Well, there are other aspects where psychology can play an important rule, and can also impact many decisions you make not only with opening selection, but in-game decisions. In addition, when you start facing players multiple times, or face players that live in the same area as you and you have observed a number of their games, you can establish a mental database of the players in your local area. This is possible because you see them and play against them all the time, contrary to say, going on a 500 mile road trip and playing against players you have never played before, and since they are not GMs, it's not like you can find their games in a database and research their play. In such a case, you are playing more of a pure game of chess.
So what factors should you be looking for when analyzing other players in your local area?
1. Opening Repertoire
When preparing to play against a local player, it is important to know their repertoire. Is it narrow or diverse? If it's narrow, what openings are they? Is there a specific line or move order that might disrupt their typical play? Do they play moves rather than openings? For example, do the play 1.e4, and feel that no matter what you play that 2.f4 and 3.Nf3 must be good moves? For those with a diverse opening repertoire, which openings might get under their skin? These are all questions that must be answered, and some of them might also lead to the answers of subsequent questions.
2. Strengths and Weaknesses
The next question you have to ask yourself is what is that player's strengths and weaknesses? Which types of pawn centers (Closed, Static, Open, Mobile, or Dynamic) are they strong or weak at executing? Are they strong or weak at endgames? Being able to answer these questions can impact many decisions during the game.
3. Antics
What are the player's antics? Are they attentive to detail? Do they take a very long time to make moves such that maybe an overly complicated position might get them into time trouble? Do they fail to use their time? Do they lose interest after a certain period of time or when it reaches an endgame? Again, all questions that must be asked if you want to take advantage of your opponent.
So those that have known me and seen me play will know that in terms of openings, I have my preferences, but it's not narrow. For example, against 1.e4, I have a strong preference for the French Defense, but also play the Petroff and even the Caro-Kann on rare occasion. Against 1.d4, my primary weapon is the King's Indian, but also play the Dutch, and even on rare occasion the Nimzo-/Queen's Indian. My biggest weakness is the Mobile pawn center, and hence why you don't ever see me play an early c4 against the Alekhine, and why I avoid openings like the Grunfeld, and we will see that the game in this article is actually an Anti-Grunfeld. I have no objection to playing an endgame, and as for antics, I do get up and observe other games, but my mind is always on my own game, and focus is retained throughout the game with thorough attention to detail.
In my previous article before this one, The French Connection: Volume 9, many of these questions were answered in the introduction to each of the two games about the two opponents, and this knowledge was used to my advantage as well.
All of this might also explain why I travel more now to go to tournaments that are fairly small in size. When you have played 2716 tournament games of a standard time control, and you want the chance to play a pure game of chess, you have to often go long distance to do so as my list of "locals" has expanded tremendously. For example, there are 31 players that I have played 16 times or more, the highest of which being 96 games against a single player. So in many ways, playing locally for me is a totally different ball of wax that playing long distance. I have two long distance tournaments coming up next month. One of them is in Lenexa, Kansas while the other is in Rockville, Maryland. I will likely post a few of the games on this blog in one way, shape, or form.
So now we are going to look at my 2717th career tournament chess game of a standard time control, and we are going to see how psychology and knowledge of my Opponent's habits have lead to a win. I will say in advance that this game is way far away from being anything resembling my best play. White's play is in no way spectacular, but White wins this game because I used the items described above. Let's see what we have here.
Tuesday Night Action 44, Round 1
W: Patrick McCartney (2091)
B: Luke Harris (1890)
Anti-Grunfeld
1.Nf3
So a little word Black and everything about him. As for opening repertoire, it is very narrow. As one that doesn't play much 1.e4, I can't say with absolute certainty which variation of the Sicilian he plays, but I'm almost sure that he plays nothing but the Sicilian against 1.e4. Against 1.d4, he plays the Grunfeld, another wild, dynamic, tactical opening. As White, it's all about 1.e4 and reckless openings like the King's Gambit. As for his style, he thrives on the dynamic center. Static centers and closed positions are those which appear to be position that he loathes. He also severely loses interest in endgames, and tends to make a lot of careless errors at that point in the game, assuming the game is decided. His antics are also extremely poor. More on that as we go through the game and I mention the specifics of what went on during the game. For the moment, let's take a look at the opening selection made against him.
1...Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5
For Grunfeld players, this move is necessary. If 3...Bg7, then White can completely prevent the Grunfeld and force a King's Indian by Black by playing 4.e4 first and only after that play 5.d4. Of course, 3...Bg7 4.d4 would allow a pure Grunfeld via 4...d5.
4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.dxc3
And here is the main difference between the Anti-Grunfeld and the main lines of the Grunfeld. After 6.bxc3, you would likely see a direct transposition to the main lines of the Grunfeld after say, 6...Bg7 7.d4 c5. White does not allow this, and now Black has nothing better than to trade Queens and head into a Queenless middlegame that will feature a symmetrical pawn structure that is not totally static, but dynamic play is pretty much avoided here.
6...Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1
7...Bg7 8.Bf4 c6 9.Kc2 O-O 10.Bc4 Nd7 11.Nd2
Stronger here is 11.a4. The idea behind it is to execute a clamping effect on Black's Queenside via an upcoming a5 by White, which because Black was forced to advance the c-pawn back on move 8, it's a little harder for Black to break the clamp with a move like ...b6 because of the weakening of the c-pawn that would result from it.
11...Ne5 12.Bb3 b6 13.Nc4 Nd7 14.Be3 Nf6 15.f3 Be6 16.Rad1 Rfd8
So here another psychological factor and observation occurs during the game. None of the last nine moves involved any trading or anything particularly exciting, but no move played by White took more than three minutes, and almost all of Black's moves took virtually no time to less than a minute with the lone exception of a five-minute think on the fourteenth move. But now, White has two major options here. One is to trade the Rooks off. The other is to play 17.Ne5 since the attempt at the tactic 17...Nxe4 doesn't do Black anything because of 18.Nxc6 and White has strong pressure on Black. I spent 11 minutes making my decision on what to do at this juncture. During those 11 minutes, the following observations were made:
- Black's antics showed signs of losing interest in the position as nothing has happened for quite a while now.
- There are a White Pawn, White Knight, and White Queen that constitute the capture pieces. The three pieces were off to his right. There is a small, open area to his right on the table. Black starts physically moving the pieces on the table like as if there were imaginary squares on the table. He was moving the pawn forward the distance of a single square. He would move the Knight like an L. He would move the Queen horizontally, vertically, and diagonally along the table. He would continue to make random moves until one piece crashed into another, implying capture. Then he would reset the three pieces and continue doing it again. I am not a doctor, and am not making any medical assessment, but what he was doing showed the appearance of behavior similar to the behavior of a typical person with ADD, like as if maybe a fidget spinner would've helped him, and that the boredom of the position had to be killing him. As it turns out, 17.Ne5 and 17.Rxd8 are White's best two moves, and one is not really all that much better than the other, and so after long calculation and not finding anything concrete in either variation, I decided to trade off the Rooks, looking to bore the position even more and drive Black even more crazy!
17.Rxd8+ Rxd8 18.Rd1
18.Ne5 is stronger and gives White the advantage. After the trade of the second set of Rooks, White's advantage is minimal.
18...Rxd1 19.Kxd1 Nd7 20.Kc2 Ne5 21.Nxe5 Bxb3+ 22.Kxb3 Bxe5
So we have reached a single-piece endgame as early as 22 moves into the game. At this point, another trend is observed from Black's play. He moves way too fast, and many of his moves are made is such a manner that Black believes that as long as he avoids the obvious traps that one move is just as good as any other and we will see that it is just not the case here. Also, just to give an indication of the level of focus between White and Black, after 22 moves, White has 52 minutes left on the clock to Black's 61 minutes. At move 51, where Black finally falters and walks into a losing trap due mainly to carelessness, White has 21 minutes to Black's 52 minutes, and only on move 32 does Black spend 3 minutes. All other moves are shorter, predominantly under a minute per move. White is going to take advantage of this in this game. The position itself, for all intents and purposes, is merely equal.
23.h3 Kf8 24.a4 Ke8 25.a5 Bc7 26.c4 Kd7 27.a6
For now, the only weakness for Black is that his Bishop is tied down to guarding b6. If the Bishop were to move away from b6, White could sacrifice his Bishop on b6 and then advance a7, winning. Otherwise, there is no other weakness for Black, and a single weakness can easily be guarded.
27...Ke6 28.Bd4 Kd7 29.Kc2 Ke6 30.b4 Kd7 31.Kd3
Since a single weakness can't win the game for White, White attempts to create play on the Kingside to try to create a second weakness.
31...Ke6 32.Ke3 f6 33.f4 Kf7 34.g4 e5 35.fxe5 fxe5 36.Bc3 Kf6 37.Kf3 h6
Here Black offers a draw. That said, he proceeds to physically make his 37th move, then hits the clock, and only after he hits the clock, he offers a draw. There's the first violation. You must offer on your time and then hit the clock. The second issue I took was that he starts holding his hand out over the board like I am obligated to accept the draw. Keep your hand back and if I choose to accept, then I'll offer my hand when both have agreed, and then you shake hands. So here I combine the fact that I am annoyed now by his distraction of offering the draw improperly and also sticking his hand over the board, blocking my view, and combine that with the fact that he is spending no time on his moves and his clear disinterest in the game, and decide to play on. Against many others, I would have accepted the draw at this point, but here, I'm going to look for every possible cheap shot threat and/or trap just to see if he falls for one and I gain an extra half a point. This is once again using chess psychology and my own knowledge of the locals in the area to my advantage!
38.Bd2 g5 39.Be3 Kg6 40.Bf2 Kf6 41.h4 Kg6 42.Ke2 Kf6 43.Kd3 Kg6 44.Kc3 Kf6 45.Kb3 Kg6
So we know that with best play, this position should be drawn. What traps might be available for White that don't lose? Well, White's idea is to move the King to a4, sacrifice the Bishop on b6, which Black will be forced to recapture with the Bishop, not the a-pawn, and then White will follow up with c5, which will force the Bishop to retreat to c7 again, and then b5, which Black will be forced to take as he can't allow b6 by White. Then White will take back with the King. He then wants to chase the Bishop with Kc6 followed by Kb7, take on a7, and come back to b7. So White has to make sure that Black cannot get the King across on time to block the White King. So Black's first free move comes after Kxb5. Then on Kc6, Black must move his Bishop and then when he goes to b7, Black can move his King, and then when he takes on a7, Black can move his King again. If, at this point, the King gets to the c-file, hemming the White King in on the a-file, Black wins. That was three free moves by the Black King. Therefore, for this execution to work, the Black King must be on the g- or h-file. If it's on the f-file, it's too close.
The next factor to look at is that if White does all this now, Black can take on h4 and run the pawn to promotion. Therefore, White must first trade or advance the h-pawn. If he trades, Black can take with the King and White has problems on the Kingside. Therefore, White must advance.
46.h5+ Kf6 47.Be3 Bd8
Black has to make sure that he doesn't waste his time moving the King to the g-file to cover the Kingside pawns. If White ever sacrifices on g5, all Black has to do is be in the box of the h-pawn, and so as long as the King doesn't go past the e-file, Bxg5 will NEVER be a threat. Since that threat is fake, and the issues on b6 are more serious, there is no reason to move the King back to a place like g7. The move played in the game is fine, and also covers both b6 and g5. That said, White now tries for another trap on the basis that Black might think that he really needs to cover g5. Again, the sacrifice on g5 is a completely fake threat unless the Bishop is on c7 instead of d8 AND (not OR) the Black King is on the d-file or further away from the h-file. Therefore, White tests Black by advancing the King to a4 and then losing a tempo.
48.Ka4 Ke6 49.Bf2 Bc7 50.Bg1 Bd8 51.Be3
So we now have the same position as after Black's 48th move, but now with Black to move instead of White. If Black realizes that his King is ideally placed and within reach of the h-pawn if White were to sacrifice on g5 and well within range of the Queenside if White tries to sacrifice on b6, then he would realize that the simple 51...Bc7 with a toggle between c7 and d8 would give White no choice but to offer the draw back to Black. However, Black finally falters with a very careless move that if he had taken his time, he would never have made this blunder.
51...Kd6?? 52.c5+
The fact that this is with check does Black in. If it weren't check, then the simple 52...b5 would draw the moment that White pushes the c-pawn, but here, it allows White to pry open the Queenside, and with every Black pawn sitting on a dark square, White will grab the pawns on the Kingside while Black is busy stopping the a-pawn.
52...Kc7
Or 52...bxc6 53.Bxc6+, winning the a-pawn and the game.
53.cxb6+ axb6 54.b5 Be7 55.a7 Kb7 56.Bxb6!! 1-0
Black can never take the Bishop on b6 and White will intrude the Kingside with his King. Because of this, Black resigned.
So to summarize, the following should always be kept in mind when playing against locals or other players at tournaments that you face frequently:
- Use the additional information about the opponent and maintain flexibility in your own game in order to select openings that don't fit well with your Opponent's style of play and habits.
- Use your Opponent's habits to determine certain types of decisions. For example, if two moves appear to be of equal benefit, such as White's 17th move in the game, play the move that is more likely to annoy the opponent. In the endgame, understand your opponent's habits, weaknesses, and antics before deciding whether to give in when playing a drawn position. In the game, all the Black pawns were on the color square as that of the Bishops, which opened up ways for Black to falter, and he eventually did. Had he been a player of endgame strength and shows signs of being able to focus in long, drawn out positions, I'd have accepted the draw offer on move 37.
- Take your time and consider everything. Don't rush, and often times, if you look for hidden secrets, your opponent may fall for one of them. In the game, White had four of them. The Bishop sacrifice on b6 if the Black Bishop leaves the a5-d8 diagonal. The Bishop sacrifice on g5 if the Black Bishop is still on c7 and the Black King is on the d-file or further to White's left. The Bishop sacrifice on b6 if the White King is on the g- or h-file after White locks the h-file. And then lastly, the one that killed Black in the game which was the trap of Black playing his King on the poisoned d6-square, leading to White being able to advance the c-pawn without Black being able to block the position due to a check.
This concludes the article. The next time that you play someone that you've either observed or played against repeatedly, think about the many factors that GM Aman Hambleton explained on June 26th (for those of you that attended his lecture) along with the other psychological factors explained here. It may sound crazy, and it won't work every time, (you will lose games) but it might amaze you how much it does alter your overall results in your favor!
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