Chess Engines...Again

Hi diskamyl

Sorry, I thought it was an OTB game, I've never played a live game
on the net longer than 4 mnutes.

Probably a whole of new set of ROT's that I have not thought about
for a live screen game.

What was the time control?
I can happily sit for an hour or two playing blitz, but concentrating
in 'game mode' looking at a screen - phew. Not tried that at all.

Looked at the game - well let it play over twice on auto pilot.
Inverted the board to see your side.
(also watching the football so this will be surface analysis)

That knight that ended up on f8 was the baddie.

He got in the way of everybody, he had a home on f5.
Of course it would have meant you push f5-f4 and maybe losing that pawn.
Who cares, get that Knight on f5 you can build your game
around it.

Here is a saying of mine:

Look after the pennies and the pounds takes care of themselves,
Find good homes for the Knights, and the game will play itself.

I would not kick yourself too much, the other guy played a good game.

I see your Qc4+ to get Queens off - yes Qxb6 was the move.
It's difficult after that.

His timed Knights challenge (38.Ne3) meant you either swapped
into a lost K & P ending or drop another pawn.

And the Nd7 blunder, well the position was lost then anyway.

If you think you are in a slump then you must play your way out of it.

The good news is most (all) players develop in troughs.
You go down 2 steps then go up 4, up and down, up and down.

Each up takes you higher and higher.

They think it's because you are continually learning about the game.
the new ideas have not jelled and are mixing up what's already
there and your intuition (a very important part of a players make up)
turns itself off.

So you plod around with no sense of danger, unable to form plans,
your pieces seem to hate you, (they keep going to wrong squares)
and self doubt is the order of the day.

It will pass. Take a break from any training regime you are in.

Relax and play over a game you really like.
An old game you have not looked at for two or three years.

You will see things in it that you did not see before - you are getting better.
And it will also remind you why fell in love with game in the first place.

(ROT's = Rules of Thumb)

Football has just finished.

What do I do to cheer myself up.
Chernev's 1,000 short games opened at random. Never fails

I love trying to figure out what they were thinking.

Meet Jones v Tannassy, New York 1944.

When Black plays 11...Qa3 White hatches a plot trap the Queen.

White's Plan a : Trap the Black Queen
Rb1, d5 to kick the Knight on c6 and Bb4 does indeed trap the White Queen.

Black's plan B: Give up the Black Queen
but not on a3....