P&B Chess League - Season 8 coming soon….

[GordonS]

Division C Round 17... um, season 1. Finishing the season this late = old West of Scotland Juniors.

GParsfan beats GordonS496.

I learned a lesson from them exchanging a knight for my white bishop and then attacking my backwards e pawn that was stuck on a white square. I'll remember that. I was up against it, spotted a sneaky way to engineer a back rank checkmate or take a bishop, but my honourable friend found the only move out of it, which was not an easy spot. After that I was done. 

Good game, good season. 

[pleslie99]

7 hours ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

Viking ton is probably the main proponent of this type of patter, but I don't know if it originated with him. Stuff like seething is now just part of the p&b lexicon, there's even a poster called Seething.

Here's the full board.

 

If I'm black here I probably still don't win the game

[Trogdor]

8 hours ago, Loki said:

I have now finished my five game series with Trogdor.  With a win and a draw and three defeats.   Lots of learning done in those games, mainly on how not to open.

I scraped a win with 98% accuracy, and got destroyed with 80% accuracy.  I never realised just how big an advantage white actually is.

You were pretty flawless in that win, I had to give a rook for a piece when you were already a piece up. Thus ending up a whole rook down just for the pleasure of playing on.

Openings are overrated as long as you stick to the broad principles of:

Contest the centre (ie. with your pawns)

Develop your pieces (don't move the same piece twice if it's avoidable in the opening)

Castle your king

Centralise a rook(s)

Do the above and chances are you will have a very playable game. The middlegame is where the fun is at.

 

[Trogdor]

7 hours ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

 

White is far too passive and inactive there. Material is level but White's position has no positives tbh.

[D Angelo Barksdale]

1 minute ago, Trogdor said:

White is far too passive and inactive there. Material is level but White's position has no positives tbh.

Yeah, white played a terrible opening and eventually resigns after about 40 moves.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

White is far too passive and inactive there. Material is level but White's position has no positives tbh.

It's about as bad as you could get in a developed game.

King in the middle, Queen tied up, other pieces are passive and doubled pawns.

You could cope with one of these - but not all four at the same time.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

On 13/04/2021 at 11:29, Frank Grimes said:

Division B	P	W	L	D	Pts
RicheyEdwards	0	0	0	0	0
Cardinalrichie	0	0	0	0	0
Strachanovski	0	0	0	0	0
Arabjoe	0	0	0	0	0
NotThePars	0	0	0	0	0
hammysgp	0	0	0	0	0
eindhovendee	0	0	0	0	0
GCarlos9	0	0	0	0	0
topcateh3	0	0	0	0	0
Board_Stupid	0	0	0	0	0
pleslie999	0	0	0	0	0

 

 

Hold on I thought division C was the bottom league! What am I doing in B?

 

 

 

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

26 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Hold on I thought division C was the bottom league! What am I doing in B?

Load of sharks in this league m9. Better get your arse in gear.

Thank you.

[ShaggysBeard]

3 hours ago, Trogdor said:

You were pretty flawless in that win, I had to give a rook for a piece when you were already a piece up. Thus ending up a whole rook down just for the pleasure of playing on.

Openings are overrated as long as you stick to the broad principles of:

Contest the centre (ie. with your pawns)

Develop your pieces (don't move the same piece twice if it's avoidable in the opening)

Castle your king

Centralise a rook(s)

Do the above and chances are you will have a very playable game. The middlegame is where the fun is at.

 

Murder at this. Only took the game up in the post Christmas lockdown, seems to be a time when the chess world is obsessed with cheap bait and opening traps aimed at bullet and blitz. Always tempted into these before finishing a proper development.

[Frank Grimes]

10 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Hold on I thought division C was the bottom league! What am I doing in B?

 

 

 

Luck of the draw

Would you prefer to be lower?

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Luck of the draw
Would you prefer to be lower?

I would have. I’m genuinely very inexperienced. But if that’s the draw then I’ll live with it

I’ll end up going down but hopefully learn something from the experience

[GordonS]

14 hours ago, Trogdor said:

You were pretty flawless in that win, I had to give a rook for a piece when you were already a piece up. Thus ending up a whole rook down just for the pleasure of playing on.

Openings are overrated as long as you stick to the broad principles of:

Contest the centre (ie. with your pawns)

Develop your pieces (don't move the same piece twice if it's avoidable in the opening)

Castle your king

Centralise a rook(s)

Do the above and chances are you will have a very playable game. The middlegame is where the fun is at.

 

I've seen that advice a lot but I'm not finding it to be true. Against randoms I'm doing all the things you say but still starting the midgame behind. Yes, I often turn it round and win with better midgame play but I'm frequently losing because I can't recover. It seems like there's a lot of knowledge of opening traps and unless you know the theory of a line pretty well, you often get caught out. In one of my league matches here I was developing normally and got hammered by something my opponent said he learned on Tiktok.

I've learned two openings for white and one for black, and that's made a big difference - but if my opponent makes me deviate from those lines early I can struggle.

[Frank Grimes]

2 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

I would have. I’m genuinely very inexperienced. But if that’s the draw then I’ll live with it

I’ll end up going down but hopefully learn something from the experience

 

That’s the spirit

I’ve organised the fixtures now and can’t be bothered changing them  

[ShaggysBeard]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

I've learned two openings for white and one for black, and that's made a big difference - but if my opponent makes me deviate from those lines early I can struggle.

That'll be you facing 1. d4 every league game now.

[Richey Edwards]

3 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

I would have. I’m genuinely very inexperienced. But if that’s the draw then I’ll live with it

I’ll end up going down but hopefully learn something from the experience

 

I was in the top league despite being inexperienced and got absolutely ragdolled most games. It was a good experience though, although losing so many games is very demoralising and I thought about dropping out. I'm glad I didn't drop out.

I'll do my best to save you from the ignominy of finishing bottom. I want to be the first person to play in all three divisions.

[Uncle Psychosis]

Too late for another player? 

I'm 1500 Blitz on Chess.com. Haven't played slower time control in ages but keen to play a bit more. 

[Frank Grimes]

45 minutes ago, Uncle Psychosis said:

Too late for another player? 

I'm 1500 Blitz on Chess.com. Haven't played slower time control in ages but keen to play a bit more. 

I’m sure we can squeeze you in

We currently have three leagues of 11

A rating of 1500 makes me think you’d be suited to the top league?

[Uncle Psychosis]

10 minutes ago, Frank Grimes said:

I’m sure we can squeeze you in

We currently have three leagues of 11

A rating of 1500 makes me think you’d be suited to the top league?

Sure, but I don't want to take anyone else's space. Stick me in wherever. 

Username on Chess.com is ChessBassGuitar

[Stellaboz]

2 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

I was in the top league despite being inexperienced and got absolutely ragdolled most games. It was a good experience though, although losing so many games is very demoralising and I thought about dropping out. I'm glad I didn't drop out.

I'll do my best to save you from the ignominy of finishing bottom. I want to be the first person to play in all three divisions.

Like an opposite Gretna? (but without the liquidation hopefully)

[Trogdor]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

I've seen that advice a lot but I'm not finding it to be true. Against randoms I'm doing all the things you say but still starting the midgame behind. Yes, I often turn it round and win with better midgame play but I'm frequently losing because I can't recover. It seems like there's a lot of knowledge of opening traps and unless you know the theory of a line pretty well, you often get caught out. In one of my league matches here I was developing normally and got hammered by something my opponent said he learned on Tiktok.

I've learned two openings for white and one for black, and that's made a big difference - but if my opponent makes me deviate from those lines early I can struggle.

There's no doubt that you can still fall into opening traps. It happens to all of us. Sticking to those broad principles should make it less likely but you are correct- it is no guarantee.

Those principles are not hard and fast rules. The likes of analysing every check and capture is really important and doing a final 'idiot' check before you move (I often forget to do this and then blunder). 

I generally don't know a vast amount of opening theory. There are some subtleties of move order that may catch me out now and then. I stick to openings that are simple and without ending up in hundreds of lines and variations. It's not a memory test afterall. Where's the fun in that? I also try to deviate pretty regularly, if you become too predictable you find people may prepare for playing you (particularly in a league format).

ETA - The bottom line is there is no one way to play and that's what makes the game so interesting. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Trogdor