Congratulations, DProject! It was such a crazy game you both played there.

There was a few pieces that I lost just because I hadn't spotted an immediate threat, or because i took a defended piece without realising it. It was fun to see you pause afterwards, in what I imagined to be a "ooh why is he doing that, THERE MUST BE A TRAP" sort of perplexity, but, I lost a tower (okay, to a bishop from the absolute opposed corner, this was cool) and later a knight just superficially, with a "oh, woops... yeah". This should not happen. But yes, it made for some fun mid-game twists.

And yes, the turning point was when you managed to "open" your left side, in the second half of the game - until then, a few important pieces of yours were immobilised, and your king was a bit against the wall. But if I hadn't lost firepower with some dumb moves, I think it would have stayed closed longer. As you noticed, I tend to not take pieces (I love crowded boards), to avoid "exchanges", and to play on pressures, because it's what amuses me most. So, if I hadn't lost these pieces, I think it would have stayed a wall-pushed-on-a-wall for a bit longer.

But it ended up a funny game, with a few reversals of situation. And yes, a good reminder of how fun chess is.

Haha, yeah, there were definitely a few moments where I thought just that, what you described. And often you had something to back up your pieces, which prevented me from devouring some easy ones in many cases. The only two occasions where I genuinely thought you simply made an error in observation, was how you lost your first tower and your queen. Especially the latter. And you're right about my king, I too was a little worried I might not have enough room and end up getting backed into a corner but luckily that never happened. Also, how I pinned my 2nd knight with my pawns: if you look at the match again, you'll notice I never moved that piece :) That was not something I planned, I guess my playstyle or the fact how the game progressed, made me completely neglect that piece.

Yes, I was very aware of that (I was like "and he still has that knight... ah no, wait, he doesn't have it, lol"), but at the same time you had pinned my knight and bishop a similar way, at that point. I had even more pieces locked up on that side than you, by the very pawns that were blocking your own knight, so I coudn't exploit it to balance our forces.

It's always important to liberate our pieces as soon as possible. I was dominating the board, early, because I had been busy doing that while you were playing pawns on the borders of the board. And I think that you could have ended up very much tied, if I hadn't carelessly lost a series of active pieces. Near the end, you reversed this : you developed that left side of yours, while I had postponed the launch of my remaining pieces for too long. I think that the real tipping point was not even my lost pieces (also, very much "d'oh"), but the pawns you advanced before me, on your left, in the second half of the game. From then on, you were deciding what was happening in the center, while I had been controlling it until then - with my own pawns and thingies on your right side, before all that thing got cleared up.

Al least that's how I remember the game. Two rounds, a right one and a left one. I had the initiative in the first, right-half, round. I lost it with a few mistakes, and in the second, left-half, round, you took the initiative. And well, not enough room for a third round on a chessboard...

But you were much more attentive than me. I made too many mistakes, and you spotted them all. Except one fun little one at the end (it had ceased to matter), when I made your soon-checkmating tower back away from my king, by threatening it with a bishop that I had stupidly (again!) placed right under your pawn. You could have spared us quite a few turns if you had just taken the bishop with your pawn, instead of securing your tower...

I wish you'd have shown such distraction a bit earlier.

Hahah, you're right, I completely missed that. I guess at that point I was too determined to make sure I wouldn't lose any pieces I needed for the checkmate I had in mind, that I completely overlooked the rest of the board, save for the king: I had to make sure I didn't make any fatal flaws on the home territory while organizing the final attack. But like you said, I completely missed the opportunity to eat the bishop with a pawn :D There was no middle board there in my mind during those final stages.

Anyway, thanks for all your input and advice, I will try to take them to heart. I agree I might have played a somewhat passive game early on and you definitely had the upper hand for a long time. Maybe it was because I really haven't played chess in years, and didn't want to make fatal mistakes right in the beginning. Although I guess I'm the kind of player who likes to make sure work of everything before going for the checkmate. Back in the day when I used to play a lot with my dad, most of our games ended with just a couple of pieces on the board left. But also, I wanted to observe how you play; the most obvious thing of course being that you weren't eager on "exchanges" like you call them, but also how you progressed aggressively with the knight. I seriously admire the way you used that piece; you could hold many of my pieces in "stay-put-in-case-something-really-dangerous-happens"-mode with that one piece alone.

One more thing: what was the move you did with the king and tower at some point? The tower was in the corner, next thing I notice that piece was on the other side of the king, while the king had simultaneously moved towards the corner. I've never heard of that move. (I admit I'm not familiar with all the special moves you can do in this game...Also, I hope I didn't give too much information away to my next opponent, heh :D)

Oh, be careful about that. It's castling. Look it up immediately, it's extremely important. It's two different moves you can make to protect your king IF there is no piece between your king and your rook, IF no square between them (including them) is directly threatened, and IF you have NEVER moved your king or that rook before. It's generally considered a priority.

And while you're at it, be weary about en-passant takes (I actually avoided some moves, thinking you'd take my pawn "en passant"). You know, when you launch a pawn, you can advance it one or two squares. Well, if there is an opponent pawn near your line, and you advance your pawn two squares, to put it next to it, then in the next turn, it can eat your pawn as if you had advanced it only one quare. As if it had intercepted your pawn during its two-squares travel. It ends up where your pawn would have been if it had advanced one square only. So, you can't "bypass" a threatening opposing pawn by throwing yourself two squares ahead instead of one, the opponent acts exactly as if you had made a regular one-square move. This can be sneaky. And happens only with pawns.

And, you're not forced to promote your pawn to a queen when it reaches the last line, you can promote it to a rook, bishop OR -more usefully- knight, if you judge that the circumstances demand it. But maybe you knew that.

There are the only three not-completely-obvious rules I know of. Make sure to be familiar with castling and en-passant. En-passant is rare but could potentially be a nasty surprise. Castling is absolutely fundamental, and all your first moves should be made with that in head (quickly liberate the room between your king and a rook). It's also asymetrical and codified, so check exactly the castling positions, "king-side" and "queen-side", and the "queen-side" position is a bit less obvious than the "king-side" castling...

Actually, the king cannot pass (or land) on any threatened square, but the rook may do so. Only case it would be of importance is if the B square is threatened in a big castle (0-0-0) since that is the only square a rook passes but the king does not.

Turns out my opponent is a vet huh. Damn, and I thought this was going to be the usual cakewalk xD
Okay, A few mistakes I would like to point out here - Don't play your chess game in "Rounds." Each piece on the board has to be organized into a single setup, disjointedness can cause weaknesses in your structure. Each piece should have a purpose in what you are attempting to accomplish, Don't just move a piece for the sake of it, every move should push the opponent back or threaten the opponent.

Also, If you get a piece up on your opponent then exchanges are fine, as long as they are of the same value. If you can perform an exchange which gives you a better position overall, do not hesitate to take it.

Not sure if it's my fault or the site's, but I'm having trouble promoting a pawn. I'm moving it to last row, and I get the "spinning thingy", while nroug7 is highlighted. If I close the page and open the game again, it shows that I haven't moved the pawn yet.
Also, the move list seems to be overflowing into the footer row.

DProject vs. Accatone is set up. Good luck :)

Yeah this is odd, but congrats on the match anyways.

PGN Code for the Match DProject vs. Telika:
1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 d6 3. g3 Nf6 4. f4 e4 5. h4 d5 6. Bg2 Bxb4 7. a3 Ba5 8. h5 Ng4 9. Rh4 e3 10. Bh3 Nf2 11. Qc1 Ne4 12. Nf3 Nxg3 13. h6 g6 14. Bxh8 g5 15. fxg5 Bxh3 16. Rxh3 Ne4 17. Bd4 Nxg5 18. Nxg5 Qxg5 19. Bxe3 Qg2 20. Rf3 Qh1 21. Rf1 Qh4 22. Kd1 Bb6 23. d4 Nc6 24. c3 O-O-O 25. Rxf7 Qh1 26. Kd2 Qe4 27. Rf4 Qg6 28. Qf1 Qxh6 29. Rf7 Na5 30. Bxh6 Nb3 31. Kd1 Nxa1 32. Rf8 c6 33. Bg5 Nb3 34. Qf5 Kb8 35. Bxd8 Bc5 36. Rg8 Bxd4 37. Qxh7 a6 38. Bb6 1-0
I will look it up with Christian (the coder of the system, maybe he knows more about it).

Heh, In any case, I've watched the replays. People will really need to step their game up if they want to stand a chance against JMich.

Let me try the java thingy, to see if that helps

Edit: Nope, class not found or something :(

Lost :(
I wish I could say it was a great game but it wasn't. Damn MonstaMunch just left yesterday when we were playing, so I had to play today while working.
I wish now I was unfairplayer as he was and just left him waiting until I finished my work, so I could concentrate on what I was doing.
All I can do now is wish him bad luck.