USCF Chess Game Analysis #6

This is my 6th USCF Rated Chess Game. I might analyze some of my other games, too, but I haven't done so yet. My USCF rating as of this match was 1618P.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• chess
• analysis

[RochesterFICS]

Chess is fun! Good luck in the rest of your games.

[1SGBob106]

Good game Phil. You looked much deeper than I would after you got the piece or two up. You are getting good at this. Did you consider 3....dxe and then trade Queeens and keep his King in the center? I sometimes do that against unrated players because I eventually castle queenside with check and gain another tempo.

[GambitChess]

Also, nice finish. I probably would have not retreated the knight back for the a6 idea but instead would have attacked the b pawn, but your play was just great, easy, safe, and surely winning, so there is no harm in that. It's sort of how I promote pawns to rooks sometimes just to avoid stalemating tricks with queens. It will take slightly longer to mate, but I know I won't do something stupid.

[GambitChess]

Nice game. A couple thoughts:

Why the d4 chain? To gain space, because you could? In many cases it's better to wait and maintain tension and the ability to break the center in your favor. In this case it seems very good, though, because you lock in his pawns, gain space, and make his lsb terrible. It's altogether likely, though, that your game could be objectively better by just developing and preparing to break the center or something else. Try to think of the why before extra pawn moves.