big center QID

so me and K have decided to try and go to a chess tournament at the end of January since K is going to have a little k running around in the spring. so i've started playing less DDO and more chess again :) I went through a couple of Rubinstein games and I saw an interesting transposition in the QGD

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 b6 giving either the option of the Dutch or the Queen's Indian or something completely different. i tried it in blitz, for what it's worth, and it went okay. the way i play the Queen's Indian i go for the big center anyways. the idea with this though is that after 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6 etc. it's something i'd normaly play. anyways, there's my theory for the month :)

Chessbase 8 and self-improvement

I am showing my age ;) but I still use Chessbase 8 for my chess database. One of my favourite features is the Dossier where it shows your repertoire and what the percentages are and what your performance rating is. Last year for instance it showed that I scored 18% with 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 (rated purely on games from 2001). i had played 1.g3 the odd time so I decided that if, over the year i got either 1.g3 d5 or 1.Nf3 d5 i would go for the King's Indian Attack just to raise my score. And I did :) So in the interest of scientific research I decided to do the same thing...this is from my personal database of over 11000 correspondence, OTB, and blitz games.

My lowest two as white are two of my most hated lines as White :

1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4 and 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4

(in the interest of putting some positivity my best numbers are against 1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6)

As Black my best is surprisingly the Queen's Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 and my worst is the Colle 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3

maybe for 2010 I'll go back to playing 1.d4 d5...i enjoy the Queen's Gambit Accepted, the Tarrasch and the Semi-Slav. And if I happen to beat some Colle's too...so be it :)

the training has actually started

me and kirk are going to have weekly G/30s and actually analyze and send the analysis back and forth. i think it's pretty cool. here is the first game (a draw) with light notes by me

C.Sadler - K.Sadler
Training G/30 Internet Chess Club, 16.10.2005

We have decided to have weekly G/30s which I think is a good thing. I had only thought about playing 1.e4 e5 v. him and not even what to play as White. 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 I could've played the Nimzo, but I wanted to see what he played v. Nf3. I had a feeling it was the Queen's Indian, that's why I played this. I went through some of my blitz games from 2003 and I realized how much I had played the QID... 3...b6 4.a3 ...particularly the Petrosian variation 4...Ba6! [The usual move is 4...Bb7 , in fact I had never seen the text. The idea is to hinder White from pushing his e-pawn, and putting pressure on the c-pawn.] 5.e3 [The main line is 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 and Black seems better. Interesting] 5...d5 6.Qc2? [Positionally a terrible move. My position is passive because my queen is stuck on c4 eventually. 6.Nbd2 is theory and stronger because if 6...-- 7.cxd5 (for instance). White can still play 7...Bxf1 8.Nxf1 -- 9.Ng3 and eventually castle. (Theory is 6...Be7 7.b4 0–0 8.Bb2 . I'd be comfortable enough with this.) ] 6...Bb7 7.Be2 dxc4 8.Qxc4 [I was gonna try and gambit here with 8.Nc3 knowing that Kirk wouldn't try and hold on to the pawn regardless. The trouble is that I can never recapture with the bishop because of; 8.Bxc4 Bxf3 and my king is exposed. LIke I said, my position became passive because of the queen on c4.] 8...Bd6 9.0–0 0–0 10.h3? [Too slow. I could have played 10.Nc3 immediately. I was worried about something along the lines of 10...Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Bxh2+ 12.Kxh2 Ng4+ forgetting of course, that in order for that sack to work properly, the pawn has to be on e5 (or in this case e4) to keep a piece from being on f6. The text was a waste of time with two queenside pieces undeveloped.; Maybe I could've even tried 10.b4 ] 10...c5 Stopping b4 and taking up space. I prefer his position. Kirk gave me lots of opportunity to both give up the bishop pair and choices for releasing tension in the center this game. I told him those were two things I was working on. I was kinda hoping he'd play ...cxd4 because after exd4, Be3, Rd1, i can protect the isolated pawn and be fully developed. 11.Nc3 Nbd7 [11...cxd4 12.exd4 Nbd7 13.Be3] 12.Rd1 Rc8 13.dxc5 I finally threaten something 13...Bxc5 [Fritz liked 13...Nxc5 14.Nb5 of course 14...Bd5 makes Black better] 14.Qa4 [Was there an alternative? My priority at this point was to get my queen to a safer square. I could never actually grab the a-pawn safely I don't think. 14.Qh4 ; 14.Qf4] 14...Bc6 15.Bb5 Qc7 16.b4 Bd6 In my calculations I missed that this was even possible (thinking it hung to the rook). 17.Bxc6 Qxc6 18.Qxc6 Rxc6 19.Nb5?! [Instead of sending the bishop to a better square, Fritz recommended 19.Bb2 +/- and I'm better.] 19...Bb8 20.Bb2 Rc2 21.Rd2 [21.Bxf6 Nxf6 22.Nbd4 and my position is slightly better.] 21...Rfc8 22.Nbd4 [22.Rxc2 Rxc2 23.Bxf6 Nxf6 24.Rd1 Is this better? At least I get a file. The a-pawn looks weak though. I guess the bishop hangs. 24...Rc8 Forced 25.Nbd4] 22...Rxd2 23.Nxd2 Be5? [I think his bishop was fine there. Progressing with his pawns either by 23...a6 ; or 23...e5 may have been slightly better. 24.N4f3 (24.Nf5 Kf8 25.Rc1 and if the rooks come off it looks drawish) 24...Rc2 25.Bc1] 24.N2f3 Bxd4 25.Nxd4 [Fritz says that this 25.Bxd4 was just as good, but I'm old fashioned, I like a centralized knight. ] 25...Ne4 26.Rc1= and this was an implicit draw offer, as with the rooks off and the symmetrical pawn structure it's quite even [Maybe almost threaten something with 26.Rd1 was better?] 26...Rxc1+= Game drawn by mutual agreement In any case a decent start. I should play more aggressively next game. I defended an inferior position as White. That's unacceptable. ½–½

maybe i'll get us to post on here with comments. the media isn't as good as sending the pgn back and forth but we'll see how it goes