Game Analysis #7: The Need for Preparation

Final position, 1-0

Most of the games that I've had when I started taking chess a little more seriously would just be good to analyze and take note of the mistakes that both sides made and how to improve on them. Here is another one and it's not necessarily a perfect game but it is a good example on what to keep in mind when we want to improve on playing chess.

Black's first few moves here were a bit weird to say the least because he made several pawn moves and neglected to develop his pieces which lead to difficulties later on. Usually, sticking to tried and tested positions is not bad especially in the opening. It's not the time to discover novelties unless you have studied and analyzed it beforehand.


You'll observe in the game that my opponent did not touch any of his minor pieces and pushed his pawns and moved his queen instead. Even though I probably did not punish him for that, I made decent moves by developing my pieces and getting my king to safety. Always think about development and king safety then you can start to assess the pawn structures in order to identify weaknesses that you can whittle away later on.

On move 9, things sped up a bit as my opponent struck in the center without preparing for it. This cost him a pawn. He also has a worse structure and a king stuck in the middle. The game might have been salvaged if he had developed his pieces first before making a move on the center. Instead of 7...d5, I think it would have been better to play 7...d6 instead and just maneuver the pieces to put them on better and more active squares. After that, everything quickly went downhill for Black. The positioned opened up and my pieces had natural developing squares which can also gain tempo. It didn't take long for his position to crumble.