Category: Improvement

Chess Blindness

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In my Thursday game this past week I sat down to play Minghang Chen, who’s a solid 1800 player. I had a good feeling all day and was in a great frame of mind at the board.

I had the White pieces and in short order I achieved an almost winning position:

A few moves later we reach this position and now I’m thinking it’s time to get my material back and win some of my own.

After taking the d pawn, we arrive at

And now I can just bail out into a better position with Re6, but my idea is to capture on f6 with the d6 rook. So I do, and Black captures back.

Here I can just take again on f6 and then after …Bc3 Qb6 I have an edge

Instead I decide (correctly) that Qxe5 is much better.

Now I start thinking that Black might have something with …Bc3, and this is where chess blindness kicks in. Black plays the move.

The blindness takes two forms here. It starts with the fact that for some reason I’m not realizing that my rook on f1 is protected by the bishop. So I play what I feel is the forced 34.Qxc3 Qxc3  35.Nxc3 and offer a draw, which was accepted (I’m going to lose the c pawn, so I’m probably on the worse end of this draw, but my opponent had little time left on the clock.)

However, do you spot what I  missed?

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Yep, I can just play 34.Qxb8 and I’m completely winning. The rook on b8 hangs, but since in my mind I think that my rook on f1 is hanging with check I don’t see this at all.

Chess blindness is a disease which must be eradicated.

Here is the whole game.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

20 Move Win in the Caro-Kann

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Not often you get a chance to win a game this quickly in this opening.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Positional Pawn Sac: Smyslov-Euwe Zurich 53

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Here is a game that I was looking at this morning in 300 Most Important Chess Positions which is one of my four books for 2022.

In this position Black has just played 6…h6, which allows White to open the game immediately with a pawn sac with 7.e4 which gains the initiative.

My pgn editor isn’t working currently, so here is a link to the game.

Vasily Smyslov vs Max Euwe (1953) (chessgames.com)

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Updates are Coming

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Sorry for my relative inactivity here. I have been busy working, both in the chess world, and in the corporate world.

I am on a business trip to Denver next week, and will have some time to work on the blog, so I hope to post a lot more of my game analysis and some other training updates.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Round Three USATN – Win vs a 1595

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Round three saw me play a quick game again. My opponent dropped two pawns in the opening due to a move order trick and the game lasted all of 90 minutes.

Meanwhile our board two drew, and the other two are still playing.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Round Two USATN – Win vs 1482

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I was the first to finish in round two, so no idea if the team will win or not.

I played a 1482 who did me a favor by dropping a piece. I feel that perhaps there was something off with my play here, but I haven’t had time to analyze yet, so we’ll see.

A milestone was achieved with this win as it was my 250th rated win (since US Chess started tracking this. I have a bunch of tournaments from prior to the MSA.)

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Round One USATN – Draw vs 2066

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I am playing in the US Amateur Team Tournament and in round one my team faced the top seed.

I am on board four and was playing a kid rated 2066. I absolutely should have won this game. Here it is with no real notes. I’ll annotate and re-publish later.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Draw vs a NM

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Last night I played my weekly club game against NM Ethan Allen. Fortunately for me he is returning to chess after a long layoff, and so is a bit on the rusty side. He used an awful lot of time, and when we agreed a draw I was ahead by about 40 minutes on the clock.

Now on to the US Amateur Team tournament starting tonight in Chicago.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Update – I Have Been Working

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While I haven’t updated much on here lately, I did want to assure everyone that I have been working. Perhaps not as much as I’d like but working indeed.

I’m on pace in terms of reading Chess Strategy for Club Players by Grooten, and I have been working some on analyzing my games. I will start posting them in the very near future.

I will be playing in the US Amateur Team tournament this weekend, and in a four round G/60 next Saturday, so there will be a lot of info to come.

The Chessable streak is still going strong.

Together, we’re going to get through this journey and make this happen!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Interview on Chess Journeys Podcast

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After my recent spin at guest hosting Perpetual Chess and interviewing Ben Johnson, the tables were then turned as I was interviewed by Dr. Scull.

Ep. 29 Chris Wainscott (1700 USCF) by Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement (anchor.fm)

Here I explain my plans for the year, and the journey so far.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott