Calculation

Although I managed to win I could've won a lot easier and the amount of tactical combinations which I failed to see in this game could fill a tactics puzzle book.

Just a little calculation could've made the game so much easier,thinking about it I find these can of tactics the hardest the get right the sort where you are forced to allow your opponent a tempo during the attack.

You then have to calculate not just the effectiveness of your own combination his defence to it,
but also wheather or not he can start a attack of his own with the tempo you have given him!

So its three factors which you have to consider instead of the normal two!!

Here queen to d4 presents all sorts of threats and is by for the best move and really gives life to the possibility of a discovered attack against the king 17. Qd4 b6 18. Bxb6 Qc6 19. Bc5 Bd7 20. Bb5 Qd5 21. Qxd5 exd5 22. Bxd7 Ke7

In this position for example a simple winning move would have been Rf2...trapping the queen ..

In this position bishop d7 with the following 27. Bd7 f5 28. Bxe6+ Kxe6 29. Qb6+ Kf7 30. Qf6+ Ke8 31. Qxh8 Qd7 32. Qxh7 Qxa4 33. Bxe7 Qd4+ 34. Rf2 Bxe7 35.

I also missed mating combinations on moves 32 33 34 and 36 although in my defence they were complicated and long combinations...

What a 1500-1800 player should know.

As a player who is within this rating range I thought I would give a quick overview of my playing style and what a middle rated player should be able to do and their general style of play.
In the opening I will more often then not, at a minimum try to get out of the opening with a fairly equal position I am pretty confident I can get a fairly equal position even against a strong chess engine like Rykba.

A 1500-1800 player should know a few opening very well for example I particulary like playing the Ruy Lopez,The Italian game,The Fork Trick Attack and the Ulvestad Variation of the two Knights Defence.

He should also know how to cease upon any mistakes generally when a opponent neglects making central moves in the beginning and then fails to castle early,and of course the typical beginners mistake of bringing the queen out on the third move.

So in the game above I play against Rykba and can get to move 12 and still have a playable position and could probably carried on for a few more moves the score in the game above is -0.33 after 12 moves.
However this is the opening I am most familar with,the point is that if I could do it against Rykba I can do it against most online opponent,needless to say Rykba has a incredibly high ELO rating.

Once a player stops being crushed in the openning it gives him a increased amount of confidence which can really take his game forward then it all becomes about the tactics of the middle and endgames.

IN THE SICILIAN

The position above is one I managed to attain in the Sicilian opening which is a opening I rarely play,the whole point is that if you can attain playable positions against Rykba 2.2 you can almost certainly attain them against human opponents.

Two Quick Wins!!

In the first game I played white and in the second black..I always love winning minitures and studying them can be highly instuctive..

It always feels rewarding after much concentration to see a move that has such power,a couple of days before I was viewing the famous legal trap opening whose theme has a similar pattern to the winning combination I played in this game and I think I'll make a point of running a eye over the creative offerings of the masters more often.

Anastasia's Mate

Here's a little tactic I played which proved to be winning just goes to show you never know when these tactical sequences you memorize will come in handy and that you should always play with some kind of plan or scheme in mind.
A bad plan is better then no plan as they say not that it was a bad plan but just a simple one which proved effective.

1.STARTING POSITION

3.SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE MOVE
I GIVE A CHECK

4.CHECKING WITH THE KNIGHT

5.INTO A CORNER
HE COULD TAKE WITH HIS QUEEN BUT THIS WOULD END UP LOSING THE QUEEN

6.TIME FOR SACRIFICE

7.ONLY MOVE

CHECKMATE

PAWNS AND KING ENDGAME LESSON

In this position my opponent obliviously played a blunder and after the exchange of Rooks I am in a winning position but there was still a moment of crisis when I could have still lost so you've go t to be careful ..I am playing the black pieces...

IF THERES ONE ENDGAME YOU LEARN MAKE IT THIS ONE!!

THE LUCENA POSITION

The whole point about this position is that you get to learn how to win a position which is king and rook v king and rook plus one pawn ,the deal is to be able to convert your extra into a queen or force your opponent to trade his rook for your passed pawn thus winning.

As you can see from the diagram the black pawn is one move away from queening so how to finish this position of important to remember this technique can be used even if the pawn is further away from the queening square.

1..FIRST FORCE THE WHITE KING AWAY FROM THE PAWN..

2..NOW BRING THE BLACK ROOK TO THE FOUTH RANK

Very important to remember to bring the rook to the fourth rank as we plan to swap rooks off and
this is a essential component of the plan

3..After the white rook plays g8 to place itself behind the black pawn you simply play kf2 ,white will check on f8 then the king goes to g4 if g8 check then the black rook comes across the block the check.

Ideally you should end up in a position like this ....were the if the rooks are exchanged the white king will not be able to stop the black pawn from becoming a queen.

Its important to remember that your opponent can not easily deviate from the standard moves and if you practice this endgame against a engine you will be surprised at how good you become at it
and how much easier it becomes to understand some of the easier principles of chess,also you will be surprised at how many people do not know how to play a endgame like this properly

Grinding out a king and pawns endgame

I was playing white in this games and I was happy with the way I played I have included annotations with this game.

IMPORTANT POINTS
Lately like a lot of us who try to improve our chess I have started to try and understand one of silmans ideas where he said when you 're looking for tactics look for double attacks
I think all tactics are essentially double attacks of one kind or another and I think I did this when I move my queen down his side of the board on move 26 and with the following move by bringing my rook down also ...perhaps I should correct myself move a double threat then a double attack but the principle still applies I think...if you make two threats at once often times only one will be able to be defended adequately