The FICS Academy
The FICS Chess Academy provides a medium for interaction
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stronger. Over the last few months, the Academy has
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The FICS Chess Ladder.
Volunteer members of the Ladder review games played
by FICS users, providing useful advice on how weaker
players can improve their chess skills.
Any FICS registered player can
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A Ladder reviewer will receive the game and annotate it
usually within 2 weeks. All annotated games are available
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The following game, played by a 1390 national ELO player
and annotated by a 1850 national ELO player, shows the
kind of insight provided by the Ladder reviewers. Player
comments are shown in blue, annotator comments in black.
Almuradour - garlic
FICS - 25 august 2001
Caro-Kann, B12
notes by garlic and ElOso
1.e4
I've added quite a few comments to your game,
and some general advice at the end. Also, I'm not a
Caro Kann player and I don't own any books on it, so
it might be that I think a move is dubious while
it's normal theory. Still, I know why I
would play my moves, and that's more important. I
didn't use a computer to analyze (you can do that
yourself), so there might be some tactical mistakes
left. And lastly, if you or anyone else has comments
on this analysis, don't hesitate to message ElOso.
1. ... c6
The Caro-Kann opening, I hope a solid defence for black.
Yes, it is solid, that means that GMs seldom lose
with it (but don't win often). I don't think it's
the best for you, see the end.
2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5
The advance variation is good for me. I can develop the
bishop and then push e6, for the other bishop.
4.Bd3
I think this move is pretty boring. White exchanges
his good bishop for black's bad one (a bishop is
theoretically "bad" if your pawns in the center are
on the same colour) and also black is a bit cramped
(white has more space) so that black wants some
exchanges. White can't have much advantage after this.
4. ... Bxd3 5.Qxd3 e6 6.Nf3 Qa5+ 7.Nc3 Qa6 8.Qxa6
Nxa6
According to Pachman and Porreca this variation reduces
white attacking chances. Is it true? I play it frequently.
The queens are exchanged. Without a queen, it
is harder to play a direct attack on the king. This
is true for black as well, of course. The position
becomes very quiet.
9.O-O O-O-O?!
This move looks like a nice move for development,
getting your king to safety, etc. But it doesn't seem to
be connected with a specific goal. You should search
for moves that do something specific. With the pawns in
the center the way they are, you want to push yours on
the queenside, and white wants to push his on the
kingside, in theory (attack on the side the pawns point
at). You also want to improve your knight on a6, and
your other pieces need something to do. Without the
queens, your king is quite safe without castling, and
the rook on a8 might be useful there later. I suggest
Nb4!? to make use of the weak point on c2, push ...c5
later so the knight can go to c6. The bishop is useful
on f8 to support pawn c5 and to cover d6 in case of
Nb5-d6; (see the variations). 9...Nb4 10.Ne1
What else? 10...c5 11.a3 Nc6 12.dxc5 The pawn
couldn't be covered twice 12...Bxc5 13.Nd3
Hoping to chase Bc5 away and make f4 possible
13...Bd4! 14.Bf4 Bxc3 15.bxc3 Nge7 Black
knights have some good squares, and black can put his
rooks on the c file to attack the weak white a-pawns.
10.Bg5 Be7
So the knight can be developed.
11.Bxe7 Nxe7 12.Ng5 Rdf8 13.f4 h6 14.Nf3 Nf5
In the last few moves white has managed to play f4, but
your knight on f5 is very strong. He would like to play
g4, but then Ne3 forks two pawns and a rook. 15.Rae1
looks like the best move, but then black plays
15...h5! stoppin g4 again. And on 16.h3, h4!
would follow. If white wants to play g4, he has to go
for a long series of moves - Rae1, g3, Kg2, h3, g4, in
the meantime doing something about your threats, and at
the end black has the h-line if you played ...h5. But
it's hard to find another plan for white. White decides
to just block your Nb4 and doesn't know what to do, it
seems.
15.a3 Nc7
This knight must work !
16.Rf2
My opponent wants to play Raf1. But I see the
defenceless d4 pawn.
I don't think he wanted to play Raf1, since that is
useless with the closed f file. He wanted to play g4,
the fork is gone now, g4 Ne3 h3. You could have
played h5 to prevent this plan.
16...Nb5?! 17.Re1??
I have no idea what he wanted with this, it gives away
a pawn. 17.Nxb5 cxb5 18.g4 Ne3 19.h3 Kd7 To get
the rook to c8 20.Nh4! White continues with his
plan of f5 20...Rc8 21.c3! This blocks black's
counterplay for the time being 21...g6 22.Re1 Nc4
23.f5 gxf5 24.gxf5 Rhg8+ 25.Kh2 exf5 26.Nxf5 Rg6
27.Nd6!? Nxd6 28.exd6 Rxd6 29.Rxf7+ Kc6 30.Ree7
And black is in trouble.
17. ... Nbxd4 18.g4
Now g4 does nothing special.
18. ... Nxf3+ 19.Rxf3 Nd4 20.Rf2 f6
Nice idea, although white could prevent the open f file
for a while with Raf1 - but then black would just play
Kd7-e7 before opening it.
21.Rd1 fxe5 22.fxe5 Rxf2 23.Kxf2 Rf8+
Now black has the f file, he should be winning.
24.Ke3??
Here I wanted to play 24. ... Nxc2+, but then I was afraid
of losing the knight. I didn't see 24...c5.
Indeed c5 is nice because of the threat Rf3+, because
it keeps the knight on its strong point, and because it
threatens Nc6 and then d4 or Nxe5. However, you did see
Nxc2+, sure, if you lose the knight it's bad, but if
you don't then you're two pawns up and therefore
winning! You can look at the lines yourself, the knight
can't be won because Rf2 will be played if the king
goes that way, and it's very strong. The ?? is because
you lose your knight to a simple pin, even though you
win his knight - for a pawn, so now it's equal again.
24...Nf3 25.Rf1 d4+ 26.Ke2 dxc3 27.bxc3 Nd4+
I believed this was the only solution...
You could have played something like 27. ... Rf7
threatening Nxe5 28.Rxf3 Rxf3 29.Kxf3 but then
white's king is on f3, not f1. That can make a big
difference. It is irritating that his structure is
repaired, but you could have broken it up again (see
later). Nd4+ is ok.
cxd4 Rxf1 29.Kxf1 Kd7 (see diagram)
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Position after 29. ... Kd7
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My great weakness: Pawns structure! I often play this
kind of endgame, and I often lose! What is the
correct strategy in this position?
To make a draw, you must keep his king away. You can't
do that by passively staying in the back and hope he
doesn't get in, because he will. You must try to get
your pawns forward where you are strong, so that his
king has to stay behind to guard them. You have 3 vs 2
pawns on the queenside, so you could have attacked
there. 29. ... c5! does that, and also, if he
takes, your king is close enough to take it back, and
his pawns are bad again. I won't look at that, I think
29...c5 30.dxc5 must be at least a draw for you,
he must try 30. c3 b5! Preventing white's a4,
and taking more space. White still can't take on c5, so
he brings his king closer. 31.Ke2 c4! The
breakthrough is setup. After this you play ...a5, and
then white's king can never go past the 4th rank, since
then you play ...b4, and one of your pawns promotes
(cxb4 c3!). That is an important theme: if your pawns
are far enough, you can sacrifice one or two to promote
another. For the same reason, black can't go to the
other side since then d5! will follow, and white's d or
e pawn promotes. So this should be a draw.
30.Ke2 b6 31.a4 c5 32.c3 a5 33.Kd3 g5 34.Kc4 cxd4
35.cxd4 Kc6
These last moves didn't do much for you. White is now
winning since he can move his d-pawn. First he has to
make you move away - but he has one tempo left with his
h pawn! He can waste some time and you must move your
king. You could have played ...g6 first so you could
have done ...g5 now, but i'm not sure it would have helped.
36.h3 Kc7 37.Kb5?
This is wrong. White wins with d5!
37.d5 exd5+ Black must take.
(37. ... Kd7? This is wrong, since white can now
play d6, and your king is tied to the d-pawn. White can
go win the b6 pawn, then the a5 pawn. You can try to
keep his king out of there, but that's not possible
since you can't go to c7. 38.d6 Kc6 As long as
black can go to c6 when white is on c4, the white king
stays away. But black must stay on b7 or d7 then to be
able to get to c6, so he must move kc6-d7-c6-d7-c6 or
something like that. But white can walk a triangle so
he can enter c4 at the right moment!
39.Kd4 Kd7 40.Kc3! black would like to go to c7
now, but he can't 40...Kc6 41.Kc4! Kb7 tries to
defend to b6 pawn 42.Kb5 Ka7 43.d7 and white
wins. If black leaves the b6 pawn, white also wins
easily.) 38.Kxd5 Kd7 39.e6+ Ke7 40.Kc6! {black
quietly mops up the queenside pawns first while black
is in the centre. 40...Kxe6 41.Kxb6 Kd6 42.Kxa5 Kc5
43.Ka6 Kc6 44.a5 Kc7 45.Kb5 Kb7 46.Kc5 and now the
kingside pawns, black can never stop both those pawns
46...Ka6 47.Kd5 Kxa5 48.Ke6 Kb5 49.Kf6 Kc5 50.Kg6
Kd5 51.Kxh6 Ke5 52.Kxg5 white wins.
37. ... Kb7 38.d5??Suddenly black is winning!!
After the better Kc4 Kc6 white has no tempo
winning moves and black might hope for a draw. Now all
is different - if black simply takes on d5, white's
king can go nowhere, so he has to move pawns. Even when
black's king is gone, white can only move to a6 or b6 -
and then pawn d5 simply queens!
38...Kc7??
My intention was to defend the e6 pawn. Where is the
error? You can't defend it anymore, and white takes
it on the next move. Now black is lost.
38...exd5 39.e6 Kc7 40.e7 Kd7 41.Kxb6 d4 and
black wins.
39.dxe6 Kd8 40.Kxb6 Ke7 41.Kxa5 Kxe6 42.Kb6 1-0
Now for some general comments. The game got off to a
very quiet start, after some fifteen moves there had been
no real confrontation, only quiet development moves and
piece exchanges. Neither player seemed to know what to
do. Then there was a short phase of about 10 moves of
tactics - and with some big errors by both players. He
gives a pawn away, then another, but you don't take it
and give yours away. The mistakes made there were much
bigger than anything else that happened in the game,
except for the brief moment in the endgame with d5??
Kc7??. Now, all of these things were quite simple
tactics. I know you can understand these things, and
certainly you must know that you could get better at it
with practice. The strategy is much harder - what's a
good plan for black after move 10? I'm not sure. I
gave one idea, but this is much harder, more subtle.
AND: even if your strategy is as good as
Karpov's, if you drop pawns or fail to win dropped
pawns, it is useless. Conversely, do you see how many
simple mistakes this player 250 points above you makes?
Believe me, they also do it 500 points higher. The
conclusion then is: get better at tactics. It's no use
at all to learn openings or endgame strategy when you
make big basic tactical mistakes. There is a simple way
to learn tactics: practice. Solve diagrams with pins,
skewers, forks etc from puzzle books, but also try to
get into tactical situations in every game. You might
lose more at first, but since you would do it every
game, you'd soon improve a lot. Then we get to my last
point: the Caro Kann is a very bad opening for this. It
is a very strategical opening, good for masters who
play for a draw as black, but it gives all the tactical
opportunities to white in most lines, if black misses
something; and in other lines like this one it leads to
very saltless positions where you don't know what you
should do. I suggest you play ....e5 in answer to 1.e4,
since it often leads to positions where both players
have something clear to do. And learn the basics -
tactics, and the fight for the centre, something else
that was almost entirely absent from this game. This
advice is a bit of a cliche, but the proof is in your
game - the first 15 moves had no influence on the
result at all, and weren't very exciting either. You
learn nothing from that part. Then a part that was
understandable for lower players, but where both of you
showed you can improve a lot there, and then a hard
endgame. Take up the Caro Kann again when you are close
to master level. And too bad you didn't win it, you
were winning a few times. And now it's time for bed. Success.
