Woo Hoo! I Already Have 6 Wins in January This Year!

Last year, I won 5 games for the entire month of January. This year I'm only half way through the month, and I've matched my total for last year. I've played less this month then I did for the 1st two weeks of January 2007. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

I actually tied for first in our January G/40 event. I won my first two games last week. In round 3 I played up and sucked with the black pieces. This was one the instances where one doesn't want to be the higher ranked player and get her due color. We were both due black but because I had 2 points and Lonnie had 1.5 I got my black. I'm getting tired of getting crushed horribly when the opponent plays d4, but doesn't allow me to play my regular Nimzo-Indian. I'm sure that's one of the reasons why I beat Silvio last week, because he didn't play his usual garbage opening as white.

There was actually a silver lining to getting Black against Lonnie. The chances were I was going to lose to him regardless of what color I had. He's rated 2225, and my record against him is 2 wins, 1 draw and 30 losses. My win against him with the black pieces was at time when he played e4 as white. So by having black against Lonnie it put me in line to play White against Isaac Sherman, rated 1811.

Isaac is an older Russian player who did not start playing in rated tournaments until August of 2006. He has never played outside the two chess clubs in Scarsdale and White Plains so it's hard to say what his true strength is. It's small pool of players that he's played against. I ran the MSA History program on him. He has a very solid record, albeit against a small circle of players.

Current Official rating is 1811 Current UnOfficial rating is 1853

Best Unofficial rating = 1853 Best Official rating = 1851

Lowest rating on record = 1687

19 Opponents

Total Rated Games = 59 ---> 35 Wins 7 Draws 17 Losses

Best Upset = 279 points -- JOHN KELLY -- 2098 BOB PERETZ CC CHAMPIONSHIP 12-10-2007

Best Draw = 372 points -- LONNIE S KWARTLER -- 2223 BPCC JANUARY G40 01-14-2008

Worst Loss = -238 points -- SCOTT SHEFF -- 1588 WCC SEPTEMBER QUADS 10-03-2007

Highest Rated Opponent Win = JOHN KELLY -- 2098 BOB PERETZ CC CHAMPIONSHIP 12-10-2007

Highest Rated Opponent Draw = LONNIE S KWARTLER -- 2223 BPCC JANUARY G40 01-14-2008

Lowest Rated Opponent Loss to = JOHN KANG -- 1517 WCC QUADS 12-28-2006

Most Recent Wins in a row = 5 ending on 11-14-2007 at WCC AUTUMN SWISS

Most Recent Draws in a row = 1 ending on 01-14-2008 at BPCC JANUARY G40

Most Recent Losses in a row = 3 ending on 05-30-2007 at WESTCHESTER CHESS CLUB CHAMP

Results against 18 higher rated players: Wins = 10 Draws = 3 Losses = 5

Results against 0 equally rated players: Wins = 0 Draws = 0 Losses = 0

Results against 41 lower rated players: Wins = 25 Draws = 4 Losses = 12

Results against 9 players rated + 100 : Wins = 3 Draws = 2 Losses = 4

Results against 29 players rated +/-100: Wins = 17 Draws = 5 Losses = 7

Results against 21 players rated - 100 : Wins = 15 Draws = 0 Losses = 6

This would be my seventh game against him. Up to this point I had 1 win, 1 draw and 4 losses. We tend to have these positional grinders with long pawn chains. However I've been caught unaware at time when suddenly out of a very closed position he comes up with a shot. This game was very typical of our past games, except this time I was the one with the shot. For a good part of the game I'd been looking for ways to open up the h1-a8 diagonal. Earlier I had looked at sac-ing my b pawn, but after 22...Bd7 he made it easy for me.

23. Nxb5 Qa6 (He opted not to play cxb5 allowing me to win the exchange.) 24. Nxd4 Ree8 25. Bf4 Rac8 26. Nf3 Nxf3+ 27. Bxf3 Be6 28. a4 Bd529. Bxd5+ cxd5 30. b5 Qe6 31. d4 h6 32. c6 g5 33. Bc1 g4 34. Bf4 a6 35. Qd2axb5 36. axb5 Re7 37. Re1 Qf6 38. Rxe7 Qxe7 39. Re1 Qa7 40. Be5 Bf8 41. Rb1 Qb642. Qd3 Be7 43. Qxf5 Rxc6?? (I think he forgot that after Qxf5 I'm still protecting the rook on b1.) 44. bxc6 1-0