Lessons Learned - Part 5

Again, pawns CAN push past!! Always consider this option when attacking a pawn with another pawn!

I have quickly won a pawn in the opening due to the classic 960 hanging rook tactic (which interestingly according to the engine is not even a thing but for humans this looks scary).

I get a little bit of counterplay on the queenside with his pawns coming down on me, but if I play it well everything should be fine. And of course, I complicate my life a lot.

Instead of forcibly trading one of the deep pawn via e6 or even g6, I play h5?. The idea is to attack the g pawn twice and to "activate" my rook (not really). And indeed, if my opponent does not push past, this is actually a good move. But of course, my opponent plays the logical g5 directly punishing my mistake.

Now I do have two pawns in my face that are hard to remove and my knight is awkwardly kicked, this will loose my extra pawn back. This I already learned before, in a very similar position, and I still managed to do the same error. I hope I learned it this time...

Beware of Knight forks!

We know this. But time trouble sometimes makes me blind to simple tactics..

Obviously, you can't take the pawn with the rook, because you are getting FORKED!

But I did anyway and lost the game.

So, if the knight is in my territory, I should ALWAYS have in mind where it can go and what it can attack. It's the same as monitoring potential checks, I should consistently monitor potential knight dances.

Beware of Knight forks!

The next game, I do the same error again. Huff. Knights are really scary.

Here, idk why I play this move Nfd7?, it was mainly to free up my bishop, to be able to do some pushes like f5 or e5 (no) or c5 (might aswell develop the other knight then). It already not very good because I move the same piece twice while I'm not yet developed AND its a *backwards *move..

But its bad for another reason. While my knight is going back passively, the enemy monster knight is preparing some forks...

7. ...Nfd7? 8. Bxh8 Rxh8 9. Ng5! and now I am forked forked:

• on h7, if the h8 rook moves.

• on f7, which is a fork of rooks, so it needs to be addressed.

  • If the h rook defends, we loose the h pawn
  • If the d rook defends, he takes anyway because the h8 rook is hanging to the sniper queen.

So I'm cooked..

Instead of 7... Nfd7?, why not just play h6!, kicking the knight even to the rim (I did not play this because I thought the knight is just going Nd4 and is super annoying. But no, the knight is trapped there with the simple c4!)

PS: My opponent was an absolute machine and slowly grinded me out:
0 Inaccuracies
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