Satisfice's Analysis for Very Low-Rated Players

Submitted by satisfice on Mon, 03/24/2008 at 4:55am.

I was inspired, tonight, by this fascinating analysis, no part of which did I understand. I have no idea what happened in that game. I'm pretty sure they were using special rules revealed only to grandmasters.

So, I'd like to try my own hand at analysis. Analysis for the masses! Mine will be a little less nuanced then you get from yer "Masters", yer "International Masters", and you know, "players who don't suck." But I think you'll be able to follow it, and that's important, too.

This position occurred in one of my games a few days ago. I'm playing black. It's my move. Ottawa is a wiley player, but I felt I had the measure of him. The game had been hard fought to this point. Every step a byzantine calculation. (That's why they call me "Toilet Paper"-- I'm capable of looking almost two-ply ahead.)

Follow the play-by-play and happy learning!

» posted in satisfice's Blog

| 134 reads | 4 comments

Comments:

by CapCloud - 3 months ago
Midwest United States

Member Since: Mar 2008
Member Points: 12

As a charter member of the "Why, Yes, I Play Che...DOH!" club I need to thank you for bringing the plight of the tunnel-visioned to light.

It seems just when all cylinders are starting to fire in perfect time, I swallow a valve the shape of a Queen. DOH!

I've got a perfect pin set up, sublime in its construction...and my opponent simply sweeps in with a fork and sticks it in my King. DOH!

Tunnel vision happens to us at all levels of play. Sometimes, while deeply involved in a game, my wife comes over, looks at the board and says something ridiculus like , "Why don't you take his Rook?" or the more Zen: "Uh-Oh". DOH!

So now, when I"m in deep she throws something at me (soft like a paperback of Horowitz's Openings Vol 1) and tells me to take out the trash. I always play better after that.

by Ottawa - 6 months ago
Ottawa Canada

Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 17

"Wiley Player" ... I like that, although I wish I was worthy of more ... lIke inspiring, or masterful ;-), but I lack consistency and play more for enjoyment and to inch my standing a bit point by point.

Unfortunately I have ups and downs. Twice over the past month made major blunders that involved a queen loss early in the game. I believe that one was our rematch. The other one I am recovering from. In another I knowingly traded my queen for two rooks to open up a column and to see how it would develop.

When playing higher ranked players like Satisfice I tend to use the Analyzer in the middle but end up lost in the enjoyment of the game and am still prone to blunders.

My major blunder this weekend was not clicking save preferences after clicking "On Holiday". I lost 50 points in 36 hours and luckily checked my email while away to do a few moves. I may have to get a membership to avoid that happening again as well as supporting such a great board.

by 44tr - 6 months ago
Florida United States

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 19

I have to second both zzfriend's and satisfice's emotions

As Satisfice well knows, I have made similar moves with him as my opponent at least twice recently. My reaction was not too different from satisfice's then, and not too different from zzfriend's now. It really is nice to know that even players better than I sometimes make a move as, uh, questionable as mine typically are.

by zzfriend - 6 months ago
United States

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 28

What different emotions from the same act, Satisfice. I didn't scream when you showed me that one minor disadvantage of the pawn move, but laughed and laughed: "Hey, that's MY kind of blunder! Praise the Cat, I'm not the only clueless boat on the water!"

You write the true Chess for Dummies, or at least for the dummy-part a few of us keep a lot longer than we hoped.

Thank you, from my tattered self-esteem. I'll be watching this space for future chapters.

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