Dropped a bollock then WUB..... it would be pointless continuing, I've not had any decent position throughout that game & it's just got worse & worse for me!

Yeah, it wasn't your best game. You're definitely better in the other game.

Analysis of the drawn game:

Inaccuracies: 12 = 30.8% of moves
Mistakes: 4 = 10.3% of moves
Blunders: 0 = 0.0% of moves

wake_up_bomb wrote:
Cool.... I was tempted for a minute not to allow the draw.... which would've meant my king pinned in the corner after you take the F pawn....
but then trying to queen my (c?) pawn. But I worked it out in the analysis that I would queen first & then your pawn could queen straight away & mate me!

Space Bandit wrote: I wouldn't have taken the f-pawn, because if you hide your king in the corner and I take the f-pawn, then you've got Qd8 which threatens mate on g8, and there's nothing I can do anyway but check your king over and over again.

Except that it's much riskier because the f-pawn isn't blocking your king from moving towards the middle of the board any more. I'm pretty sure the checks wouldn't run out, and it could get hairy if you're not careful, but I would never have allowed this.

I was actually thinking of blocking the check with G3 threatening your queen, then presumably you could take the F pawn & trapping the king in the corner.... even if I threatened mate by putting the queen on the back rank, you could check me with your bishop, which I would have to take with the knight, meaning my checkmate would be over and presumably would lead to a pawn race.

Space Bandit wrote: That's an interesting approach, I'd just planned to check your king in the corner perpetually if you did this. I didn't even look at that line, I was happy with a draw because you had the better position.

Well played WUB .... didn't see that coming at all!

Well, I'm abandoning my d4 experiment because that's the worst position by far that I've got out of the opening with white. You just went wrong with b5, I think it was quite a hard position for a human because there are pieces hanging all over the place and I did have a lead in development. I'm sure a computer will tell you that black is far better before b5.

wake_up_bomb wrote:
I knew that would be a bad move. I was struggling to find anything decent to play though....
what would you suggest?

My main threat is to play b3, winning your knight, so I would have probably played Qc5 and broken the pin on the queen.

It's a very unbalanced position because all my pieces are developed, I'm quite a long way ahead in development, but you're a pawn up and the d-pawn is very strong. This is the sort of position where computers just calmly calculate everything and find perfect defence, but quite hard for a human player.

I'm sure you didn't give that one your full attention then WUB!
Am very surprised I sneaked that one...... is the tide turning at last?!

I'll get back on this after a weekend of destroying brain cells

Space Bandit wrote: Just lack of concentration. I'd already worked out what to do, and I forgot to actually do it. Never mind, that's life. Vladimir Kramnik the former world chess champion missed a one move mate once against a computer, so it happens, but that said it was extremely stupid play.

wake_up_bomb wrote:
Aye I've done that a few times!
I assume you've been busy as you've not been on it as much. I've not either but am madferrit again now.

WUB the game times out in 4 hours!

Well while you're waiting...get back to your studies young man!

angelchemuel wrote:
Aye I'm on it today....
gonna take the dogs for a quick prowl & that shalt be the end of procrastination!

Space Bandit wrote: That game is totally lost anyway. I don't know if I'll be able to play much for the next couple of weeks, but I'll try to fit in a few moves here and there.