When I played in the Friday Quads in October I got matched up against Mike, a kid from one of my lunch time chess classes. To put it mildly, I played like a f#$%-ing moron. This is the final position after White's 18th move. Unfortunately I'm Black in this lovely position. Fritz can't help but to point out how toast Black is.
One thing that is good about Mike, is he's a very sweet kid who doesn't show people up. He did not make a big deal about it. When it came up in one of our classes he did not humiliate me by saying how quickly I lost. He wasn't even the one who brought it up. One of the other kids from that class had played in the same tournament. He was the one who mentioned it when kids in class were discussing how good Mike is. Mike has a 1600 rating. Maybe when he passes me, I'll let him teach the class!
Nice kid or not, I still wanted payback. Also I don't need another 10 year old to become "King Kong II". Once somebody starts beating you a few times in a row he starts to think he has your number. With these kids, I want an unlisted number!
I have to admit I feel fortunate to have won this game. He got the better of me out of the opening. After 15 moves all my pieces were sitting on the first and second ranks. Visions of Godzilla started appearing in my head. I traded off pieces to free up space. Also I was trying to work on the isolated e pawn and his doubled pawns to the queenside. I had a moment of panic when he played 28...Rd1+. I'm thinking "Oh, crap I have to play Rxd1, and I lose my queen!" Fortunately I got my composure back and played 29. Kh2. After the queens were traded we had a flurry of pawn captures, where I was able to win a pawn. The other thing that was working in my favor was a significant time advantage. He had less then a minute so he didn't have time to find the best moves. When I attacked his rook with 33. Kg1, 33...e3 was probably his best shot. Having the passed pawn on my third rank would have been annoying though Fritz still gives White a bit of an edge.
Nice kid or not, I still wanted payback. Also I don't need another 10 year old to become "King Kong II". Once somebody starts beating you a few times in a row he starts to think he has your number. With these kids, I want an unlisted number!
I have to admit I feel fortunate to have won this game. He got the better of me out of the opening. After 15 moves all my pieces were sitting on the first and second ranks. Visions of Godzilla started appearing in my head. I traded off pieces to free up space. Also I was trying to work on the isolated e pawn and his doubled pawns to the queenside. I had a moment of panic when he played 28...Rd1+. I'm thinking "Oh, crap I have to play Rxd1, and I lose my queen!" Fortunately I got my composure back and played 29. Kh2. After the queens were traded we had a flurry of pawn captures, where I was able to win a pawn. The other thing that was working in my favor was a significant time advantage. He had less then a minute so he didn't have time to find the best moves. When I attacked his rook with 33. Kg1, 33...e3 was probably his best shot. Having the passed pawn on my third rank would have been annoying though Fritz still gives White a bit of an edge.
For a change I was not the one in horrendous time trouble. I was able to reap the benefits of my opponent having 10 seconds left, and missing the ugliness of 35...Bh7. 36. Rb8+. It was only a matter of time before I win the pinned bishop, and can march the a and b pawns up the board. That would become unnecessary as he flagged on move 47. I dodged a big bullet with that win. The big test will come the next time I have Black against him.
9 comments:
Ouch! The first position looks painful :) Glad you got your revenge in the second game!
But then again since the post got zero comments, I guess no one was paying any attention. What? Are my wins too boring to merit discussion? Or is losing more entertaining?
We are just all in awe. Your blog is wonderful. Your writing is fantastic. And you keep playing and blogging regularly and frequently.
Seriously, great stuff.
I totally agree with Glenn. You have some of the most entertaining tournament and game descriptions around. Keep it up, we really enjoy it!
Nah, we just like it when you lose. It makes us feel better about ourselves.
Thanks for the kind words. I really do enjoy sharing about my experiences. Chess players are an interesting lot, and some of the goings on amongst us ordinary folk are too funny not to share. However non-chessplayers like my husband don't understand. So when I start talking about how such and such happened, he kind of rolls his eyes, and tries changes the subject.
LEP: If you feel better because of my losses then I've done my good deed for the day. :-) Those people who take my rating points, they really know I've done my good deed for the day.
So you took my advice about staying ahead on the clock against these kids and won... :)
Maybe I should be a chess trainer now--I could charge by the hour to tell people not to get behind on the clock in sudden death.
Oh, we play the same opening!
I'm curious why you played 8.Na4, winning the bishop pair vs 8.a3, expanding on the queenside. It seemed like your pawns were well arranged for a queenside attack, and often knights are better than bishops in the English (eg, in the Four Knights White often prevents Black from playing BxN. This is a Q, not a criticism... really. :)
Your opponent blundered with 31...Rxe2. 31...Rxb2 would have won a pawn and defended his b-pawn at the same time. But maybe after earlier mistakes he was 'worked up' like you were last time.
Congratz on your win.
Like: Lately I've been trying to eliminate the Bishop boring down on f2. I've lost to may games where after pushing h3 something comes swooping in and takes the g-pawn that protected by the pinned f2 pawn. I've had mixed results with that plan. Sometimes the opponent has gotten too much play on the a file, and I've ended out losing the a pawn and have a black rook sitting on the 7th.
I thought Rxb2 was better for him, but I guess he was hoping that he take advantage on the pin on g2.
Wahr: I've been trying to think about getting 30 moves in before going on 10 minutes. It does help when I can do that. I think one of the things I miss about doing ahnd written notation is being able to make time notes every 5 moves or so. I've thought about keeping an index card or blank scoresheet and making the time notes on that. The Mon Roi doesn't have a way to note the time as you go along. The time log it keeps is based on when you input a move. So if my oppenet makes a move and I don't put it in right away the 5 minutes I spent thinking about me move will be reflected in his time if I record his move after I make mine.
It is important that you show these potential King Kong's who's boss because before you know it, you'll be playing the future world champion?
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