To learn how to play chess it always helps to gain valuable insights into the thought processes of a grandmaster who plays chess for a living. Listen to the advice of Grandmaster Bogdan Lalic (Croatia) who is playing chess in European chess tournaments constantly.
Counterplay
“I drew in the 6th round of Memorial of Jessie Gilbert tournament. I was winning but he started some counterplay with f2-f4. I panicked and sacrificed the pawn after which he had 2 pawns for exchange and safe position. At the end is equal position, in one moment I was sure that I was going to win, but then he started to play all forced only moves.
Shit happens always when you play young underated player, I already drew with him earlier last year at Basingstoke even with white pieces, he won 2 months ago in Big Slick IM tournament with 7,5 out of 9 scoring first IM norm so clearly underated player. Coulsdon is a shitty tournament full of underated youngsters, this is why my elo there always suffers ( not only mine, of GM Feygin and others as well ).”
Caro Kann Type
“Interesting line for black avoiding a lots of theory against 1 e4 and striving to play Caro-Kann type of positions.”
Sad Game
“I feel so down – I just drew with white against 1987 elo player. He was not even young – age 60 and I was white!!! How is that possible?
Judge yourself, here is the game. I should immediately quit chess after that. No, I did not underestimate him, I prepared for him four hours but he did not do many mistakes, at the end he defended very accurately. I did not have a clue it exists the move 7…Nc6 ( I only knew the old theory 7…Nd7 and 7…c6 popular from the matches Botvinnik-Smyslov ), he told me it is in Chess Quality book by John Nunn repertoire for Black!!!
Increadible, amateurs in england 2000 elo know more theory than me. I think this is pretty disgusting, this is why english amateurs are the best in the world ( and this is why it is bad for elo to play against them ) because they have the best chess literature. Anyway, here is this sad game.”
I often change my openings, however, this is not enough because now patzers are well prepared for many openings.
The following sent me GM Alexander Baburin:
” Hi Bogdan!
I know how you feel… The amateurs are not the same as they were in the 1980s and 1990s! Your opponent played well above his rating. I am playing in Italy – I won 2 games, but could easily lost both – to 2030 and 2238 guys!! I am going to do something about my chess – will talk about that later!
Regards”
Another Draw against lower rated Player
“It is not the first time I drew with a player under 2000 elo, it happened very recently just 16 months ago in La Roda open I was then also white against young 15 years old player from Madrid, I was winning that game two extra pawns, but I just relaxed only for one move and he got practical chances due to my exposed king. I had to win the last game to break even with elo, whole tournament I was losing elo due to this damned draw.”
GM loses to Patzer
“Here we see in action former 2600 player grandmaster Azer Mirzoev trying too hard to win equal position and losing to a player of elo less than 1800!!!”
Black (Grandmaster) could win immediately with 41…f4 as after this the queen can go to the open h-file.
Another GM bites the Dust
“In the following game Spanish amateur of elo 2100 beats the grandmaster with Black using the plan of Viswanathan Anand in Semi-Slav – it is disgusting, this just shows how due to technology in 2013 chess is virtually D E A D.”
White moves
“This is a diagram from the game Smyslov-Petrosian, Amsterdam candiates tournament 1956. Here the late ex-world champions Vassily Smyslov played the antipositional 1. Bxf6? giving the pair of bishops, later Black was easily winning, but White miraculously saved a draw. This example shows how much the level of play had gone up – a thing that even 2000 elo players would reject, taking on f6 at the first glance and would go for some more logical moves like 1 Ng5 or 1 Nd2 instead.”
GM Andrei Deviatkin: ” Generally, the tendency of modern chess is clear: the overall level is constantly being improved, because engines and databases are excellent teachers available to everybody. As a result, it’s getting more and more difficult for a GM to defeat a 2200-2300 player, especially if one doesn’t have many ambitions.”
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