Full Game:

I played the black pieces.

To start, white opted into a king’s gambit. It is a very dubious opening for white to the point that top player to not play it. For white, the aim is to keep black’s king in the center of the board, open up the position, and attack the king early into the game. However, it is a gambit. If this attack fails, black is potentially left with a very solid position, an extra pawn, or both. In this case, I knew how to defend against my opponent’s attack. This made the first six or so moves very easy to counter against. In the first 6 moves, I was able to take a pawn, defend against white attempts to retake my pawn, developed a pawn and knight to challenge a potential attack in the center, and kept everything else solid. Look through the first 6 moves of the game.

On move 7, I think my opponent’s brain stopped working. Black played Nxg5 putting it directly in line with my queen. On the next move, I quickly captured the piece.

From there, the game developed normally. My opponent moved more pieces from their starting position. I castled queenside and developed my bishop. The next important moment was on move 12 where I played f5. Initially, this does not seem like an important move, but it serves many purposes. Firstly, it attacks white’s stronghold over the center squares. f5 directly attacks the e4 pawn. In the case that white takes the f5 pawn, I can just take the bishop in e3 with my queen. Secondly, it gets rid of a weak pawn. The f-pawn was isolated and thus would have been hard to defend, especially with black’s rook already looking directly at it. While this did not change the dynamic of the game, not playing f5 could have changed the dynamic against me later into the game.

The next interesting moment was on move 14 when black played Bg5. My opponent probably thought that they had won an exchange. However, I spotted a game-winning tactic. Since the king was exposed to the a7-g1 diagonal, I was able to play Bxd4+. This unleashed the rook to attack the bishop, making it 2 attackers to white only 1 defender. At the end of this set of moves, I was up 2 entire bishops in material. Scroll through the moves until move 17.

The game then developed as I tried to take advantage of the extra bishops. I doubled my rooks on the g-file and put lots of pressure on the g2 pawn. To protect the pawn, white played g3, but this move lost the game. I played Bc6 and pinned white’s knight to the king. White tried to hold on to the knight, but I put lots of pressure on the position to the end that I capture the knight for free. At this point, white resigned. Move from this position until the end of the game.

Final position:

0-1

Key takeaways:

Don’t play the king’s gambit as white. It’s a very dubious opening and is easily refuted by anyone that has spent any time looking at the opening.

Keep your king as protected as possible behind pawns. Most openings techniques use castling to keep the king safe. If your opponent moves the pawn in front of their king, look for ways to exploit the position and attack!

Two bishops are better than one. Using these long-range snipers to look toward your opponent’s king can be deadly.

Full Game

I played the white pieces.

Black opened the game with a gambit. More specifically, by move 4, the position is an Indian Defense: Budapest Defense, Adler Variation. At the highest level of chess, this gambit is not played by black at all as it gives white the temporary extra pawn and it is hard to get back the pawn without a forcing set of moves that lead to a slight advantage for white. In this is position in 2021 as white, I am 5-1 which shows that even at a somewhat high level, this gambit does not work if white memorizes the best moves in the position.

However, in similar positions, white can be in deep trouble if they are not careful with their move choice or more order. One example of this is provided below and you should scroll through the example moves to see the common tactic in the position.

In my game, moves 6 through 9 are not completely forced, but they are the most common moves in the position, and it prevents losing to the basic tactic. Move through move 4 to 9 to see the line.

The next crucial moment of the game was on move 14. I considered 2 moves, c5 and b4. b4 has the obvious benefit of protecting the central pawn that could be very important later in the game, but also, if black trades pawns would allow me to challenge on the a-file. c5, however is a little less obvious. c5 directly challenges the d6 pawn which needs to be protecting the knight on e5. It also would allow me to put lots of pressure on the knight or d6 pawn depending on black’s next move. I played 14. c5. In response, black moved their knight back to c6. I played Rfd1 to continue putting pressure on the pawn but also to get my rook to a semi-open file that holds many advantageous tactical ideas. Look at white’s move 14 and 15.

The game developed normally as I made sure I didn’t get mated on the back rank with 18.h3. On move 19, black made an offer to trade rooks, but I declined in favor of keeping the tension on the board and I just simply protected it with Rc1. I felt that a rook remained on the c-file would allow me to either ruin black’s pawn structure or simply win the c pawn.

The game transitioned into a position in which the black knight was captured, allowing me to win the pawn advantage, and a set of rooks were traded off the board. In the position below, white is completely dominating. The computer gives an evaluation of +4.4 which essentially means white’s position is worth 4.4 pawns up over black’s position.

Just a few short moves later, black’s position crumbled which led to their resingnation. The only way for black to prolong the game would be to capture the rook and give up the queen, which would leave me with a massive advantage.

1-0

Key Takeaways:

Gambit lines can be dubious or lead to unsound positions so be careful when playing them or playing against them.

Attacking a centeral piece, directly or indirectly, with a pawn is usually a good idea.

Full Game

I played the white pieces.

The game started out in a normal position. In fact, 5 moves in, at the position below, masters have had 13,500 games in this exact position. This essentially means that both players had been playing well through the first moves of the game. No blunders, no mistakes. Just good chess.

However, on black’s move, they played Ne4. While it does grab some space in the center, it has downsides that would become problematic later into the game. Firstly, it allows the trade of the dark-squared bishops. This trade is good for white because black’s pawns are mostly on light squares which leaves weaknesses on the dark squares that my knight could take advantage of later in the game. The second issue with Ne4 is that it can easily be kicked out from its post. Just a few moves later, white removed the knight from the center, retreating it back to the f6 square. This isn’t even to mention the fact that black is now down many moves in development and will struggle to get their pieces onto the board quickly. Look through the moves until 7. Nf6.

On move 9, I played Qb3. This put a double attack on 2 undefended pawns. This became possible due to the lack of development on black’s part. Both the b7 and d5 pawns were both attacked, and both are very valuable pawns. The correct response from black would be either Bc6 or Nc6. Both moves would effectively defend the pawns previously mentioned. However, black played b6 to defend the pawn, but left the d5 pawn with only 2 defenders to the 3 attackers of white. This led to white gaining a material advantage and left black with no central pawns. Look through the moves until 17. Qe5.

On move 17, I played Qe5, offering a queen trade. A queen trade in this position would be great for me. White is up 2 entire pawns and there are enough pieces on the board to ensure that progress can be made. On black’s move, they played Qxe5 in which I swiftly took back with my knight, playing Nxe5. In this position, the computer gives an evaluation of +6.6 although I am only up 2 points of material. This great position is due to the great knight on e5 and that I have 2 central pawns that black cannot easily contest. The game developed into and endgame of rook and knight vs rook and knight, but I had many more pawns to work with. The crushing blow was the knight fork in which black resigned the game.

Below was the final position.

1-0

Key Takeways:

Central pawns are very important to control the position. Without them, it will lead to your opponent dominating the position.

Trade pieces when you are up material and see a clear way to progress the game in your favor.

Full Game

I played the white pieces.

The game opened normally with the first four moves resembling a Benoni Defense (1. d4, Nf6 2. c4, c5 3. d5), but on black’s third move, they play b5, the Benko Gambit. I take on b5, he plays a6, giving up his pawn, and I took on a6 (4. cxb5, a6 5. bxa6). This variation is called the “Benko Gambit Accepted: Fully Accepted Variation.” In this variation, white is given a pawn for center pawn control and bishop and queen activity.

On move 6, I played Nc3, simply developing the piece to defend the pawn on d5. There are two main lines for black in this position. Bxa6 to regain a pawn, but also activate the bishop to pressure the center of my position. If black played this, my development would have been much harder. The other is g6, recognizing that the a6 pawn could be taken at any time, and preparing for the development of the bishop to the longest diagonal on the board. My opponent played neither. He/she played Qa5. I countered, playing Qa4, forcing the queens off the board. I traded queens off the board as I believed that the material advantage of a pawn would be enough to give me an advantage.

On move 14, black played e5. This move blocked in the powerful bishop on g7. This is significant as the bishop acted as a major hinderance to my rooks’ activity on the queenside, but after it was blocked off, I felt confident in putting rooks on the a and b files without any major hinderances. The game then developed into the following position (Move 18).

In this position, white has a slight advantage in that my pieces simply do more. My dark-squared bishop indirectly puts pressure on black’s rook while black’s dark squared bishop is staring into a pawn with little it can do to become more active. My knights occupy important squares while one of black’s is on the edge. My rooks are behind pawns while black’s rooks are either being pressured by a bishop or hasn’t move since castling.

Then black made a large blunder on move 21. By not doubling his rooks on the b file and instead playing Nb4?, he allowed me to play a5. This loses the critical center pawn on d6 or an exchange, a rook for a knight. Move through this position until move 26.

The game moved to where I was able to capture black’s rook for a knight on move 26, winning an exchange.

Although I did have to give back the exchange, I was able to capture many of black’s important, central pawns, allowing me to blow the game wide open. In this endgame, this would give me large advantages if many pieces were traded off. Gaining black’s central pawns was worth more than the exchange, especially considering the worth of the bishop black gave up. Move through this position until move 36.

I then started pushing the outside a and b pawns in order to create pressure on black to give up his pieces to prevent my advanced pawns from becoming queens. I pushed the b pawn, giving up the a-pawn in the process, but the pressure it created was immense. I was able to trade off the rooks due to a tactical error by black and win black’s knight.

From this position, up in material an entire piece and 2 pawns. I was winning by a large margin. I maneuvered my king and knight to push my e-pawn to the end of the board, promoting it to a queen. I have included some images and ideas of my manuvability. Move throught this position until the end of the game.

This was the final position.

1-0

Key Takeaways:

Not all pieces are worth the material count generally given to them. Sometimes they are more and sometimes they are less. Being able to recongnize this and react accordingly will allow for explosive moved with minor pieces or pawns.

Doubling both rooks on a file is very powerful and can limit the movement of your opponent around the doubled rooks.

Full Game:

The game opened with simple developing moves, but there was not much of a structure by either player. By move 9, the game was unique among top players. The opening led to a neutral position with the slight imbalances of a bishop for a knight and white’s slightly more active queen.

The game developed smoothly until move 13. White played d4, disrupting the entire center of the board and causing chaos. However, this move shows my opponent was ready for a battle for the center.

This pawn break has a couple of ideas. The first is to challenge the center with his pawn to remove or weaken my strong pawn on e5. The second is to open lines for the rook on d1 and dually make it more effective within the game. On the next moved, I decided that the advantages my opponent would get if I didn’t take would be large, especially considering the rook on d1 eyeing my queen. For example, if I played Rae1, my opponent would be able play dxe5 and I would not be able to take back due to the pin on my queen. In this example, I would also lose my knight on f3.

After considering all of the ideas in the position, I decided to play exd4.

In the next couple of moves, nothing explosive happened, but on move 16, I played d5 challenging the center. Similarly to my opponent’s ideas in the previous position, my goal was to open up my rook on e8 and potentially win a center pawn. My opponent blundered by playing Qd2, leaving his pawn with only 2 defenders to my 3 attackers with no countering ideas on another part of the board. This allowed me to win the pawn and gain the slight material advantage (5 pawns to 6 pawns).

The game moved along slowly until move 22 in which white played Rde1, challenging my queen in the center.

Here I had a crucial decision to make. I could play either the safer Qc5+ or play the material imbalance of a 2 rooks vs queen endgame. Qc5+ is a solid option. It is check so it effectively gave me another move and it also protects my pawn on c7.

I also could play Qxe1 and play the material imbalance of 2 rooks vs queen. Generally, the 2 rooks are better than the queen when they can be coordinated and when the queen does not have many checks against the opposing king. I would be giving up the c7 pawn for the better set of pieces entering the endgame. I calculated that the better option would be to take rooks in exchange of the queen. Scrool from move 22 to 24.

From there, I was able to coordinate my rooks to first collect my opponent’s c pawn using a tactical idea of attacking his queen and attacking his pawn. on the next move, I was able to gain my pawn advantage back. This significantly made it easier to advance the pawn. Typically, pushing a pawn with 2 rooks against a queen is a hard challenge so it signifcantly shortened the game. Look through the game from move 32 to 37.

My opponent tried to rush his king in the center of the board to stop the pawn from queening, but I kept checking his king to continue moving my outside pawn up the board. This continued happening until he resigned with the inevitable promotion to the pawn into a queen.

0-1

Key Takeaways:

Beware of pins that can occur through pawn breaks.

2 rooks vs queen endgames are very tricky, but generally, if the rooks are coordinated and the king is safe from relentless checks, the rooks are better.

Last time, you guys were intersted in my Google Slides about the the history of chess. Thus, here it is to see.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bUKJdo5-yg5VsNYScoabK5Smic6e-YHpQNhBCC-dmxE/edit?usp=sharing

Note: This was made just before COVID hit, and chess has changed a lot since COVID started. After looking at this presentation, I realized that only 2.5 years later, it is already outdated.

Full Game:

The game started out somewhat normally with 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Bf5 3. Qd2 e6 4. Nc3 c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. O-O-O Nc6 7. f3 Nf6. While this is not played often, as the opening is slightly inaccurate by both players, this type of position occurs somewhat frequently. However, on move 8, I blundered. White played Nb5. The correct move for white is to castle or play e5. Castling prevents white’s knight from forking the kiing and rook, winning an exchange while e5 blocks the bishop’s line of sight to the c7 square. Both would be sufficient to prevent white from white’s knight from causing havoc. I, instead, played a6 on move 8, allowing the knight to jump into the c7 square and winning the exchange.

The game cotinued with white being up a rook. For the next couple of moves, white launched its kingside pawns up the board with successive moves of g4 and h4, and 2 moves later on move 14, g5. This is a blunder for white. The moves below show that hxg5 is a brutal move for white. Black can simply play Nh7 attacking the bishop and the bishop runs out of squares to move to very quickly. Run through the moves and take notice to the importance of the bishop on the c1-h6 diagonal.

I have included another variation, but it is equally bad for white.

However, I did not see hxg5 and played e5, attacking the bishop. Many of the same ideas are present in the e5 as in hxg5. Both attack the bishop and try to move it from it post on f4 so that black could skewer the queen the king. White tried to evade the attacks, but on move 18, jumped into a losing move. Look from the position below to move 18. Rd8.

These move won me a piece and improved my bishop pair so that the bishops are more powerful than the rooks on the board. In fact, both of white rooks are still on the 1st rank being very passive.

From there, the game went smoothly into my control and led me to win the game quickly despite only having a +1-material advantage. I will show you some of the more important attacking moments and their explanations. Scroll through the game from here and look at the calculated ideas around the attack through the use to the annotations.

The checkmate was a neat pattern, and I played the most accurate move from 31 to move 35 in which checkmate was forced with correct play. I have provided the ending moves to show the beauty of the checkmate. Move from the position below to the ending.

0-1

Key Takeaways:

Close the center of the board before attacking. It may give attacking chances to your opponent.

Don’t leave your king and queen on the same line, it leaves you open to game-losing tactics.

I played the black pieces.

The game started out in a normal Giuoco Piano game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3). This has been many times among high level players. According to my database, about 5,230 games have been played from this position between master players (both players are 2200+ FIDE). However, this opening is easy to equalize against. The black player in this position is typically happy to opt into the balanced position.

The game developed normally from there. One positional idea that developed was, on move 10, white played Bxb6 which allowed me to play axb6. This allowed my rook on a8 to have access to a semi-open file. I then played Be6 on move 11. This move would allow me to trade off white’s light-squared bishop a few moves later. Trading the bishops is important as white’s bishop was aiming toward my king. Also, if white traded the bishops immediately, I would have been left with another semi-open file. In addition, I was able to trade off one of white’s knights. This trade was an advantage for black as the knight wasn’t doing much as compared to white’s knight which pressured the pawn on e5. Scroll through the position from move 7 to 18.

On move 18, I played f5. This move has many ideas. Firstly, it attacks the pawn on e4 and I will be able to remove the pawn from the square. Since the e4 pawn would be removed, the d4 pawn will be weaker and could become a target later in the game. Secondly, after a trade between the f and e pawns, my rook will have a semi-open file and I would not have to use a tempo on developing it.

The game developed further with both players arranging pieces on better square and trading the knights. Then the critical moment of the game came on move 27. White played Rg3 which attacked my queen. In this position, I could move my queen back or have 2 rooks for the queen. While moving my queen leads to an even game, I felt that taking the 2 rooks was better in this situation. Firstly, my king is very safe from checks. White’s pawn on d5 blocks the diagonal, there has 2 pawns around the king, and the doubled rooks are on a file that can help protect the king. Secondly, it opens a file for my doubled rooks, essentially making them much more powerful in the position. Thirdly, my rooks would be able to harass his queen without my position being in any danger. Lastly, my e pawn would become a passed pawn and become much more valuable in the position. Thus, I played Qxg3 and got the 2 rooks for the queen.

The game went on as some captures and trades occurred. On move 34, it is notable to show the complete lack of target for white’s queen. White played Qd8 only for black to play Rf7, fully shutting down any ideas white may have had. Then, on move 37, I was able to double my rooks on the 2nd rank, and just a move later, I was able to win the g2 pawn. Move through the position from move 31 to move 39.

From there, time pressure and my passed e pawn allowed me to win the game. Scroll from move 39 to the end of the game. If the game continued, the next couple moves for black would include Rd1 and e8=Q, and I would be up 2 rooks in material. And so, my opponent resigned.

0-1

Key Takeaways:

Generally, trading your queen for your opponents 2 rooks in an endgame is advantagous when your king is safe, there are many connect pawns, or there are only a few targets on the board.

Full Game

I played the white pieces.

Black opened the game with a gambit. More specifically, by move 4, the position is an Indian Defense: Budapest Defense, Adler Variation. At the highest level of chess, this gambit is not played by black at all as it gives white the temporary extra pawn and it is hard to get back the pawn without a forcing set of moves that lead to a slight advantage for white. In this is position in 2021 as white, I am 5-1 which shows that even at a somewhat high level, this gambit does not work if white memorizes the best moves in the position.

However, in similar positions, white can be in deep trouble if they are not careful with their move choice or more order. One example of this is provided below and you should scroll through the example moves to see the common tactic in the position.

In my game, moves 6 through 9 are not completely forced, but they are the most common moves in the position, and it prevents losing to the basic tactic. Move through move 4 to 9 to see the line.

The next crucial moment of the game was on move 14. I considered 2 moves, c5 and b4. b4 has the obvious benefit of protecting the central pawn that could be very important later in the game, but also, if black trades pawns would allow me to challenge on the a-file. c5, however is a little less obvious. c5 directly challenges the d6 pawn which needs to be protecting the knight on e5. It also would allow me to put lots of pressure on the knight or d6 pawn depending on black’s next move. I played 14. c5. In response, black moved their knight back to c6. I played Rfd1 to continue putting pressure on the pawn but also to get my rook to a semi-open file that holds many advantageous tactical ideas. Look at white’s move 14 and 15.

The game developed normally as I made sure I didn’t get mated on the back rank with 18.h3. On move 19, black made an offer to trade rooks, but I declined in favor of keeping the tension on the board and I just simply protected it with Rc1. I felt that a rook remained on the c-file would allow me to either ruin black’s pawn structure or simply win the c pawn.

The game transitioned into a position in which the black knight was captured, allowing me to win the pawn advantage, and a set of rooks were traded off the board. In the position below, white is completely dominating. The computer gives an evaluation of +4.4 which essentially means white’s position is worth 4.4 pawn up over black’s position.

Just a few short moves later, black’s position crumbled which led to their resingnation.

1-0

Key Takeaways:

Gambit lines can be dubious or lead to unsound positions so be careful when playing them or playing against them.

Attacking a centeral piece, directly or indirectly, with a pawn is usually a good idea.

Full Game

I played the white pieces.

The game started out in a normal position. In fact, 5 moves in, at the position below, masters have had 13,500 games in this exact position. This essentially means that both players had been playing well through the first moves of the game. No blunders, no mistakes. Just good chess.

However, on black’s move, they played Ne4. While it does grab some space in the center, it has downsides that would become problematic later into the game. Firstly, it allows the trade of the dark-squared bishops. This trade is good for white because black’s pawns are mostly on light squares which leaves weaknesses on the dark squares that my knight could take advantage of later in the game. The second issue with Ne4 is that it can easily be kicked out from its post. Just a few moves later, white removed the knight from the center, retreating it back to the f6 square. This isn’t even to mention the fact that black is now down many moves in development and will struggle to get their pieces onto the board quickly. Look through the moves until 7. Nf6.

On move 9, I played Qb3. This put a double attack on 2 undefended pawns. This became possible due to the lack of development on black’s part. Both the b7 and d5 pawns were both attacked, and both are very valuable pawns. The correct response from black would be either Bc6 or Nc6. Both moves would effectively defend the pawns previously mentioned. However, black played b6 to defend the pawn, but left the d5 pawn with only 2 defenders to the 3 attackers of white. This led to white gaining a material advantage and left black with no central pawns. Look through the moves until 17. Qe5.

On move 17, I played Qe5, offering a queen trade. A queen trade in this position would be great for me. White is up 2 entire pawns and there are enough pieces on the board to ensure that progress can be made. On black’s move, they played Qxe5 in which I swiftly took back with my knight, playing Nxe5. In this position, the computer gives an evaluation of +6.6 although I am only up 2 points of material. This great position is due to the great knight on e5 and that I have 2 central pawns that black cannot easily contest. The game developed into and endgame of rook and knight vs rook and knight, but I had many more pawns to work with. The crushing blow was the knight fork in which black resigned the game.

Below was the final position.

1-0

Key Takeways:

Central pawns are very important to control the position. Without them, it will lead to your opponent dominating the position.

Trade pieces when you are up material and see a clear way to progress the game in your favor.