 Chess Clubs one day!
That's all for now. Time to face the music in office... Will be 'dead' for a few days before my next chess resurrection (Hopefully, I can make it for Singapore Chess Meetup on this coming Wednesday!)
Yours sincerely
Ong Yujing (Eugene)
a.k.a. newbie_learner
Siglap South CC Chess Quartet
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