I was wondering if anybody had any tips about how to go about beating somebody who plays for a draw and attempts to force exchanges without any material advantage?
The computer showed one variant I could have played on move 10 to gain a pawn advantage, but beyond that I'm struggling to see what I could have done particularly differently to pull off a win.
I'm still undecided about whether or not it was a mistake to exchange my bishop pair for his knight pair on move 15, although by my estimations they seemed to have outlived their usefulness by that point.
Does anybody have any thoughts?
en.lichess.org/B0YIZUBq/black#0play better than him!
don't go for symmetrical pawn structures. after trading c3 for a6 it's already pretty drawish.
trading the bishop pair was a mistake as you noticed, i'd consider Bc4 followed by a5. then on move 29 you throw the knight into an operation that ends at least with trading d-pawns after which there's clearly nothing to play for, keeping the minor pieces and activating the king would give you some very slight chances with some infiltration on d5
You could avoid the rook traid at move 19 and dominate that file. Just play rook up and put the other rook in that file too. White is weaker by having the queen and rook in the 'a' file. You were winning at that point.
The endings are much important. Think about concepts like zugzwang, activity of the king, pawn structures, advanced pawns, possible sacrifices for an advanced pawn, and more...
Generally playing for a draw is not a good idea. You should play moves that don’t lose and be slightly more aggressive with those moves. It is wise not to sacrifice a lot ether if your opponent has a solid setup. Get more aggressively placed pawns to queen and your "drawing" opponent might be found in a losing endgame.
Yes, a good player try to demonstrate to the opponent that he calculates better than him, for this reason is good idea maintain a lot of pieces on the board, specially the queens I believe, or the rooks and try to win rook endings, etc
Another wrong thing I made when I had 1600 rating is to advance the center too early, is good maintain tension on the center and when the opponent is too back on the development, try to open lines
On move 19.Rxa3 simplifies too much. Instead 19.Rc8, and keep the side under your control, fight for bits of territory and squeeze and wait for a crack to appear ?
Other than that, what i noticed first was, your opening choice doesnt essentially yell "I came here for a fight", in my opinion.
I just looked at the game and 2... d5 was called for.
Thanks for all the advice guys. Lots of great tips to think about there.
Regarding the opening gomental, I was expecting it to develop into a semi slav defence in that instance, but after he forced my pawn off the c file and took my knight, it seemed a better idea to develop my bishop and push the attack on the queen side, rather than trying to shift the d pawns.
I normally use variants of that opening as black pretty effectively according to my chess insights. 62.1/66.7% victory rate for Queens pawn games when I'm playing classical.
Opening Victory Draw Defeat No. of .....................................................................................................games
C00 French Defence 50.9% 4.5% 44.5% 110
C02 French, Advance 48.8% 2.4% 48.8% 41
A40 Queen's Pawn Game 62.1% 0.0% 37.9% 29
D00 Queen's Pawn Game 66.7% 3.7% 29.6% 27
D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 45.8% 4.2% 50.0% 24
A00 Uncommon Opening 41.2% 5.9% 52.9% 17
C10 French 33.3% 0.0% 66.7% 12
C24 Bishop's Opening 12.5% 12.5% 75.0% 8
C47 Four Knights 75.0% 0.0% 25.0% 8
C20 King's Pawn Game 37.5% 0.0% 62.5% 8
D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 14.3% 14.3% 71.4% 7
B20 Sicilian 83.3% 0.0% 16.7% 6