Results: How do chess players think II

First of all, I want to say thank you to all who participated in the survey posted last week. I want to break this into a three-part series. This week I will share the results and in the final part share some reflextions with a comparison with de Groot’s results from his book ‘Thought and Choice in Chess’. Thanks to NM Dan Heisman for reminding me of his work.

Survey: How do chess players think?

The first position — A strategic puzzle

The first position is from one of my blitz games. It is from the QGD opening with a Carlsbad structure. White has slightly more space and controls a potential break with e4. The Black Rooks are kind of misplaced, which is a problem for Black.

There is also some air around the Black King and you might be tempted to play Kg7, but then there is a nasty tactic with Ne6+! Instead, Kh7 is an alternative. Some will be tempted to play Nf5 to put pressure on e3, but after Qd2 it is really just a one-move threat and suddenly moves like g4 or e4 is in the air. Others might be tempted to play b6, but that simply loses a pawn after Ncd3.

The main move according to Stockfish to consider are: Re8 (0.00), Kh7 (+.20), a5 (+.30). Re8 solves the problem with the Rooks. Kh7 takes care of the King, while a5 kind of stops b4.

Okay, let us see what people arrived at after just 5 minutes. We start with the lower-rated players and move up. I haven't been able to include all replies since it would be very long.

Survey replies to position no. 1

First thing I notice is that the move f3 creates a weak diagonal around the king the d3 pawn is also weak white's knights are too strong, find a way to move them away? we can't, b6 weakens the c pawn and it's lost perhaps Nf5, attacking d6 and a fork? oh, what about Nc4? blocks the double attack on the pawn, forces the queen to defend d3 and now Nb3 is also an option to win material, and makes it so b6 is made possible!

— 1060 rapid

Immediately I notice two white knights invading my camp. I first check to see if they make any concrete threats against my pieces or king. I see that if the white knight jumps to d7, it is defended and attacks my rook, but I can easily evade. I feel like with my lack of space, I want to open up lines for my queen and rook to get into the game. The H-file initially seems appealing before I notice my Queen can likely get trapped along the edge of the board. I notice White's d-pawn is extremely strong and start to think of ways to dislodge it. If I can push my B pawn to force the knight away then I can push my c-pawn and force a trade, which removes the defense of the e-knight. That can be reinforced by the f-pawn though, which is protected twice. I desperately need some form of counterplay, so I push my b-pawn in hopes of gaining space, activating my rook, and attacking on White's queenside.

— 1150 Rapid Online

Determining whose move it is.. it’s always annoying when that’s not specified.. oh I see, last move is shown, that works well actually. Looking at e4 square.. might’ve been a nice Knight outpost so maybe White wanted to deny that. What about b6 to kick a knight? Ok, where can White’s knights attack me? Does White have any Queen sac/Knight fork ideas? Doesnt look like it.. Should I sac a knight & put the other on that e4 square & then bring my Queen in for a mating attack? ..Running out of time so maybe b6.. oh no, White has a battery on C6.. Scanning a bunch of moves with my reptilian bullet chess brain cause I’m out of time & would like to find at least a solid move before moving on.. writing is taking a lot of time, the dictation thing might’ve been better.. ok going to play Knight f5 & move on.

— 1200

My first though is to be worried about the two knights in my camp. I'm worried about walking into a fork that costs me my queen. the two knights are not directly attacking anything, but how can they fork me if they move. the knight on e5 cannot put me in check. and it looks like I can capture where it goes. the knight on c5....also cannot give check. seems can be capture where it goes closer. So, maybe knights aren't so scary right now. however, if sacs on g3, then queen can come in and give check which seems like it will lead to bad things happening....so, maybe I could move my king up to stop that. now, what to play. do I try to kick a knight away with b3? or try and go Nc4 looking to Nxd6? oof, my time is up, probably play Ka2.

— 1200 chess.com rapid

First question is whether I have any pieces that are under an immediate threat; it seems that no. I realize that my rooks are connected but not on any open file so not in particularly great spot. What are white's threats? Why did white play f4?

There is a sacrifice idea for white on on g6, with the Nxg6, xg6, Qxg6+ which can seem nasty. This illustrates that white seems to have an open board with active pieces while black is restricted. As an example black's rook are overdefending a pawn and seem stuck.

Pushing b6 seems like something but weakens c6 and the knight has a good retreat square. c4 looks like a good spot for the black knight; it can threaten Nxe3 with a double attack on rook and queen.

After double checking Nxg6 is mean since after checking the king the queen can take the knight on f6 since the king can't defend it.

Kg7 defends the pawn and the knight.

— 1700 Lichess Blitz

Let's first look at the balance of material: both sides have two rooks a queen and two nights. Pawns are equal although white has a king-side majority and black has a queen side majority. Black rooks look a bit ugly placed. Each side has seven pawns, so each side has only one half-open file. White has a knight that's blocking black’s only half open file, and black has pawns blocking white’s half open file. I guess the next thing to look at is potential break moves. it looks like white can break at multiple places by pushing the e-pawn in maybe the f-pawn. Both of black’s knights are at nice outposts while one of white’s knights is a loose piece There might be a play something late Nxg6 followed by Qxg6. I quite like white’s position

— approx 1100 USCF / 1300 chess.com

Ok its Black to move. It's not a real game but clock is ticking.
Its 12-15 pm here and I am having a sip of Tea.
Lets evaluate the position first.
Black's position looks cramped with all pieces within 4 ranks.
Whereas White's 2 pieces sitting in Black's camp Ne5 and Nc5.
The only weakness in White's camp is e3 but Black can't get there by Ng4 or Nd5 or Re8.
Lets think about objectives and plan.
I have to neutralize one of the Knights sitting in my camp.
No other counter attacks available.
No immediate threats from White though.
Rook activation to e8 and other to c8.
Lets find the possible moves here
Nc4 - giving up the Knight for Knight and a pawn for possible breathing and Nd5 later.
Re8 - with Rac8
b6 - [pawn move] - weakens the c6 heavily so not so good.
Time's is getting up.
Lets go with safer Re8 and wait for White to proceed.

— 1459 ELO

ok whats happening here, white just moved f3. my kingside looks loose, e3 looks loose, whites knights on e5 c5 look annoying, Q and N aiming at g6, theres potential for sacrifices and my position looks cramped. what activity do i have, b6 attacks the N but weakens c6. Wait i should count the material, queens rooks knights pieces are equal, 7 and 7 pawns, material is equal. CCT, white has Qg6 but thats bad. Ng6 fxg6 . Qxg6+and I'm in trouble, Kf8 walks into Ne6+, Kh8 Qxh6+ Kg8Ne6 Qf7 and i think black survives but this is tough. What the hell can black do! this position is frustrating. b6 Nd3 Rd8. ok its been 5 min

— 1500 USCF / 1750 Chess.com Rapid

Diag to king somewhat opened. knights converge on e4, queen eyeing h2, which knight can cover in one move. Wonder how to clear the diagonal. Nc4 gets the knight out of the way but no obvious followup.
...
White just blocked one of the knight's retreating squares, maybe it's a trap sort of thing. Nope doesn't seem likely, too many options still.
...
Nc4 is appealing for the threat of a fork on e3, and it frees up the quueen, and if it gets taken by the knight, there are ideas of queen attacking h2.

If nc4 nxc4 there doesn't seem to be anything though the pawn on d5 is overloaded, there could be tactics of exchanging on c5 or e5, then taking the free knight. Would have to take the knight on c5 first and have the queen take on e5.
...
Nf5 also threatens the fork on e3. Let's say Nf5 Qe2. Eh don't really see anything there.

<Timer stopped>

NOTE: The "..."s are times when I'm just sort of looking at the board for anything to pop out, whether that's a specific move, or a feature of the position (overloaded pawn on d4, queen eying h2, knight maybe trappable, etc.). Once something pops out then the thought process is more explainable/concrete. I'll also just try a bunch of moves that are generated and dismissed in a few seconds, moves that I don't see much of a purpose to but I can then ask "does that do anything".

— 1900 lichess rapid

Parentheses are not part of inner dialogue but hopefully explain what I'm feeling/visualizing so that the inner dialogue makes sense:

Okay, White just played f3, weakening the king. Has two nice knights. Material is about even: queen, two rooks, two knights each, seven pawns. White has more space and menacing knights. Tempting to expand on the queenside (visualizing …b6, Nb3 c5, dxc5 and then abandoning because the opening of the c-file seems to benefit White). Could target e-pawn directly with …Nf5 (visualizing e4 Nxd4, Qd2 Nb5 and not feeling great about a4 or exd5, then realizing …Nf5-Ne3 is a better continuation, forking rook and queen). But White doesn’t have to push e4 (visualizing …Nf5, Rfe1 and thinking it’s unclear how to proceed). Knights are tricky bastards. (Visualizing attacks on kingside with …Nf5-Nh4) Really want knight on g4 but unclear how to achieve it. (Getting frustrated) If it were blitz I would just play …Nf5 and figure it out based on White’s move. But…let’s go deeper. (Visualizing …Re8) but Black’s not really threatening to take (Rxe5??). (Knights just sort of randomly hopping around in my head now). 1 (...Re8) 2 (e4) 3 (dxe4) 4 (fxe4 then abandoning because opening f-file looks great for White). Forcing move, forcing move. …b6 is forcing. (Visualizing …b6, Nb3 and not liking weakened c-pawn.) Don’t know. (Visualizing …Re8, …Nh5) Could crash through (visualizing Rxe3 though not clear how to achieve it). …Nf5 feels the best choice.

— USCF 1660

Hello. It's a Carlsbad structure. It's white's pieces are all better placed. Material is equal. Black rooks are very passive. The black knights are okay, but not as good as white's knights. White usually plays a minority attack, and they barely started that on the queen side here.

Actually, black could play b5, and then if white tried the minority attack with B four, black would have Knight c4. And then if Knight takes c4, then you black ends up with a pawn on c4 and looks better than they are now. So that's not a good outcome for white. So I suppose white's plan of the minority attack is going to be a little hard to execute. On the other hand, if black plays b5, then c6 pawn becomes weak. Actually, a c6 pawn is going to become impossible to defend. It's got one white attacker now, but the Knight on c5 can jump out of the way, and then there will be three attackers on c6. So black probably doesn't want to move the B pawn. White's e3 pawn is weak, but I don't see a way for black to attack it. You can't play night C four now. I guess you can play Knight f5, but that's only one attacker, and white has an easy time defending it. I guess I should come up with a plan for Black.

f5 seems like a good square for the Knight. e8 looks like a good square for a black rook, so I'd be planning on those two moves. Do I have to worry about king safety? I suppose white is threatening Nxg6, because if this were white to move no, that doesn't work. Ng6. fxg6 Queen takes g6. Check. Black can play queen G seven defending the knight, getting out of check. So I don't think knight takes G six as a thread and certainly not after. If black plays night f5 here, Nf5 stops e4, which seems like white is thinking about by playing f3 seems like a pretty good move. The night could get kicked out by g4, but that would weaken whites King too much. So I don't expect that.

So I think my move here is Nf5. Are there any white responses?
I don't see anything black has to worry about in terms of immediate responses. White has a lot of activity, peace activity, so you have to worry about tactics. But I don't see anything immediately. And my plan for black is to increase my peace activity. So we plan as native five and then probably rookie eight on the next move.

— 1700 USCF

Ok, we've got some sort of QGD structure where material is equal and Black has managed to trade off the key strategic trade of light-squared bishops and got the knight to the ideal d6 square. But the rooks look a little clumsy, White is about to push f4, and the Black king is also not entirely safe from some Nxg6 fxg6 Qxg6+ working if the Black queen ever leaves the 7th rank. To top it off, both the White knights are very menacing, so I think White is a little better here. In terms of a setup I would want to achieve here: king on g7, and rooks doubled on e7 and e8 would be a lot more pleasant. As would exchanging one pair of knights. There won't be anywhere near enough time to achieve all that, however.

Candidate moves:

A) Kg7 - very slow
B) Re8 - given that I won't get my ideal setup, it's not actually clear I want my rook on the e-file, since after White plays e4 perhaps I would actually prefer to have a rook on the d-file eyeing the potentially weak White pawn?
C) Nc4?! - things are not great so saccing a pawn to lessen the bind shouldn't be out of the question. I think this is premature, though. The concept is not insane, but perhaps in combination with something else first...

lots of pontification, but the 5 minutes are up, and I remain rather undecided how to proceed. I'll go with Re8.

— 1895 FIDE

b6 kicks out the knight fom c5, but weakens the c6 pawn with no time for a c5-like reaction afterwards. Also, Nxg6 looks worthy of consideration, Kg7 seems like a safe approach to a non-inmeadiate plan. Maybe the e3 pawn could suffer, by trying something like Re8 and maybe, just maybe some Nc4 probably prepared by Rad8 in order to avoid e4 after the knights change, since. Since Kg7 isn't an indispensable move, probably will go for the Re8 plan, also considering that the rooks on b8 and a8 aren't doing a lot (maybe leave one of them in b8 in order to having overprotected the b7 pawn)

— 2055 FIDE

Material is level, space feels about the same is, not sure what my rooks are doing on the a and b files. I quite like the position of the white knights - looking quite good on the 2 squares they are on. White’s control of the c-file is quite good. My N on f6 is unprotected completely. I really don’t want to push my b-pawn as the c-pawn is then permanently weak, and he has control of the c file. I’d quite like to drop a N in on c4 but it is not secure there. I really would like to bring my 2 Ns back so I can drop a N in on d7 and challenge those two Ns. He is ready to play e4. I’d evaluate this position already as being not great for me. My K position feels a bit funny too. The g6 pawn is hanging. In fact I’ve got to protect g6 which I’d not spotted before - Nxg6 pawn takes queen takes there is also a N coming in potentially on e6. Really not comfortable maybe I could reverse the move order and can he play Ne6 first? He might be able to. And then Q takes pawn I’m still defending f7 quite well. My eye is really being drawn to playing Kg7 to shore up the kingside protect g6 and protect that N on f6 most importantly ooh no if it do that he can play Ne6+ pawn takes Q takes pawn check and the N drops. kg7 is a blunder but it feels intuitively necessary but it’s just a blunder but I’ve got to prevent Nxg6 when the N is dropping - no it isn’t as the Q comes to g6 hmmmm so Kg7 I don’t like at all and I don’t see any way of doing anything active here - hmmm maybe Nf5 and that protects my lines and attacks some weak squares hmmm Nf5, but it’s really a one-move wonder isn’t it he can just play Re1 and then push the pawn play e4. If I could get him to play b4 I could play b5 and then Nc4 feels quite comfortable. How can get I get him to push is there a way? Hmmm I really do need to defend the N on f6 though feels loosey goosy. Qe7? hmmm not sure about that at all. Yeah I think I might play Qe7 here.

— 2100

Materially equal, nice jumpers on c5 and e5. Completely misplaced rooks on b8 and a8. The exposed jumps on f6. No immediate attack points for black. Nxg6 hangs in the air. I need to get rid of the knight on e5. I need to cover my springer at f6. White has played f3, that's enough with the thought e4. Nf5 covers against Nxg6. Damn, he covers e3 and plays g4. Can you play b5 and Nc4 to release the pieces on the kingside? No, White can always play b3. Kors, how did Black get into this? If this is really a Roskilde player's game, I can understand that our 3rd team can beat their 1st team. Fuck. Kg7! It covers g6 and f6. Can't be wrong. Nxg6 with the thought Ne6+. It could easily be wrong. What is the plan? Can I get Nd6 over to d7 and swap some knights? Boom. Nc8-b6-d7? It seems damn slow when White is about to open an attack on the f-line. It still has to cover g6 and f6 and chase away Ne5. It must be Re8. It gives me a target on e4 if he pushes, and all in all, Ne5 is so good that you should consider giving it a die. Plus it covers e6 so I can play Kg7 or Nf6-away and pawn f6. Re8 and let's see what happens. After Rad8 we can always reconsider Nc8.

— 2150 Danish Rating (translated from Danish)

Black looks very cramped, and unable to find a decent plan without dropping material. The only plausible pawn break is b6, Nd3, c5, but after multiple takes I think we’ve just lost a pawn and weakened d4. The threat of e4 is looming ominously too, which exposes the f7 pawn if we take. Nf5 is interesting, putting a stop on white’s plans for one more move, and also the Queen keeps an eye on the knight on e5, making an eventual b6, c5 pawn break all the more reasonable. Otherwise, I think we’d have to turtle up with Re8 or Rf8, and try to remaneuver our rooks to more reasonable squares. If possible I’d love a5, a4, b5 and Nc5 but that’s shockingly slow. Nf5 looks artificial though, and g4 could always come. I really don't have a clear idea here, i just need the rooks to get out to better squares. Re8 and Rad8, Kg7, just turtle.

— 2215

The tactical position

The position is from the recent game between Fedoseev and Abdusattorov from the Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship 2022. No one seemed to have watched it live or recall the position. The game actually ended in a draw due to a later oversight by Fedoseev. The key features of the position are the misplaced Bishop on c1 and the opportunity to pin the Rook with the Queen after dxc7 Rxc7.

The solution is tactical: dxc7 Rxc7 Qd1 attacking the Bishop Bg5 Qd6 pinning the Rook
a) Rb7 Qxb8 Rxb8 Rc7 pinning the Bishop Rd8 Be6 and the Bishop is lost
b) Bd8 the move from the game. White can now pick between Qxe5+ keeping the pin and taking a pawn or Qd5 threatening Qg8.

Not an easy puzzle and there were no hints to look for a tactic, but I thought that if I picked a hard tactical puzzle it might tricker more interesting replies across the rating bands. Let us see:

Obvious first move is dxc7, should calculate it first it just gives us back the material, and black still has better piece placement Ng3? well, gxh3 is still an option there and I don't like my chances even worse if Rxc2!
I have to take on c7 before anything, but with rook or with pawn? hard call
Rxc7 at least pins the bishop?

— 1060 rapid

I frirst notice and obvious capture of the black rook, which I would likely take with the pawn first. I then try to count the material, and see it would be equal.

I see that Black's king is fairly open, and would consider how can I start attacking it. It seems that dealing with the chaos on the C-file likely matters more at this moment.

After trading rooks, Black's queen will dominate the C-file. I consider tactics where I first take the rook with my pawn, and then try to trap black's bishop, but I don't notice any way to do so. My final decision is to capture the rook with my pawn, then capture the other rook when he recaptures, and then start to mobilize my bishop, knight , and queen towards the kingside to attack the open black king.

— 1150 Rapid Online

Goddammit! Whose turn is it?! No last move shown, so I guess it’s White’s turn based on the board orientation. Ok looking at the position & all obvious captures. Jumping between g4 square & C file exchanges. Oh! d6 pawn is ready to capture Black’s rook.. I’m liking Rxc7.. yeah that seems to at least be leveling the material if not gaining. I’m seeing: Rxc7, Rxc7, dxc7, Qxc7, hxg4. Good enough for me, moving on.

— 1200

Bishop on c1 looks suspect. Blacks king looks vulnerable and I have a problem with the pawn on h3 though I can take with the h pawn and it is protected by my queen.

Now I see that I am attacking the rook on c7 with a pawn and that looks to be a decent move. I now remember the mantra checks, captures, attacks, and look for checks. I can't see any. I now look for attacks on black pieces.

I now visualize taking the c7 rook with my rook and then recapturing with my pawn and trying to cling onto it with queen c2 also attacking the bishop. 20 seconds left and I'm still a little stumped, maybe I'll take the rook with my pawn.

My mine is a little all over the place after a day at work, I'm not taking this too seriously which often I find is a problem when I play. Lazily calculating very superficially.

— 1300 lichess

Lot going on here. count, Q R two minors and 6p against 2R 2 B and 5 p. 2 black pawns are doubled but g and h can trade off. material is unbalanced so add it up. try to use Kaufman values, white has 10+5.25+3.25+3.25+6 = 27.75, black has 10+5.25+5.0(minus 0.25 for R pair)+3.25+3.25+0.5(for B pair)+5 = 32.25. That took a long time for me to add up, could have just said black is up a rook for a pawn. CCT, white has no checks, g4 looks good and might help the white Q get into the kingside to attack. Blacks....oh duh, dxc7. WHY did it take me this long to notice that. OK then, dxc7 Rxc7 Rxc7 and hxg4, I could keep going but it's been 5 min.

— 1500 USCF / 1750 Chess.com Rapid

White's d6 pawn is advanced well and attacking c7 Rook. Oh but after dxc7 Rxc7, Rxc7 Qxc7m the adventurous pawn is gone.
Anyway lets look at position closely 1 minute already getting over.
White's King is safe so as Black's except Bb3 is eying Black's camp.
White has no intermediate moves here to move near Black's King.
Lets play dxc7 and it may continue [forced] Rxc7
Rxc7 Qxc7 hxg4

Ok nearing time, not much possible here - Ne3 gets exchanged by Bxe3. Ng3 has no further moves. d5 square is weak but can't occupy well.

— 1459 ELO

- doubled rooks on c file
- both kings exposed
- qxg4
- nevermind bishop covers

Oh the rook is free. Wait what's the material balance. queen + two minor pieces on both sides, we're down a rook.

So do we take with pawn or rook. Rook takes is a bit more forcing, as you have to take back with the equeen or rook. actually not true rook c8. I like pawn takes because ??? , actually I don't like it more, queen g2 then the pawn will fall.
...

Oh are there ideas of Qd1, double attacking both bishops?

So maybe pawn takes rook takes, rook takes, nope the rook defends the bishop.

Okay going a bit deeper, maybe same line but then after trades, hxg4, nope nothing

Okay well can we grab the bishop at any point... pawn takes, rook takes, rook takes bishop, rook takes c1, qd2? nope rook just goes back to c7.

...
What about qd1? rxc2 bxc2, but then the bishop can escape to

oh, rook takes c1, rook takes c1, qb2, threatening check and to take the rook, oh wait the rook is supported.

Back to old order, pawn takes, rook takes pawn, rook takes bishop, rook takes c1, then qb2.
- if something innocuous like rc7, then qxe5+

— 1900 lichess rapid

Both kings are really open and unsafe. If I don't take one of those rooks with my pawn, it seems really tough to go on and continue playing from this position. So that's the critical line. dxc7, Rxc7... (or perhaps dxc7 gxh3?! but that can't possibly work...) Then I can think about forcing the rook trade with Rxc7, Qxc7... Or I can get rid of that very annoying pawn on g4 with hxg4.

The bishop can't effectively recapture since my Queen can't be deflected from protecting the rook. It's already protected by my light bishop. So probably would play dxc7, then hxg4.

— 1900 Chess.com Rapid

Okay. Complicated position. material is not equal. Black has two rooks and white has one. Otherwise pretty equal. I think the net material balance here is black has a rook for a pawn. Black also has a bishop pair.

But it's white to move and a rook is hanging. So we can, we're either going to take the rook on c7 or put the black king in check. I don't see any checks at all. So it's going to be that it moves are narrowed down then to dxc7 or rook takes c7.

Either way, black and respond with rook takes c7. So let's do it the pawn first. dxc7, rook takes c7.

And now, now they are defending their c1 bishop. Black king is exposed. But white is going to take a few moves to get in. So it's, it's probably too slow to be thinking about attacking the black king. You don't want to play rook takes c7. They're bringing the queen to c7 because that puts the queen on an open file.

Of course after dxc7, rook takes c7. Black is threatening gxh3, so that doesn't look like a terrible continuation. dxc7. Rook takes c7 and then h takes g4 is what I meant.

And now black can get the pawn on g4, but it means bringing my queen to c2. Actually, they can't because after rook takes c2, queen takes c2. I'm threatening the bishop on c1. And then, so they won't have time to take the pawn on g four. Bishop on c1 moves to like g5 or something and then I play f3. That seems like a good result. If I take on c7 with the pawn, of course, taking with the rook, then they end up with the queen on c7.

And then I can take the pawn on g4. After rook takes c7, rook takes c7 dxc7. Queen takes c7 hxg4. I am up a pawn. But their queen controls the c-file rather than my queen. So I think it seems better to play. dxc7, rook takes c7 and then h takes g4.

— 1700 USCF

funny rooks checkmate checkmate dxc7 Rxc7 Rxc8 (wrong notation) Rxc1 (Rxc1) Qd2 Rc7 Qd6 Qc7 one rook less 3 minutes one rook less 3 minutes one that's ago phone number suggestions 2 minutes distracting checkmate dxc7 Rxc7 1 minute Rxc7 Qxc7 dxc7 Rxc7 hxg4 time

— fide 1834 classical rating, provisional

Ok, this position is a little bit weird, the first move must do something about recovering the rook on c7. I don't see any virtue in Rxc7 Rxc7 dxc7 Qxc7. Instead, dxc7 looks tactically promising: dxc7 Rxc7 Qd1 looks strong, preventing the exchange of rooks, threatening the bishop on c1, and afterwards, Qd6 should be winning (Qd1 Bg5 Qd6 Bd8 (Rb7 Qxb8 Rxb8 Rc7 Rd8 Be6) Qxe5+ +-). It doesn't feel like I'm missing anything, so I would go for dxc7.

— 2057 FIDE

Oops, we're missing a Rook. Nah, We can play on c7. We have one more tuber, but it probably can't be held. All in all, it is probably not that important with such open king positions. There is a Bishop hanging on c1. It probably won't be relevant in any variants. The Knight on f1 looks rotten. Where is it going? e3 and d2, it can be tapped, and then black will come in enough. Ng3 doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Nh2 with the idea of ​​either hitting g4 or playing Nf3 and threatening e5? I like that.

The bishop on b3 has no natural goals. f7 looks too easy to cover. Bd5 is a punch in the air. Is it really just doomed to defend c2? What about that rook on c7? If we hit with the rook, it probably follows Rook takes, pawn takes, Queen takes. Then he has the c-line. Ugh. What about tuber takes? That opens up the d-line. Whoa, is there a fork after Qd1? dxc7, Rxc7. Qd1, Rxc2. Rxd7+ +-. No, I guess he doesn't hit c2. So what? I threaten Bc1. If he moves it, so what?

So I don't have Qd6? He moves the rook and covers the queen. Exchange-exchange and Rc7 with binding. Rd8 and Be6. Oops? It looks damn dangerous.

From the front again. Pawn takes. If he moves the queen, I eat c1, so he kind of has to take the rook. Qd1. He must cover Bc1 and prevent Qd6. Qc8 maybe? Well, Rc2 is covered. I can only play Dxc1. I can not see it. Isn't that just great? Yes, that's good. dxc7. Such.

— 2150 Danish Rating (translated from Danish)

This is utter chaos. i'm down a lot of material, whole rook. dxc7 seems necessary unless there's a concrete follow up that's better. Rxc1, Rxc1, Qb2 is interesting, but Qxd6 refutes it i think. taking on g4 seems to slow everything down but i hate losing h3 is many lines. bxc7, Rxc7, Rxc7, Qxc7, Qd1 coming to d5?

Ok I have to take back the rook. that's a no brainer.

I don't think either taking order matters? yes it does. pawn takes, Rxc7, Qd1! there it is. bishop on c1 hanging, and if Rxc2, we take on d7 with check, then recapture. Only question is dxc7, Rxc7, Qd1, Qc1, holding onto everything. No it doesn't, i still just take. Bishop guards rook. much easier

— 2215

---

That was all for now. I hope you found the replies interesting. I think there was interesting progress in picking up on the key features of the positions, as there should be, when moving up through the rating bands. I will not dive into anything specific, just share the results and then share some reflections in a final newsletter. But please share a comment with your impressions from reading the above and I will try to include it.

Finally, happy new years! I hope 2023 will be a great chess year for you. And a special thank you to those who support me here on Substack!

/Martin