Training Game's #11, #12, and #13, with Super Eval

To make up for my lack of posts recently, I played 3 training games for you all to see!!!

This is a lie.

The reason I am showing training games 11, 12, and 13 all at once is because the 2500 chess bot is kicking my . . . bottom. In a metaphorical way, of course. Below are the games with accuracies and other stats from the lichess analysis:

I had an accuracy of 88%, with 7 inaccuracies, 2 mistakes, and 1 blunder.

I had an accuracy of 71%, with 3 inaccuracies, 3 mistakes, and 4 blunders.

I had an accuracy of 86%, with 6 inaccuracies, 5 mistakes, and 3 blunders.

Why Do I Suddenly Suck?

Naturally, three losses in a row feel bad. But these all feel especially bad because in each one, I thought that I was better, and for the third game, I was right. In the first game, after I played 32 . . . Rd6, trapping the computers queen, I had missed the only move that saves the position for white, Bh3, with a counter pin on my Queen and Rook. And on the second game, I feel as if I just shot myself in the foot with the opening. I was worse for a majority of the rest of the game, until checkmate ended my misery.

I shouldn't beat myself up about this though, and instead I should try to learn from my failings. But this is very difficult to do when you play games and lose and play and lose, and just find yourself worked up and angry. So, before I type something I may regret, I am going to walk away from the keyboard for like ten minutes and get some water. In the meantime, here is a picture of a cat riding a skateboard.

Okay, I'm feeling a lot better after some water and breathing time. Back to the chess analysis.

What Should I Take Away From Failing?

Before I can improve my chess, I must learn where I should focus my attention. Of course, we should spend energy on all aspects to get a well rounded balance, but we must focus more energy on where we are weakest. Here are some categories to help: Tactics, Strategy, Opening, Endgame, Slow Positions, Fast Positions, Calculation, Winning the won game, and Pushing Back when losing.

And here is where I might rank my play from weakest to strongest:

1. Fast Positions
2. Pushing Back when losing
3. Winning the won game
4. Calculation
5. Opening
6. Tactics
7. Strategy
8. Endgame
9. Slow Positions

What's frustrating about quick positions is that I am actually decent at tactics, but I just don't see them as much for my opponents, so naturally, in two of the games against the 2500 bot, I only saw my opponents ideas as they were happening or as it was too late to do anything about them. In games 2 and 3 against the bot, I lost due to tactics and tricky imbalances. In the 1st game, at move 38, I simply miscalculated, because I forgot about a pawn, which would prove to be the decisive factor in that game. A lot of my errors are coming from a lack of focus and thought put into my moves, which means that I am relying on intuition, which frequently makes small mistakes, and occasionally makes larger ones.

What Can I learn?

• I should spend more time in the opening phase. Though I feel that there isn't a lot of danger and that I can play quickly, I should stay calm and collected and focused on playing sensible moves that do the basic goals of the opening. A couple extra seconds making sure that I have looked at my options should be sufficient to help me in this area.
• When I know that I have a better position, I should breath and try to remember that winning a won game is difficult. I should try even harder to play better.
• I must be more aware of the weaknesses that my moves create that can be used to create tactical chances for the opponent. Examples being open diagonals to my king, doubled pawns, and placing pieces where they can't easily be moved or defended if attacked.

There are likely many more things that I can hope to improve about my play, but if I can focus on these three things, I should find myself at a much better place. Anyway, I apologize for this being such a long post, and for those that read slow, I apologize once again.

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If you are interested in the idea of training to fight against the computer, consider joining The Club of Believers. As I have been posting these games, more people have joined, which is absolutely amazing. The more people we have in the club, the more likely it is that we will be able to compete against the computer.

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