Originally posted by Pawn ArtistBe careful with your conclusions, please. There can be ùany reasons for losing games. Come back with your question after you played two draws against Quirine, as he did.
Stranger2003, does a 2000 lose to 1400s *EIGHT* times? Im sorry but usually online ratings are a 200 or so points OVER your over the board rating
Any input for the position? Here is mine:
- obvious candidate is Rdf1, initiating play on the open f-file
or, perhaps even better
- Nb1 aiming at d2 and c4, attacking the singleton at e5
Moves like h4 and g3 are also possible
Pawn Artist, chess related stuff only, please !
You are a pretty strong player, Mephisto ! The e5 pawn is a weakness in blacks position and it can be attacked with the knight manueve (?) Sb1-Sd2-Sc4. Unless e5 is recognized as a weakness, Nb1 is a hard move to find. Play on the f-file looks also natural but Sb1 as played in the game is better.
After Sb1 g5, Sbd2 h6, Sc4 Sg6, b4! white start attacking another weakness, the black king !
Doubled pawns use to be a weakness, but a weakness is only a weakness if it can be exploited. After for instance Na4, attacking the c5-pawn, black replies b6 protecting the c-pawn and the a-pawn as well, and its hard to see how white can make progress. Whites best move is probably Nc3, when losing 2 tempos is all he has achieved.
Other players are welcome to contribute with examples on positional play !
Thought the position looks simple, this exercise can be difficult and require some imagination.
The evaluation of the position is easy. White has a lead in development, his rook occupies the open file while blacks queenside is still undeveloped. The question is how white can exploit his better development before black solves his problem.
Rc7 is an obvious candidate move. If a rook can be brought to the 7th rank then its a move that should always be considered ! But in this case Rc7 doesn't give white anything because black can easily chase the rook away with Ke8-Kd8 or Bd8 if necessary.
The breakthrough d5 is another obvious candidate move. White wins a pawn, but gives black opportunity to activate his queenside, which increase his chances to save the game. For instance 19 d5 exd5 20 Bxd5 Be6 21 Bxe6 fxe6 22 Bxa7 Ra8 23 Bc5 Rxa2 or 22 Rc7 b5 23 Rxa7 b4
Is there anything better ? In the game white played 19 Bh3 ! This is an improved version of the d5-breakthrough. The point is that after d5 black cannot play exd5 because Bc8 is hanging. This gives white the possibility to play d5-d6, grapping more space and creating a protected and dangerous passed pawn on d6.
19 Bh3! Ke8 20 d5 Bd7 21 d6 Bd8 22 Bg2 b6 23 f4 Rc8 24 Kf2 Rxc1 25 Bxc1 Bb5
White has managed to convert his lead in development into more permanent advantages, a strong passed pawn on d6 and more space. But the game is far from over ! The game (Kramnik -Lautier, Horgen 1995) lasted another 40 moves before black resigned.
