I was sure I was going to end out playing the annoying kid since we had the same score and the colors were right. I was fully prepared to tell him off if he slammed pieces during our game, and tell his father to stop hovering behind me. However my result had been put in wrong so I ended out playing a new player who entered the section today with two zero point byes. I pointed out the incorrect result to the TD. He assured me the pairing would have been the same anyway. At first glance I thought he was right, but after looking more carefully at the pairings I'm not sure that's correct. My second round opponent got paired as a win so he played a one instead of a 1/2. Annoying kid got paired against the low 1. With the correct scores the two higher 1/2s play each other and I drop to the zero. But the colors are bad since the two higher 1/2 are both due black. Most likely my 2nd round opponent drops to the zero and I play white against AK (annoying kid.)
Instead I got to play a very nice woman who I underestimated when I was up a piece for a pawn. More on that later. AK's opponent didn't put up with the slamming piece nonsense at all. About 10 minuts into the round he told AK that how he was playing was very rude. I wanted to give the guy a high five for setting him straight, but I refrained.
This seems to be my weekend to just try different stuff. Since I've been getting some better games with d4 I played that instead of c4. Instead of a straight Colle set up, I played Bf4 on move 3. I liked my position out of the opening. In some ways it was similar to the set up I had against Steve the other night. I was looking at the same idea of winning the d pawn. However this time I wasn't dancing around the center with my knights and trying to deal with an undeveloped bishop. I won a bishop for a pawn by move 17 so I liked my chances.
The only problem is when I like my chances, that's when my mind starts to wander a bit. On move 21 I'm salivating over the open f file and sticking my rook on f7. This is where in the midst of my analysis stray thoughts such as "I really didn't want to get paired down, but if I win this game I'll get a good pairing tonight." start getting in the way. It's also the point that my mind goes into a "blog". That's a potential blog article induced fog. I start thinking about what I'm going to write about and lose focus on my analysis. Maybe this blogging as I go stuff isn't so good. This is also the point where I think I took my opponent a little too lightly since she had played some conservative responses to some of my moves. After I played 21. Rf7 she responded with Qg5, followed by Qg3. The annoying Qh2+ put the kibosh on trying to double the rooks on the f file.
I think part of the mind in a blog issue is because one of my regular readers from this area is playing in the tournament. Shout out to Saul! We had met a few months ago when he was visiting New York and came to the Marshall. I'm flattered by how much he enjoys my blog and he actually can quote things I've written. We've talked in between rounds and he's taken great interest in watching my games and sitting in on some of my post mortems. I feel like I have my own blog groupie. Some how knowing that one of my readers is seeing the live action even before it's written is a little distracting.
At move 25 the position becomes complex as my opponent's queen is deep in my territory, but I still have all this pressure on my opponent's 7th rank. I spent 25 minutes thinking about what I should do. Do I keep trying to attack, or do I move the king off f1 and away from the g2 pawn. I saw that if I left the king on f1 that she had Qh1+ skewing my a1 rook. However I felt she didn't have time to wander off to the queen side to go material grabbing when I have so much play on the king side. I didn't give enough consideration to 26...Qxa1. I spent most of the 25 minutes looking at all the other possible responses to my various moves. I finally thought to myself, "Go for it!" and played 25. Ne6?? Unfortunately in my superficial analysis of 25...Qh1+ 26. Ke2 Qxa1 I over looked the eventual Qxb2+ forcing the repetition.
The round starts in 25 minutes. I will be there on time. The three day and two day schedules merge this round. Hopefully I'm not sitting next to or paired against AK.
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