When I meet a lower rated player I try to keep the game challenging by playing weird stuff, like 1.g4 or 1...g5, or some such.
One of my favorites is 1.h4 followed by Rh3-Rf3-Rxf7 which, in effect, gives my opponent the odds of a R, but at the same time denies him the right to castle, so at least I have a teeny, tiny bit of compensation. Even with Rook odds lower rated players manage to lose a lot of games. Why?
Many lower rated players concentrate their study on openings, but the late National Master James Schroeder wrote that the best moves are not in the books and advised against reading opening books or articles until you are at least an Expert (2000-2199).
He also advised not to use books like Modern Chess Openings or Encyclopedia of Openings because they are compilations of selective data and contain thousands of mistakes in analysis and their positional evaluations are often wrong.
According to Schroeder, only after you become completely knowledgeable of how to checkmate and thoroughly understand the endgame and know all the possible types of combinations and have played through at least a thousand master games are you are ready to study the openings. And, by that time you will be a Master.
Openings based on cheap traps are appealing, but you are wasting your time because if you cannot refute a bad move over the board
you will never be a good player, said Schroeder.
The late Senior Master Kenneth Smith gave the same advice. He emphasized tactics, making the point that tactics will overcome a bad opening, a poor middlegame and lack of endgame knowledge.
Smith's advice was similar to Schroeder's: only when you reach Expert can you stop devouring everything on tactics.
Smith demanded, yes, demanded was the word he used, that "you get every book on tactics that you can afford and study it as if your life depended on it!"
Additionally, Smith, like Schroeder and the first World Correspondence Champion C.J.S. Purdy, advocated playing over hundreds (thousands!) of unannotated games, spending 5-10 minutes on each while trying to guess the next move. The idea was to increase pattern recognition skills.
In the following game we see how true Smith's statements are. After white (me) sacrificed (or more accurately, threw away) a whole Rook in the opening, black had a winning game, but lost it because of tactics.
Tartajubow - Anonymous
Result: 1-0
Site: G10 Chess Hotel
Date: 2020
Desprez Opening
[...] 1.h4 This openng is named after the French player Marcel Desprez and has some other names: Kadas Opening (after Gabor Kadas, a Hungarian player), Anti-Borg Opening, Samurai Opening and Harry's Opening. I have also seen it called the Hawaiian Orangutan Attack. Whatever you call it, the opening is totally lacking in merit. 1...e5 I was happy to see this because 1...d5 upsets my plan to play Rh3-f3 followed by Rxf7.
15.♕xf3 c6 16.O-O-O Engines put black's advantage at 3-4 Pawns, but given that I am down a R and a P there must be some small compensation. 16...♕c5 This attacks the B and appears to make room for ...Be7, but in reality it serves no purpose as it results in the Q being misplaced and eventually it has to go back, all at a loss of time.
(19...♘xe4 20.♕f7#) 20.♗b3
23.c4 Winning the pinned N. 23...♗e7 24.cxd5 cxd5 At this point white is only the exchange down, but all of the pieces are in play while black's K is exposed and his Q and R on h8 are still out of play. 25.♕f5+
1...d5 This forces me to play something else. A reasonable move would be 2.d4 when the first move is just a waste of time. On occasion I have tried 2.a4 intending to sacrifice the the other R after Ra3-f3, but 2...e5 puts an end to that hope. 2.h5 On a few occasions I have been able to follow this up (after d2-d3 or d3-d4) with h6 disrupting black's K-side. It's bad, too. Oddly, Komodo only puts white at a disadvantage of slightly over half a P after 2...e5. 2...h6 Not really required, but black was a diviner of my plans. 3.d4 Back to normal chess! 3...♘f6 4.♘f3 ♗g4 Snagging the h-Pawn. 5.♘e5 ♗xh5 6.c4 e6 7.♕b3 Black is faced with the question as to whether or not to sacrifice his b-Pawn. Komodo thinks he should and continue developing with 7...Nc3 with an equal position. 7...♗g6 This is wrong because it allows me to weaken his K-side in addition to capturing the b-Pawn. 8.♘xg6 fxg6 9.♕xb7 ♘bd7 10.♘c3 white has equalized. Tartajubow-Guest/Chess Hotel 2020
2.♖h3 d5
2...♘c6 Here is an example from a couple of 1500 rated players. 3.b3 ♘f6 4.c3 g6 5.g3 ♗g7 6.b4 d6 7.a3 b5 8.a4 bxa4 9.♖xa4 a6 10.♗g2 ♗xh3 11.♗xh3 O-O 12.♗g2 ♕d7 13.♗h3 ♕e8 14.c4 ♖b8 15.♖xa6 ♘xb4 16.♖a7 White resigned. Nguyen,L (2545)-Ngo,G (2578)/Hanoi 2012
3.♖f3
3.♖e3 ♘c6 4.d4 f6 5.g3 ♗b4+ 6.c3 ♗e7 7.♗g2 ♗e6 8.dxe5 fxe5 9.♖d3 Black is better, but went on to lose in 36 moves. Krustev,G (2055)-Simov,Z/Sofia 2009
3...♕xh4 4.♖xf7 ♔xf7 A P and black's inability to castle hardly compensates for the R! 5.♘f3 ♕e7 6.d3 ♘f6 7.♗g5 h6 8.♗h4 ♗f5 9.e4 This is Komodo's first choice, but I don't see why because it costs another P. So, why did I play it? I honestly can't say! 9...dxe4 10.dxe4 ♗xe4 11.♘c3 ♗c6
11...♗xf3 According to Komodo this is evaluated about the same (3 Ps in black's favor) as the move played. 12.♗c4+ ♔e8 13.♕xf3 c6 14.O-O-O g5 15.♗g3 ♘bd7
12.♗c4+ ♔e8 13.♗g3 ♘bd7 14.♕e2 Attacking the e-Pawn. 14...♗xf3
14...♘h5 15.♗xe5
15.♘xe5 ♘xg3 16.♘xc6 ♕xe2+ 17.♘xe2 ♘xe2 18.♘xa7 ♘c3 19.♘b5 ♘xb5 20.♗xb5 c6 black is up gobs of material.
15...♗xf3 16.♕xf3 ♘xe5 17.♕xh5+ g6 winning a piece. 16...h5 Engines seem to offer no really clear path to victory and just recommend grinding white down. 17.♗h4 Here Komodo wants to run with the K: ...Kd8-c7-b8 which looks meaningless or play 17...g5. 17...g5 18.♗xg5 ♗h6 19.♗xh6 ♖xh6 20.a3 and here, too, the engine offers no clear suggestions.
17.♗e6 ♔e7 After this white is winning because even though black is ahead in material the white pieces clustered around black's K have more freedom and are able to generate threats.
17...♕e7 keeps the upper hand. 18.♕f5 ♖g8 19.♗xg8 (19.♕g6+ leads nowhere. 19...♔d8 20.♕f5 g6 21.♕xe5 ♔e8) 19...♘xg8 20.♘e4 ♘gf6 21.♘d6+ ♔d8 22.♘xb7+ ♔c7 23.♘d6 ♘d5 24.♘c4 ♕f6 25.♕e4 ♖e8 and white's attack, if you can call it that, has run out of gas and black is a piece up.
18.♕f5 ♖d8 19.♘e4
19.♗b3 threatening Qe6 mate was better. 19...♘d5 20.♗xd5 cxd5 21.♘xd5+ ♔d6 (21...♔e8 22.♕g6#) 22.♗h4 ♖c8 23.♘e7+ ♔c7 24.♖xd7+ ♔b8 25.♘xc8 and the game is over...black is lost.
19...♕a5 This position is rife with tactics, but n the end black because his Q , R and B are out of play and his K is exposed.
19...♕b4 This also loses. 20.♗b3 ♘d5 21.c3
21.♗xe5 g6 (21...♘xe5 22.♕xe5+ ♔f7 23.c4 ♗d6 24.♕f5+ wins) 22.♗f6+ ♘7xf6 23.♕e5+ ♔f7 24.♕xf6+ ♔e8 25.♗xd5 (25.♕xh8 ♕xe4 26.♕d4 ♕xd4 27.♖xd4 ♗c5 is winning for black.) 25...♖xd5 26.♕xg6+ ♔d8 27.♕f6+ ♔e8 28.♕g6+ draw. (28.♕xh8 loses to 28...♕xe4 29.♖xd5 ♕xd5)
21...♕a5 22.♔b1 ♕c7 23.♗h4+ g5 24.♗xg5+ hxg5 25.♘xg5 ♔d6 26.♗xd5 ♕c8 (26...cxd5 27.♕e6+ ♔c5 28.♖xd5+ ♔c4 29.♖xe5+ mate next move.) 27.♗c4+ ♔c5 28.♘e6+ and wins. 20.♗h4 was even better: white will win 20...g5 21.♗xd7 ♗g7 (21...gxh4 22.♕xf6#) 22.♘xf6 ♕xa2 23.♕xe5+ ♔f8 24.♖e1 is winning for white.
20...♘d5 21.♗xe5 ♘xe5 22.♕xe5+ ♔f7
22...♔d7 looks better because after 23.♗xd5
23.c4 would fail after 23...♖e8 24.♕f5+ ♔c7 25.cxd5 ♔b8 26.♕f4+ ♔a8 27.d6 ♕e5 and black has the upper hand.
23...cxd5 24.♖xd5+ ♕xd5 25.♕xd5+ white is better, but I am not so sure I could have demonstrated the win! 25.♖xd5 is even better. 25...♖xd5 26.♗xd5+ ♔e8 27.♗c6+ winning the Q.
25...♔e8 26.♗xd5 ♕c7+ 27.♔b1 ♗f6 Allowing a mate in 5.
27...♖d7 no good, but what else? 28.♖c1 ♖xd5 29.♕g6+ ♔d8 30.♖xc7 ♔xc7 31.♕xg7 leaves white with a won game.
28.♘xf6+ gxf6 29.♕xf6
29.♖e1+ was quicker. 29...♕e7 30.♖xe7+ ♔xe7 31.♕e6+ ♔f8 32.♕f7#
29...♖h7 30.♖e1+
30.♕g6+ ♔f8 31.♕g8+ ♔e7 32.♕xh7+ ♔d6 33.♗b3+ ♔c6 34.♖c1+ ♔b5 35.♕xc7 ♖d5 36.♗xd5 b6 37.♗c4+ ♔a4 38.♕xa7+ ♔b4 39.♕a3#
30...♖e7 Black resigned without waiting for 31.Qf7+ and 32.Rxe7+ Powered by Aquarium
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