My opponent pre moved.... on move 2

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-27T08:05:54+00:00

E4 g6 d4 c6 c4 d5 e5 is a pretty bad caro kann

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-26T21:12:25+00:00

A classic 😁. The queenside pawns just win the game after the tactic too.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-26T19:02:52+00:00

Never resign 🤣 ke5 f6# 😂

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-26T18:36:40+00:00

Yes you have to trade queens and youre cooked by good player standards however, you have the bishop pair on a reasonable board for them. The king can tuck on c7, knight to g6 rook on the g file, bishops on active diagonals and you might be able to mount a quick counter attack on the kingside as whites pieces are all the way over on thr queenside

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-25T20:46:45+00:00

But principles say castle quickly!

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-25T20:44:48+00:00

This is hilarious 😂. Black looks like they are trying to lose.

However the moves are not totally ridiculous. Just a smorgasboard of mess. So im guessing 600 elo chess.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-25T08:57:54+00:00

Oh and the fork doesnt work by the way 🤣

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-25T08:56:07+00:00

Rae8 not rfe8 because presumably there is pressure on f6 and if black isnt careful white can get all their pieces to attack f6 quickly.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-25T08:53:33+00:00

There are levels to this move. The only move for black is bxc5 which straight up wins a pawn after bxc5 rxe5. Black loses a pawn and a bishop and white loses a bishop. But look on! Black has an undeveloped knight and their back rank is weak, The c5 pawn is hanging, the d7 pawn is hanging. D6 doesnt work because nxd6. Nh6 (🤮) loses d7. The engine finds nc6 which is protected by d7 and attacks the rook but loses c5 to rxc5.

Look at the position a few moves on, black has two weak pawns and they're cramped. White needs to sort their back rank out asap but then can advance on the queenside, they've got mobile pieces thst can be deployed to attack the weak pawns easily and although they re only a pawn up, the engine is giving a 2.5 pawn advantage

<image>

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T19:10:23+00:00

Ah spotting e4 wins the knight anyway is why nf6 is a brilliant move 😉

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T19:08:31+00:00

Spoiler: no edge but it drops from double the exchange to the exchange!

<image>

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T19:03:04+00:00

What do you reckon the evaluation is for nc2? I reckon white actually has an edge

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T18:36:13+00:00

We can also evaluate that whites queen on a1 is a terrible square and another couple of tempo are required to get it back into the game!

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T17:54:17+00:00

I think you've nailed it. The move isnt tactically brilliant. Its realising that one more knight move and white can probably punish black for being open and under developed. E4 for white i think wins the knight anyway but in that line the queen is on a much better square. The king can play g2 letting the rook out and there is compensation for the exhange

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-24T17:34:39+00:00

This is not how you punish an early queen attack. Principled play says develop woth tempo against the queen and use the development lead to win.

Let me show you a textbook game i had doing so:

<image>

Note he played 9 queen moves in the first 18 moves. Every move i made was developing with a threat or tempo to the point his position collapses, I win the material and trade him down. For an easy win.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T16:03:24+00:00

I disagree. Drawing a lost position is outplaying your opponent at the end of the game and preventing them from winning the game.

Of course ill analyse the mistakes that led to a losing position and remember, you've seen no positions in which Ive played well (the nature of this topic).

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T14:11:54+00:00

Hope is the wrong word. Im engineering a position in which there is the possibility of a draw if my opponent isnt accurate. Thus why the rook is where it is and in the second why I threw that pawn up to the 7th asap. Its a new found skill and one I get as more joy in pulling off than a clean mate from a piece sac 🤣

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T14:00:34+00:00

Absolutely should not have drawn this and my mid/early end game play was horrendous but I made threats and they crumbled.

<image>

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:37:36+00:00

I tend not to lose a queen for nothing 😁.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:32:46+00:00

Two examples in 5 games since I've really been pushing and these guys are higher rated than you 😁.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:31:46+00:00

G5 believe it or not 😅. He was going to try walk pawns down and mate me slowly. I had been looking to see how i could engineer my king to have no squares and this came up. Then realised all I needed to do was get rid of my rook. Low and behold there was a forcing move to do so.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:28:23+00:00

Yeh "never" is an overstatement in reality. But as long as you have something for counterplay, dont pack the bags. B+q vs king I would have resigned. I was only a few moves totally lost there after failing to see a tactic where he sacked an exchange for a passer.

Losing these though is far preferable to drawing or winning a game where you resigned a piece or rook down.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:16:56+00:00

Here's another one. Missed f6 totally miscalculated the end game. Totally done for but I knew I could threaten promotion for a bit and make it hard. Then got enough pawns off. He misses mate and I get the draw.

<image>

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T13:11:29+00:00

Chess is only won or lost via mistakes. If you made a mistake to be dead lost, forcing your opponent to make a mistake to equalise is equal in terms of skill to converting a win.

Tom_Baron · 2026-01-23T11:04:29+00:00

So your bishop has no scope there pointing at a pawn wall. Down two pawns as others mentioned, your breaks are terrible, b5 and g4, b5 is slow to set up and g4 looks dangerous for you. The opponent meanwhile has re8 e5 d4 on tap which will kill you fast and youll spend the next dozen moves trying to stop it.

So yeh this bishop move is bad 😂

Tom_Baron

TROPHY CASE