Sunday, November 25, 2007

Going Out With a Bang!

My last round game was interesting, but another loss. I was totally caught off guard by White's 23rd move of f5. Afterwards I thought maybe I had gone terribly wrong by playing 23...gxf5, but I'm actually okay if after 24. Rd4 I play 24... Kh8. Fritz came up with 25. Rh4 f6 26. exf6 Rxf6 27. Qg5 Rg8 28.Qh5 Qc7+ 29. Rff4 with it being minus over plus. The other line Fritz found was 24... Rg8 25. Rh4 Kh8 26. Qh6 also minus over plus for black. I'm not sure of the ratings of the guys who were going over the game with my opponent and me afterwards, but nobody found these lines. Everybody thought I should have played 23...f6 or exf5 instead. Fritz gives equality to f6, and a slight edge for black after exf5.

The losing move was 24...Qc7?? There is no defense to 25. Rg3+, Kh8, 26. Qh6! He has the simple mate threat of 27. Qg7#. That's simple to stop with 26...Rg8 or 26...Qxe5. Unfortunately there is no defense to the queen sacrifice of 27. Qxh7+!!

Normally I'd simply resign under those circumstances, but it's funny how I start thinking when I know that my game is being shown in real time on the Mon Roi website. I don't know if anyone was watching my game at the time. I think the games on the top boards in the Premier Section had a larger audience. However just in case I did have an audience, I figured I make it entertaining. I played 26...Qxe5, 27. Qxh7+, Kxh7, 28. Rh4#. Another game that will make interesting instructional material. "Okay boys and girls, white to move and mate in two."

I once had a button that said "Losing is an educational experience. Let me be a teacher." I don't think the person who came up with that meant it quite the way it comes out in my case. Oh well!

11 comments:

likesforests said...

lol. It's funny how quickly a position can shift from -/+ to mate in four. I'm only allowed to laugh because I went from = to mate in one this weekend (Time trouble. Yes, I usually know how to spot a mate-in-one!!) :)

Polly said...

I can't use my usual "time trouble card" this time. The time limit was 40/2 g/60. It ended on move 28, and I still had 45 minutes in the first control.

Anonymous said...

"Losing is an educational experience. Let me be a teacher."

LOL. That button is completely awesome. And I suspect it came out exactly how the arrogant SOB intended. ;)

Think I'll wear it whenever I'm one of the worst players in the tournament.

At least you didn't go 0-fer (condescending tone not intended).

Polly said...

LEP: The way my first 2 games went I was sure I was heading for an 0-fer. Some how I pulled it together for my round 3 game. That feeling like I pulled it together didn't last long though. But at least the remaining losses were not horrible.

Blue Devil Knight said...

You have guts to play the Sicilian. That thing scares me so I think I'll never play it. :O

Glenn Wilson said...

I watched some of your last round game live. I was surprised at 23. ...gxf5. I'm pretty sure I would have played ...exf5 there. Even if you can survive after ...gxf5 it looks scary (meaning a very accurate defense is required).

I seem to recall that you played ...Qc7 almost instantly...

Playing on there made sense for us fans (fan?) following along. It was just a couple of quick moves to the checkmate.

Unknown said...

i'm supposed to learn every time i lose. if that were the case, i'd be the smartest chess player in the universe...

Polly said...

Glenn: I spent around 7 minutes debating between exf5 and gxf5. I think exf5 was safer, but at the time I didn't like the recapture with the knight. (Seeing ghosts, and also being greedy trying to win a pawn.) Since I didn't see the queen sac coming I thought I was going be able to hide. At the time Qc7 seemed like a good way to win another pawn, and get her over to my king side.

I'm not sure if I played Qc7 instantly. Following the game on the Mon Roi site can be deceptive. What one sees in real time following the game is based on when the Mon Roi user inputs their move or their opponent's move.

Let's suppose my opponent spends 7minutes thinking about the move, and then makes it. If I spend 5 minutes looking at the position before I input his move on my device, then it appears that the opponent spent 12 minutes on his move. I looked at the time log on my Mon Roi and sure enough from the time I put his move in, and recorded my move 2 seconds had passed. It's possible I spent 3 minutes looking at the move, made my move and then inputted the entire move pair together. I try to remember to record my opponent's move immediately, but sometimes I don't. I had that same problem with written notation too.

I'm glad my fan(s) like the spectacular ending.

CL: I feel the same way! I should have a Phd in loserology by now. :-)

Temposchlucker said...

So the Monroi helps your future opponents to prepare for you?

Polly said...

Tempo: At this stage of my chess career I'm not overly concerned about my future opponents preparing for me by looking at the few games of mine on the Mon Roi website. Out of the 400 games I played using the device only about 8 to 10 of them have been broadcast on their website.

One game of mine that was broadcast got deleted from the website because the player's mother was concerned about her son's future opponents being able to look up his games. The player has a Mon Roi, but I guess any time he plays in an event with a live feed the games get deleted from their database.

More of my games will end out on this blog then Mon Roi. So if anyone wants to prepare for me, they can come here. :-)

Liquid Egg Product said...

Personally, I don't give a crap whether people can prepare for me or not. For the most part, people won't know if and when I'll bother to show up for a tournament.

Even if they did, so many more games at the class level are won or lost by tactical oversights than opening preparation, it's not worth the effort of preparing. (In my opinion. Maybe there's some gross misunderstanding on my part about why preparing openings for a specific opponent is important at the class level).

Out of the 40 or so tournament games I've played in the past year, 2 were decided because of superior opening knowledge.