Hi guys, I'm fairly new to chess and I finally beat the computer at level 1 (noob I know). Can you guys have a quick look and give me some pointers, I really want to improve and hopefully get a better understanding of chess :)
Thanks
Thanks
play better openings, this one is strange
You played this well. a few remarks.
9 Bh5 is wrong. A bishop is worth more than a knight. After 9...Nxh5 10 Qxh5 O-O black is better as he has the bishops' pair.
10 Bxf7+ is wrong. A rook and a pawn is not enough for a bishop and a knight. Also you have spent moves to develop your bishop to c4 and your knight to e5 and you trade all that time for a rook that has just made 1 move. That leaves black better developed if he just recaptures 11...Kxf7.
I advice not to play level 1 any more: take on a higher level. You learn more if he punishes your mistakes.
Your opening is fine, it is black who plays weird with the premature queen move 3...Qd6.
9 Bh5 is wrong. A bishop is worth more than a knight. After 9...Nxh5 10 Qxh5 O-O black is better as he has the bishops' pair.
10 Bxf7+ is wrong. A rook and a pawn is not enough for a bishop and a knight. Also you have spent moves to develop your bishop to c4 and your knight to e5 and you trade all that time for a rook that has just made 1 move. That leaves black better developed if he just recaptures 11...Kxf7.
I advice not to play level 1 any more: take on a higher level. You learn more if he punishes your mistakes.
Your opening is fine, it is black who plays weird with the premature queen move 3...Qd6.
Maybe few pointers:
Move 6(Ne5),move 9(Bh5) you move already developed piece twice, in general you dont want to do that for no reason in opening, instead try develop other pieces, like Bf1 and after that O-O
It is not good trade- B+N for R and pawn in general. (10Bxf7+)
Before make any aggressive moves get your king safe
In general you dont want push pawns in front of your king(but in your game it was ok, due to different reasons).
Usually simplest moves are best moves, like simple recaptures, for example 16gxh4 Rxh4, your move g5 required deep analysis if it is even good or not, I would suggest you would avoid complicated lines.
Move 6(Ne5),move 9(Bh5) you move already developed piece twice, in general you dont want to do that for no reason in opening, instead try develop other pieces, like Bf1 and after that O-O
It is not good trade- B+N for R and pawn in general. (10Bxf7+)
Before make any aggressive moves get your king safe
In general you dont want push pawns in front of your king(but in your game it was ok, due to different reasons).
Usually simplest moves are best moves, like simple recaptures, for example 16gxh4 Rxh4, your move g5 required deep analysis if it is even good or not, I would suggest you would avoid complicated lines.
I find 3. Nbd2 a weird move. Your Nf3 is not attacked and sufficiently protected, even when playing e3 or e4 later on. Disadvantages of 3. Nbd2 are that it impedes the development of your bishop while at the same time blocking the protection of d4 by your queen. Also, at this early stage, queenside castling would already require lots of effort, so if black were to attack kingside you have lots of work. I would have preferred Bg5 or Nc3, just because they are more natural.
I would have expected 9. 0-0 to be a natural move. It was analysed above why Bh5 was not the best idea. Why not play 0-0, bring your king to safety while at the same time securing the f-line?
Also at this point it becomes visible for me that the N on d2 is a bit lost. It has virtually nowhere to move while at the same time attacking cheap pieces.
When you are ahead, why not trade? For me this is most obvious in move 40. The last black piece that could endanger your victory is the queen, because a queen can quickly win a piece if you overlook a move. Trade queens, then go for one of two options:
(a) try to trade bishops, wipe pawns off the board and checkmate with two rooks,
(b) promote the a-pawn (black cannot stop you) and go for the easiest of all endgames (NB: avoiding stalemate, when you have taken black's remaining pieces)
I would go for (b). Don't try to see the perfect #8 checkmate that stockfish suggests after 41. a6, rather go for a safe win in, let's say, the next 20 moves.
Any other views on my comments are most welcome as I am also a rather mediocre player.
I would have expected 9. 0-0 to be a natural move. It was analysed above why Bh5 was not the best idea. Why not play 0-0, bring your king to safety while at the same time securing the f-line?
Also at this point it becomes visible for me that the N on d2 is a bit lost. It has virtually nowhere to move while at the same time attacking cheap pieces.
When you are ahead, why not trade? For me this is most obvious in move 40. The last black piece that could endanger your victory is the queen, because a queen can quickly win a piece if you overlook a move. Trade queens, then go for one of two options:
(a) try to trade bishops, wipe pawns off the board and checkmate with two rooks,
(b) promote the a-pawn (black cannot stop you) and go for the easiest of all endgames (NB: avoiding stalemate, when you have taken black's remaining pieces)
I would go for (b). Don't try to see the perfect #8 checkmate that stockfish suggests after 41. a6, rather go for a safe win in, let's say, the next 20 moves.
Any other views on my comments are most welcome as I am also a rather mediocre player.
The move 3 Nbd2 is fine and has been played at grandmaster level. Of course 3 c4 is more active and more natural to undermine the black central pawn d5, but it is also better known. 3 Bg5 or 3 Bf4 are also good. 3 Nc3 is not bad either, though it blocks the c-pawn. Also other 3rd moves like 3 e3, 3 g3, 3 c3, 3 a3, 3 b3 are possible. You cannot go wrong on move 3 as white.
I agree, you played well for a "noob" (you didn't blunder away any material, nice) and you are ready to advance to the next step.
Right now, you play the very slow game, and as you could see, this works well against an engine that throws away pieces here and there. But as the AI level progresses, these easy to capitolize on type of mistakes will become increasingly rare (and finally disappear entirely).
You will have to apply more pressure yourself to help induce mistakes on the engine's part. Create more and better threats to crack the tougher defense. To do so, you need make every one of your pieces as active as possible. Piece activity is the key to the moves the analysis liked least in your play:
- 6. Ne5 does not actually make your knight much more active (it strikes into thin air for the moment; and the option to play this move would have remained open as a threat if the knight remained on f3 anyways) but misses the chance to activate, for example, the bishop by playing Bd3.
- 10. Bxf7, even if you optimistically assume that B+N are worth the same as R+P, trades away your most (and almost only) active pieces for a rook that only becomes strong at a later stage of the game (when lines get opened). As a result of "liquifying" all the moves needed to prepare Bxf7 versus only one rook move, you'd only have one developed piece left (the Nd2) versus 4 of your opponent. Lucky the engine blundered and didn't take back the knight.
- 13. a4 is bad because you hurt your options to get your remaining pieces into play by the freeing pawn move b3. This move now lacks the support of a pawn on a2.
So, yeah: Try to focus on activity in your next games. It's also never a bad idea to practise tactics to get a better feeling for threats (e.g. fun on f7 generally (!) only works if you add your queen to the attack).
Right now, you play the very slow game, and as you could see, this works well against an engine that throws away pieces here and there. But as the AI level progresses, these easy to capitolize on type of mistakes will become increasingly rare (and finally disappear entirely).
You will have to apply more pressure yourself to help induce mistakes on the engine's part. Create more and better threats to crack the tougher defense. To do so, you need make every one of your pieces as active as possible. Piece activity is the key to the moves the analysis liked least in your play:
- 6. Ne5 does not actually make your knight much more active (it strikes into thin air for the moment; and the option to play this move would have remained open as a threat if the knight remained on f3 anyways) but misses the chance to activate, for example, the bishop by playing Bd3.
- 10. Bxf7, even if you optimistically assume that B+N are worth the same as R+P, trades away your most (and almost only) active pieces for a rook that only becomes strong at a later stage of the game (when lines get opened). As a result of "liquifying" all the moves needed to prepare Bxf7 versus only one rook move, you'd only have one developed piece left (the Nd2) versus 4 of your opponent. Lucky the engine blundered and didn't take back the knight.
- 13. a4 is bad because you hurt your options to get your remaining pieces into play by the freeing pawn move b3. This move now lacks the support of a pawn on a2.
So, yeah: Try to focus on activity in your next games. It's also never a bad idea to practise tactics to get a better feeling for threats (e.g. fun on f7 generally (!) only works if you add your queen to the attack).
Well I never expected so many replies. Thank you all for your feedback!! I will definetely be taking notes :). Many thanks
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