Wacky Wednesday! It's Backkkkkkkkkk!

As promised to an anonymous commenter who wondered what happened to Wacky Wednesday. However I did not have to go rummaging through the Polly archives to find a suitable game for today's post. Monday's June Action #2 provided me with appropriate material.

The problem with a small chess club that runs a lot of little events one tends to play the same people over and over again. If you think I've played people at the Marshall Chess Club a lot, that's nothing compared with how many times I've played Silvio and Alan. This game would be number eighty between Silvio and me. We always have interesting games no matter who wins. We don't draw very often. We only have 11 draws out of the 80 games we've played. The earliest draws were from pre-time delay days when with only seconds left on my clock I'd claim "no losing chances." (The rules language changed to insufficient losing chance later.) That few draws is pretty remarkable given the number of times we've played. One player who I've played 17 times we've drawn 10 of those games.

Sometimes I get really frustrated when I play Silvio because he'll play some random moves in the opening as White and I'll end out in some cramped position with very little time left. He actually played a fairly normal d4 opening that allowed me to get a real Nimzo-Indian. However he got himself in trouble once he went out of book.



It's not often I get mate with a knight. When I made the move I didn't say anything. I'm not one of these players who likes to say mate at the end. I'm not sure I even said check. I think I was having trouble believing that I mated in that position. However he had taken away the king's one square when he put his rook on e2. One player said to me afterwards, "You forgot to say mate." I guess I wanted to make sure it really was.