Saturday, October 10, 2009

Time Pressure Fun and Games

Even with 75 minutes for each side, I still can find ways of getting into insane time pressure. Squeezed in between the Marshall FIDE Thursdays tournament, and the Westchester CC Fall Tournament was a make up game from the Westchester Chess Club summer round robin. My game was with Marty Tallan. Yes the same Marty that I had the crazy games with before and during the club championship. Unlike our first two games, I had White this time. However having White, and lots of time on the clock did not prevent me from doing something stupid like getting a piece trapped early. Despite myself, somehow I managed to steal a half point with 5 seconds left on my clock in this position.


PW-marty ending 091609.pgn

We both made mistakes in the time scramble, but I guess being a time pressure junkie gave me an edge in the game. Some people's idea of living dangerously involves jumping out of airplanes or diving off bridges attached to an elastic rope.





Insane person jumping off the Kawarau River Bridge.
(Not something I tried in New Zealand!)

I'd rather play and record 23 moves in 5 seconds, and live to tell about it. I kept notating to prove the threefold repetition.

7 comments:

LinuxGuy said...

63... Kf3 64.Ra8 (else ...Kf2) Ne4 should win. I don't know how many seconds he had left, but with 5 second delay, a minute should be enough. If the other player can't handle that, then you deserve the draw. Good job!

I'm amazed that you can notate that fast!! I'm too slow with that, always been a slow writer no less, and it becomes illegible for me.

LinuxGuy said...

That's where the advantage of a Monroi comes in. I've seen kids make the move on one of those in < 1 second. Kids can do that so fast, it's like a western movie where I didn't even see the gun drawn.

From the patzer said...

Probably there is a win for black but he may not run away from the pawn side of the board with his king and must block the checks with his knight. To know for sure i have to look longer at the game but helas i dont have time at the moment (work and preparing my chess lessons on sunday and some ICS study) prevents me from doing so. But i guess Fritz or Rybka can help here.

Polly said...

Linux: He actually had over 5 minutes left when the game ended. Just like our previous two games, he got tentative and overly nervous. Some players seem to get more nervous about the opponent's time pressure even if they have plenty of time.

In a position like that where Black should be able to win, the pressure is not on me. What's the worst that's going to happen? I'll lose on time in game that I probably should have lost earlier.

If had been writing moves on a paper score sheet I would have never been able to keep score. As it was at then end I had stopped inputting, and then when he spent a few minutes on one of his last moves I caught up.

Linux: After I messed up the easy perpetual earlier in the position, he should be able to block the checks with the knight and be able to get his king in. He has to force my king off h1 so that he can promote. In the analysis afterward we felt that the timing of his move h2 was wrong. It's not an easy win for black with a rook pawn, but there should be one.

Liquid Egg Product said...

Time scrambles really get the testosterone flowing. Now this is what we call "man chess"!

I keep reading your opponent's name as "Marty Taliban". Evidence sleep is needed.

likesforests said...

Like LinuxGuy, I'm in awe of your notation skills. Sure a Monroi is faster than pencil and paper but you've got to be mad fast as well! Congratulations on pulling off the draw. I'm surprised you missed the stalemate but "5 seconds" explains everything and it's always easier for the crowd to see than the players under time and point pressure!

Polly said...

LEP: I guess the Mascot prefers time scrambles over egg scrambles. :-) I like the "man game", but I'm a wuss I like my digital clock with delay.