It's interesting to observe how often when one fails to play the critical position correctly, it dooms the rest of your game. Partly that is due to objective factors, but there is also a significant psychological component. For example, I also failed to find better options - admittedly, much harder to calculate - on moves 18 and 26. I think that is a combination of the position actually being significantly more difficult to play, along with the earlier psychological blow coming from the sudden shift in momentum. Aside from the concrete lessons that analysis of this game teaches me, remembering to keep looking for ways to reverse course, even after suffering a turnaround in the game, is a more general lesson to keep in mind.
12 March 2016
Annotated Game #151: The Critical Position
This fourth-round tournament game illustrates well the importance of understanding the critical position in a game. Most games have one position (occasionally more, if it's a long game) that contains a major decision point and require significant thought, both in terms of calculating and evaluating it properly. Here the critical position occurs on move 17, something which I recognized during the game and is also evident during analysis. I had deliberately unbalanced the position with my opening choice (9...Bf5!?), which lead to having an open g-file and a strong light-square complex, at the expense of the dark squares and my kingside pawn structure. Over the next several moves, I correctly exploited the ideas for Black inherent in the position and developed a good initiative. Unfortunately I failed to then find the best (really only) idea for continuing, 17...Nxg5, which immediately turned over the initiative to my opponent.
It's interesting to observe how often when one fails to play the critical position correctly, it dooms the rest of your game. Partly that is due to objective factors, but there is also a significant psychological component. For example, I also failed to find better options - admittedly, much harder to calculate - on moves 18 and 26. I think that is a combination of the position actually being significantly more difficult to play, along with the earlier psychological blow coming from the sudden shift in momentum. Aside from the concrete lessons that analysis of this game teaches me, remembering to keep looking for ways to reverse course, even after suffering a turnaround in the game, is a more general lesson to keep in mind.
It's interesting to observe how often when one fails to play the critical position correctly, it dooms the rest of your game. Partly that is due to objective factors, but there is also a significant psychological component. For example, I also failed to find better options - admittedly, much harder to calculate - on moves 18 and 26. I think that is a combination of the position actually being significantly more difficult to play, along with the earlier psychological blow coming from the sudden shift in momentum. Aside from the concrete lessons that analysis of this game teaches me, remembering to keep looking for ways to reverse course, even after suffering a turnaround in the game, is a more general lesson to keep in mind.
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