* The best way to play chess is to attack and attack, and attack some more.
* I want my mind to tell me a good move. If it tells me the move to play, do not analyze long sequences of moves in order to determine if the move is good - a short sequence is enough.
* Examine both logical and illogical moves. Examine all checks and captures...look at every move: it weakens something and threatens something, short-range tactics, long-range tactics, strategy relevant to the position...
* Positional play can bring excellent positions. It can be used to put the opponent under enormous pressure, reduce their counterplay...However, to finish off the game usually requires a tactical blow which will convert the advantage in a technical way...Tactical ability and the ability to spot combinations thus helps to convert positional advantages into more concrete gains...Positional plans can fail tactically even though their concept is very good.
When I was starting out in chess Botvinnik was king and the emphasis was on positional play, so the study of tactics was pretty much ignored. I was not aware that positional play still requires that one be tactically aware and that one should learn tactics before positional play, because, as Schroeder pointed out, more often than not, securing the win will be a result of tactics not positional play.
When I feel like playing some blitz, Chess Hotel is my site of choice and a few things have become obvious. One, many players have fragile egos! Play on the site is anonymous and if you play as a guest, as most do, your rating disappears as soon as you leave the site. It's not unusual for some players who are quitters and can't stand losing to simply abandon the game; when they do you are awarded the win within a few seconds.
Others are even more annoying...they simply quit moving and let their time run out. On a couple of rare occasions I have run into shameful individuals like the opponent the other day who, when he got a lost position, started messaging me with bad English laced with profanity. Read an article on Sore Losers HERE.
Ego damaged individuals aside, many average players (everybody on the site!) seem to think tactics means sacrificing something, but in many cases they are not sacrificing anything at all...they are simply throwing away some material! For example, 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Bxf7+ is not a sacrifice, it's just giving away a piece for nothing.
That great teacher C.J.S. Purdy always emphasized sound tactics. Purdy explained strategy as “choosing aims,” meaning an attempt at reaching a particular type of position. He was always quick to point out that strategy is a reliable course of action to be undertaken only after tactics can be ruled out.
A Purdyism: All good players must be good tactically. All masters must be good both tactically and strategically. Someone who is good strategically and not tactically may understand the play of masters up to a point, but cannot possibly play well himself.
Of course, we amateurs often aren't good enough to know when a tactic is truly sound, but we should, at least, have some sort of logical basis for making a sacrifice. Even the tactics of great players have sometimes been proven unsound by engines, but sometimes they were successful because they lead to positions that were more complicated than a human could handle.
I don't usually post my games because they aren't that good, or even interesting, but the following game was really messy and even examining all the possibilities with Stockfish was challenging.
The game featured an idea I played in a postal game way back in 1960. As white against the Sicilian I had a B on g5 and Pawns on e4, f4, g4 and h4. After the B was attacked by ...h6, I let my opponent take the B with ...h6xg5. In that game and in this one I was skating on thin ice because the sacrifice was unsound, but it worked.
Tartajubow–John Doe1–0B99Chess Hotel2022Stockfish 15
Sicilian Najdorf 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 2...c6 An early example of the ...
h6xg5 Bishop sacrifice. 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 d6 6.g5 e6 7.b5
I was always fond of this move. d7 8.a4 This doesn't show up in the
databases, but is was given with a ! in Modern Chess Openings, 10th edition. xd4 This is wrong, but it was book. 8...Be7 is best. 9.xd7+ Book, but 9.
Qxd4 was better. xd7 10.xd4 e7 11.0-0-0 c6 12.f4 d8 13.g4 b6
Passive. 13...b5 was better. Or 13...Rc8 14.d2 0-0 15.h4 h6 16.xh6 16.xf6 xf6 17.a4 xa4 18.xa4 g5 Black is better.. 16.d3 This is
correct. The B is immune. hxg5 17.hxg5 xg4 18.d5 He can't take the N
because 19.dxd5 attacks the Q and threatens mate on h7. d7 19.f3 f5 20.exf5 exf5 20...xg5 21.xg4 xf4 22.xf4 xf5 23.h4 f7 24.e3
Stockfish says white is clearly winning, but in practice I am not so sure. 21.xe7+ wins the Q 16...e5 17.e3 xg4 18.g3 xh6 19.g2 g6 20.d5 d7 21.h5 exf4 22.xf4 1-0 Tartajubow-JRW, Correspondence 1960 3.d4
This game is a rare occasion when playing online blitz that I did not try some
bizarre opening. cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 a6 6.g5 e6 7.f4 bd7 8.f3 c7 9.0-0-0 e7 Equally good was 9...b5 10.g4 The book offers black two good
choices here: 10...b5 or 10...b6. c5 But not this after which Stockfish
give white a 2.5 Pawn advantage if he plays 11.e5. This game is a good example
of why it is useless for non-masters to put a great emphasis on studying
openings. Rarely have I had a game in which the players followed book lines
for more than 6 or 8 moves. 11.h4 11.b3 d7 12.d3 c8 13.b1 b5 14.he1 Black is slightly better. Wegener,D (2305)-Fokin,S (2420) Katowice 1993. 11.xf6 xf6 12.g5 e7 13.f5 e5 14.b3 xb3+ 15.axb3 xg5+ 16.b1 b5 17.g1 White is slightly better. Nuno Spiewak,M-Morera Rodriguez,I (1646)
Madrid 2009 11.e5 This is by far the best. dxe5 12.fxe5 d5 13.xe7 xe7 14.f5 g5+ 15.d2 exf5 16.xd5 e4 17.xe4 fxe4 18.h4 e7 19.xe4
White is clearly better. 11...h6 Better was 11...b5 trying to get
counterplay on the Q-side. When analyzing this game I was completely surprised
to discover that this position is not new! it wasn't reached in a master game,
far from it, but it has been reached before and white played the correct 12.
Bxf6 and enjoyed an advantage. 12.d3 Need it be said that this
is unsound? Even so, it's not totally bad...Stockfish evaluates the position
as a little less than a P and a half in black's favor, not a whole piece worth.
..3 Ps. 12.xf6 xf6 13.g5 hxg5 14.hxg5 xh1 15.xh1 xd4 16.h8+ e7 17.xd4 d5 18.exd5 e5 19.d6+ xd6 20.xd6 xd6 21.fxe5+ xe5 22.xg7+ e6 23.f6+ d7 24.h3+ e6 25.xf7+ d6 26.e4+ d5 Harokopakis,G (1845)
-Tsiros, D (1548) Athens 2008 1-0 12...xd3+ Strictly speaking this is not
quite as good as 12...hxg5, but it was the move I didn't want to see.. I am
not sure why! 12...hxg5 was also good. 13.hxg5 xh1 14.xh1 fd7 15.h8+ f8 According to Stockfish black's advantage is not quite one Pawn. 13.xd3 13.xd3 This is also a reasonable alternative. hxg5 14.hxg5 xh1 15.xh1 d7 16.f5 16.g6 is also plausible. f8 16...fxg6 17.xe6 a5 18.c4 b6 19.xg7+ d8 20.f7 c5 21.e8+ c7 22.xe7+ White wins. 17.gxf7+ xf7 18.g5 b5 19.f3 c5 20.b3 b6 Black is only slightly better. 16...exf5 17.d5 c6 18.gxf5 Black is better. 13...hxg5 14.hxg5 xh1+ 15.xh1 d7 Black's advantage is less than 3/4 of a P. 16.h8+ f8 17.h3 Bringing the R to the h-file looks logical, but it
is vastly inferior as indicated by the fact that the engine now puts black's
advantage at a whole piece after striking a blow at the center with 17...d5! 17.g6 keeps white in the game. c5 17...d5 is a losing blunder. 18.gxf7+ xf7 19.xe6 xe6 20.g8+ d6 21.e5+ c6 22.xd5 b8 23.e6+
and wins. The K can't run away. b5 24.a3 mates in 12. d6 25.b3+ c6 26.exd6 xd6 27.d3 b8 28.e7+ b6 29.xd6+ a7 30.c7 a8 31.xc8 xc8 32.xc8+ a7 33.xd7 b6 34.xb7+ c5 35.d5+ c4 36.c6# 18.f3 fxg6 19.b4 e7 20.f5 Pressing on with the attack is white's best option. 20.bxc5 dxc5 21.de2 d7 Black is much better. 20...exf5 21.exf5 d7 The N cannot be
saved. 21...d7 22.e6 e5 23.d5 white wins... f7 24.xf8 xf8 25.c7+ e7 26.f6+ gxf6 27.d5+ e8 28.xf6+ e7 29.d5+ 22.bxc5 0-0-0 23.h2 gxf5 24.gxf5 g5+ 25.b1 e8 with unclear complications. 17...b5 17...d5 This counter in the center was far better. 18.e5 Somewhat better
is 18.Nce2, but this allows an instructive tactical blow. xe5 19.fxe5 xe5 20.f3 f4+ 21.b1 xg4 and clack is winning. 18.g6
Pressing on. c5 18...fxg6 Not good! 19.xe6 b6 20.f5 g1+ 21.d1 xg4 22.h4 f3 23.h7 gxf5 24.g8 b7 25.xg7+ d8 26.e6+ c8 27.xf8
Black should play 18...b6!-+ 19.f5 e7 20.gxf7+ xf7-+ 19.f5
White missed a very pretty Q sac! Only move: 19.xf8+ xf8 20.h8+ e7
To stay in the game white has to play yet another sacrifice! 21.f5+ d7 21...exf5 allows white to get the advantage after 22.d5+ 22.gxf7 c6 23.f8 b7 24.e7+ b6 25.xg7 Stockfish gives black a less than one P
edge, but in practical play things are unclear. 19...b4 This
turns the advantage over to white. 19...e7 would have left black with a
bright future. 20.b4 a4 21.xa4 bxa4 22.gxf7+ xf7 23.fxe6 xe6 White
has no attack left and is a piece down; black wins. 20.f6 As
it turns out this is the best move, but at the time I was getting worried and
was just trying to complicate. Also, I was about a minute ahead of my opponent
on time . The time limit was 8 minutes plus 2 seconds. Stockfish puts white's
advantage at about 2.75 Ps. 20.h7 results in messy complications after d3+ 21.cxd3 bxc3 22.xg7 cxb2+ 23.xb2 a5 24.gxf7+ d7 25.fxe6+ c7 26.xf8 d2+ 27.a3 But black has a draw by repeated Q checks. 20...fxg6
Black used some precious time here, but found the relatively best move. My
next move also took some time trying to figure out how to continue the attack
which at the time I was not even sure I had! In fact, white is winning. 20...bxc3 21.xf8+ d7 22.e7# 21.h7 This threatens 22.
fxg7 bxc3 21...f7 Was the only defense. White is still winning IF he
finds the correct continuation and the planned capture of the B isn't it! 22.fxg7 22.g5 This is the only move that keeps winning chances, but the
complications are head whirling. a7 22...bxc3 23.xg7 a7 24.xf7 xf7 25.e5 White has a decisive advantage according to the engine. 23.xg7 bxc3 He could also play 23...Qxg7 23...xg7 24.fxg7 xg7 25.d1 xe4 The
engine says white is winning. 24.xf7 cxb2+ 25.xb2 xf7 26.e5 dxe5 27.c6 d7 And Stockfish comments white is clearly winning, but I am not
Stockfish. 22...f4+ 23.d1 bxc3 24.gxf8+ xf8 25.xf8+ xf8 26.bxc3 e5 27.c6 g8 Black is winning. 22.fxg7 cxb2+ 23.b1 Black was running out of time and fell into a mate.
xe4 23...f7 Threatens a check on f1 followed by ...Nxa4+ and black has
a perpetual check. 24.f5 The only move that wins because it blocks the
f-file. 24.gxf8+ xf8 25.xf8+ xf8 Black has a decisive material
advantage. 24...exf5 25.g8 25.gxf8+ xf8 26.exf5 xh8 27.xh8+ f7 and wins 25...xg8 26.xg8 e6 27.xg6+ d8 28.gxf5 White is winning. 24.gxf8# A very complicated game! 1–0
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