Intermediate Class Oct-2017 Bonus Game

Hi, recently we started an online chess academy and we had our first classes. I wanted to provide something extra for those who joined and also for the enjoyment of others.

I decided to show some of my own games where I applied some of the themes and topics taught in the class. So the past few topics have been about openings: development, centre control and King Safety. So, I am going to show a game where I sacrificed some material for positional compensation in the form of good centre control(with pawns), more active pieces, safer King, and also easier play.

This game was played in the Malaysian Masters in 2012. I was playing Black and I was feeling abit adventurous during the game. I had just studied the Caro-Kann and played it for the first time in a classical time control game.

The game can be seen here

Even though I lost, I hope you take away the lessons from this game about centre control and King safety. And of course, Don't blunder your QUEEN!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to do Calculation? VIDEO

  I did some guided calculation training with one of my students a few days ago. He had stopped classes for one year. I had no idea whether he could do this position. But he surprised me by being able to see about 7 moves deep without moving. I mentioned many calculation techniques like CCA, candidate sweeps and also what to do when facing resistance. Click the link and try solving together with us. CLICK HERE TO WATCH!
Read more

Puzzle from Grandmaster Preparation: Attack & Defense

Image
Black to move This link takes you to a video of my friend and I discussing the position. If the audio isn’t clear, below is a gist of the discussion. You will see us move pieces towards the end of the video. The first move I see is Rxe4 because I don’t like Ng5. Also coz the theme is bringing all your pieces into the attack. After 1….Nh4 2.f3, no more attack. You have to take drastic measures, can’t make quiet moves. This Knight can defend the White King. Basically use your Rook to eliminate one defender. Then you have a Knight and Queen against what looks like a lone king. I’m actually looking at 1…..Bb4 now. If 2.Qe2, then I have 2…Nh4 3.f3 forced take, take and win your exchange back with err some attack. But after 1….Bb4 2.Nc3. Don’t see anything. What if 1…Re4 2.de4 Bb4 3.Qe2 Nh4 4.f3 forced, then take on e1, 4….Bxe1 5.Rxe1 Nxf3+ 6.Kf2 Nxe1 7.Kxe1 Qh1 wins e4 pawn. If 7.Qxe1, then simply 7….Qe6 fork the pawns. Black is a pawn up with better winning chances...
Read more

Why I started this Blog? (My story)

This is my first post. Ever! I think a good way to start is to tell you how and why I decided to start writing a blog. I have 2 main reasons. Number 1 is to help you improve as a chess player. I will tell you how I got an IM norm and how you can too (Obviously if you are an IM or GM, I would learn from you). Number 2 is to help people (more applicable to kids) learn good values and lifelong character building lessons (e.g., you only fail when you fall and don’t get back up) by sharing my experiences from chess. This is something most Malaysian children find hard to experience in the classroom. I am going to combine reason 1 and reason 2 with a story now. I found out I was selected to go to Olympiad in early 2012 (around Jan). I was in University in the UK during that time. This was the ‘Opportunity’. I started training (I will tell you how I trained) every day, one session in the morning before 9 am class and another session at night before bed. I did this every day, even while ...
Read more