Chess: Piggy vs. bookgirl_me — 0-1
Pre-game MuseBlog ratings: Piggy, 210; bookgirl_me, 200. As White, Piggy moves first.
New ratings: Piggy, 150; bookgirl_me, 260.
Date: May 10, 2010
Categories: Chess, Games completed
Comments RSS TrackBack 8 comments
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bookgirl_me
in May 14th, 2010 @ 02:33Oh, cake. That teaches me to make moves early in the morning…
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Piggy
in May 15th, 2010 @ 11:00It doesn’t seem like too bad a move to me.
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bookgirl_me
in May 16th, 2010 @ 06:14I doubt it was, but there would have been a better one…
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bookgirl_me
in May 24th, 2010 @ 09:08Hey, I have an idea…
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in May 25th, 2010 @ 06:35An instructive game! Other MBers could learn a lot by reviewing the moves. (I’ll post some notes soon.)
New ratings: Piggy, 150; bookgirl_me, 260.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in May 25th, 2010 @ 07:12I see two main lessons in this game:
1. Strong Pawns vs. Weak Pawns
In a group of linked pawns on same-colored squares, the forward pawns are strong (because they’re defended by the pawns behind them), but the backward pawns are weak. When “reading” a position, it’s a good idea to look at your opponent’s backward pawns and decide whether they’d make good targets.
For example, after White’s 13th move, 13. Bf1, Black has no backward pawns. White has one backward pawn, at g3. The g3 pawn is a good target for Black. 13. … Ne4 would almost certainly win it. After …Nxg3, Black’s queen could snap up the isolated pawn on h4. With Black’s pieces pouring into the kingside, it would hard for White to avoid checkmate. That’s how I’d have attacked as Black, instead of attacking White’s well-defended queenside with 13. … b5.
With 13. … b5, Black creates a backward pawn at c6. If White had more time, he could attack it by playing Nc2 and Ne4. The e4 square would a great outpost for a White knight, because Black’s pawns wouldn’t be able to drive it away.
White’s 14. d4 creates backward pawns at c3 and e3. The backward e3 pawn is decisive, because it’s on an open file where an enemy rook can (and does) target it. What’s more, the white king is on the file behind the weak pawn — a dangerous place to be. White’s 14th move flings open the door to all of Black’s forces. Instead, White needed to keep the e3 pawn strong and get his king out of the center as quickly as possible.
2. What to Do with Rooks
In general, rooks should stay on the back rank (squares a1-h1 for White, squares a8-h8 for Black) at the beginning of the game. Moving a side pawn (e.g., 1. h4) and the rook forward (e.g., 5. Rh3) is usually a bad idea. It makes it impossible to castle the king, and it lets your opponent gain a rook in exchange for a bishop. (Rooks are about 60 percent more powerful than bishops.) I don’t understand why Black waited until move 9 to play bishop takes rook. White could have changed his mind!
</chess_appreciation_lesson>
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bookgirl_me
in May 25th, 2010 @ 10:56Rooks- Wouldn’t the white Bishop pose a threat to black if black took the rook? I eventually did anyway, but postponed it for fear of being vulnerable on the white diagonal.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in May 25th, 2010 @ 11:00bookgirl: The bishop might be annoying for a while, but you could work around it. It’s almost always worthwhile to put up with something like that in order to “win the exchange” (the technical term for gaining a rook in exchange for a bishop or a knight). And later in the game, your two rooks could work together as a battering ram in a way that your opponent couldn’t copy.
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