### Author:  [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/81 "2010-05-12T16:14:15Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> Umm…we can just take the PGN. I’ve never seen a game that’s inappropriate for the internet, and you can’t learn how to improve until I tell you what you did wrong.
\
lame a attempt at humor.
i really wouldn’t mind someone picking it apart. i used to play a lot back in high school - 30+ years ago and was somewhat competitive. but apparantly it’s not like riding a bike.
and what is PGN?
---
### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/82 "2010-05-12T16:27:58Z")
1. e4 e6
2. d4 Nc6
3. c4 f5
4. exf5 exf5
5. Nf3 Qe7+
6. Be2 b6
7. O-O Ba6
8. Re1 O-O-O
9. a3 g6
10. b4 Bb7
11 .Nc3 a5
12 .Bf4 axb4
13 .Nd5 Qe4
11. Bxc7 Re8
12. Bd3 Qg4
13. Rxe8+ Resigns
(After 16. … Nd8; 17. Rxd8#)
Remarks: Black got behind with his development straight away - all his King side pieces stayed at home until the end. And once the Queen was facing down a white Rook on the same file, there was a threat of danger later on. I think a6 was the wrong square for the Black Bishop, it had to go to b7 later anyway as soon as White was threatening to move a pawn to b5. 11. …a5 is horrible - Black’s in no position to attack and in any case using the King’s pawn screen for it is asking for trouble. 13. …Qe4 was a mistake, but the position was probably beyond saving by then.
btw, would you like to go to [chess.com](http://chess.com) and either resign or play your only move? There’s a conditional reply ready to go.
---
### Author:  [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/83 "2010-05-12T16:33:24Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> It’s not cheating to go look up what opening you’re playing. It is cheating to look up what to do next. Saying “Oh look, we’re playing the Philidor” is OK. Saying “Wikipedia says I should play Nf6 next” is definitely, definitely not OK.
I don’t know if I should comment or not, since I’m not involved in the tournament, but anyway. Normally in correspondence chess, the use of opening books and databases is permitted, while the use of analysis engines is not. There are of course various tournaments set up under pretty much any variation of allowing references, engines, tablebases, and so on, but the general default is opening references in, engines out.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/84 "2010-05-12T16:45:02Z")
Learning opening is for chumps, anyway.
---
### Author:  [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/85 "2010-05-12T17:49:02Z")
> [@Malacandra](#):
>
> 1. e4 e6
> 2. d4 Nc6
> 3. c4 f5
> 4. exf5 exf5
> 5. Nf3 Qe7+
> 6. Be2 b6
> 7. O-O Ba6
> 8. Re1 O-O-O
> 9. a3 g6
> 10. b4 Bb7
> 11 .Nc3 a5
> 12 .Bf4 axb4
> 13 .Nd5 Qe4
> 11. Bxc7 Re8
> 12. Bd3 Qg4
> 13. Rxe8+ Resigns
> (After 16. … Nd8; 17. Rxd8#)
>
> Remarks: Black got behind with his development straight away - all his King side pieces stayed at home until the end. And once the Queen was facing down a white Rook on the same file, there was a threat of danger later on. I think a6 was the wrong square for the Black Bishop, it had to go to b7 later anyway as soon as White was threatening to move a pawn to b5. 11. …a5 is horrible - Black’s in no position to attack and in any case using the King’s pawn screen for it is asking for trouble. 13. …Qe4 was a mistake, but the position was probably beyond saving by then.
>
> btw, would you like to go to [chess.com](http://chess.com) and either resign or play your only move? There’s a conditional reply ready to go.
i offered a draw.
---
### Author:  [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/86 "2010-05-12T17:52:47Z")
ok, it’s done. thanks for the commentary. really be as brutal as you deem appropriate. one can only get better through listening to those smarter than ourselves.
and when you say king’s side pieces i assume you are talking about the bishops and knights, right?
it just seems like there is such a huge traffic jam in the middle of the board that i can’t figure out how to not step on my own toes.
---
### Author:  [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/87 "2010-05-12T17:59:45Z")
btw, **mal** was a gentleman throughout. even when i dropped the eff bomb there towards the end. i am more used to poker and that sort of “encouragement” is kind of typical. need to take it back a notch with you folks.
live and learn.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/88 "2010-05-12T21:02:17Z")
No problem. By “king’s side pieces” I mean your unmoved rook, knight and bishop on Black’s left. Finding squares for as many pieces as possible - preferably all - is a key element of opening strategy. They’re not much use on their starting squares.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/89 "2010-05-12T21:44:05Z")
Ha.
Out of morbid curiosity, I entered the first moves of my game into a chess openings database. **Chessic** is playing black has has opened with a Sicilian. (No surprise; I may not do planned openings, I do know what that is.) Anyway, my white opening apparently has no name, but results in a White win 100% of the time.
It’s one for one, but that’s still 100%, right?
---
### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/90 "2010-05-12T22:23:24Z")
> [@garygnu](#):
>
> Ha.
>
> Out of morbid curiosity, I entered the first moves of my game into a chess openings database. **Chessic** is playing black has has opened with a Sicilian. (No surprise; I may not do planned openings, I do know what that is.) Anyway, my white opening apparently has no name, but results in a White win 100% of the time.
>
> It’s one for one, but that’s still 100%, right?
I’m pretty sure it’s called the **gnu** opening.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/91 "2010-05-12T23:24:29Z")
I’ll have to work on it, mainly by not making a head-slapping mistake in only my 6th move.
---
### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/92 "2010-05-12T23:36:17Z")
A friend of mine once had the opportunity to talk to a master player and ask him, “how do I get good at chess?”
The answer was something like, “well, the _first_ thing you need to do is get a feel for each of the squares on the board, get familiar with all the things that typically happen in relation to that square.”
---
### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/93 "2010-05-12T23:41:50Z")
\*\*Cort \*\*did agree to play at the Giraffe Board, we will use the Chess Diagram Generator, anyone interested on seeing the game and make comments can go here:
> **[SDMB Chess Tournament 2010 Cort (white) vs GIGObuster - The Giraffe Boards](https://www.giraffeboards.com/blog.php?b=695)**
>
> SDMB Chess Tournament 2010 Cort (white) vs GIGObuster GIGObuster
---
### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/94 "2010-05-13T02:36:50Z")
> [@Malacandra](#):
>
> 1. e4 e6
> 2. d4 Nc6
> 3. c4 f5
> 4. exf5 exf5
> 5. Nf3 Qe7+
> 6. Be2 b6
> 7. O-O Ba6
> 8. Re1 O-O-O
> 9. a3 g6
> 10. b4 Bb7
> 11 .Nc3 a5
> 12 .Bf4 axb4
> 13 .Nd5 Qe4
> 11. Bxc7 Re8
> 12. Bd3 Qg4
> 13. Rxe8+ Resigns
> (After 16. … Nd8; 17. Rxd8#)
OK, a few mistakes here by both sides. Let’s go in order.
3…f5 is the wrong idea. It’s correct to challenge white on the light squares, but not with a flank attack. The proper move is 3…d5, staking a claim in the center. This stops white’s space-gaining idea of d4-d5 which gains a tempo on the knight, while any exchange on d5 by white lets black develop the queen’s bishop freely.
5…Qe7+ isn’t nearly as good as Bb4+. The main reason is for development. The queen check is easily parried by a move that white wants to play anyway (Be2), and it blocks in the king’s bishop. It’ll take two moves to develop it now.
1. a3?! shows that White’s heart is in the right place, but it’s a mistake. White wants to attack on the queenside, sure, but the patient hasn’t been prepped for surgery. a3 and b2-b4 are good piece-scaring ideas, but White’ firepower is still sitting at home. Before the wing assault, White should get the knight and bishop into the game. It maintains flexibility, and _that_ is the foundation of tactics.
11…a5 is completely the wrong idea. It’s like shackling your monarch and marching him out to the encroaching army. It’s called castling for a reason, and here, you’re basically tearing down your own castle walls. The entire purpose of a2-a3 and b2-b4 by white is to march down and trade away those protective pawns, but Black just ran out to meet them, saving White a bunch of time.
1. Bf4? misses a nice tactical shot across the bow. 12. Bg5! skewers the queen and rook. But what about Nf6, blocking the attack, you say? I respond with the much-called-for Nd5!, forking the knight, queen, and c6 pawn making things even worse for Black. So after 12. Bg5, black should just move the queen away, surrender the exchange, and lick his wounds.
13…Qe4 is a big mistake, but White screws up the opportunity and plays 14. Bxf7. Better is the immediate queen-trapping Bd3!, where Black has to settle for taking one of the bishops.
1. Re8 hands the game right back to White, though. Better is to just let White take the rook. Use the tempo to develop a piece. Instead, Black lines up one of his king’s defenders and lets it get traded off in the next two moves.
Overall, Black’s mistakes are two-fold. One, he didn’t develop…like, at all. Two, he neglected the center. Black said “It felt like the center was a traffic jam”. That’s because he owned none of it. With pieces and pawns going toward the center, black could actually fight for it and get some pieces to better squares. Instead, he was circled by White’s center-using pieces. Go back through the game and notice how many piece’s paths eventually go through the center. Answer: almost all of them.
---
### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/95 "2010-05-13T03:02:55Z")
The following is the **garygnu** - **Chessic Sense** game:
> [@](#):
>
> 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.b3 Nf6 4.Nf3 d6 5.h3 g6 6.Bb2 Bg7 7.d4 Nxe4 8.Bb5 Qa5+ 9.Nc3 Nxc3 10.Bxc6+ bxc6
> 11.Bxc3 Qxc3+ 12.Ke2 Ba6+ 0-1
We did, indeed, play a Sicilian. More specifically, it was roughly a closed sicilian. You know this by White’s pawns on d3 and e4 while Black has pawns on c5 and d6. I attempted to go into Accelerated Dragon lines, but couldn’t get you to come with me.
1. b3, I think, is slightly inaccurate. It weakens c3 too much, and \*\*gary’s \*\*bishop doesn’t belong on b2 anyway. It goes to d3 where it lines up with Qd2 so White can play Bh6, trading off Black’s dragon bishop. It is fated to die in this manner in almost all dragon positions.
2. h3 is a bit of a wasted tempo here. It usually guards g4 for two purposes: 1) it protects a bishop on d3 from being harassed and traded by Ng4. 2) it stops Black from playing Bg4 and pinning the king’s knight to the queen. But neither of these is a problem for **gary** , as one bishop is on b2 and the other can go to e2 to break any pins.
3. d4?? is just terrible. First, never challenge Black on the dark squares in a sicilian like this. You just don’t have the man-power to do such a thing. Second, it directly hangs an important pawn on e4. You’ll never get that one back.
4. Bb5? is just as tragic. It runs right into Qa5+, which isn’t _that_ bad but it’s really the next move that seals the deal…
5. Nc3?? should have been Nbd2. Putting it on c3 just loses a piece. I understand why you wanted to do it…to protect the bishop on b5…but I’ll just remove the defender.
After I take it w/ 9…Nxc3, **gary** correctly takes the opportunity to trade away his hanging bishop with check, but **gary** ’s next move is a big error.
1. Bxc3? does _not_ trap my queen like White intended. He forgot about my dragon bishop and my c-pawn, which free my queen from c3 safely, while White is down a piece and pawns. The correct followup would have been the pinning Qd2, afterwhich I planned to play:
_11. cxd4 12. Nxd4 Bxd4_ where my bishop sits pretty due to the discovered check if White plays Qxd4. I’d play _Nb5+ 14. Qd2 Qxd2 15. Kxd2 0-0_ where I win with my extra pawn and piece.
I actually screwed up that calculation. After 12. Nxd4 Qe5+! is even better, where after _13. Ne2 Ba6! 14. Bxc3 Qxe2 15. Qxe2 Bxc3! (not Bxd2, Bxa8)_ followed by BxQ, Black is crushing.
So in conclusion…don’t hang your center pawns, don’t push so many wing pawns, and check your tactics more thoroughly before losing a piece to it.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/96 "2010-05-13T04:38:03Z")
I’m better playing defense, so h3 was setting up that, only I mucked it up by going on an unadvised offensive. So I’m rusty.
---
### Author:  [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/97 "2010-05-13T14:13:28Z")
first, thanks for the honesty **chessic**. what would probably be helpful to me would to play with a couple of you fellers and have a running commentary while the game is going on.
and maybe i’ll never be good at chess. i am one of those types that learn by doing not reading the manual. and to be totally honest i understand the meaning of the words you are using but when you combine them the way you do it makes my head hurt.
oh well, it was good fun. i’d sign up for another shellacking.
---
### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/98 "2010-05-13T16:09:01Z")
> [@peekercpa](#):
>
> first, thanks for the honesty **chessic**. what would probably be helpful to me would to play with a couple of you fellers and have a running commentary while the game is going on.
>
> and maybe i’ll never be good at chess. i am one of those types that learn by doing not reading the manual. and to be totally honest i understand the meaning of the words you are using but when you combine them the way you do it makes my head hurt.
>
> oh well, it was good fun. i’d sign up for another shellacking.
You’re not done yet. The idea is that you’ll play other players with a similar record to yours as the competition goes on - that should give you some fairer match-ups.
---
### Author:  [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/99 "2010-05-13T16:29:27Z")
I think I’m looking forward to a pro critique of my game more than the game itself now.
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### Author:  [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2010-sdmb-chess-championship/538681/100 "2010-05-13T17:07:01Z")
I’m not looking forward to the chuckles at my potentially disastrous moment of tunnel vision! 🙂
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