As I mentioned in my last post, I was one to talk about being over matched. I rant about a 118 playing 1500 - 2000 points over his head yet I have a 12 move game in that same tournament in round one. I played Kassa Korley. Even though I've yet to beat him, I should not have lost the way I did last Thursday's game. It was a case of overreacting to an attack that wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.
Probably most annoying was overlooking the pin of my f2 pawn. I can't begin to count how may times I've had my g pawn captured because the f pawn was pinned to my king by Black's bishop on the g1-a6 diagonal. Usually when that happens my king side falls apart quickly, and Black gets a vicious attack. I think this the earliest in game that I've fallen into this pin.
Here's the game. Analsysis is not deep. Probably the 118 could have found a better move then 11. h4.
Polly-Kassa043009.pgn
I can delay mate for 6 more moves, by sac'ing pieces. However I couldn't see it. The mate in one looked bad enough. How does White prolong the agony? [13. Bf4 Qxf4 14. Qd6 Bxd6 15. Rfd1 Qxf2+ 16. Kh1 Ne3 17. Rg1 Qxh4+ 18. Bh3 Qxh3#] Answer in the brackets. The only bright side to losing that horribly is; the remaing games , could not be any worse.
8 comments:
Such games hurt and crushes the ego. Hopefully the game was followed by a nice crushing game in which your opponent didn't had a chance.
I wish! LOL Unfortunately it was an 0-fer night. Thought at least the other games were more interesting, and closer.
So you pretty much scored the same as the 118 rated player who you said didnt belong?
Polly, I ask because this is an area of my own play I am trying to improve. Do you have a thought a systematic process that you use for evaluating you oponent's threat after each move?
chesstiger is right, it was brutal. If it would be me, I would lose appetite. I know you will survive and find inspiration in the games you played well. In blitz I got caught quite a few times with such pins.
Anon: Actually the 118 finished ahead of me because he took a 1/2 point bye in the last round. :-) If you're implying that I don't belong because I didn't win any games that night, fine. Maybe you haven't seen the typical field that plays in this event. I played two players rated 300 - 400 points higher rated, one player who was 20 points higher then me, and one player 100 - 150 points higher then me. Those are fairly typical rating ranges is an open tournament with one section. There was a 1400 point gap between the 118 and the next lowest rated player.
With the exception of that first round game the rest of my games weren't terrible. One game ended out in a rook and pawn ending with 5 pawns on both sides, but his more active king and rook got the better of me. Perhaps the position at which we both stopped keeping score would make an interesting post on endings. (Note to self: New post!)
Chess Student: There's the basic approach of asking simple questions such as where can the piece that just moved go to from there? Is there an immediate threat? What has changed in the position?
I'm not sure I have systematic approach to threats. Blue Devil Knight has some excellent posts on this topic.
In this particular case I was overreacting to "history". I've been on the Black side of similar positions where allowing White to push the h pawn any further and open up the h file has had bad consequences. I made a move that has worked from the Black side in the past, but forgot about the pin on f2.
RP: All I can do with a game lie that is have a laugh over how stupid it was, and try to not let it happen again. "Stuff happens". Learn and move on.
Hi Polly. If you keep losing that g-pawn b/c of the f-pin, what about changing your opening away from English/Catalan type? Maybe you have a better feel for classical QGD positions?
phx: I've been thinking about switching openings. I just haven't decided what I want to play, and how much work I want to do to prepare against Black's defenses. I'm not sure I'll ever switch back to to e4. I really don't feel like doing all the work necessary to play against the Sicilian, French, etc.
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