This week’s game was fairly one-sided. White launched an aggressive pawn attack before developing his pieces and was severely punished for it, first by the loss of his queen (in return for a rook and a bishop) and then by a brutal series of double attacks which left his position in tatters, while his queenside remained completely undeveloped. It’s a fun game for the winning side, though.

For me, the game demonstrated the power of thinking 1 ply deeper when calculating the effects of a candidate move. Quiescent errors are borne of laziness and it’s been a struggle to force myself to do it. When I take the time to calculate just a little bit further, as in this game, it opens the door to extremely dynamic play.

Notes in the game. Hit ‘e7′ to see it from my perspective.

Read all about it in the game notes…

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with this game — there were no major blunders of commission (but a couple of blunders of omission where I just overlooked some much better continuations). Nevertheless, I think it’s a technically decent game, I felt concentrated and could calculate a bit more than usual. Themes: pins, open files, defusing an attack.

Notes, as usual, in the game text. Click on ‘e7′ to see the game from Black’s perspective… Enjoy!

See the note at move 17. I was somewhat nervous and on edge during this game, and I think that learning to play concentratedly and evenly, even in the face of pressure or (in this case) embarrassment, is a necessary skill to cultivate.

Enjoy, maybe there’s something to learn here. And sure, ok, congrats, Linus. Punk-ass.

I’ve starting playing more OTB games, too, at my chess club, Schachclub Kreuzberg, a couple of games in the Berliner Mannschaftsmeisterschaft and right now in the BSV Klassenturnier. And had my first win against a rated opponent, Bernd Klausmann (DWZ 1251). Not an amazing win, but solid (despite one stupid mistake). Some themes here: rook maneuvers and open files, blockading, elimination of opponent’s counterplay.

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Fortunately, because I was doing opening prep, I knew that he liked to play it, and I spent the hour before the game learning all about it from this awesome YouTube video. Black’s basic idea is to immediately create an open, tactical game, avoiding closed, positional play as it typical with 1. d4. And the opening has a bunch of traps, which, unless White plays precisely, will lead to tragic material loss.

So let’s say that White accepts the gambit (as he should). Black is going to immediately attack the pawn, usually with 2…Nc6, but also sometimes with 2…Qe7. In the latter case, a trap is already being set: if White defends the pawn with 3. Bf4, 3…Qb4+ is going to triple-attack the pawn on b2, the king and the bishop. 4. Qd2 looks like a good response, covering the bishop and blocking the check, but after 4…Qxb2 5. Qc3 (trying to save the cornered rook) Bb4, White can resign: his queen is pinned and lost, and the rook’s not going to make it either.

So White’s better off playing 2. Nf3 in all cases, avoiding this mess. Black will play 2…Qe7, preparing the same basic idea and now 3. Bf4 (or 3. Bg5, according to the computer) is possible. White will try the same trick: 3…Qb4+. Instead of playing the queen to d2, White needs to simply drop the bishop back with 4. Bd2, blocking the check and threatening the queen, who will respond with 4…Qxb2, threatening the Ra1.

How to respond? The wrong response is 5. Bc3, although it looks good at first. After 5…Bb4 6. Qd2 (6. Bxb4 Nxb4 and White has to give up the Nb1 to defend the rook) 6…Bxc3 7. Qxc3, Black has 7…Qc1#. Whatever happens, Black is winning.

So 5. Nc3 is White’s only response here, defending the rook with the queen and blocking the b4-e1 diagonal with another piece. Whew. It doesn’t end there, though… Next comes 5…Nb4, threatening 6…Nxc2+, where White’s only legal move is to give up the queen… This is easily prevented by 6. Nd4. Black can now respond with 6…c5 (6…a6 is also possible — you can learn about that in the video), and the defense of the c2 square is in dire straits. If White moves the knight, he loses his queen. What to do?

7. Rb1 and Black is now royally screwed. The queen has to retreat with 7…Qa3, and now White has threats of his own. 8. Ndb5 threatens the rook on a8 (and the Qa3) and gets his knight out of take. After 8…Qa5, White has several options, such as 9. a3 Nc6 10. Nd5 with a brutal discovered attack on the queen, or 9. e4, freeing the light-squared bishop and preparing some activity in the center. Black is going to lose material.

So here’s the game, with a few annotations. The beginning should be pretty familiar.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone else who has to face this gambit, and inspires a few people to add opening prep to their pre-game ritual.

* How to get your opponent’s games: On ICC, typing the ‘history <opponentname>’ command, or using the team4545league.org website (all league games are archived — just click on your opponent’s name to see them) will get you a list of your opponent’s game. For Playchess, you need Chessbase (Fritz doesn’t offer this feature). After logging onto the server, you can get a database of recent games for any player on the server.

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So what’s my secret? Well, I’m glad you asked. First, the simple answer: I spent the last week concentrating on playing (at least one 30/30 game a day, often two, as possible), easy tactics (using Elementary Combinations from ChessOK and Ivashchenko’s Manual of Chess Combinations, Volume 1B) and board vision training (using Chess Trainer (cvt.jar) — I’m currently just drilling square colors).

Of all of that, I tend to think that the playing is helping me the most, since I tend to get really rusty, both in terms of opening preparation and psychologically, when I don’t play for a few days. But it’s not just the amount I’m playing, it’s the extra time I’m taking each move to analyze my opponent’s plans and threats, and to double-check my move candidates, that they don’t allow any tactics. The simple tactics certainly help with this as well, since I’m more worried about accidentally walking into a fork or a pin by misplacing a piece than into some complex combination. Anyway, as far as thought process goes, I’m not always successful, but new habits have to be built step by step. But that’s the more complex answer, which is maybe just as simple: I’m thinking a little better and not making as many game-killing mistakes.

I’ve managed to catch a cold, just in time for a rare sunny weekend, so I might need to take a little break from playing until I’m feeling clear-headed again (no Playing While Tired©!).

This week in blogging and training: I’m working through a small Lilov backlog at the moment, but I’m hoping to post at least one self-analysis this week. If there’s time for Nimzo, I’ll do that, as well. Otherwise, I’m back to chesstempo (did my first 30 minutes there today since about a week and regained about half of the points I lost 2 weeks ago), I’ll be continuing with the easy tactics, playing and chess vision stuff. I’m also working on my opening repertoire a bit, but more on that in another post.