As stated before, the chess game recorded on page
50359 seemed particularly instructive. I gave several scans and their algebraic notation; following I'll expand on those same scans, and the kind of thinking that went behind those moves, including, as best I can decipher, what my opponent's various strategies were.
Image 2 was previously posted by Riv. I have no idea who it is.
Hopefully Riv or someone else will tell me. She looks familiar, and probably is a star for those hypnotic eyes alone.
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm5215760/filmotype/actress?ref_=m_nmfm_1
...she’s actually not been in much. Currently on the TV show SWAT.
And yeah, those eyes...✅
I do not, unfortunately, have the complete log of this game.
The website reset on me before I could get it.
But I do have most of it, and it still should make for a good general guide.
So, as stated back on page 50359 of this thread, which you can click on as a hyperlink in the previous post, I recorded these after being 6 points down.
Normally that's a decisive advantage in chess, from what I understand.
For me, though, that's ALMOST par for the course; many if not most of my victories against people ranked higher than me are from point deficits of 3 or more. This guy was ranked lower; I wasn't really worried.
I'm playing as Black.
Notice above that I have no queen or bishops.
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We go through some moves that result in the clearing of a file.
(Note the vertical row of blank spaces on the board in the next scan.
That's a file.)
For me, though, I'm happy with the fact it's blocked White's light squared bishop.
That'll prove important very soon, and all throughout the reminder of the game.
However, in the immediate future, I've got to concern myself with his imminent knight attack. He's going to take my pawn on c7, which will simultaneously attack my king, which is on e8, AND my rook on a8.
This is a check, and the rules say if I get it from a knight, I can't do anything but make my king run away. In which case, I would not only have lost that pawn AND been forced to move somewhere less safe, I would also lose that rook and thus be TWELVE points down, instead of just six, which is bad enough as it is.
Fortunately, *castling queenside* (I'll be astericking terms that can be illustrated later in the thread if I think it might be helpful to beginning or intermediate players in the future) solves that pending problem.
Now his horsie (knight) attacking the pawn on c7 would result in horsie's death at my king's hands. So he doesn't attack there, he instead attacks my king and knight by moving to a7. This type of check, which threatens the king and another piece simultaneously, similar to the one his knight WOULD have given to my king and rook if I HADN'T castled, is called a fork. It's what knights do.
It's what either of MY knights will do, given the opportunity, and my opponent knows this, and he's trying to force me to trade pieces off now that he has a significant point advantage.
I'm forced to take his knight.
He takes mine in turn with his dark-squared bishop.
But this is a trap. My knight was in the bottom corner. By simply now moving the pawn at b7 up to b6, his bishop can't get back out without taking that pawn and getting captured in turn.
So he advances his own b-file pawn, possibly hoping I'll get distracted and trade up there in a way that'll permit his other pieces, namely his queen, other pawns, and rook, to free that bishop:
No dice. That bishop is gone. His light squared bishop being blocked off permits my king to go to b7 himself and take that bishop out in 2 turns:
That block at e4 also prevents his Queen from taking my pawn at e5.
He's literally being stopped by his own pieces:
This point deserves emphasis.
Pieces can be important in Chess even when they can't directly actively engage your opponent. My pawn at e5 can do nothing directly to White's light-square bishop. Yet in simply holding White's pawn at e4, he blocks that light square bishop as well, since in chess no piece save the knight can vault past friendly comrades.
Now note how that same block prevents my king from being pinned by white's light-square bishop. Which means he can attack the other White bishop, the White bishop on dark-squares.
Now note how the white queen's attack is similarly blunted.
She can't take the e5 pawn creating this blockade because she can't move past her own e4 pawn. The same pawn blocking White's light square bishop. She also can't go to a3 to attack my king because of the white pawn occupying THAT spot.
It's possible to use an opponent's strength in forces against them. Not every point deficit in Chess is decisive.
I move my rook up to White's queen to diagonally block it from my king.
The black pawn nearest my king was ready doing that, of course, but, by definition, that made that pawn "pinned" to the spot; so long as it was the only
thing keeping the White Queen from sending my king to heaven, it could not move. With a second defender, though, that pawn now has freedom.
My opponent now makes a mistake. Instead of moving his pawn up ONE space, allowing it to pressure my rook, and re-establish the pin his queen had on my king's nearest defender, that aforementioned pawn at b6, he moves his pawn up TWO spaces, to c4. Doubtless he means to march that pawn, empowered by his rook, all the way down to the other end of the board, where it can become a 2nd queen. Why waste time in getting started?
But that will still take time to accomplish, and I succeed in giving him something to worry about by marching my own pawns up the board on the opposite side. My b6 defender goes but my king avenges, and then takes on blockade duty for himself. Worried about his own king, my opponent allows inexperience to lead him to trying to take out my pawns with his light-square bishop ...
