Tuesday 28 January 2014

The 'psychology' of moving rook to b5 on move 6!

I had one of my first games in the Berkshire League back in October 2013. This was a Center Counter - my opponent had probably never faced 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4 Qxb4 5.Rb1 Qa5 6.Rb5!? (Note: if Black holds on to the pawn in the endgame then he's probably won). Unfortunately for my opponent, he spent something like 15-20 minutes trying to decipher moves 5 and 6 which was simple scare tactics - a psychological ploy, nothing hidden and no more complicated than that! This is pretty much how the game continued ... I would play a move and my opponent would grace me by taking excessive chunks of valuable clock time (no doubt in this game his indecisiveness cost him).

Poor time-management is not uncommon, but it is one of those foibles that has to be stamped out to be in for a shout at club-level. Blitz is a useful exercise in training the brain to think quickly, especially in an endgame melee. This game boiled down to a simple tactic that allowed me to win a pinned Knight and take advantage of my opponent's poor time-keeping!

As usual, any comments welcome ...


Center Counter




PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

Sunday 26 January 2014

Hanging piece leads to a simple win ...

My first game of the 2013-2014 season saw me up against someone with very little match experience, so not too much to write about here. I am recording the game because it was my first gift of the season in the Berkshire league and will be instructive for juniors!

As usual, any comments welcome ...


Sicilian




PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/