chessnotes

A drawer for openings I play badly. Writing the idea down helps more than memorising another twelve moves.

London, 2.Bf4

The bishop leaves before e3 shuts it in. Everything else is setup, and the setup is the same against almost anything — which is the appeal and also the trap: it invites playing on autopilot until a pawn break arrives that the setup has no answer to.

Caro-Kann, advance

Black's problem bishop gets out to f5 before the chain closes. My mistake is chasing it with h4-h5 and calling the resulting hole a plan.

Minority attack

Two pawns marching at three to leave the opponent a backward pawn on an open file. Slow, and works because it is slow — there is nothing to counterattack against.

Zwischenzug

The in-between move played before the expected recapture. Most of my losses are one of these that I did not look for.