Training Game #9 with Super Eval

I decided to take part in his mission to provide competition for the computer as it would both be an exciting challenge and in may even allow me to grow as a chess player. But before I can ever hope to compete, I must first practice and train with the felew699's thought process, called Super Eval. Here's his article detailing the process: https://lichess.org/@/felew699/blog/against-stockfish-game-11-i-did-it/pJNga7XW.

My plan for training my ability to use Super Eval is to play an 1800 level bot on chess.com, then a 1900 bot, then a 2000 bot, and so on, until I reach max level, where by then, I should have had enough practice to effectively use Super Eval against the computer. I ended up playing against the 2300 chess.com computer again as I felt that I hadn't really effectively used it as a training game. Anyway, here is the game against the 2300 bot:

I am actually very happy with this game. In the post game analysis, I came away with an accuracy of 95%! I had a total of 0 blunders, 0 inaccuracies, and 1 mistake. Below are some thoughts about the game:

On move 6, I saw the move b4 and started to really like it. I kept looking at it and looked for anything that could go wrong. All I saw was that I was taking a good amount of space on the queenside and the pawn couldn't be taken do to tricks with Qa5+. I eventually decided to play it and later got a massive attack on the queenside. However, I never saw the move d5 against it. I suppose because the pawn had already been moved twice, I automatically believed that it would be bad to move it again, which is more or less true, but I should have considered it as it is one of the only moves that puts pressure on my pawns.

On move 8, I played the only mistake I had in the entire game with Qb3. Better would have been an immediate d4 to take even more space and avoid the Nd3+. I played Qb3 because it was the only move that made sense to me at the time. I saw that it defended my pawn on c4 and the square on d3, while getting another piece onto the queenside, and threatening to play a3 and trap the knight. The computer should have played Bf5 to allow Nd3+ again, but instead, it played Nf6 and allowed me to trap its knight with a3.

Another moment of deep thought was on move 30, when the computer offered a queen trade with Qd3. I knew that trading queens allowed me to go into a very simple endgame, but my intuition was screaming to play against the king on the a file. So for about 7-10 minutes, I looked at Qa1 Qa5, searching for some reason to go for a quick kill. Unfortunately, I am not stockfish, and after about 6 moves, things got really fuzzy. I completely missed that after Qa1, Qxc4, Qa7+, Kc8, Qa8+, Kd7, Qxb7+, Ke8, Qc6+, and Kf8, I could sacrifice my queen with Qxc5+, Qxc5, and the amazing Bb4!. This pins the queen to the king and forces a rook endgame up 3 pawns. How silly of me to miss such an elementary tactic. So I spent 7-10 minutes searching for something that was there, until I gave up and played the easy way to simplify into a winning endgame, with Qxd3.

Finally, on move 41, I could have played Kxf5 for the quickest checkmate, but I thought that it would be more satisfying to force the computer into a zugzwang with Nxf5, h4, and Nxh4. The computer has to move its king to the only square that doesn't protect c8, with Ka8, and I finished the game off with Rc8#.

Side Note:

It may have been noticed that I haven't posted anything in 2-3 days, so I just wanted to clarify why. I went to a tournament, and I needed to practice and prepare. I ended up winning the tournament and having a great time all around, but now that it is over, I will return to playing these training games more often.

It is rather interesting to me how my confidence has grown. Before I started this challenge, a 2300 chess computer was actually intimidating for me. After slowly making my way up, it just isn't what it used to be. I can certainly feel that the computers are getting stronger, but I know that I have a very good chance against them, so I have more confidence, and I end up playing better.

If you are interested in the idea of training to fight against the computer, consider joining The Club of Believers. Not many people have joined, and every member makes our goal more and more reachable.

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Thank you for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day!