Back to internet chess

In the two games that I've played online since last entry I tried to maintain a similar level of concentration to that which I managed in the tournament. I'm not sure this has been a complete success... it's just not the same sat in front of a computer. The time controls online are also somewhat faster, and internet opponents often play more rapidly than they need which gives you less time between moves.

In game 1 the position became simplified fairly quickly (I wonder if frequently reaching early simplification is a fault in my play?), but I had a slight advantage due to their isolated central pawn and my control of the c file. Eventually the rooks came off, leaving the position below.


Here I played the first of three blunders which changed the position from somewhat winning to outright losing. Although they are not all obvious it should be possible to avoid such errors in such a simple position. My move was 30.Kd3, allowing 30...d4. I partly saw this move but I think judged Kxd4 to be sufficient (and underestimated the loss of the a pawn). 30.a3 would have been far superior.

With 30...d4 on the board however I now had second thoughts, and eventually (and wrongly) concluded that exd4 (making a passed pawn!) must be better. Instead I should have played 31.Kxd4 for an interesting and somwehat unbalanced position where I might still maintain an edge, or 31.a3 for a simple draw. Unfortunatly my central passed pawn can be blockaded very easily while blacks queenside pawns make progress surprisingly quickly.

I probably still had reasonable chances until I advanced my isolated d pawn onto d5 (a light square), where it became horribly weak (my king inevitably needing to retreat to prevent the queenside pawns making progress). A loss, but hopefully the painful endgame mistakes taught me something.

My second game was a draw, but I think my play was a bit careless and inconsistent.


As black in the position above a simple plan would have been to play 12...Bxf3 13.gxf3 ...Nf5, leaving the knight with a fine outpost. I had originally played Bg4 with the intention of threatening to double my opponent pawns, but then simply ignored how doubling those pawns would help me create an outpost.

Instead I brought my c6 knight to c4, where it was promptly traded away leaving me with no clear compensation for the wasted tempi (3 moves spent to bring it to c4 while my other pieces mouldered).


In the position above 32...Qc4 would have been very strong, carrying the threat of Rd1#. Instead the queens soon came off, leaving me in a rook endgame where I was a pawn up but having to react to his promotion threats. The position seemed drawn but I played on slightly optimistically, hoping for an error.


In the position above I played 52...Ke5, hoping to create complications and perhaps winning chances if my opponent blundered. 52...Kg7, the safest move, just seemed like an invitation for a draw (against a lower rated opponent! - not that this should factor into move choices). It turns out however that 52...Ke5 is a horrible blunder after 53.Ra5!. My opponent didn't see this, and we drew only a few turns later, but it's the kind of move which I don't think I'd have any problem seeing if it was a 'white to move' problem on Chess Tactics Server. So why couldn't I see it in my game when I was considering my move? Perhaps an unwillingness to accept that the position was drawn made me partly blind.