@pifflesticks - although I am off from Chess till September but I am continuously following your videos. You have made a good progress so far and I hope you will make a lot more progress soon. You are on the right track actually. Keep it up!!! Once I am back, we can do some chess sessions together like we used to ;)
Hey Ben, just a reminder that last stream ended and I was next in line to play you. Also do you know if you’re going to play any chess on the channel after the 365 days?
It's quite difficult to spot absolutely all the connections across the board in a 15+10 game. Good practice, but usually that's the type of thing you'd prefer to do in a classical game. In a 15+10 game, you're just going to have to wing some things. But yes seeing that Bxf3 undermines your support of d4 is crucial. Still, Bxf3?! gxf3 in my opinion is overrated - I like your center. And your king isn't really weak because it's not exploitable.
Yeah I agree, I think it's asking a bit too much of myself, but I'll just keep trying to see as much as possible. If I get to the end of a rapid game and I feel like I've just spent 30 minutes doing hard calculation like when solving a puzzle, I'll know I'm on the right track. Thanks Nose 🍉
2:23 In general, I think the set up you're taking against the Sicilian is considered not great. I know in another video you said you're not focusing on openings, but at the 1600-1700 range it'd definitely be helpful to have a set of standard plans to aim for and an idea of the kinds of positions you like to play (closed vs open, etc) Good save at the end!
I've actually started focussing on the openings a bit more and unfortunately playing white against the Sicilian is an opening I'm currently about 20% of the way to learning, but I should get through it as I face it a fair amount! Cheers :D
