Chess Match: "Team RB" vs. "Fast Thinkers" Lurker Thread

[uberfish]

@uberfish:

Why did you not take the g5 bishop on move 16? I was about to congratulate you on your forceful play with a nice queen fork, but then you played Qa1.

the same reason he played Qc2 i guess, both of us missed the fork because we weren't paying attention to that bishop as relevant

[uberfish]

That was embarrassing. I guess I'll just have to play Qa5 again.

[Gustaran]

That was embarrassing. I guess I'll just have to play Qa5 again.

I must admit, I missed the move 15...Qa5+ as well. But after you had played it I thought this fork had been your plan all along and was your reason for chasing the queen away in the first place.
Then I checked if 16...Qxg5 17.Nxe4 contained a hidden problem, but after something like Qa5+ 18.Nc3 Nxd4! White would have been toast. And I even think after 17. Nb1 by White the fork with Qa5 would still have worked.

Ah well, that is one of those positions you can easily solve in 10 seconds in the tactics trainer but miss in a full game. It happens.

[pindicator]

Running out of book moves. Time to start figuring out what my plan is

[spellman]

So apparently I haven't studied Alehkine at all and I'm just kinda scratching my head going WTF at pindicator's game.

Around 10. I start getting lost as to the rationales.

[pindicator]

God, neither am I. But what I've been doing is following the chess.com games database and looking at games with similar positions to try and figure out what the normal ideas are for white in this type of position. I actually feel better about my game as black right now.

[Gustaran]

So apparently I haven't studied Alehkine at all and I'm just kinda scratching my head going WTF at pindicator's game.

Around 10. I start getting lost as to the rationales.

I have no real clue either, since I am not an e4 player and Black picked a somewhat rare variation.

In general in the Alekhine's defense, Black tries to lure the White center pawns forward and hopes that White will overextend his center, thereby creating weak squares for the black Knights.
Obviously, this approach was not successful in this game since White is still very stable.
I think the one major imbalance is the White space advantage on the queenside and even in the center.
So one possible plan would be to squeeze Black on the queenside by carefully advancing the pawns without conceding any squares. At the same time, White should probably be very careful with exchanging pieces (unless he gets something like the bishop pair or a better pawn structure) because exchanges usually benefit the side with less space.

That's just a very general idea, I have no clue if there are specific maneuvers for that kind of position, so if you feel like mating him with a kingside attack go for it.
I believe the main thing with these kinds of positions is to be patient. Sometimes your opponent will weaken himself with an unjustified attack because he doen't like his cramped position.

[uberfish]

Actually, Pind's position in the white game looks like white has an advantage due to his superior control of the centre, the black knights are fenced in and black always has to watch out for c4-c5 or d4-d5.

Anyway after all that mess with the queen and knight, I'm finally forcing white to move his king in my black game after 19.. Na2 Qxa2, since if he tries to block checks with his queen then Qxc3+ Qd2 Qa1+ Qd1 Qa5+ will pick up the bishop via that stupid fork again

[Gustaran]

I'm finally forcing white to move his king in my black game after 19.. Na2 Qxa2, since if he tries to block checks with his queen then Qxc3+ Qd2 Qa1+ Qd1 Qa5+ will pick up the bishop via that stupid fork again

It would be incredibly funny if that variation was indeed played.

[Jkaen]

Jkaen's problem is technique, which means he gets great positions against much stronger players but has trouble converting them.

Well part 1 complete in 1 game, I am up material now as black. Now to do the tricky bit!