AJing-pw080709.pgn
The next round I was the highest rated 1 pointer, so I got paired against the low 1.5. He was rated 1101. I did win that game. While I was playing that game Hikaru Nakamura was giving a simul. He went 26-0. I did take a few pictures while he was playing.
Hikaru signing one of his opponent's score book.
Dan Mayer, oldest participant.
Margaret Hua age 11, maybe the youngest in the simul.
Mike Atkins, newly elected to Executive Board.
Merger Mania
Finally Friday night all three schedules merge into one. We're all play 40/2 G/60. I got paired down against another 1300. At least I finally get another adult opponent. I was tired, and had a pounding headache. At one point my opponent was thinking a long time so I went back to my room to take a couple of ibuprofen. I'm sharing a room with Carol Jarecki who is an International Arbiter and National Tournament Director. She was in the room watching TV. She was a little surprised to see me. I told her what I was doing. I said I would be the dumbest cheater alive if I pulled at my computer and started looking at Chessbase while my roommate is watching.
I went back down and continued playing. My opponent offered me a draw in this position.
Normally I would not take a draw with this much material left on the board. This would be the type of position that I get annoyed with one of my students offering a draw hoping to just get rating points. I broke my own rule and accepted the draw. I didn't feel like playing the position and I still had a headache. Saturday was going to be a very busy day with meetings and another game, so I decided I would take this early draw.
4 comments:
In your round 1 game, 12...bxN puts the question to his bishop and practically hands you the initiative (bishop well placed on d7); the bishop trade took some of the spark out of your winning chances.
Right, 18...bxc should be winning.
25...RxR instead of Rxc, then 26...Rxa and he no longer has an outside passer, nice time to offer a draw if you want one. Even had you gotten in Rxc later on, allowing an outside passer is like playing with fire, IMHO.
The king on e6, instead of simply playing ...e6; allowing your pawns to get wedged over there, trippy-looking.
You could still play for weirdness at the end with 46...Kd5 followed by e5. Yeah, I'm sure Fritz would refute it somehow, but your opponent's name was not Fritz. ;-)
In that last diagram where you accepted the draw, I think you did the right thing all things considered. In a long tournament where one isn't trying to go perfect in order to get a horde of cash (oh wait, I was thinking of poker. hehe) a strategically timed draw, when drained, is probably not a bad idea. Plus, you can socialize more that way. ;-)
If I were White to play, I might try Rbd1, and if my opponent plays ...Bc3, then Nb4-c2-e3, but he has the bishop pair and it looks like detente to me.
Yay Mike Atkins!!!
One can only say that you played the endgame horrible. I wonder if exchanging the rooks and going for the h-pawn was the best idea in that position.
In the position you had a choice to take the c- or a-pawn, it was better to take the a-pawn instead of the c-pawn since the a-pawn was a free pawn while the c-pawn still had to get past your d-pawn.
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