TCCL 2013 round 4

The team lost. I won. My opponent was a substitute, a young strong class A player on  the verge of expert.

We diverged from opening theory early in the Slav. At the critical moment I missed that I had an overloaded bishop that would lose me an exchange. He missed that after winning the exchange, I would get full compensation.

A Thought

Three ideas came together for me this morning.

1. Masters know what they want from a position.
2. Endgame play is dominated by figuring out what position you want and then figuring out how to get there.
3. Go is learned by simplifying the game by playing on smaller boards. Chess cannot be simplified by smaller boards, but it can be by fewer pieces.

To reach the next level, I do not need to just get better at the endgame, but to have that infuse my whole approach to the game.