Game Spotlight: Learning from Miniatures

For the most part, very short games aren’t very interesting.  That said, there are a few reasons they can be worth the effort of delving into.

First, if you’re a newer player, most miniatures are the result of development issues.  One side develops all their pieces efficiently, the other player decides to do something else, and the lack of development results in getting crushed.  Learning how and why you need to develop your pieces is very important to even get to an intermediate level.

Second, if you’re learning an opening, a lot of miniatures are the result of early traps.  So knowing about these and how to avoid or exploit them is useful information.

But here I want to focus on a third reason.  There are times, particularly when an opening is very new, when a miniature shows you an idealized version of what you should be trying to accomplish.  Of course, theory quickly develops countermeasures, so you can’t rely only on knowing this kind of miniature.  Even so, there’s valuable information in these games that’s worth seeking out.

So we can see from this game a variation on the traditional Bishop sacrifice attack in the French Defence, as well as a lesson in what can happen if Black doesn’t mobilize quickly on the queenside to distract White away from these kinds of stock attacking ideas.  Not a bad amount of information for a mere 17 moves.

Our Annual General Meeting is happening this Saturday.  Come by and help us organize the next year of events.  (This is for members only — please make sure you’re paid up if you’re going to attend.)

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