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charleshiggie 29-Aug-08, 00:24	Learn from my mistakes! OK a new line, where hopefully people can describe mistakes in such a way as to help themselves, and others avoid them! The first one I am going to describe was in the England Team Tournament, when I had white against Luke_NL. We are taught to look out for checks and captures, but sometimes an attack on the queen can be just as strong as an attack on the king. In this position, I was thinking, "I play e4 attacking his knight on d5. Let's see, he has no checks or captures, so he has to retreat his knight. His knight was protecting the c7 square, so after he retreats his knight I play rook to c7, attacking f7 again, unless of course he retreats to the knight to e7, but then it is attacked and he can't play Re1 as Nd7 traps his queen. Yes, e4 seems to win for me." Unfortunately, what I completely missed was that instead of moving his knight, he attacks my queen, gets a second rook on the second rank, and the position changes from being good for me to being good for him. I think there was also an element of what Kotov describes as "dizziness due to success", in that when I made the blunder I was a pawn up and very happy with the position. Incidentally in our other match I was able to follow a line from my opening database until well into the endgame, and was able to secure half a point without having to struggle too much. Anyway, this is the game I was talking about,- 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. Bd3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. f4 d5 8. Nf3 O-O 9. O-O cxd4 10. cxd4 dxc4 11. Bxc4 b6 12. Ba3 Re8 13. Ne5 Bd7 14. Rc1 a6 15. Bd3 Ne7 16. Qe2 Bb5 17. Bxb5 axb5 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 I am just a clear pawn up 19. Qxb5 Rxa2 20. Qxb6 Nd5 21. Qb1 Qa3 22. Qb7 Qf8 This is the critical position, when I made the mistake 23. e4 Rb8 24. Qxf7+ Qxf7 25. Nxf7 Rbb2 26. Rf3 Rxg2+ 27. Kf1 Kxf7 28. exd5 exd5 29. h3 Rgd2 30. Re1 Rxd4 31. Re2 Rxe2 32. Kxe2 Kf6 33. Ke3 Re4+ 34. Kd3 Kf5 35. Rg3 g6 36. Rg5+ Kxf4 37. Rxd5 Re3+ 38. Kd2 Rxh3 39. Ke2 Rh2+ 40. Kf1 g5 I should have resigned here, against a player like Luke_NL there is no way back 41. Kg1 Ra2 42. Rb5 Rd2 43. Rb4+ Ke5 44. Rb5+ Rd5 45. Rb7 h5 46. Kg2 Kf5 47. Rb4 g4 And here I finally resigned.
charleshiggie 29-Aug-08, 00:30	underestimated my opponent I have recently made a huge mistake, mainly as I underestimated my opponent. I am playing samwisegamgeese in a tournament, he is only rated 1058. He is white. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d3 g6 4. b3 Bg7 5. c3 d5 6. Bb2 dxe4 7. Ng5 exd3 8. Bxd3 Nh6 9. f4 O-O 10. O-O Qa5 Now the combination of his low grade, the fact that he played an unorthodox set-up against my Sicilian defence and the fact that he just let me take a pawn for nothing, lulled me into a false sense of security. 11. Na3! Bxc3? 12. Nc4! And now I have the choice of losing my bishop for a couple of pawns, or queen for a couple of pieces and a couple of pawns. I have gone from being an easy pawn up to being materially behind.
aandersen 31-Aug-08, 14:09	I went to have a look at the games but in both cases when i click on the game, it says loading and then nothing happens. Anyone else having this problem?
aandersen 31-Aug-08, 14:14	I think there should be a new rule. At the moment when your king is attacked your opponent says check. I think they should also say quack to signify that your queen is attacked.
muttit 31-Aug-08, 14:35	I think that the 'analyse the board' function should highlight all (unprotected) pieces that can be taken. How about suggesting that to GK Annie ????

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