Major problems converting in mid to late middlegame. Can't seem to focus on critical strategy and my moves wander and become less pointed. Any tips greatly appreciated.
MR
@Microraver Put more emphasis on finding weaknesses in the opponent's camp and targeting those weaknesses, leveraging your significant static strength and initiative. For example, after 21. Qxf7+, you're forking black's king and the undefended pawn on d5. Snatching this pawn eliminates black's presence in the center completely, allowing you to grab even more space with your superior structure.
Then, the next move you make, e6, while not an outright mistake, for me lacks positional merit and helps black out - take a look at your pawn structure before this move - black's dark-square bishop is terrible, completely boxed in. Meanwhile, your light-square bishop is patrolling the center on aggressive diagonals, in total harmony with your pawn structure. This idea of good vs bad bishop is a positional motif that is very common, so it is useful to think about; playing e6 allows black's bishop some breathing room.
And next, black squanders that gift and delivers a dubious check. After you shuffle your king to the corner, he correctly identifies the weakness he has on g6, so he covers it with his rook - however, that rook was overloaded, and in defending one pawn, he has now hung his pawn on e7, which is a great target to further damage black's camp.
With this in mind, our primary goal is to find ways to continue damaging black's army without giving up our static material advantages and giving black the opportunity for counterplay. Given this approach, taking black's bishop with 24. cxd4 makes a ton of sense, because in doing so, you're eliminating the one active piece that black has, and you're also removing a potential defender of that e7 pawn (should he retreat the bishop, like in the game).
tl;dr - when up a decisive amount, put particular emphasis on picking out weaknesses, targets in the opponent's camp that can be overwhelmed with your advantage. A lot of times, with this much material in your favor, you can overload the defenders very easily by creating double threats. From there, it's a matter of smothering the opponent and taking away any chance of counterplay.
Then, the next move you make, e6, while not an outright mistake, for me lacks positional merit and helps black out - take a look at your pawn structure before this move - black's dark-square bishop is terrible, completely boxed in. Meanwhile, your light-square bishop is patrolling the center on aggressive diagonals, in total harmony with your pawn structure. This idea of good vs bad bishop is a positional motif that is very common, so it is useful to think about; playing e6 allows black's bishop some breathing room.
And next, black squanders that gift and delivers a dubious check. After you shuffle your king to the corner, he correctly identifies the weakness he has on g6, so he covers it with his rook - however, that rook was overloaded, and in defending one pawn, he has now hung his pawn on e7, which is a great target to further damage black's camp.
With this in mind, our primary goal is to find ways to continue damaging black's army without giving up our static material advantages and giving black the opportunity for counterplay. Given this approach, taking black's bishop with 24. cxd4 makes a ton of sense, because in doing so, you're eliminating the one active piece that black has, and you're also removing a potential defender of that e7 pawn (should he retreat the bishop, like in the game).
tl;dr - when up a decisive amount, put particular emphasis on picking out weaknesses, targets in the opponent's camp that can be overwhelmed with your advantage. A lot of times, with this much material in your favor, you can overload the defenders very easily by creating double threats. From there, it's a matter of smothering the opponent and taking away any chance of counterplay.
Thanks for the detailed comment, DLT... I'll definitely try to apply some of this solid advice. Cheers!
sorry, wrong...
What Tyrion said.
Moves 22 to 24 seem key to me to this game, the point where you lost focus (should have taken more time/ a pause to refocus maybe ?) :
- e6 is very bad : before it your structure is perfect and unassailable, but after it, that pawn is hanging and blocks your bishop + light-squared queen. Worse than passing imo. Ask yourself what went through your mind that made you play it ? Those intuitions deserve some revisiting.
- instead of e6 you had terrific moves available, like 22. Qxd5 and 22. Qxg6. Two pawns up with a better structure coming to a rook endgame should win straightforwardly. Maybe at this point in the game (when you start having an advantage) try to look for your most direct path to victory ?
- After 23... Rg8 what's up with that black en-prise bishop ? 24. cxd5 ends the game as far as I can tell (b5 drops, e7 will drop, heavy pieces will trade and the piece advantage will win).
So this is a case of a game lost on one move were attention was not paid. Work on that ! staying attentive is how advantage-to-win conversion happens.
Moves 22 to 24 seem key to me to this game, the point where you lost focus (should have taken more time/ a pause to refocus maybe ?) :
- e6 is very bad : before it your structure is perfect and unassailable, but after it, that pawn is hanging and blocks your bishop + light-squared queen. Worse than passing imo. Ask yourself what went through your mind that made you play it ? Those intuitions deserve some revisiting.
- instead of e6 you had terrific moves available, like 22. Qxd5 and 22. Qxg6. Two pawns up with a better structure coming to a rook endgame should win straightforwardly. Maybe at this point in the game (when you start having an advantage) try to look for your most direct path to victory ?
- After 23... Rg8 what's up with that black en-prise bishop ? 24. cxd5 ends the game as far as I can tell (b5 drops, e7 will drop, heavy pieces will trade and the piece advantage will win).
So this is a case of a game lost on one move were attention was not paid. Work on that ! staying attentive is how advantage-to-win conversion happens.
@lecw: I'll tell you exactly what I was thinking when I played e6: I was attempting to cut off the Queen from g6 so as to have my B or Q take without takeback. Short term thinking... this is why I need higher-level strategy advice :/
Thanks for insights :)
MR
Thanks for insights :)
MR
Ah, right. Well, yeah, it doesn't matter that you take without takeback. What matters is that you are two pawns up. You welcome trading queens (trading anything really), when you are two pawns up.
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