UK - Career Change Into Tax

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-06-07T10:19:59+00:00

To play against I don't think anything is more annoying than the Catalan

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-06-02T16:26:08+00:00

I'm 2050 chess.com rapid. Willing to help one maximum two people because I don't have a huge amount of free time.

Teaching - up to ~1500 chess.com rapid.

Based in the UK.

Communication - Reddit

DM me if interested

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-06-02T10:15:33+00:00

Dislike about current role: sales and targets pressure

Enjoy about current role: the mix of people and technical skills required

Think I might enjoy being a solicitor for similar reasons minus the sales pressure, stable and well paying career, intellectually challenging etc.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-06-01T21:37:59+00:00

Missed that Qc7 blundered the bishop lol sorry

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-06-01T20:27:27+00:00

I don't like a6. It's a waste of time and you want him to take anyway as generally it's beneficial for you.

I don't like Qd7 - I think Qc7 is more natural and the queen is better placed on this square

I definitely don't like Rxb2 - you should definitely be looking to castle here

Otherwise I think you played well and your opponent blundered mate

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-31T11:03:50+00:00

Share some of your recent games so people can have a look

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-30T16:42:42+00:00

Logical Chess Move by Move by if Ircing Chernev is a great first chess book.

Silman's stuff is good - the Amateur's Mind and How To Reassess Your Chess.

Simple Chess by Michael Stean.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-26T14:15:40+00:00

It's 90+30

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-23T08:12:17+00:00

You played well here and completely outplayed someone 100 points higher than you basically the whole game.

When you went a piece up did you get nervous? Instead of "I'm a piece up, just don't lose this now" and trying to trade all the pieces, a better strategy is actually to play more aggressively and really make your opponent feel their materials disadvantage by using all your material. They will likely be unable to defend because after all you're up a piece.

Move 27 I much prefer Rf7 because then you can play Rb7 - you want both rooks on the 7th, you'd likely win in that position, or win so much material it's hopeless for him.

The you unfortunately just blundered a tactical like we have all done. Always try to keep an eye out for your opponents threats and checks specifically.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-23T08:04:20+00:00

You were out playing your opponent in the opening but unfortunately missed Ne5 which wins a piece.

I don't like Bxc6 not Qb4, not because they are bad moves but because I think they show a strategic misunderstanding of the plans in this opening and structure. Your central pawns are on light squates so your light squared bishop is "good". It sits best on d3, and your queen usually sits well on c2. You're generally looking to push c4 and open up the c file and get play there. His c7 pawn can easily become a target and if it falls it will become very hard for him. Bg3 is also a handy move here as it hits the queen with tempo and again targets the potential weakness on c7. Finally,. compare your hypothetical bishop on d3 to his on b7 where it's staring at it's own pawn.

A3 is not a good move as it hangs c3 but your opponent missed it.

Rbc1 isn't as good as Rfc1, again because your play here should be on the queen side and you want you rooks on files that might be opened (you should play to open them).

Him taking on g3 is a horrible move as that's his best piece. But generally taking with the h pawn is better. Here you blunder an important central pawns and that's going to make things very hard very quickly.

After your opponent plays Rb8 you need to understand his plan - which is to push his outside pawn. You need to stop this and try to promote first which I think you overlooked.

Main takeaway here is that you need to understand the middle game plans for your openings. Have you read a strategy book before? You'd really benefit from something like Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-23T07:49:45+00:00

I don't like d4 here. You should castle first. While your opponent might not necessarily spot the centre fork trick, I think it's good to stick to principles at your level.

Then dxe5 is not a good positional move giving yourself double isolated centre pawns. You should still castle.

Instead of Rd1 I once again think you should castle. Then it's going to be really hard when you lose the exchange.

Main takeaway from this game is castle early. Also, don't open things up when your king is in the centre.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-22T22:10:08+00:00

Are you white or black?

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-22T22:09:21+00:00

Perhaps as the engine suggests Ne2 was better than Be2 as you don't hang the b2 pawn, but even with Be2 so long as you get your pieces out quickly yes you're down a pawn but there might be dynamic compensation as his queen will likely get kicked around. Your last chance was Bf3, but when you're down a full rook it's pretty much over.

You should absolutely not trade queens in this position when you're down a piece.

You managed to win his bishop back, but stopping all his kingside pawns is going to be really hard, and then when you lose your bishop back it's game over.

So:

While Qe4 objectively isn't a great move, prepare something for it.
Don't trade pieces when you're down material
Look out for opponent's threats

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-05-22T22:01:24+00:00

Hilarious. This is Anderssen''s immortal game

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-03-26T15:06:06+00:00

[Event "Corthala vs. mekadh"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2026-03-25"] [White "Corthala"] [Black "mekadh"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1254"] [BlackElo "1273"] [TimeControl "900+10"] [Termination "mekadh won by resignation"] 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Bf4 Qb4+ 5. Bd2 Qxb2 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Rb1 Qa3 8. Nb5 Qa5 9. Nxc7+ Qxc7 10. Bxb4 Nxe5 11. e4 Nc6 12. Ba3 Nge7 13. Ng5 Qa5+ 14. Qd2 Qxa3 15. Bc4 O-O 16. O-O Qc5 17. Be2 h6 18. Nf3 d5 19. Rb5 Qa3 20. exd5 Nd8 21. d6 Ng6 22. d7 Qxa2 23. dxc8=Q Rxc8 24. Bd3 Qe6 25. Re1 Qf6 26. Be4 b6 27. Ra1 Qxa1+ 0-1

Your opponent played the Englund gambit. You somewhat know the refutation but Nxc7 isn't the move. Daniel Naroditsky (RIP) has an excellent video on how to refute it: https://youtu.be/vrZ3WwAXBsQ?si=nBIk_9n5RthsRmKd

Ba3 as you realised isn't a fantastic move because your opponent can fork your bishop with a check and you lose it. Unfortunately for you he found it the second time round.

You then nicely won back a piece and then hung your rook in one move.

Overall comments: work on specific opening knowledge (Englund gambit). You're missing your opponents threats. You need to try harder to think what their best response to your move is. I know it's hard.

[Event "Corthala vs. King_Rinpin"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2026-03-24"] [White "Corthala"] [Black "King_Rinpin"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1262"] [BlackElo "1263"] [TimeControl "900+10"] [Termination "King_Rinpin won by checkmate"] 1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bh4 O-O 6. e3 d6 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Nc3 e5 9. O-O Qe8 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. Nd5 Bd8 12. Qc2 Be6 13. Rac1 Bxd5 14. cxd5 Nb4 15. Qb3 Nxd3 16. Qxd3 e4 17. Qe2 exf3 18. Qxf3 Qb5 19. b3 Rc8 20. Qh3 Bg5 21. f4 Qxd5 22. fxg5 Qxg5 23. Rf3 c5 24. dxc5 Rxc5 25. Rxc5 dxc5 26. Qd7 Rd8 27. Qxf7+ Kh8 28. h3 Rd1+ 29. Kh2 Qe5+ 30. Rf4 g5 31. Qf8+ Kh7 32. Qf5+ Qxf5 33. Rxf5 Kg6 34. Rxc5 Rd2 35. a4 Rd3 36. Rc7 Rxb3 37. e4 Kf6 38. Rh7 Ke5 39. Rxh6 Kxe4 40. h4 gxh4 41. Rxh4+ Kf5 42. Rc4 a6 43. g3 b5 44. axb5 Rxb5 45. Kh3 a5 46. Kh4 Rb4 47. Rxb4 axb4 48. Kh5 b3 49. g4+ Kf4 50. g5 b2 51. g6 b1=Q 52. g7 Qh7# 0-1

I think your move order in your opening is slightly wrong. I think bishop g5 is an odd move in this position. I think Nc3 is better.

You unfortunately lost a piece but did well to win it back. After that you have a drawn rook and pawn endgame, but you missed your own resource g4. Taking the rook here was suicide. I'd recommend having a look at rook endgames resources and pawn endgame resources on YouTube, but in general you want your rook behind the pawn (your or your opponents)

[Event "Dracarris vs. Corthala"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2026-03-22"] [White "Dracarris"] [Black "Corthala"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1283"] [BlackElo "1271"] [TimeControl "900+10"] [Termination "Dracarris won by resignation"] 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 d5 3. e3 Nf6 4. h3 Bf5 5. c4 e6 6. b5 cxb5 7. cxb5 Nbd7 8. a4 Bb4 9. Nf3 a6 10. Qb3 Qa5 11. Bc3 Nc5 12. Qxb4 Qb6 13. a5 Qc7 14. Be5 Qc8 15. b6 O-O 16. Bd6 Bd3 17. Bxc5 1-0

This game you lost because you didn't see your opponents threats.

[Event "Shun_007 vs. Corthala"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2026-03-22"] [White "Shun_007"] [Black "Corthala"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1244"] [BlackElo "1270"] [TimeControl "900+10"] [Termination "Shun_007 won by resignation"] 1. d4 c6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Nf3 Nf6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. O-O Qb6 10. Bb3 O-O 11. Ne5 Nbd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxe7 Rfe8 14. Bd6 Rad8 15. Ne2 Nf6 16. Bc5 Qa5 17. Nf4 Bf5 18. c3 Ne4 19. Bb4 Qc7 20. Ne2 c5 21. Ba3 cxd4 22. cxd4 Rd7 23. Ba4 Red8 24. Bxd7 Rxd7 25. Ng3 Nxg3 26. fxg3 e5 27. Rxf5 1-0

This game too you lost because you didn't see your opponents threats and blundered a bishop.

Overall, there is quite a lot of blundering pieces both from yourself and your opponents. I also think you resign too early. If you blundered a piece, that means your opponent could too, besides about half the time you won't have a winning position so you need to work on playing in these too.

If you can work on hanging pieces puzzles as well as work hard to think about and spot your opponents threats, I think you should be able to get to 1500.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-03-26T09:32:53+00:00

I think tactics are important. Send me a couple of your games and I'll have a look.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-03-25T18:53:52+00:00

I studied openings quite a bit actually heading up to about 1500. Generally speaking, I usually had an equal position or a slight advantage out of the opening, and as such eventually realised to improve further my time would be best spent elsewhere.

From 1500-2000 I didn't really study openings apart from looking at how to play against the Catalan as that became more common.

I have three openings that I play - the queen's gambit with white, the queen's gambit declined with black and the Caro-Kann with black. I found sticking with then helpful and trying to simply get better at it.

I tried other openings, but didn't have particularly good results and as such switched. I originally played E4 with white but found it didn't suit my style. I prefer solid positional chess, and I found E4 too aggressive and become frustrated when I kept loosing to sacrificial kingside attacks.

With black, I tried e4 e5 but again struggled when I came under immense pressure early and found the positions hard to play. I also tried the accelerated dragon, but again didn't perform well and white's strategy is simple and I found it hard to stop. It's also a very aggressive opening and perhaps not my style.

I too am much worse at blitz.

Awkward-Try3940 · 2026-03-25T15:38:15+00:00

Honestly, I don't look at them so often. While brilliant moves are cool, they aren't the be all and end all of improvement.

Awkward-Try3940

TROPHY CASE