Ruy Lopez Exchange variation end game

I worked last night with a USCF 2000 level player. He has been helping me with the Caro-Kann. I mentioned in our last CK session that I was going to take up the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation and he said he played it as well. Last night he quizzed me on the basic ending of the Ruy Lopez exchange.

The basics steps to this are:

1. centralize the king
2. build queen side pawn wedge (a3,b2,c3 or a4,b3,c4)
3. Create passer on the king side

want to practice try here

Some of the ways of breaking through are/were not so obvious to me so I am going to create some puzzles here and some example games to show the ideas...
still under construction
--- break through key puzzles

Loosing in won positions

It seams lately that I have lost a number of games in won positions. I come out of a combination up material and fail to consolidate, allowing my opponent counter and even mating chances. I play such good chess then relax and play some "hope chess" moves and loose.

I know time pressure is involved but really after such hard work it seams such a shame.

For a bit I thought it might be that I should take some won positions and practice playing them out. However, I don't think it is a mater of knowing HOW but rather mental laziness. However I think taking some of these losses and replaying them vs a computer might help me.

Tied my high on FICS

          rating     RD      win    loss    draw   total   best
Blitz      1204     32.6     144     177       7     328   1204 (02-Aug-2002)

Progress or just less hope chess

I have made a 100 point jump at fics. I am up to 1160 or so. At Chess tactic server I am now hovering at 1400 and I bounced over it again and set a new high.

What is happening? Perhaps I am getting better. I am seeing more tactics and playing more moves that imbalance positions. I am actually looking for plans and trying to execute it. I am looking for how my opponent can hurt me. Even though I am playing 2 12 blitz mostly at least it is less hope chess... less simple threats with no plan.

intersting nite

I played at the coffee house tonight... and won one and lost one. the loss was a slow grinding game I dropped a pawn in the opening...grunfeld... however I won basically out of the first 10 moves in the center game.

AND AND AND... they guy that said he would help me with the caro-kann showed up on fics when I logged on to check my messages... and we spent an hour going through the strange exchange variation I have been playing. He gave me some nice ideas... and suggested some books. I can't wait to study some of this stuff... I am finally getting the IDEAS and not just seeing a blur of VARIATIONS...

for now I will build my knowledge of the ck... then I can move on to my d4 preparation... then I'll cycle back around and come up with a plan against the Sicilian and the French. THEN maybe I'll start working on my white openings. For now I have been enjoying the center game

Improving slowly

Ok I haven't blogged in a bit.

I have been working hard at tactics. I pushed my cts rating up to 1400 but then took a bit of a break from speed solving and jumped over to ChessTempo for a week doing slow problems. I haven't finished that stoyko excersize yet but plan to at some point. I believe it really helped.

What I found is that the pattern recognition from cts helped me when I was analyzing in my head for the stoyko problem. The chess tempo slow problems help me to slow down and make sure it works before playing my move.

BUT... my play when down hill for a bit. I was seeing more PHANTOM tactics that weren't really there. Or they were but the other guy had a better threat! So as with any new knowledge in chess you sometimes have to learn the "when it doesn't work" the hard way.

That being said I have been winning more. I am also winning in some nice sacrificial attacks only to find afterwards that my opponent had equalizing opportunities and even winning changes... BUT it is blitz and you don't have time to make sure it works all the time.

I went to the local coffee shop last night where they play chess on Wed. nites. I played a fellow ranked about 1500 uscf in 3 games. I won all three but I suspect he was taking it easy on me. I also played another fellow and won that game as well. Hmmm... and as black... the game started... e4 e6 d4 d6 Nc3 dxe4 Nxe4 Bf5 Ng5?!

I have only seen that one other time but I was sure it was going to lead to an early Queen move attacking my f7 pawn... or some kind of sac at f7.

The game continued. h6 Qh5 Bg6... and I was pretty sure I was in for some trouble... but somehow I managed to hold it all together and exchange well... got an advantage... and won a piece at the cost of letting one of his pawns get to the 6th rank. BUT I had connected passed pawns so I figured I could exchange off my extra bishop for his passed pawn on the sixth if need be.

Anyways... it was encouraging to know I am getting better.