In the spirit of full disclosure...
I lost last Thursday's tournament game to John Clifford (1593) at the Reno CC Summer Swiss. Since I'm posting every game I play as an exercise in consistency and self-criticism, I don't want to skip this rather painful loss.
As Black in the Ruy Lopez I got the feeling of a bull seeing a red flag when he played 5. a3. So I got very aggressive throughout the opening, got into one of those "messy" positions where I had a lot of pawn weaknesses but had compensation, and then was gradually outplayed in a long tough game. Good for my opponent, who played well; bad for me, because I didn't have the stamina and gumption that's needed when one isn't feeling tip-top and frisky. Seems to me that one of the important separators between the excellent and the average is the ability to come through when you're having an "off night."
Well, back at it again tomorrow night. I'm motivated by last week's game to do better! I'll post the moves as soon as I get a chance.
2 comments:
Hi Robert, you're trying to do too much when the position doesn't call for it. The double-rook pawn three' man is basically a coward, afraid of every possible piece landing on a "Knight-Five Square."
GM Eugene Znosko-Borovsky solves this problem pretty well in his work "How To Play The Chess Openings."
Simply develop! You having more pieces in the field far outweighs his paltry "P-R3" move.
Sure, there are times for such responses, but these are well timed and the move in your game is simply not and it's non-developing. All you have to do is put one piece in the field and sooner or later, that extra piece is going to make things difficult.
I'm usually happy when I meet such a player because I know then that his attack will already be much slower than mine, since he/she has resorted to sabotage. Such a commander of his/her own forces is in reality guilty of treason.
Develop! And he pays the price!
Eric
Hi Robert, wrong reference. See Leonard Barden's "An Introduction To Chess Moves And Tactics Simply Explained."
The Double-Rook Pawn Three Man suffers.
Eric
Post a Comment