Two secret miniatures

Two secret miniatures or how to beat Heinzk at ease

I was going to post things about understanding chess, improving, why play chess at all, and such things. But it's not something you can write out in a couple of hours or in a couple of weeks. I have some ideas though, but as always my thoughts are very incoherent and they don't seem to make much sense yet.

It is easier to dig up some games and post those instead; explaining and thinking about ""chess"" in smaller chunks.

The pgn

I have a file on my super duper computer in which over ten thousand blitz & bullet games are stored, all have been played by me. Battles vs. newbies and not-so-newbies. I lost about half of them.

It's about time for me to extract some valuable lessons from this gold mine of privy information.

All my secret weaknesses that nobody on the world should know about can be found shining in full glory in this computer file.

So hey Heinzk, why don't you make a blog with your greatest weaknesses and most painful experiences! Good thing this is published completely Anonymously.

The bad opening variations

There are some opening variations of which I really don't have a clue, yet I play them time and time again. Won't I ever learn??
When I filtered out my lost games and then generated a "tree" of opening moves, the following variation came up most often.

Before I started my small research I already knew that I am facing major issues in this one. White does not even need to play well in order to arrogantly crush me. He just has to play this opening variation and that's it, I roll over and play dead.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nf3 a6 6. Bc4! e6 7. Bb3! Be7 and white has a comfortable advantage; at least one that is completely decisive against me. Here's an everyday example.

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I have lost 23 games with this exact variation after 7. Bb3 within twenty-five moves... not to mention the amount of games in which I was completely lost but stalled resignation until after the 25th move. This opening variation sucks. Note to self: hey man, maybe you should start playing it as white yourself.

Most chess players know more or less what their weaknesses and strengths are. They hide their weaknesses and only boast of their superior strengths, pretending to be completely invincible; pretending to be prepared for anything appearing on the board. They're completely convinced that everything they say with their pieces on the board is right and everything their opponents say with their pieces is wrong.

With me, things are a little bit different. Let's compare it to an attacking football player who is hampered by a hurt knee. He just ignores this minor issue; during the 90 minutes he is on the field he does not show anything, does not blink, not letting the guy that has to defend him know anything about it.

Each time I play, I cry, point at my knee, hobble around the playing field like a Cristiano Ronaldo. First chance my opponent gets, when the referee isn't watching he places his foot on my knee and I'm K.O. What a wonderful analogy. I'm the Cristiano crybaby Ronaldo of chess.

1. d4 Players have an easy ride against me after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ne4 4. a3. This is the main reason I was going to dump the Farajowicz very very soon but then some duffer plays 4. Qd2 Nxd2 0-1 and all my faith in Sammi is restored again.

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In the meantime I have found some sort of antidote. In the first variation I just try to play something with b7-b5 possibly followed by b5-b4, and Bc8-Bb7 - normally when I moved this bishop, it was to d7 and let it do nothing. In the 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 variation, I should just start switching to 2. ... e6 and it's called the Nimzowitsch I believe.

As White I am trying to limit bias towards certain "moves" influence the way I play. For example, I tend to play pointless early h3s and a3s just because I "like to play the move", without any further reasoning - not because I particularly like the outcome of the move. Also I never play(ed) 1. d4 or 1. c4, simply on the basis of "not liking the move" instead of "not liking the outcome of the move". Away with the prejudices in my chess, here come the troops!