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Hi @timalick, I'm just watching your VOD of this stream. Enjoying it.
I'm a beginner, in the first game I wonder why you chose not to take the undefended h pawn with the Queen (9.Qxh5). To my naive eyes it looks like a free pawn. Is it just that castling leads to better development? Many thanks.
nicky79 wrote:
Hi @timalick, I'm just watching your VOD of this stream. Enjoying it.
I'm a beginner, in the first game I wonder why you chose not to take the undefended h pawn with the Queen (9..Qxh5). To my naive eyes it looks like a free pawn. Is it just that castling leads to better development? Many thanks.
Hey, Nicky!
So cool that you decided to watch the VOD! (I hope you'll decide to give the stream a follow too!). It's worth mentioning that I'm also still learning every day when I play and, as you pointed out, Qxh5 was the correct move in this position. The reason (at the time, and perhaps a bad habit) that I did not take the pawn, is as follows.
1) The doubled, isolated, h pawn will be target for the rest of the game. In my mind, there's no rush to capture this pawn as it's already dead, simply a matter of actually taking it. After I castle and play h3, my opponent's h pawn poses virtually no threat, and I can take it later in the game once my pieces are developed.
2) My opponent's king is still in the center of the board in this position, and cannot currently castle. I imagine castling, getting my rook to the e file, and pinning one of his pieces to his king, making castling unpleasant. I figure then not only does my opponent two very weak pawns on the h file, but also a frustrated piece pinned to his king on the e file.
3) When I'm not prepared for a position (and I hadn't prepared these lines) I pretty much always prioritize king safety and sound positioning over material gain. I figure if I can find one of the core concepts that I'm comfortable with (attacking weak pawns near the king, playing end-games, etc) then I'll be able to play against my opponent's preparation.
I've checked your Qxh5 move with the computer, and you are absolutely correct, the engine rates this the best move, so congrats! I've provided my explanation not in an effort to refute your logic or the computer's decision, rather, to give you a little insight into how I, as a still-learning player, make decisions when playing live chess.
Thanks again for watching, I hope this gave you the insight you were looking for. Hope you'll drop in when I'm live sometime so I can say hi!
Aha, yes that makes good sense, thanks for a brilliant explanation and I agree with your logic about the hesitation. To me also, throwing the queen around is often not as good a move as it seems so I'm habitually suspicious of it. (At my rating I seem to find myself playing against a lot of what I call "queen flingers" who are shoving their queen out to h5 on the second move!)
I've only managed to watch the first hour of your stream so far but I really liked it. I was relieved to see that I was often thinking through the same thoughts as you were expressing. Doing 15 minute games really helps for me because I can sit and ponder properly. Also you are really funny! So, keep it up!
I have already followed in Twitch naturally 
. (Although, I must admit I don't tend to hang out on Twitch for casual viewing - I'm more of a YouTube guy. Do you have a channel on there?)
Going live now!
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Live lets gooooo lol keep up the good work
Was able to drop by for a bit and enjoyed it! Thanks for streaming it.
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still going!
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Live now!