One unit of chess improvement

I had an instructive moment in a slow blitz game on Lichess just now. What do you notice about this position?

I noticed that I had a space advantage in the center. And the bishop pair. And likely a lead in development after all the tempi black will need to spend to get their knights and queen active. But I also noticed that there was a free pawn on b7, and I wasn’t sure how to make all that other stuff add up to an advantage for me. So I grabbed it.

Bad move! Black can now play c5, my center is falling apart, and I’ve lost my advantage.

Postgame engine analysis, highlighted by Move Highlighter, reveals something I hadn’t noticed. The eviction of the black knight from f6 means the h7 square is weak now, and if white can jettison their h-pawn, then the rook will be pointing right at that square, with the queen to follow. So the best plan is to play h4, h5, and hxg6.

(It’s interesting to note that all five top engine lines have black playing c5 on the first move, and most of the lines have black playing moves like cxd4, dxe5 and exf4. It seems white’s central pawns are going to fall no matter what, and the only question is whether the white pieces attack the black king vigorously enough to make that fact irrelevant. One move that does not advance that goal: 1.Qxb7.)

“What do you notice about the position” is a great question for chess improvement. If you’re aware of ideas like “knight moving away from f6 makes the h7 square weak”, then noticing them does not take a lot of brain power. So I screenshotted this position and created a flashcard (Read about my Anki flashcard process, which is up to 941 cards, here). If all goes according to plan, then in future games when I see something similar happen, I’ll remember this idea.

I find slow blitz (5 3) to be a great way to find these lessons. If your game lasts 40 moves, then you have an average of 10.5 seconds per move, and for me, in most positions, that’s a good amount of time to notice all the relevant things I’m going to notice. In other words, give me more than 10.5 seconds per move, and I will be able to do more calculating, but I’m unlikely to add anything to the list of things I notice about the position. (Give me less than 10.5 seconds, and all the hanging pieces will get in the way of learning anything useful from the game).

Slow blitz is not that different from classical chess in this way, and that’s why I think of slow blitz as a vast gold mine where my chess weaknesses can be revealed. I can play a lot more 5 3 games in a day than classical games, and accumulate a lot more like this, one unit of chess improvement.