Live From Philadelphia.....

It's the Rocky Polly Horror Show! Let's do the time warp again! It's in between rounds 3 and 4, so I will give you a brief synopsis of how my day has gone. I'm playing the two day schedule, and opted to play up in the Under 2000 section. First round I get the dreaded "Please Wait". (Bye) Nothing like getting it over with early. Before I even get a chance to look at the pairings David Mahler from DC asks me if I would be available to play his student who got the bye in the Premier section. Not having seen the pairings yet, I said "I'm playing." pause "Or did I get the bye in my section?" My next question was "What's his rating?" When I found out it was 1800, I was willing to play. I'll on pass 1100 rated cross-pairs.

Second time this week I've gotten a bye, elected to play, and played like a moron. This was ugly. Ranks right up there with the 11 move loss to Eric Hecht. This took 12 moves, and about 20 minutes. 1. c4 e5, 2. Nc3 Nf6, 3. g3 c6, 4. Nf3 (I'm not sure why I played this move. I hate c3 Sicilian as black. Why should it be any better as White in reverse? I should have played d3.) ...e4, 5. Ng5 d5, 6. cxd5 cxd5, 7.d3? (7. a3 prevents all the crap on b4.) h6, 8. Nh3, Nc6, 9. dxe4 d4!, 10. Nd5. (I'm so proud of myself because I saw that Nb5 loses to Qa5+. That feeling didn't last long, after what follows.) ...Nxe4, 11. Ndf4. Bb4+!
I'm looking at this move, and just shaking my head. It's the freaking 11th move of the game, and I'm dead meat. Goodbye queen or king. It continues 12. Bd2 Bxd2+. I resigned on the spot. Damn! Should have just taken the freaking bye without playing.

The result was recorded in my opponent's section. The bye point was posted in my section, so I have 1 point, and was paired accordingly. That game wasn't much better. 18 moves. It was a "pick your poison" position. Move to one square it's forced mate in two. Move to the other square, king and queen fork. Another quick resignation. That game lasted about 45 minutes. The time limit is G/45 with 5 second delay. So I had lots of time to hang out.

It's funny, but I can cope much better with games where I just get crushed early. I guess maybe because it's over quickly so the pain doesn't last long. I guess if I'm going to lose, might as well make it quick, and not have my hopes up. I decided I couldn't think about the first two rounds, so I went back to the room and relaxed a bit to settle down my wild thoughts. Round 3 I'm paired against another player with one point. It was a wild one. I dropped a pawn, and then just started hurling stuff at his kingside. At this point I have nothing to lose. It can't get any worse. I end out up a piece with rooks still on the board. I was in time trouble for most of the time, but when all was said and done, he flagged, and I had 5 seconds. I'll add that game later too. It's a humdinger.

If you want to see my live, you should be able to pick up my round 4 game on Monroi. Hopefully you don't have to give up your first born. Gotta scoot, round starts in a few minutes.

Later. Somehow my game didn't end out on the broadcast even though my Mon Roi had my pairing. It was actually a very instructive position that demonstrated the superiority of the bishop versus knight. There were too many mates and promoting pawn threats that could not be stopped. Tomorrow is another day. More tough pairings ahead with my fake 2-2 score.