1600? /golfclap

Don't worry, you'll get there if you work at it a little

(September 12, 2013 at 1:46 am)Violet Lilly Blossom Wrote: 1600? /golfclap

Don't worry, you'll get there if you work at it a little

I was 1400 a couple weeks ago. I think I'm improving fast.

But I definitely think that Latvian game is Master stuff brewing.

I'm only about 1344 on chess.com, but I don't have a lot of time to devote to chess. Got too much going on and right now chess isn't a priority. Perhaps when winter comes and I'm inside more I'll pick it back up.

Another brutal slaughter at the hands of the Latvian Gambit. I scrubbed the ratings so Violet can't troll me, but the guy's rating was a good 100 points higher than mine.

I think my greatest achievement in chess was getting a Legal's mate. I'll have to post the game when I'm on my laptop, since I have the PGN saved there.

(September 18, 2013 at 9:22 am)Doubting Thomas Wrote: I think my greatest achievement in chess was getting a Legal's mate. I'll have to post the game when I'm on my laptop, since I have the PGN saved there.

Nice. I found it on Youtube. Like the Latvian traps, that one is nice because it comes from very plausible moves that could actually come up in real games (unlike the Scholar's mate or other quick mates).

Here's the PGN of my game, I was playing white:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Bg4 5. Nxe5 Bxd1 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5#

I admit I screwed up because after Bg4, I should have played h3 to prevent his knight from capturing my knight, which would have put me down a piece. If after h3 he plays Bh5, then you can play Nxe5 and let him take your queen. But luckily he got greedy and took my queen, and apparently didn't see the Legal's mate coming.

(September 18, 2013 at 11:56 am)Doubting Thomas Wrote: Here's the PGN of my game, I was playing white:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Bg4 5. Nxe5 Bxd1 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5#

I admit I screwed up because after Bg4, I should have played h3 to prevent his knight from capturing my knight, which would have put me down a piece. If after h3 he plays Bh5, then you can play Nxe5 and let him take your queen. But luckily he got greedy and took my queen, and apparently didn't see the Legal's mate coming.

It depends on the opponent's suspicion level, or his opinion of you. If he wonders why you're willing to drop your queen, he might take the time to calculate and realize it was a deliberate sack of the queen. He's very likely to think you're burned out from too many blitz games and fall for it, even without the prep move.

I can say in my case, if I ever see more than 1 piece aiming at my King's Bishop pawn, I'm going to think long and hard before taking anything but the attackers.

The nice thing with h2 is even if he sees it and refuses the queen, you still end up a pawn and development up.

At any rate, good job. It's always gratifying to put someone in that kind of pain.

The thing was that I had learned about Legal's mate some time back, and thought from looking at the position of the pieces that it might be possible, so I tried it. I couldn't remember all the exact moves so I missed the h3 move, but luckily it worked out.

Legal's mate just shows you how powerful two knights side by side can be.

(September 18, 2013 at 12:29 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote: The thing was that I had learned about Legal's mate some time back, and thought from looking at the position of the pieces that it might be possible, so I tried it. I couldn't remember all the exact moves so I missed the h3 move, but luckily it worked out.

Legal's mate just shows you how powerful two knights side by side can be.

Yeah. It also shows how important it is to develop your pieces and castle as soon as you can to prevent tricky tricky knight stuff. In blitz games, the two bishops are good for endgames, but it's the knights that are responsible for the naughty tactics.