Speelman's Agony: Lessons from amateur errors

by Jonathan Speelman
11/17/2019 – This week Jon goes solo on annotating, with five games for your review, including the popular Alapin and London. | Send in your own games! Jon welcomes submissions from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!
Simon Williams presents the London System, providing the theory you need for your games (7 h 16 min). In addition Williams also introduces into typical tactics and patterns in a seperate product. (53 games, 96 training questions and 3h 14 min)

Agony & Ecstasy #110

A couple of months ago, I showed some games here by John Isaac Torres-Piccio who is from Bacoor south of Manilla, in the Philippines.

John, who is in his late twenties (27, a couple of months ago) recently started playing chess again after a gap of about 7 years. He sent me several games then and has now sent another tranche.

Seven years is a long time not to play and there are a number of serious errors and also a few mouse slips. But he reached some very interesting positions on the way and so here is another batch. The notes are all mine.

 
New ...
Open...
Share...
Layout...
Flip Board
Settings
MoveNResultEloPlayers
Replay and check the LiveBook here
1.e4       c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.d4 Nf6 6.Bd3 Be7 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qe2 0-0 9.0-0 Bd7 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Rd1 Qa5 12.Nbd2 Bc6 13.Ne5 h6 14.Ndc4 Qc7 15.Bf4 Qc8
The opening has gone well for White and I rather wanted to tee up to play Bxh6, but it doesn't work very well and simply taking the two bishops yields a pleasant advantage. 16.Nxc6 16.Qe3 Nd5 17.Qe4 f5 18.Qf3 Be8 isn't too bad. 16...Nxc6 17.Bc2 Rd8 18.h3 Nd5 19.Bg3
19...b5? Trying to get active but the position isn't good enough for this, which weakens the long white diagonal. 20.Ne3 Nxe3 21.Qxe3 Bf6? And this loses. 21...Qb7 22.Be4 Rxd1+ 23.Rxd1 Rc8 just about stays on the board. 22.Qe4 g6 Sometimes you can run when White plays Qh7 but here 22...Kf8 23.Rxd8+ Nxd8 24.Qh7 Ke7 25.Rd1 e5 26.Bb3 is pretty foul. 23.Qf3 Bg7 24.Be4! Ne7 25.Rxd8+ Qxd8 26.Bxa8 Qd2 27.Rd1 Qxb2 28.Rd8+ Kh7 29.Qxf7 Nf5 30.Qg8# A good game by John's opponent who kept control and didn't try too hard. 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Alyaldeen2287Jipiccio16201–02019B22Rated 15m+5s
Andnedim1395Jipiccio17410–12019A47Rated 15m+5s
Piccio-Jerad-0–12019A50
Jipiccio1703SHreza134416431–02019C01Rated 15m+5s
Fitzhugh-Piccio JI17880–12019B302

Click or tap any game in the list to switch

The 7th volume of this endgame series deals with many different aspects of endgame play: the art of pawn play, weaknesses, converting an advantage, stalemate, fortresses, the art of defence and typical mistakes. Learn how to convert an extra piece or an exchange or how to exploit space advantage and better mobility. The themes the art or defence, fortress and stalemate are also intertwined. If your position has a solid fundament then you may surprisingly reach a fortress which might even be based on a stalemate.

Submit your games and win free Premium!

Did you enjoy the column and instructive analysis by GM Jonathan Speelman? Do you wish you could have a world-renowned grandmaster analysing your play? You can!

To submit your games just upload a PGN or ChessBase file (.pgn or .cbv archive), along with your name and e-mail address. Send one success story (Ecstasy) and one loss (Agony).

Tell why you chose them, where or when they were played. Please do include your email address, so Jon can reply, and preferably a photo of yourself for our article.

If your game is selected Jon will contact you personally, and not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

A three-month Premium subscription to ChessBase Account means you get:

  • Premium access to the Playchess server with ratings, simuls, lectures, and live commentary of top games
  • Access to all Web apps with no restrictions, such as the Cloud database, and more!
  • Full access to the Video archive, which not only includes all the past lectures by Daniel King, Simon Williams and others, but also many full ChessBase products you would normally need to buy in the ChessBase Shop but that you can view for free as a Premium subscriber.

See also:

Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.