No fight

There are some games that I end up focused on the end result and forget to fight as hard as I can in each position. I need to discipline myself to look for the best plan and/or the best move on the board and forget about what will happen later on. At least I can say I played the best I could. In every game I have lost, my opponent gave me opportunities to improve my position and even equalize. Similarly, I have made mistakes in what were won position that would have allowed my opponent to equalize. The games I collect under this topic are to remind myself of just that. Play my best on every move no matter what the end result might be. No cheap tricks even if I am way behind. I try that all the time and I think I am picking up some horrible habits.

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Annotated Games November

I've been playing correspondence games on gameknot.  This blog is to track those games and see where I made my mistakes and what conditions led to those mistakes.  Was my overall plan wrong, did I not work hard enough to find the best path, was the plan correct but I did not solve the immediate problems on the board correctly? 

Game 1 to learn from (lost)

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Game 2 many missed opportunities (won)

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Game 3 playing defensive (lost)
Lesson learned here is to play actively to prevent the opponent's ideas.  Playing defensively to prevent every possible threat from an opponent is no way to play. 

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Game 4 missing the rook powers (lost)
An enemy rook behind a pawn still influences the squares along that file if the pawn can move forward.  I miss that on occasion and pay the price for my blindspot.  Here it is along with a failure in the opening to lead to another loss for me.  I do win games once in a while but I feel I learn a great deal more from my losses.