The Cambridge Springs
Learning the opening and thoughts on annotations from a reader..
I’m beginning to take the opening more seriously as my return to OTB chess is nearing. In many previous OTB games, I have burned a lot of time during the opening face due to not knowing what to play or because I switched opening just before the tournament. But this time will be different. I will stick to the French and the Semi-Slav. Openings I have played for some time now. In order to have a foundation, I have bought two Chessable courses by Sam Shankland and Anish Giri.
My current plan is to use my mourning commute to learn/review lines and on my way back play a 15+10 game. I did this yesterday.
In the game I played black and got to the following position:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. Nd2 Bb4 8. Qc2 (D52 Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense, Bogoljubov Variation)
In this position, I couldn’t remember what to play. Looking at the opening base on 365chess.com confirms that there are several ways to play here.
I played the third most-played move here 8… Ne4, which is also played in some other lines in the Cambridge Springs. Not a bad move, since I can see that GM Ahmed Adly has played it 6 times scoring 3 wins, 2 draws, and a loss against GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.
My game now continued 8… Ne4 9. Ndxe4 dxe4 10. Bf4 O-O 11. Be2 Bxc3+?!
I spent about 60 seconds on this decision and it is unclear why I unprovoked releases the tension and gives away the Bishop pair? A better move would be 11... e5 12. dxe5 Nxe5=
If we go back to the first position and what Sam Shankland’s Lifetime Repertoire recommends it is
8... dxc4!
“Black hits the Bishop on g5, forcing it to exchange for the Knight onf6. He could have done this on the previous move as well, but including Bb4 and Qc2 is clearly in his favor as it gets him closer to castling, and now it will be very hard for White to stop the freeing c6-c5 break. 8...O-O This has been most common, but I prefer the text.”
And now there are different variations to learn, but the most critical is maybe 9.Bxf6 Nxf6 10. Nxc4 Qc7 11. a3 Be7 12. Bd3 c5! and the Queen can go to b8 if Nb5. If I look correctly 12… c5 is yet to be played in masters games.
I can recommend using www.365chess.com/ for following your Chessable lines like I just did here, since you get a sense of the history and names of the lines and who have played them the most times etc. I have now created a memory hook for next time I see the Cambridge Springs variation with 7. Nd2.
It is also details like this that I want to write over into my opening journal that I created recently.
When I first posted about the journal one of the readers of the newsletter, Nigel, wrote a comment about his own approach to annotating games. I thought it was interesting and asked him if he was interested in elaborating, which he was. So here comes his method written by Nigel:
“As a player that has learned chess late in life, an adult improver, I kept hearing that one of the best ways to improve is to analyze your own games. At first, I used to play a game and then skim through it with the engine and when I came across a blunder or mistake, I would look at the bad move and think, “what was wrong with that move?” The engine would show the better move and I would think, “of course, I should have seen that and will remember for next time”. But I never did remember it and there was certainly no ‘learning’ going on. Or I would just look at the blunders and go through the same motions as above, but still not really learning anything.
As time went on, I realized I might be making the same mistakes or type of mistakes, over and over and not correcting them, probably because I did not know what they were, or why they were happening. If I could expose them, surely that would be a huge step in the right direction, but how? I kept coming back to learning from my own games. What would be the best way to analyze my games and LEARN from them.
After much trial and error, I evolved the following method, and it really works for me. I learn things about myself, not just chess ability-wise, but also psychologically - what are my fears at the board, do I see ghosts, do I lose focus, and what are my areas of improvement. I have found this method works for longer time formats, which for me is thirty minutes or more, say a 30/15, and it works even better in longer time formats. But you can modify this method for shorter time formats, just adjust as needed.
I typically try and play one long time format a week and apply this method and consider this a vital part of my weekly chess training program.
Warning: the following steps will seem long-winded at first, but you will get quicker at them.
Step 1
I have a notepad, yes, a paper notepad, and a pencil at the ready. Before the game starts, I write a quick sentence on how I am feeling.
Example:
90/30 weekly tournament game. Not as nervous as usual. Feeling more engaged and ready to play than last week’s game. Puzzle warm-up went really well. I am playing white and noticed my opponent never faces 1.c4, so will be watching for possible opening blunders. And now the game begins. I will write the move number and any comments that will help me post-game to remember why I played what I did. It is important here to write why you decided on a move, what were you afraid of, what else did you look at. I write it in a scribbled shorthand and then expand on it during opponents’ long think or post-game if the comment is long.
Examples: (not all from the same game)
6…e6 I thought about Qxd4, a free pawn, but after Rd1 I feel like my queen is looking for a safe spot and
maybe out of position and not sure the compensation is worth it.
8…b6 I wasn’t comfortable playing this as it weakens my c pawn but not sure what else to play to protect
b7. I considered Qb6, but that seems like a bold move, and is it really good for black?
9.Ne5 did I calculate this position correctly? There were several options here and I felt this was the best.
10.Re1 I thought about Nd4 to push the LSB back to d7 meaning black has moved the LSB and knight
several times already and they are almost back to starting squares. Is Nd4 just superficial?
23.Qf4 not sure if this is correct, but my queen is in a strange place and I am scared of blundering her.
32.a6 I wasn’t sure what to play here. I thought maybe Ra8 would have been good to try for a passed
pawn.
Step 2
From a forty-move game, I might end up with about six or so moves that have notation. I then go through the game again, with no evaluation bar and no engine, and see if there are other moves that I missed during the game that I need to add to the list. This might add another move or two. I then turn on the evaluation bar (still no engine) and go through the game quickly to see if it changes on any moves that are not on my list. This might add another two or three moves to the list as well.
Step 3
The learning steps begin!
This step is the most important and like most things in life, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
From the list of now maybe ten moves, I go through the game yet again, and at each move, solve the calculation, question, or concern that I had, and add my resolve notes as I go. It is important to still not be tempted to turn the engine on. Using your own power will really help you understand the positions and moves and more importantly, the reasoning behind them.
Now for the engine.
I then check with an opening book and an engine to ensure my resolves are correct. If there is anything I still do not understand, I save it and run it past my coach.
Step 4
I use ChessBase, but Lichess study would work just as well.
I copy the PGN to a new game and add my notation to each move. I not only add my original notation, but
I also add the resolve notes from step 3.
Example:
Taken from step 1 (blue text is my additional resolve notes from step 3)
6…e6 I thought about Qxd4, a free pawn, but after Rd1 I feel like my queen is looking for a safe spot and maybe out of position and not sure the compensation is worth it. Qxd4 is the best move here as it now eliminates both center pawns and the queen can easily go to f4 in complete safety. I did not calculate
deep enough.
8…b6 I wasn’t comfortable playing this as it weakens my c pawn but not sure what else to play to protect
b7. I considered Qb6, but that seems like a bold move and is it really good for black Qb6 is the best move
here and whether white exchanges queens or leaves the tension and black exchanges, black is still a little better. I was afraid of making a bold move.
9.Ne5 did I calculate this position correctly? There were several options here and I felt this was the best
Ne5 was a bad calculation if I followed by Nxc6 as this ends with opponent playing Bxh7+ which I completely missed. A simple h3 here results in the exchange or Bh5 at worst, BUT it also stops any future Bxh7+ with loss of h pawn and King exposed. I didn’t calculate all the candidate moves and responses.
10.Re1 I thought about Nd4 to push the LSB back to d7 meaning black has moved the LSB and knight
several times already and they are almost back to starting squares. Is Nd4 just superficial? Nd4 not only pushes the LSB back, but leads to more space for me and more cramped for black and it is hard to see a plan for black after that. I need to understand space advantage better.
23.Qf4 not sure if this is correct, but my queen is in a strange place and I am scared of blundering her. If I
had played Qh6 here, this is a forced mate in 2. I was so scared and focused on my Queen safety and the
fear that she might get trapped, I didn’t look at other possibilities.
32.a6 I wasn’t sure what to play here. I thought maybe Ra8 would have been good to try for a passed
pawn. Ra8 was much better as it consolidated the defence on kingside AND created the possibility of a passed pawn. I need to understand pawn endgame positions better, especially when each side has two or three pawns on queen and kingside. What is the theory and plans for advancing in these positions? I do this for all ten moves.
Step 5
I have discovered that for me, I get information overload if I try to learn something from all ten moves. So, to make it more effective, I then select the top moves that are definite “learning” moments. This might be just one move or three or four. I use OneNote and I create a page for the game and then take a screenshot of the board at that move position and copy to OneNote. I then add text next to it recording what I played and why it was bad, and what I should have played, and why. I find this step seals the deal and really nails it home for me as I am much more likely to remember it due to the visual picture and the fact that for maybe the 3 rd time, I am writing the reasons why this move was
good/bad.
Step 6
My coach and I share a Google Sheet where I then record these moves. I record the move number, the specific mistake (I played this or missed that), type of mistake (I did not calculate deep enough, too focused on one idea, not seeing undefended pieces etc.), and lesson learned (I need to end calculations on opponents move, I see ghosts a lot and lack confidence, I did not look at all my opponents replies etc.)
From here, my coach and I feed this into my training plan. If you do not have the luxury of a coach, you can still use this data to create your own training plan. You will quickly see patterns forming and it does not take many games before you are tired of the same reasons being written as to why you played a bad move!
If this helps anyone in anyway, then that is great!
Nigel.”
I really liked the methodical approach described by Nigel, so I hope others will be inspired too. If you need the final inspiration to go over your games, then watch this video by GM Jesse Kraai:
Best,
Martin