Russell Sherwood Friday, December 22, 2017
You know the situation. “All of a sudden” your position is worse, almost losing. What are you going to do?
Having an inferior position In CC happens to us all, how you deal with it can have a lot to do with your long-term success as a player.
The first thing that has to happen is that you have to “Wake up and smell the roses” and recognise that your position, will without some change of fortune lead to a losing game. When this happens we can loosen the mental shackles and look at the position differently.
At this point, the first thing to recognise is that the game is probably lost and anything we do only has a fairly slim chance of success. So what are some of our possibilities?
#1 Offer a draw – Very Cheeky but it might come off and it also might sow a seed a doubt in your opponents mind.
#2 Start to ignore the Engine rather more. Why? Unless an engine can find a drawing line it will tend to trade down the position which will not favour us.
#3 Analyse Deeper – what we are looking for is opportunities to move the game away from the direction it is going in at the moment. Sacrificial lines tend to be helpful here
#4 Look for opportunities to trade into drawing situations. For example, you might chuck another pawn on the fire to trade into a double rook ending, which is notoriously hard to convert for the win.
#5 Keep trying to switch the mainline. Tricky this – If you can see someone is letting an Engine “autopilot” the win home, a not keep going down the mainline. This will force your opponent to do a full analysis on each move and (s)he may rush this and blunder.
#6 Give the chances to Blunder – look for lines where the natural move is a bad one. The same goes for keeping them under any time pressure you can.
#7 Be happy doing nothing – Many players make the mistake of always seeking an active defence. Sometimes simply forcing them to try and convert the win can cause them to come unstuck.
#8 Look to create Fortresses – Easier said than done but always worth looking for in the endgame
The key to all of this is to keep your chin up and keep on fighting!
