Castling Queen Side

My Last Blunder of 2011

2012-01-14T00:34:00.000-05:00

....did not occur on December 31st. I passed on my usual New Year's Eve "cracktion" fix at "Your Last Blunder of ____". That's because I had to make a choice between chess and cycling. After several years hiatus, I've renewed my passion for cycling. Before I started writing this chess blog, I wrote a triathlon/ cycling log. Still Tri-ing After All These Years. A number of things led to my lack of enthusiasm for cycling and doing triathlons. It's a long story that I don't want to bore you with. Chess and Tae Kwon Do filled up a lot of the time I used to devote to cycling and triathlons.

I started cycling again this spring with the idea of simply improving my physical conditioning for Tae Kwon Do and chess. I never thought I would get back to the cycling condition I was in back in 2005, but I have. It's been gratifying to know that six years older I could still ride fast. So with the temperature being the 50s on December 31st, I chose to go riding with my weekend training group.

In my last post I referred to the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't a train coming the other direction culminating in one of my infamous train wreck stories. I finally got my rating back over 1800 for the first time since 1996. I had two good tournaments in a row. I went 3-0 in one tournament to go from 1703 to 1774. Three days later I played at the Marshall Chess Club and finally broke my 14 game losing steak at the club. I got an even score and jumped from 1774 to 1810.

It would have been nice to end 2011 with my rating at 1810, unfortunately the following week there was an odd number at my club and I had to put myself into the tournament. It was one of those nights where I did not feel like playing. I was tired, and admittedly I think I wanted to sit on my 1800 rating for awhile. I started out with two horrible games where I got smashed. I thought to myself "Here we go again. Back to playing like an idiot." However in the last round I managed to redeem myself with this entertaining game.

CrRddell-pw.pgn

It wasn't a brilliant game, but it at least stopped the bleeding of rating points. I dropped 19 points to end 2011 at 1791. Not a bad finish considering miserable my record was for most of 2011. I did recoup a few points in my first tournament of 2012. I didn't play any more games before the cut off for the February rating list so my published rating will be 1796. I don't plan to play in any under 1800 sections any time soon. In fact I'm not even playing in an Under 1900 section any time soon.

I'm off to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon to play in the Liberty Bell Open. Like last year I'm planning to play in the Under 2100 section. I can't make it down in time to play all the rounds of the three day schedule. Instead of subjecting myself to the insanity of playing 4 games at game/35 in the two day schedule on Sunday, I'm taking byes for the first two rounds and then playing five rounds at the more civilized time control of 40/2 SD/1. Even though I've had some good results at the faster time controls, I'm looking forward to having time to really think.

Stay tuned.

Light At The End of The Tunnel

2011-12-18T00:31:00.000-05:00

I told you it wouldn't be three months before you would hear from me again. In fact it's actually less then three weeks. When I last posted I was bemoaning the fact that I seemed to have totally forgotten how play the game. From September 12th to December 1st I made it down to the Marshall Chess Club four times to play in the Thursday Night "cracktion" tournament, otherwise known as "Four Rated Games Tonight!" or once a month "10 Grand Prix Points Tonight!" I played a total of 13 games, and I won a total of zero games. Yep, you read that correctly. Zero wins! 13 losses! Not a draw in sight. Most of the games were miserable games where I got a lousy position early on and get crushed either very quickly or slowly grounded down.

If anyone is half-way decent at math he might notice that 4 rated games tonight x 4 = 16. So what happened to the other 3 games? One night I opted for the pre-emptive last round bye since I was the lowest rated player and didn't want to deal with possibly getting a bye in round 2 or 3. The other two times, I dropped out so I could make an earlier train. What happened to the woman who refused to drop out when having a bad tournament? She left the building in disgust. One night I resigned after dropping a pawn early because I didn't feel like playing out a long drawn out game down a pawn. Instead I made the 10:32 train. That's two hours earlier then if I stayed and played the last round.

On that early train ride home I seriously started asking myself "Why are you doing this? You spend $11 on train fare, another $4.50 on the subway, and a $25 entry fee. Why travel into Manhattan to get abused over the chess board? You can stay home and play Monday evenings in White Plains. So why?"

I concluded there were several reasons why I needed those trips to the Marshall Chess Club. I don't need them every week like I was doing the last few years. I needed them at least once a month to remind myself what it's like to see and attempt to play real chess. I need to spend time hanging out with chess players over the age 30. When one spends her days teaching chess to kindergartners, first and second graders after awhile it's easy to forget what real chess is. The other big reason to go to the Marshall is, I'm not in charge. I don't have to deal with the players whining about which ratings are being used, or why they got two blacks in a row, or one player calling another player an @$$ #%!*. I can simply show up, pay my entry fee and let Steve deal with the knuckleheads.

It's been a strange year for me chess wise. I skipped the US Open and the New York State Championships for the first time in years. I spent Labor day weekend in San Diego celebrating my niece's 30th birthday. I could have played in the Southern California Labor Day weekend tournament. It was in San Diego. I actually contemplated playing the two day schedule, but decided just hanging out with my nieces and nephew would be be more fun. After my last trip in October with my sisters, I decided I had taken enough plane flights. There was nowhere I wanted to go. The thought briefly entered my mind to find a state that I haven't played in, but that will have to wait. I'm stuck at 26 and counting.

Although I'm doing a lot of non-chess activity. I've gone back to riding my bike and contemplating a triathlon comeback for next year. I'm working towards my Second Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. That also will probably come next year.

I will end this post by sharing a game played a few Mondays ago. It was another case of muddling through the opening and trying to hang on for dear life as my opponent tried to attack the crap out me from the Black side. On that particular night I ended every game with one or less seconds on my clock. Unfortunately it's not a complete score sheet, but I do have a diagram of the final position. Don't ask me how we got to that position from where the notation stopped.

pw-aabrams112811.pgn

Having survived an unsound sac with one second on my clock, I managed to bang out another who knows how more moves to arrive at this final position. A flurry of rook and queen checks allowed me to arrive at this lovely finish.

Despite going down to the Marshall that same week and losing another three games, I felt perhaps there was a little fight left me. Also knowing why I wanted to be there helped make peace with the inner demons who ask "Why bother?"

The answer to "Why Bother?" came in a most surprising manner. Stay tuned....

Chess?!

2011-12-03T00:52:00.000-05:00

Let's see, I think I remember that game. That's the one with the little horsey that moves in an L shape and can jump over other pieces, right? Bishops are the pointy headed guys that move diagonal, and rooks are those castle like things that move straight? The queen can move like the castle and pointy headed guy? The king...that's the piece that can't get captured? Then there's those round headed guys that cheat because they move one way and capture another way. Pawns? Okay I've got my games squared away.

Sometimes I feel like I've totally forgotten how to play chess. I know how the pieces move, but lately I just don't know what to do with them. Have I been overexposed to six year old kids that no matter how many times I tell them only knights can jump, still move bishops without moving any pawns? Maybe it's the kid who no matter how many times I tell him to move the e or d pawn first, insists on playing 1. h4 followed by 2. Rh2. I suppose it's fitting that I lost last night to someone who opened 1. a4. I think he really wanted to be black so he wasted a move to let me be "white". Not that I can blame him. The two games I played as white were just butt ass ugly. Maybe he figured he have an easier time against me if he just tossed the tempo and pretended to be "black". I didn't disappoint. I tossed the exchange on move 23, and by move 25 managed to turn my disadvantage into a full rook.

Right now I'm wrestling with what I want from chess. I've got some ideas. I think I finally figured out why I subject myself to trips to New City to get smashed by experts and A players on Thursday nights. More on my midnight musings on Metro North in my next post. Yes there will be a next post, and it won't take another 3 months for it to appear. I just wanted get a few words out to let people know, I am amongst the living.

In Case You Were Wondering......

2011-09-16T23:55:00.000-04:00

....where my blog posts on the US Open are, there aren't any. It's not because I didn't feel like writing about my usual US Open agony. There was no US Open agony because instead of agonizing over whether or not I should take a bye in round 7 after cramming in six games on Thursday and Friday, I was doing this....

Celebrating Uncle Charlie's 90th birthday

Instead of spending Saturday and Sunday trapped inside sitting in delegates meetings I was doing this...

Swimming in Lake Massiwhippy

And this...

Listening to jazz on Sunday afternoon.

The only agonizing had been in May when I found out my Uncle Charlie's 90th birthday celebration was going to be the same weekend as the US Open. There really wasn't that much agonizing. Let's see.... Orlando, Florida or North Hatley, Canada in August? Let's see... Sitting in a hotel at the Orlando airport for 5 days playing chess and attending meetings, or spending 4 days at a charming inn in Canada on a beautiful lake hanging out with family and friends.

Yes dear readers, I do have a life outside of chess. The US Open comes around once a year. A 90th birthday only comes around once in the person's lifetime. That's assuming he or she lasts that long. Sadly I did not get to celebrate a 90th birthday for either of my parents, so when I still have relatives who reach that milestone it's worth traveling far away from the chess scene to celebrate with them.

In case you think this is just a filler piece while I work on my New York State Championship posts, let me set the record straight. You'll have to wait until 2012 at the earliest for my next report on the New York State Championship. That's because when I was in Canada with my sister, I decided I would spend Labor Day weekend in San Diego with her, instead of in her empty house in Albany while playing in the state championship.

This was the summer of all things not chess. I played at my club here and there. I made a token appearance at the Marshall for Thursday cracktion. Almost a year later I played Black against Scot Mc Elheny again. Although the result was the same, it was a much longer game. Maybe this should be filed under Freaky Friday.

SMcElheny-pw081111.pgn

Alas summer chess vacation is over. I direct my first scholastic tournament this weekend, and I start teaching my first chess classes next week. Last night I showed my face at the Marshall once again. I think they wondered if I was still alive. Rumors of my chess death are greatly exaggerated. Expect to see more blog posts as I try to figure out if I really can play this infernal game called chess.

On the Road, but Not for Chess!

2011-07-07T18:53:00.000-04:00

I leave shortly for Brussels in about an hour. No great chess plans on the agenda though one of my readers did give me a few suggestions of chess cafes. One I've been to on my last trip to Amsterdam, and I was not successful in getting any games. Maybe this time I'll have better luck if I visit there again.

A lot has happened in the chess world that I was not part of. I skipped this year's Thursday Night Action Championship. I was in no mood to deal with the angst of which section to play in. The previous Thursday got me fed up with chess. I realize I'm not going to improve until I do some work on my game. Right now I don't feel like working on my game. I have too much else going on. Read this post at my other blog and you'll understand.

The week before I went down to the Marshall for Thursday's 4 Rated Games Tonight! It had been a month since I last played down there. I figured I should show my face before people thought I had died. Since Josh and dad weren't going I had to take the train down to Grand Central and then catch the subway down to Greenwich Village. $5.95 for the train and $2.25 for the subway each way. On top of that there's the $25 entry fee. $16.40 + $25 = $41.40 for an evening of "entertainment".

My evening's entertainment featured getting smacked around in round 1 by a 2100. In between rounds I got into a bit of a heated discussion with a player who had dropped out a tournament at my club. I wasn't the director that night. When I run tournaments at my club I either play or don't play depending on whether it's odd or even. I can either put myself in if the number is odd or take myself out to keep it even. I was rather annoyed that he withdrew that night because it caused the number to be odd so someone got a bye. I was even more annoyed that it was him because I had put a rule in requiring players over 1900 to play all the rounds. I did that because this particular player ended out getting a bye in the last round when a kid took a bye in the last round. He was pissed off because he wanted to play all 3 rounds. I let him know that I did not like the fact that he dropped out of the tournament causing someone to get a bye.

He took offense at my criticizing him for dropping out. This was not the first time we've exchanged words under not such nice circumstances. So what happens? I have to play him in the next round. I hate when I have to play someone who I've had a dispute with. It just makes things a little uncomfortable. Outside of the perfunctory hand shake and "good luck" at the beginning nothing else was said. The game did not get off to a great start. I managed to lose the exchange early. However some how I managed to battle back and draw the game, but not before losing a piece. That part of the game did not get recorded because we both had seconds left on our clock.

Here's the game.

pw-by61611.pgn

I was happy to pull out the draw under those circumstances. Yes it would have been nice to beat the guy, but a draw against a higher rated player was also acceptable. Round 3 I got paired up again and lost. I was also paired up in round 4. That game was particularly annoying because the opponent gave up a pawn early. It didn't seem like he was getting any huge jump in development from the pawn gambit. In fact I felt I had an excellent position with passed a and b pawns. Somehow I let the position slip away and he got all kinds of counter play and went on to win.

Here is that game:

pw-JCuscianna61611.pgn

For $41.40 I got to lose three games, draw one, lose another 13 rating points and get into an argument. Who needs that crap? On the train ride back I realized that I'm making myself crazy with this kind of play. I'm making the same mistakes out of the opening and I'm missing simple tactics. Why do I need to do this to myself? Until I invest some time into my game things aren't going to change. The time limit isn't necessarily the issue. Many of the mistakes are coming before the clock is a factor.

I decided unless I'm getting a ride down to the Marshall I'm not going to play.

To be continued....

Reflections on Deflection

2011-06-24T17:01:00.001-04:00

I mentioned in my last post about my two wins in Fremont using the same tactic. In a rather different style of posting for me, I'm going to do an instructional post. Lately my games have been rather blah. I fumble through the opening, muddle through the middle game, and depending on how I survived the middle game, I may or may not been able to hold the position for a win or draw. It's been rather depressing to watch my games unfold in a similar pattern game after game. It's also been rather boring. I really need to shake up my chess if I want to get out of this rut I've been in. However at the moment I'm not overwhelmingly motivated to do so. Perhaps a separate post on life as a "Jack of all trades, master of none" is in order, but I digress.

For the entire month of April I did not play one single game of "cracktion". Every single game I played in April was at a time limit of G/85 or slower. I played in the Bob Peretz Chess Club Championship and the Westchester Chess Club Championship. The latter just finished a couple of weeks ago. Sad to say it was nothing like the 2009 championship. Losing rounds 5 and 6 to the two guys who who end out as co-champions did not help matters.

In mid-May I ventured down to the Marshall Chess Club for the weekly "cracktion" tournament. In the first round I was paired against IM Ilye Figler. This was my 13th game against him and like 11 of my previous encounters with him, I lost. My only draw with him was back in 1997. He got the IM title last year at the NY International at the tender age of 63. Yes there is hope for those who are not under rated little munchkins. I felt like I was holding my own out of the opening. However things fell apart after I played the rather insipid move of 15...c6. Looking back at the game I don't even remember why I played the move. Was I afraid of 16. d5? More to the point, was it one of those "I don't know what to do so I'll just make a random pawn move and see what happens" moments?

Position after 15...c6?

I totally missed 16. Bxh6! I chose not to play 16...gxh6 allowing 17. Rxf6. I felt if I was going to play down a pawn against an IM I should keep the pawns around my king somewhat intact so I opted to play 16...Nh5, a move that would have been better then c6. The game continued 17.Bf4 Nxg3 18.Bxg3 Rad8 19.Rae1 Bh5 20.e5 Bg6 21.Bxg6 Nxg6 22. e6 to reach the position below.

I guess I didn't get quite get the tactical idea of deflection down the first time so I foolishly accepted the pawn he offered. 22...fxe6? 23.Qxg6 Qd5 24.Be5 Rd7 25.Rxf8+ Kxf8 26.Rf1+ Kg8 27.Qe8+ Kh7 28.Rf8 Black resigns.

Many a wise chess teacher has said "Learn from your mistakes." This not so wise chess teacher has told her students the same thing. Do I always follow my own advice? We won't go there. However I did manage to use this very same tactic, not once but twice a few weeks later.

In the first round of CalChess State Championship I got paired against the first of four opponents under the age of 13 that I would face over the weekend. She was only 8 years old. She played very solidly and I had to wonder if I was going to cough up a 1/2 point in the very first round. I had played 27...Nf4 with the idea playing 28...Nxh3 if she didn't play 28. Kh2 or moving the knight. She played 28. a4 to reach the position below.

I took my time to make sure there was no counter play if I took the pawn on h3. Noting that I'm taking with check and can retreat to f4 afterward I play 28...Nxh3+. I'm up a pawn, but I still had a lot of work ahead of me. Just like I did in the Bob Peretz Club Championship, I had to grind out a rook and pawn ending. She offered me several draws which I turned down. She was going to have to prove to me that she could hold the ending. She couldn't hold and finally on move 65 I mated her in a queen and king ending.

I could have mated her on move 64, but I think I was fixated on avoiding stalemates and missed both moves that mate in the position below.

Black to move. Mate in one.

I missed 64...Qe2# and 64...Qc1#. Instead I played 64...Qc2. 65. Kf1 Qf2#. Good thing there wasn't a 50 move rule claim in the making. That would have been very embarrassing.

The next two games would two exercises in ugliness. The total number of moves in the two games combined was less then the number of moves played in the first round. Since neither game falls into the theme of this post I'm not bothering to show them.

In round 4 I finally get to play someone who may actually be older then me. If I had added up the ages of my first 3 opponents and multiplied by 2 the total might have come close to my age.

Once again I came across a position where I could take a "protected" pawn for free. We reached the following position after Black played 25...Re8.

Once again an advanced h pawn was just begging to be taken. The position was very similar to the one from the first round. However there were a few differences. First, there were a lot more pieces on the board. Second, at first glance it appears Black can counter with 26...Nfxd5. In reality there is no counter play for Black because moving the knight off of f6 opens up the long diagonal for White's queen. I played 26. Bxh6 expecting the game to continue 26...gxh6 27. Qxf6 and then face a long grind trying to convert the pawn advantage. Much to my surprise Black countered with 26...Nfxd5?? I had to double check and make sure I wasn't imagining things with the move 27. Qxg7# Yes it really was mate. For a change I would be the beneficiary of a very short game.

I would like to say that winning in such a manner inspired me to go 2-0 on Monday and limit the damage of my rocky 2-2 start. Monday morning I started off by hanging a pawn on move 7 because I reversed the move order. 41 moves later I squeezed out a draw against my young under rated opponent. Round 6 I still could salvage a plus 1 or even score with a win or a draw. Unfortunately I was done in by White's very active rooks and the game came to an abrupt end with my playing 40...Kh8? in the following position.

After 40...Kh8? White has mate in 1.

I presume my readers can do a better job of finding the mate then I did. I suppose the bright side of getting mated on move 41 was not having to try to hold the position after 40...Kf8 41. Rxg6.

The one thing I learned from this tournament is play up a section. Northern California has even more under rated kids then Southern California. However Northern California chess parents aren't psychotic like some of the Southern California chess parents I've encountered.

That's it for my chess travels for the time being. My next trip will be with the chess widower of my life. We cashed in a bunch of frequent flier miles and will be spending time in Belgium and Netherlands. Perhaps my Belgium readers can steer me to a chess cafe in Brussels or Bruge.

Where Do I Start?

2011-06-09T17:03:00.000-04:00

Let's see since I got back from Victoria I've had my hands full. I got back on Tuesday April 26th. On Saturday April 30th we had our school's big Tae Twon Do tournament where I was competing in several events and also taking pictures.

Here I am in the forms competition.

A rare moment of a decent side kick.

The following weekend I traveled to Dallas for the National Elementary Championships. I wasn't coaching or directing. I just decided to go, hang out, possibly play in the Parents & Friends, and visit my uncle and cousin who live in Dallas. As it turned out I ended out getting work once I got down there. I took pictures and would be writing an article for Chess Life for Kids, and I also ended out coaching a private student whose regular coach had his hands full with his team. He asked me if I would work with the kid over the weekend. That worked out well for me, but my relaxing weekend ended out not being so relaxing.

I barely caught my breath from the weekend in Dallas when I get an email from the editor on Tuesday saying he needed the article that night because his typesetter was going out of the country on Thursday. How the heck was I going to pull off this feat? Normally I have plenty of time to do research, contact parents/coaches, come up with a theme and write the article. I had a flashback to my college days when I was the queen of procrastination. Quite often I would wait until the day before a term paper was due and start writing. I'd be up all night fueled by caffeine laden soda and junk food, and somehow manage to put together a paper that would give me a passing grade. (barely) In this particular case it was not procrastination it was a ultra-short deadline that I wasn't expecting.

To make a long night short, I pulled it off. I had enough information that I was able to cobble together a story that was a little light on story but loaded with pictures. After spending over an hour trying to write an introductory paragraph I finally gave up. I just started writing about each section and putting in as much information as I could about how each of the championship sections played out. I had some background info and one email address. That was enough to get things going. At 6:00 am Wednesday morning I was able to submit and article and lots of pictures. The article came out in the June issue of Chess Life for Kids. Despite the short turn around time on it, I actually thought it came out pretty well.

The club championship from hell finally came to an end, but not without more complications. We did have a clear winner, but there were a number of forfeits in round 6 and I ended out withdrawing to keep numbers even after somebody dropped out for round six. Argh! The good news is I picked up 97 rating points. The bad news is that was 3 points short of breaking 1800 for the first time since 1992. The worst news is I gave back 43 of them to under rated kids from Northern California. That tournament was the last of my three trips I made between Easter weekend and Memorial Day weekend.

That's the short version of how things have been going. I have some interesting games both good and bad. The two games I won in California were won using the same tactic that I lost to a few weeks earlier in New York City. Perhaps I finally managed to learn something from one of my losses.

Grand Pacific Open - Very Delayed Recap!

2011-05-03T15:09:00.001-04:00

I'm alive and well despite possible rumors to the contrary. I got back to New York on Tuesday after a rather uneventful flight back from Seattle. However that's the way I like flights to be. The only excitement I like on flights are surprise upgrades or meeting someone interesting on the plane. Neither of that happened.

The ferry ride from Victoria to Seattle was eventful. We mere mortals of the tournament had the pleasure of sharing ride back with tournament winner, WGM Nino Maisuradze. She was leaving from Seattle to head back to France. We had a delightful time talking about the tournament and other things. Nino is originally from the Republic of Georgia. She knows my friend IM Rusudan Goletiani who also was from Georgia. We also celebrated Nino's perfect 6-0 score with a few bottles of wine.

Troy Pendergraft, Hanniegn & Sharon Pitre, Mike Schemm, WGM Nino Maisuradze, and moi.

Cheers!!

The second half of my tournament was much like the first half. One win and two losses, so I finished with a 2-4 score. I didn't feel like I played horribly, but I was a little disappointed in how I handled the ending in two of the games I lost. More on my games later.

Organizer Brian Raymer, WGM Nino Maisuradze, Mark S. Dutton, IA

The traditional "Show me the money!" pose.

As to the rest of the winners; The biggest surprise of the tournament was the strong play of 2nd place winner, Loren Brigham Laceste. He scored 5.5. He's an upcoming junior player from Vancouver who came into the event rated 1923. He beat 3 masters including IM Lawrence Day.

Mark Dutton, IA and Loren Brigham Laceste

The tournament had a number of sponsors including Godesschess who gave $250 for the top five women scorers in the tournament. This was in addition to any other money women players won. The winners of those prizes were:

1st: WGM Nino Maisuradze $70 6 points

2nd: WFM Valeria Gansvind $60 4 points
3rd: WCM Alexandra Botez $50 3.5 points
4th: Sarah May $40 3.5 ponts
5th: Alice Xiao $30 3.0 points

Other sponsors included; Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut who provided the chocolate Easter eggs that were at each board on Easter morning, Hotel Grand Pacific who hosted the event, MonRoi who had live game coverage on their site (you can find my rounds 4-6 games), and Bard and Banker Scottish pub where we had a get together between rounds on Sunday. Also sponsorship was provided by Imax Theatre, Orca Spirit and Downtown Victoria Business Association.

In addition to the 86 player Open section there were an additional 18 players in the Under 1400 section. The Under 1400 section was won by Leo Stokes with a perfect 6-0 score. Complete results of the tournament can be found here.

Leo Stokes, Under 1400 Champion

My 2-4 score wasn't worth anything in the tournament, but I scored high in the style department with my chess themed Easter outfit. I won best dressed player.

Polly and her "not ready for the Royal Wedding" hat.

Was I glad I made a return trip to the Grand Pacific Open? Yes! Will I be back in 2011? I sure hope so. The tournament has a true European flair to it. All equipment and clocks are provided. The pairings go up well ahead of schedule. In fact the morning round pairings are posted the night before. Those who are inclined to prepare for the next round opponent can do so. The hotel is very nice and close to the ferries that come from the United States. How often can one get off a boat and walk to his or her hotel? Free Internet and free use of a fabulous health club are wonderful benefits to one's stay. My biggest complaint with many hotels is having to pay extra for Internet and use of the gym. Score one for Hotel Grand Pacific.

For anyone looking for a wonderful alternative to the usual mega-bucks weekend Swiss should really consider this tournament next year. Make a little vacation out of it by spending a few days in Seattle, Victoria or Vancouver before or after the event. Maybe we can have the Castling Queen Side tour.

Games to follow.

Grand Pacific Open - 1st Half

2011-04-24T14:42:00.001-04:00

Three rounds down, and three more to go. The trip from Seattle to Victoria was much smoother then last year's trip. Literally and figuratively. The weather was beautiful so it literally was smooth sailing. We could actually see the Seattle skyline as we pulled out.

Space Needle - Seattle

During the trip the weather cleared up very nicely so we could actually see the mountains. There still snow on them. I don't recall actually ever getting such a nice view on past trips to Victoria.

I met a few people who were also on their way to the tournament. Last year in the chaos I had no idea if there were any chess players on the ferry or not. I did spend the time on the ferry chatting with one of the players from Portland, Oregon who was playing in this event for the first time. There are more Americans playing in the event this year. Then again there are more players period. They got over 100 players which is the most ever.

The nice thing about how the tournament is scheduled is the fact that the first round is not until 6:00 pm on Friday. The ferry from Seattle arrives in Victoria around 10:30 am which leaves a nice chunk of time to do some sightseeing before hand. I chose to do a bus tour of Victoria and a trip to the Buchart Gardens. I've visited the gardens several times before, but the flowers in April are very different then what I've seen in June visits.

Sunken Garden - Buchart Gardens

Spring flowers at Buchart Gardens

Breakfast of Champions?

I got back in time to walk up to the super market and do some grocery shopping. I like to eat my usual type of breakfasts when I'm traveling. Cereal, milk and fresh fruit. Somebody please explain to me why I can find better organic strawberries in Canada then in the United States?

When I check into at the tournament one of the organizers told me there was another player from New York. I had seen the name on the advance entry list, but he wasn't somebody I was familiar with. He's played at The Marshall on Thursday night occasionally. However I'd never met or played him. Paul told me the he'd make sure to introduce us. However no introduction was necessary as we ended out playing each other in the very first round. What were the odds that the top half/bottom half would be such that we would actually get paired in the first round? They even used my Canadian rating instead of my USCF rating. It's a little strange seeing a rating under 1700 next to my name. It was an interesting game, but I did lose. He did out rate me by 400 points. I will post some games later. My first three rounds did not end out on the Mon Roi website. Maybe things will get working right for my last three games.

In round 2 I played one of the players who I met at the ferry in Seattle. He had recently left a comment on my blog asking when I was going to put something up about this tournament. So once again what were the odds of that happening. It was just one of those ugly games where I never quite got my pieces coordinated. I tried sac'ing pawns to free up my position, but my pieces still were a mess and I was down two pawns. I had a two choices. I could play out the agonizing position down two pawns and maybe last another hour, or I could resign and have three hours to enjoy the lovely Victoria sunshine. Unlike Bermuda when the weather sucked when I debated over an early resignation, this was a no brainer.

Hotel Grand Pacific - Tournament Host Hotel and Sponsor

Provincial Government Building

Castled King Side (0-0) after Two Rounds?

What me worry?

One of the charming aspects of Victoria is that it's a very compact city. Everything is within walking distance of the hotel. Even last year, cane and all I was able to get around without much problem. This year it was even easier. There are lots of wonderful shops along Government St. How does one recover from a rough game? Retail therapy works wonders. Tea, chocolate and wine were on my shopping list.

The harbor area is it's own shopping mall with lots of local artists selling their work along the promenade that circles the harbor area. There one can find beautiful pieces of hand made jewelry, sculpture, wood carvings, prints, etc. Most everything is of high quality and pretty reasonably priced.

What would a beautiful sunny spring day be without a few street performers? Probably some folks would say "A whole lot better...." Each to their own. I have a friend from my cycling club who does street performances in sword swallowing and juggling so I always like to see how the locals compare to my friend. I like my friend's work better.

After a nice afternoon of walking around, shopping and relaxing I was ready for more chess. I finally got paired down. I guess I learned something from my painful round two loss, because I was able to inflict similar pain on my round three opponent. His pieces weren't well placed so I was able to keep him boxed in while I maneuvered my pieces around and came in on the king side. He had castled queen side, but I was able to do more damage coming in on the king side.

In the meantime on the top boards the women were coming through in fine fashion. WGM Nino Maisuradze of France and WFM Valeria Gansvind of Estonia are both 3-0. NM Alex Yam is the other 3-0. He's paired against GM Igor Rausis of the Czech Rebublic who has 2.5. The two women will be facing off in round 4. (Edit: When I first reported this I thought GM Rausis was the other 3-0. As a TD I should have figured that out because it would have made no sense having the two women playing each other if Rausis had 3 points.)

WFM Valeria Gansvind WGM Nino Maisuradze

Round Four is beginning in a few minutes so I am off to see if I can even up my score. I am getting paired up again and have Black so I will have my work cut out for me. Stay tuned for further updates.

Road Trip!!

2011-04-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

Time for Polly's traveling chess circus to take to the skies and waters and head to the Pacific Northwest for an Easter weekend of chess. I am making a return appearance to the Grand Pacific Open in Victoria, British Columbia. Hopefully this year I will have smooth sailing from Seattle to Victoria, and not a ferry long side trip. Being that it's late April the weather should be better. However with the Pacific Northwest you just never know.

I hemmed and hawed over whether I wanted to make the trip again. The other option was the Philadelphia Open which would have taken less time to get to, but it's too much like playing in New York. I'm sure I would have played several of the usual suspects from the Marshall Chess Club that I inevitably play when I go to Philadelphia. I don't need much of an excuse to jump on an airplane and travel across the country. However playing chess is as good an excuse as any.

This is the first of three chess trips planned between now and Memorial Day weekend. I can't tell you where I'll be playing chess from June onward. I can tell you one place I will not be returning to. I am not going back to Las Vegas. As the old expression goes "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." This year what happens in Vegas is staying in Vegas without me. I'm not knocking the tournament itself. The National Open is top notch in terms of organization and directing staff. However after two straight miserable tournaments out there I've come to the conclusion that all the noise and lights of the casino atmosphere is too distracting. The first year I blamed it on jet lag and playing the two day schedule. Last year I came in earlier, played the three day schedule and still my tournament sucked. Trying to decompress between games was too difficult with the cacophony of ringing bells and whistles of the slot machines, the bright lights and the cigarette smoke.

Victoria, on the other hand is Old World charm at it's best without having to go to Europe. One can do afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel pictured below. It's a beautiful old hotel. No the tournament is not held there. However I don't think I could even get a closet in that hotel at the chess rate.

A three tiers of delicious tea sandwiches and pastries. A meal in itself.

The Empress sits at the head of the harbor. There are all sorts of boats that go out for sails around the harbor. There are also whale watching tours. Being the intrepid one I got on one those little Zodiacs and went to see whales. I did see whales, but that won't be a journey I'll be taking on this trip. Whale watching in late June is one thing. Whale watching in April is a whole other thing.

Life on the high seas? I had a whale of a good time!

Old ship at dock.

Provincial Government Building at dusk.

Spring in Victoria. Beautiful flowers in bloom.

However it's not just the city itself that draws me back. It's really nicely organized tournament. Having learned from last year I will be traveling much lighter this year. I have my Mon Roi, a notebook, and a few pens for chess equipment. I didn't bring a board, set or clock because all of that is provided. For my European readers that's a given. However if I showed up in Philadelphia or almost any other weekend Swiss in the United states without all my gear I might be running around trying to borrow a set and board if my opponent didn't bring one. Even worse I might be at the mercy of the kid who shows up with pink and purple chess pieces on a neon pink board, or the old guy with the ancient BHB analog clock and a plastic chess set from 1969 with a broken cross on the king.

I'll be providing periodic updates throughout the weekend, and perhaps some games if time allows. If you can't wait for me to post games they will be live on the Mon Roi website. In case you didn't notice I did post some games from the club championship. I must have left everyone speechless because neither game has evoked one single comment. :-)

Games! Spoiler Alert....No Train Wrecks.

2011-04-18T23:50:00.000-04:00

It’s Monday night and it’s the make up round. 5 rounds down, one to go. There’s only one game to be made up, but it’s not happening tonight because it’s the first night of Passover. One of the players involved in the make up game is Jewish the other is not. When I initially set up the schedule for the tournament this was the scheduled date for round 6. I had wanted to finish before Easter. When I had to redo the entire schedule because of so many late entries, I thought perhaps I need to check the calendar before setting up new dates. It's then I discovered that this was the first night of Passover, and perhaps I should not have a regular round.

I’m not sure what it is about the players in this tournament, but there seems to be communication breakdown. I send out emails asking the players to figure out when they’re going to play the game since they’re not going to play tonight. I see a wall post on Facebook from one of the players to the other saying “Where do you want to play our game tomorrow?” No response. I guess that’s because the response was showing up tonight and asking “Where’s Alanna?”

“She was planning to play you tomorrow. I’m running a game/30 tonight. Do you want to play?”

Fortunately he said yes, and that got me off the hook. I had already entered myself into the tournament to even out the numbers. I was perfectly happy to take myself out of the tournament. This means I am going on three weeks without playing one single game of cracktion. My last game of Game/30 was on March 31st. For the month of April I have played four games of “slow” chess. Slow is relative since the time limit was G/85. That may be fast to those accustomed to playing 40/2 G/60. However for this cracktion addict G/85 is slow. Having the extra time helped me in rounds 2 and 3.

In the first round I drew with Alanna Katz. In the second round I played her father. There are three sets of family members playing in the tournament. I have two father and child combinations and a set of brothers. Thankfully the results of the family members have differed enough that I haven't had to adjust pairings to avoid family members playing each other.

It was a tough game. I had burned a lot of time early on, and found myself very pressed for time in the end. It also didn't help that I had a pounding headache. The YMCA moved us out of the after school program room into the kitchen. Often there are smells from a strong disinfectant. I think the smell gives me headaches. I won two pawns and headed into a rook and pawns ending with 12 seconds on my clock. Fortunately the 5 second time delay gave me time to work things out. When I got down to be so short on the clock my opponent offered me a draw. It briefly entered my mind to take the draw and gain the half point. However I felt despite the lack of time, I should be able to push one of the pawns through and force him to give up his rook for one of them. I knew I just needed to avoid checks. Here's the game.

AKatz-PW031411.pgn

Our game had drawn a crowd since we were the last game left. I don't recall whether we played any moves beyond what I had recorded. The following week I would have a similar type of ending with lots of time pressure. That game I did stop keeping score, but I also diagrammed the final position. In this game I did not diagram the final position which leads me to believe maybe my opponent had resigned where my notation stopped. Although I do find it hard to believe he resigned with my pawns so far back and me being so short on time. Even me who tends to resign too early would not have resigned in that position.

In round three I got paired up again. That was not surprising considering I had 1.5 points out of 2 against the Katz family. It's too bad Ben Katz isn't playing. Maybe I could have gone for three Katz in a row. Instead I'm playing Mike Amori who I've played a number of times before with not such stellar results. 1 win, 1 draw and 10 losses. It looked like loss number 11 was coming after I lost the exchange on move 27, and it really should have come by move 42. Thankfully he missed the killer queen sac on move 39 that leads to mate in 4. Neither of us had seen it.

I had another pounding headache and there were a number times that I just wanted to resign and go home. However when I'm the tournament director that's kind of hard to do. I could just have someone send me the results, but with the group I never quite know what to expect, so I play on and hope for the best. In this case Caissa showed me favor for my persistence. I managed to get the exchange back and end out in another rook and pawn ending up three pawns. I felt like I had seen this position before.

Here is the game up the point I stopped keeping score:

MAmori-PW032111_0.pgn

Below is the final position when White ran out of time.

White to move.

There is no defense for White. He can try 1. Rxf3+ Kxf3, 2. Kh2 Ra1 3. Kh3 Rh1#.

Reality would set in the following week when Joshua Colas would kick my butt badly. That game isn't even worth posting. The next game I'll post is my round 5 draw that I really should have won. However being up two pawns in a minor piece ending of knight versus knight wasn't so easy for me.

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum! More directing headaches!

2011-04-14T00:22:00.000-04:00

I think I must have jinxed myself when I made the following comment a few weeks ago: "I find directing a 200 player scholastic tournament in one day easier then directing a 26 player tournament that is spread out over the course of 9 weeks." This past Sunday I directed a scholastic tournament that ended out being the chess tournament from hell. I had players in wrong sections, or in no section at all. There were the no-shows and switching pairings to take care of the no-shows and the late arriving players. It seemed like I had to redo the pairings in the top sections at least two to three times in the first round alone. Any changes I had made in between repairings would get lost. When I would go to pair the second round all my changes had gone into a black hole, and I would have to put the changes back in and start over again. It also doesn't help when people are telling me things that impact the pairings, but because it wasn't given to me in writing, it didn't get done. I can only remember so many things before my brain goes into overload.

Because I have the computer set up in the playing room, I not only deal with doing pairings, but sometimes I have to make rulings on the floor when there are touch move disputes or other problems. I don't know but there was something in the air on Sunday. There were more disputes and temper tantrums in that one tournament then the other 5 in that series combined. The most common dispute occurs over touch move. Did the opponent touch a piece or not? Touch move is one of the most frustrating claims to make a ruling on.

If one goes to the rulebook to look up the rule she will find herself reading the following paragraph before even reading the rule itself.

TD Tip: Without a neutral witness Rule 10 depends on the reliability of both the claimant and the opponent. If they disagree then the TD should strongly consider denying the claim. In most cases, by denying the claim the TD shuts the door to all false claims. Upholding a false claim usually does more harm to more players than denying an accurate claim. (page 20 USCF Official Rules of Chess)

Now to the touch move rule itself. 10B: Touch-move rule: Except for 10A (adjustment of pieces), a player on move who deliberately touches one or more pieces, in a manner that may reasonably be interpreted as the beginning of a move, must move or capture the first piece touched that can be captured or moved. See also 10E, Accidental touch of a piece; 10F, appearance of adjustment.

I underlined "deliberately" and "reasonably be interpreted" for emphasis because these are key to dealing with claims. A kid will often try to call touch-move on his opponent when the opponent's hand hits a piece while reaching for another one. He claims touch-move even before the opponent gets his hand on the piece he's intending to move. Sad to say there are kids who will try convince the opponent that he's required to move the piece even though it was an accidental touch. This is where the tournament director gets called over. In situations like this it's fairly easy to to make a ruling denying the claim.

There are situations where the opponent will admit he touched a piece, but that it was an accident because he was really intending to play a different move. "I didn't deliberately touch the bishop. I was planning to play Qb5 the whole time." Yeh, right! Actually there is a whole TD tip devoted to that particular scenario.

TD tip: "Touch-move rule" claim without a witness. After talking to the claimant and opponents, TDs will find that opponent often insist that they did not "deliberately" touch a piece. Often, after some further discussion, the TD will find that some of the opponents really dis physically touch the piece in a way that they intended to move it (not an accident); however they will explain that they really intended to move another piece; therefore, believe that since the "touch" was not literally "deliberate" (since they intended to move another piece), the rule was not broken. The TD will have to uphold the claim in this instance.

Those instances are pretty easy to deal with. It's when both players are very insistent about what they did that it becomes tricky. If the TD asks the same question a number of times he will often get at the truth. I recall Steve Immitt dealing with two adults in a letting go of piece dispute. The way he continually asked the claimant's opponent to him what he did with the piece, it became clear that he had let go ever so briefly. This is a slightly different situation since the claim was about letting go of the piece in question. The players could agree on the fact that the piece had been touched. In dealing with kids it's often a matter of not understanding the rule. That was the situation in most of the incidents I had in the scholastic tournament.

What happens when adults have this kind of dispute? Adults understand the rule and are not as prone to trying to misapply it in situations such as accidental touches or touching one piece while planning to move another. The latter I refer to as "thinking with one's hand".

After my scholastic tournament from hell on Sunday, I had the club championship from hell on Monday. I was really hoping all the pairing problems were behind me. I had not gotten any frantic emails or phone calls with messages saying they couldn't make it that night. I thought I would get through a round with all 26 players in attendance, and be able to make round 5 pairings based on actual results. The good news; all 26 players were there. The bad news; I may have been there in body, but my chess brain wasn't there. I made a dumb decision not to trade off my opponent's knight. That knight then came in and busted open my king side, and within a few moves I was lost. I was very disappointed in how I played that round. However losing was the least of my problems.

I was putting my equipment away when I hear two players having a heated discussion. I come over to see what the problem was. One player was claiming that his opponent picked up his knight, started to move it, put it back where it was, and make a completely different move. The opponent claimed he did not touch the knight. I tried the "Immitt technique" of asking the same question, and have each player show me what happened. I was having no success with this method because both players were emphatic about what happened. The claimant demonstrated that the opponent picked up the knight and started to move it. The opponent demonstrated that he reached for the knight, did not touch it at all, much less pick it up and start to move it. It was a case of "he said/he said". The players at the adjoining board said they didn't see anything.

Everyone was getting annoyed at the ruckus so I asked the two players to leave the room so that we could discuss it without disturbing everyone else. I'm totally annoyed that these two players are acting like children and that one of them is lying. The problem is I have no way of telling which one is lying. It's not a case of someone reaching for a piece and not realizing that they may have touched it. It's the claimant saying that the opponent actually picked up the piece and started to move it before realizing that moving it is a blunder, and the opponent saying he didn't pick it up. The claimant tells the opponent that's "Bull $h!t" What's a TD to do? Follow the TD tip on page 20, and hope that denying the claim doesn't impact the result of the game.

The claimant was so pissed off. Later on he came out of the room and told me "I'm so pissed off. I can't believe he can lie like that." I told him"You know the rule. You've seen it with your students. There is nothing I can do. Calm down and try to beat him." He tells me he can't concentrate because he's so angry. I would have liked to see him win so that non-decision wouldn't hurt. It looked like that's what would happen. He was winning pretty much until the end when he messed up the ending and lost.

What can I say? Another strange night at the chess club. After 4 rounds I have a score of 2.5 - 1.5 where the average rating of my opponents has been 2024. Wins against an 1890 and 2025, loss to a master and a draw with a 1950. Despite the craziness I've played well for the most part.

I know I keep promising games. They're coming!

WaCkY wEdNeSdAy!! April Fools! It's Freaky Friday!

2011-04-01T19:29:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted any games that were Wacky Wednesday worthy. Thankfully it's mostly because I haven't had any of those totally absurd games that left me scratching my head and saying "What was I thinking?". Unfortunately that streak came to a crashing end with this butt ass ugly miniature played on Monday.

DGarrett-pw032811.pgn

I wish I could end this post with "This didn't really happen. Aprils Fools!", but unfortunately it really did happen. I don't know where my brain was at that point. Maybe I was too busy thinking about Sunday's games or the Club Championship make up games that were being played that night. I can't blame it on time trouble. As the expression goes "$4!# happens!" I guess every once in awhile I need one of those types of games to remind me that I need to work on my openings and tactics.

Bob Peretz CC vs CC of Fairfield County - Rd. 2

2011-03-31T12:26:00.001-04:00

The first round was closer then I thought it would be considering the rating differences from board five on down. Maybe having White in the first round helped us out. Instead of simply changing colors and playing the same player over again, we had a little different format. Our board one would play their board two. Their board one would play our board two. Board three played board four, etc. This switching would go all the way down to board eight. Since there were an odd number of boards in the match we had to change things a little more, otherwise board 11 would have played the same person again. For boards nine through eleven CCFC tournament director, Melvin Patrick and I set it up so nine played eleven, ten played the other eleven, and the other nine played the other ten.

Melvin Patrick

Fellow TD, and Team Captain for CCFC

Despite the fact that a mere two rating points separate Melvin and me, we did not end out playing each other. Instead I played their board six, Hanon Russell the man behind the excellent website Chess Cafe. Perhaps I'd be better served spending time on his website reading Bruce Pandolfini's most recent column. Pandolfini gives some excellent advice to the father of a kid who loses on time a lot. Dan Heisman also has a timely article in his Novice Nook column.

Hanon Russell

Chess Cafe

Hanon and I had a very closely contested game that probably would have been a draw had I not run out of time. It was knight versus bishop ending. I had the bishop which was not quite as active as his knight. Unfortunately in games where there are clock issues the knight can be a real thorn in the opponent's side since there is always the possibility of forks. I managed to dodge any potential fork threats or any other time pressure implosions in this game. Flagging leads to the same result as imploding, but it doesn't necessarily make for such an exciting finish. Here's the game. I was satisfied with my overall play.

HRussell-pw032711.pgn

I still can manage a smile despite my 0-2 day.

I wish I could report that the second round was as close as my game. Playing Black didn't reap such good results and we lost the round 8-3.

Bd     Res White (CCFC)                Res Black (BPCC)

1         1    Harrison Wheeler (2254)   0    Michael H Bodek (2277)

2         0    Daniel L Lowinger (2265) 1    Oliver Chernin (2243)

3         1    Benjamin Katz (2122)        0    Michael Amori (2027)

4        ½    Ian Harris (2231)               ½    Jason Shi (1969)

5        1    Hanon W Russell (2057)      0    Polly P Wright (1700)

6        1    Alex Eydelman (2060)          0    Hubert Herring (1665)

7        1    Melvin B Patrick (1698)       0    Anthony Lawrence (1632)

8        0    Alanna Katz (1958)              1    Noah Rutkovsky (1465)

9        1    Aman Karunakaran (1509) 0    Michael Morin (1336)

10      1    Druha Karunakaran (1577) 0    Jose Leon (1322)

11     ½    Joshua Blanchfield (1529)    ½ garrett washington (unr.)

The final score of the overall match was: CCFC - 14.5 BPCC - 7.5. The stake of the match was losing club submitted the results and paid the rating fee. $5.00 was a reasonable cost for a day of good chess. Hopefully a rematch with a longer time control can be set up in the near future.

Bob Peretz CC vs CC of Fairfield County Match - Rd. 1

2011-03-30T23:41:00.001-04:00

The East Coast version of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis has recently opened in Norwalk, CT. The Chess Club of Fairfield County opened its new building in the winter. It's quite an impressive space. They challenged my club to a match at their location. I've been so busy it was actually my first chance to go there since they opened. A number of players from my club also members of their club so there was a bit of case of divided loyalties.

Main playing room.

Players from both teams warming up.

Trying to get this match organized had its aggravating moments. The original format was two game at a time control of game/90. I had 14 people who expressed an interest in playing and said they were available. It turned out CCFC had scheduled a lecture by Danny Kopec for 4:00 pm that same day. They wanted to shorten the time control to game/60 so that we would finish in time for the lecture.

International Master Danny Kopec

A week before the match I email everyone to confirm whether or not they were going to play. Several people now had conflicts and had to drop out. Another player replied that he had no interest in playing game/60. Of the five people who now weren't coming, four of them were rated over 2100. There went most of the meat of the BPCC line up. I knew CCFC had a number of masters that would be playing for them.

After everything was said and done I had 11 players for our team. CCFC had 13 players so they gave us one of their players to even out the match. They gave us Oliver Chernin who's rated 2243. That would help our depleted line up somewhat, but still once we got to board five the rating difference was heavily weighted in CCFC's favor. In round one we had board one vs board one, board two vs board two, etc. We also would have White on all the boards in the first round. On board five I would be playing their board five, Alex Eydelman, a 2060 who I've played a number of times at my club. We've always had some wild games where both of us have very little time left on the clock. This would be one of those rare games where we started with more then 30 minutes on the clock.   Despite the game/60 time limit I would still have severe clock issues. The game was pretty close until I got under a minute and then all hell broke loose. It wasn't a pretty picture at the end.

Here's the game.

pw-AEydelman032711.pgn

The first round was actually pretty close with CCFC winning the round 6.5 to 4.5. The results looked like this:

Pairings for Round 1. BPCC vs CCFC Match

Bd   Res White  (BPCC)                 Res       Black (CCFC)

1       1    Michael H Bodek (2277)    0        Daniel L Lowinger (2265)

2       0    Oliver Chernin (2243)        1         Harrison Wheeler (2254)

3       1    Michael Amori (2027)        0        Ian Harris (2231)

4       1    Jason Shi (1969)                 0        Benjamin Katz (2122)

5       0    Polly P Wright (1700)        1        Alex Eydelman (2060)

6       0    Hubert Herring (1665)       1         Hanon W Russell (2057)

7       0   Anthony Lawrence (1632) 1         Alanna Katz (1958)

8       0   Noah Rutkovsky (1465)     1         Melvin B Patrick (1698)

9       0   Michael Morin (1336)        1         Druha Karunakaran (1577)

10     1   Jose Leon (1322)               0          Joshu Blanchfield (1529)

11     ½ Garrett Washington (unr.)   ½       Aman Karunakaran (1509)

Top boards

Harrison Wheeler and Daniel Lowinger of CCFC

With colors reversed things would not be so close in round two. Stay tuned.....

Adventures In Directing: Club Championship Headaches!

2011-03-26T23:48:00.000-04:00

In a typical year I'm involved with directing somewhere between 30 and 50 tournaments a year. They range in size from a single 4 player quad to a scholastic tournament with over 200 entries. There are times I'm involved with even larger tournaments. When I'm directing tournaments for other organizers it's often easier because I just have to show up and do what ever they tell me. When I'm organizing the tournament then I get to deal with all the little details.

I find directing a 200 player scholastic tournament in one day easier then directing a 26 player tournament that is spread out over the course of 9 weeks. The one day tournament is just that. It's done in less then 24 hours. Run the tournament, submit the memberships and results and it's done. Yes things can go wrong like incorrect results being recorded, crazy chess parents, crying kids, bad rulings, etc. However once the day is done the headaches go away for the most part. There will be times where something that happened at tournament on Saturday comes backs and bites me on a Tuesday. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often.

However running a club championship that takes a few months to complete can create new headaches almost on a daily basis. I laid out a schedule for the club championship that would begin the last Monday in February and end in mid-April. However Murphy's Law strikes again as sometimes life gets in the way, and I had to miss the first round. I had another director start the tournament. He had 14 players show up the first night. I was a little disappointed in the turnout, but I knew there were going to be a few players who couldn't play the first round.

I thought it was going to be about 4 players including myself who couldn't make it. My plan was to pair those players and have them play the make up round scheduled after round 2. However extra 4 players turned into 7, then 9 and finally 12! I couldn't exactly pair 12 players as having drawn in round 1. Pairing pending games as draws is a typical practice in these types of events. However when the highest rated player is one of the latecomers, I decided I needed to schedule the first makeup round before Round 2. That entailed completely redoing the schedule and sending out more emails with the new schedule.

With a tournament like this I try to keep even numbers so that no byes have to be assigned. I had carefully paired up the latecomers, and then got another phone call asking if I could take another player. I told the mom to bring the kid and I would see if I could get him in for that round, or give him 1/2 point bye for round 1 and have him play in the game/30 I was running for players who did not have a make-up round. This particular kid always takes a bye in the last round of the game/30 tournament so that added another wrinkle to the equation.

I was trying to get the make-up round going, and also run the game/30. I thought I was going to have an even number in both tournaments. I decided I would have the kid play in my place in the club championship so that I wouldn't have the last round bye problem in the other tournament. I could always take a 1/2 point bye in the club championship and play in the game/30. If this wasn't confusing enough, I forgot to put enter one of the players into the game/30 tournament. I didn't realize that until I read the pairings and the player asked "What about me?" Oops! I took myself out of the game/30 and put him in my place. After everything was said and done, I played no chess that night. Probably just as well since I was suffering from mass confusion and indecision.

I thought once I got all the make up games out of the way, and could pair normally for the second round everything would be fine. However when you have kids playing in the tournament there is always going to be the "bug of the week". I had two kids who got sick over the weekend and couldn't play on Monday evening. Did one really think they would have been paired against each other? No, that would have been too simple. Could I repair their respective opponents against one another and have the kids play each other on another day? Nope. The two kids were too close in rating, and it would have entailed pairing a master against a 2100 in round two.

I let the two opponents know that they would not have a game that evening and would play during the next scheduled make-up round after round three. One of those players responded to my email with a rather lengthy rant that started out, "I know this isn't the interzonal, but..." He seemed annoyed that someone could reschedule their game like that. Hey it's not my fault he didn't check his email until an hour before the round starts. I sent the email out Sunday night.

Going into round three I have these two unplayed games. With games that need to be made up there is the director's dilemma. Pair them as if the higher rated player won and pray there are no upsets, or pair as draws and have some strange round three pairings. We've always paired the unplayed games as draws instead of risking the possibility of totally unfair pairings in the event the higher rated player loses. Since it's a six round tournament the top rated players are going to end out playing each other almost no matter what. Assuming a minimal amount of upsets they will play each other in rounds four, five and six.

The way things turned out, number one ended out playing number two in round three. It was not the ideal round for those two to play each other, but that pairing was going to come up in round four, or maybe round five at the latest. The pairing did provoke a blistering Facebook message saying. "I totally disagree with this pairing." Once I explained that number three and five were paired as draws, and that everything would straighten itself over the course of the remaining rounds, he seemed satisfied.

Having settled the pairing issue I thought everything else would run smoothly for the third round. Wrong! Murphy's Law strikes again. In this case I would call it "Wright's Rule of Siblings" If older brother gets sick, little brother will catch it a week later. Sure enough I get another email from their dad saying that now the younger son is sick. Oh well, at least the following Monday is the make-up round. Now both kids can come that night. To make matters worse the third round opponent of the older brother emails me and says she's not feeling too well and could she play next week during the make-up round. Argh!!! When will it end??? I wrote back and said she would have to work it out with her opponent and play before the make-up round since he was already scheduled to play someone else that night.

All of that being said and done at least Murphy has the decency to stay away while the actual games are being played. This has allowed me to play my own games without being interrupted by disputes or draw claims. I had a couple of odd ball pairings due to all the maneuvering I did in order to get the first make-up round off the ground. Since I put the one kid in my place, I paired myself against Alanna Katz who couldn't play that evening. We would play at her house the day before round two. I paired us as a draw since I didn't want to wait until Sunday night to put out round two pairings. People like to know ahead of time who they're playing. Pairing that way had me playing her father in round two. As it turned out Alanna and I actually drew our game, so our second round pairings ended out being based on the correct result.

Despite all the craziness related to running this tournament I'm having a very good tournament so far. I have 2.5 out of 3 despite being paired up every round. Depending on the results of the make up round I could be playing number one in round four. I certainly was not expecting to be playing on board one or two in the fourth round. Unlike the Westchester Chess Club Championship that I won in 2009, I have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Bob Peretz Chess Club Championship. I'm ranked number 18 in a field of 26 players that includes two masters, and five experts. I did beat one of the experts in round three.

Games to follow in upcoming posts.

US Amateur Team East - The Results Are In....

2011-02-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

...and we didn't have a very good Monday. We were paired up in round 5 and lost the match 0-4. In round 6 we were sent back to the Heritage Ballroom away from all the action. We were paired down with a chance to achieve an even score, but lost the match 1.5 - 2.5. If one went strictly by rating we should win the match 3-1. I was the only one playing a higher rated opponent. He didn't out-rate me by all that much, but losing a pawn is tough to overcome when the opponent plays solid chess. Our 3rd board suffered a loss against a player he out-rated by a good 300 - 400 points. That was the match there.

Meanwhile in the main ballroom the action was rather intense as West Orange Krush won the battle for top honors. The final score was 2.5 - 1.5.

West Orange Krush -USATE 2011 Champions

Jose Fernandez, Peter Radomsyj, Victor Rosas, IM Mikhail Zlotnikov

I can't take credit for having them pose with the oranges. That was Al Lawrence's idea. I was just tagging along for the ride and taking pictures along side him. He was covering the tournament for Chess Life Online. Since the team is from the West Orange (NJ) Chess Club they came up with the idea of Orange Krush (Krush as in Irena) for their team name. Al thought it would be fun to have them pose with oranges and squeeze them as if they're actually going to crush the oranges.

Their win did not come without a little controversy. The deciding game came down the opponent's player running out of time on move 39. Even though the player's score sheet indicated only 39 moves had been made, he thought he had made 40 based on the fact that the clock added the extra hour for the second time control. A "move" counter setting had been used. I use quotes for the word move because the clock is not really counting moves. It's counting how many times the button has been pushed. The number of button pushes may not necessarily coincide with the number moves actually made on the board. This particular incident demonstrates how that can happen.

For those readers not familiar with the clock used I will attempt to explain the different ways of being programmed for the time controls of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 1 hour for the rest of the game. These were the time controls for this particular tournament.

One setting does not make use of specifying any number of moves that need to be completed in the first time control. The clock will count down from 2:00:00 to 00:00:00 and then additional hour will be added. It doesn't matter how many moves have been made on the board, the clock will keep running until all three hours have elapsed for a player. If a player has not completed 40 moves it's going to be apparent he overstepped when the clock goes from 00:00:00 to 1:00:00 and counts down from there. The opponent will be able to claim a win on time as long as he has a reasonably complete scoresheet. A reasonably complete scoresheet is defined as one that has no more than three missing or incomplete move pairs. The USCF rule differs from FIDE rules. FIDE rules don't require a complete scoresheet and the director can call the time.

There are several settings where a "move" counter is set. When the prescribed number of "moves" for the first control have been made, the clock will add the the additional hour for the second control. I use quotes when writing the word move because the clock program isn't really counting moves. It's counting clock button presses. If someone forgets to press the clock or if White starts the clock first before moving the counter will be off by a half "move" or more. When using the "move" counter setting one has the option of having the move counter displayed as shown below, or as shown in the second picture.

White has completed his 4th move, Black is on his 4th move.

Move counter is displayed at all times. Time displayed in hh:mm

White has completed his 4th move, Black is on his 4th move.

hh:mm:ss replaces move counter while player's time is running

after 5 second delay has elapsed.

In this particular game Black was late. White started Black's clock without making his move first. Rule 16I and 16J discuss the procedure for starting the clock at the start of the game. This can be found on page 65 of USCF Official Rules of Chess, 5th Edition.

"16I. Starting the clock. At the time determined for the start of the game, after the board and pieces are set up, the clock of the player with the white pieces is started."

"16J. Black not present. If Black is not present for the start of the game, White shall start his own clock, make his move on the board, and start Black's clock."

After these two rules there is a rather lengthy TD Tip discussing what should be done if White pressed the clock before moving. "If a director observes that White has started Black's clock without moving, the director should remind White to make a move immediately. If, upon arriving, Black observes that White has started Black's clock without moving, Black may immediately start White's clock or stop the clock and make a claim. Either way, if the clock has a move counter, it may be necessary to adjust it before the game continues. The director may access the standard penalty (IC2A), or other penalties, if appropriate, against the player who improperly started Black's clock without moving."

"If White makes a move before the clock is started, the move counter may be off by a half-move. If White starts Black's clock without moving, the counter may be off by a half-move or full move. The director should, at an early stage in the game, verify the setting of the move counter, and ask the players to correct it if necessary."

In this situation Black most likely arrived at the board and pressed White's clock. This will make the move counter be off. Black's side will display 01, and White's side will display 00 until he makes a move. The clock will "think" Black is White and White is Black. Black's clock will always be a move ahead of the number of moves Black has actually played. When Black played his 39th move the clock "thought" White completed his 40th move so it added 1:00 to the remaining 00:08 seconds. When White made his 40th move the clock "thought" Black made his 40th move and added the time. The player playing Black thought he had made his 40th move and spent more then his remaining 8 seconds on what was really his 40th move even though he only had 39 moves recorded on his scoresheet.

White claimed a win on time when Black's clock ticked off to remaining 8 seconds of time. Needless to say, Black wasn't happy with this claim and vigorously protested. Part of his complaint was that the clock indicated he had made 40 moves. However regarding move counters rule 42B2 states: "Players rely on the count at their own risk" Given that, Black doesn't have much of an argument. He and his teammates felt perhaps White had deliberately started the clock first without moving in order to throw off the move counter. Though one would think during the course of the first 40 moves one would notice the move counter was off by a move.

Having had my share of mix ups with Chronos settings on my opponent's clock, I've become far more vigilant in making sure I know how the opponent has set it. I've also seen the move counter get out of sync when someone has forgotten to press the clock. Depending on the situation sometimes the opponent or I have stopped the clock and adjusted it. Other times when it's clear there will be no time pressure issues on the first control, we've just ignored it.

About 3 weeks before the tournament there had been a discussion on the USCF Chess Tournament forum about move counters. Click on the link if one wants to read the entire discussion. The original poster had started the discussion with the following post:

"This year, as a change of pace, I ponder setting my Chronos with no move counter for the USATE.

The more I think of it, the less I like move counters on digital clocks. This belief was reinforced by a game at our club last week; the players started late, thus played by mutual agreement at a faster-than-announced time control.

In the rush to re-set the clock---an Excalibur Game Time II---the move counter was set to "Off"....and as I watched the time scramble at the end of the first time control, (40/75 in place of our standard 40/90) I thought to myself, "This is a Good Thing." One player made the control at move 40 with two seconds to spare---but he could not take an educated guess that was so by glancing at the clock. (Yes, you take a chance on the move counter being wrong, but still.)

Here's my question: Has enabling the move counter---by far the most common approach, in my experience---been anointed with official "preferred" status? (If so, would that make the Saitek less -preferred than other digitals?) I expect at least one opponent to complain if I show up in Parsippany with my Chronos set sans move counter.

At least we are clear on deducting five minutes from the main clock time to compensate for delay....at least for this year. "

There were varied opinions. On Jan 31st NTD (National Tournament Director) Harold Stenzel gave his opinion.

Based on my years of TD experience, move counters create more problems than they solve. At the 2009 National Chess Congress I counted 6 different games in which I was called to the board because of questions/problems created by the move counter. Although I solved all of them to the players' satisfaction, they also were unnecessary. I point out to the players that they count clock presses, not moves and therefore cannot be trusted. While I don't require them to be turned off, when asked, I recommend the game be played without it.

Ironically enough he would be the one to have to rule on this particular dispute. He ruled in White's favor, upholding the claim. When I asked him about it on this thread he posted the following:

The ruling was quite simple but also unfortunate for the loser. He relied on a move counter that added an hour after 40 clock presses even though both score sheets indicated 39 moves had been played by Black. Rule 42B2 states: "Players rely on the count at their own risk."

My only question is why did it take the player until move "40" to see the discrepancy between his score sheet and the move counter? Correction: Clock button push counter.

The Chronos' setting used did not display the "clock press counter". Even so, Black (and his teammates) recounted that at the start of the game White had started tardy Black's clock without making a move. When Black arrived he started White's clock. No one complained about the improper starting of the clock to any TD until after Black's flag fell almost 4 hours later. I felt that to allow the game to continue would be to permit Black to play with a primary time control of 39/2 while White would have 40/2. Black's team appealed my ruling to NTD Carol Jarecki who, after hearing all of the evidence, stated that she "could not disagree with Harold's ruling".

This case was very similar to a ruling I made at Foxwoods in 2009 about an Excalibur's move counter. The Foxwoods loser then appealed to that tournament's chief TD (NTD Bill Goichberg) who also supported my ruling.

On a personal note, I, and most or all other TDs, would prefer that games be decided without TD intervention and not be required to make a ruling that could determine the winner of the tournament, but it had to be done.

The ruling was appealed by Black, but Carol Jarecki the chief tournament director and also an NTD upheld the ruling. I don't think there was anything else that could be done at that point. The clock indicated the time had gone past two hours, and the score sheets both showed 39 moves completed by Black. Even if White had concocted this evil plan to deceive Black there was nothing to be done. Any complaints or claims would have to be made before the game was over. Time exceeded, game over. Game over, no claims against opponent. It's the same thing I tell kids when they complain to me after they've lost.

I've always liked the move counter because I like to see the next time control added after the first one has been reached. However having watched the heated discussion and seeing the tough spot the directors were in, I think I'll pass on the move counter. It's too much like work to keep track of.

This weekend I'm in Saratoga Springs to direct at the New York State Scholastic Chess Championship. I'll probably be directing in the Primary section. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories to share. I also have a few more games from the USATE of interest. I already added one to my previous post that neeeded editing anyway.

US Amateur Team East - Castling Queen Side To Start - Edited

2011-02-20T23:50:00.004-05:00

It's the end of two days at the team tournament. Once again I'm playing board one with Guy, Alan and Silvio. The tournament got off to a rough start for me. It had nothing to do with playing super lousy chess or having some awful meltdown in a winning position. The first round we got paired down. The guys managed to win their games within the first two hours. We're winning the match no matter what I do. I had the misfortune of playing an under rated kid. His rating for the tournament was listed as 1428. In reality his rating is 1543. He just completely outplayed me and I lost the exchange and a pawn. After started forcing trades, I decided I would conserve energy and not prolong the agony. We had played for over 3 hours and I had another match. Having won our first match we were going to get paired up. That means I would play someone higher rated then me. Another game that went over 3 hours! Another loss. However I didn't feel so bad about being 0-2.

I thought we might get paired down in round three. Had I read my posts from previous years I would have realized that we were going to play up. Way up! We played a team with a 2184 average. This team won the tournament last year. However they were upset in some round so we had the pleasure of playing the defending champions. I had the pleasure of getting crushed by a FIDE Master in 25 moves. The game took less then two hours. The only thing good about losing so quickly is I got a free chess lesson out of the deal. He gave me some suggestions on some of the opening moves.

My line on the wall chart read 0-0-0. Indeed I was living up to my name.

The first three rounds we managed to stay in the main ballroom. However being 1-2 relegated us to the Heritage ballroom. That's like being sent to triple A minor leagues. We no longer were playing with the big boys. However it's still preferable to being across the hall in the Symms rooms, or heaven forbid in the Morris rooms down the hall. That's where all the lowest rated teams with very few points end out playing the entire tournament. Friends and I would refer to that part of the hotel as outer Mongolia.

With no physical issues requiring an assigned board we had to go where our score put us. We played a team of high school kids. I was wondering if I would be facing another under rated kid. Would my line on the wall chart look like this? 0-0 0-0 (Castling King side twice). Fortunately my opponent allowed me to transpose the position to my playing the white side of a Maroczy Bind. Having been on the black side of it, I know how agonizing it can be. I also know many of the pitfalls facing black if he tries to break in the center too soon. My opponent was not familiar with it, and paid dearly. The game was done in just over an hour and half. We won the match 3-1. Hopefully this will put us back into the ballroom.

Here's the game. (Note when I first published this post I had not done the analysis. After editing the post to include a caption for the picture, I decided to add the game.)

PW-MShelton022011.pgn

The unfortunate part of not being in the ballroom for round four is not seeing the skits and costumes. The group from Long Island won again. This is the third year in a row they've won the contest. I didn't get into the room in time to watch it. Silvio, Alan and I had an early dinner at Ruth Cris, and barely got out of there before the round was scheduled to start. One of the teams participating in the contest was playing near us. Thanks to Ken Ballou for giving me the team name. I don't know if these were the same people who were on the team when I played the woman 4 years ago. I caught grief from my team mates for agreeing to a draw against her with her 950 rating. She played well, and we were winning the match 3-0 at that point.

3 Squares and a Lady

Tomorrow we should be back in the ballroom. That also means I'll have my work cut out for me again. However with two rounds to go I have twice as many points as I scored last year. 2 x .5 =1. More games to follow in a few days. I'm afraid my coverage of the tournament is sorely lacking. I don't seem to have the energy to run around and take lots of pictures and research all the top scores. Updates to follow.

Bermuda Wrap Up

2011-02-18T23:30:00.000-05:00

Sun sets on another Bermuda Open

Tomorrow this road warrior is off to Parsippany, New Jersey for the 41st Annual US Amateur Team - East. Once again I will be playing 1st board for my team. The good news is I don't have any physical issues plaguing me. The bad news is I don't have any physical issues that would give our team an assigned board in the ballroom all tournament. That means we will most likely bounce around between the ballroom and the outer rooms, depending on how we're doing.

Enough about the team tournament. Inquiring readers want to know about how Bermuda went. The good news is, I won $50. The bad news is, I was in a tie for 2nd Under 1800 after a butt ass ugly loss in the last round. In the last round I got paired against someone from my own club. Like I really need to travel all the way to Bermuda to play someone from my club. However in the last round they really don't want to be shifting pairings around to avoid such a match up. I really didn't want to play him, but I wasn't going to ask the director to change the pairing. Unfortunately I think I let the pairing upset me too much because I ended out losing a piece on the 11th move. It just went downhill from there. I'm not even going waste my readers' time by showing the game. There was nothing entertaining about the loss. There isn't even a good train wreck story behind it.

No Bermuda longtail for me this year.

Saturday's games combined took less time then Friday evening's game. Round two's ugly loss took an hour and 41 minutes. It would have taken about 40 minutes if the weather had been better. My ugly win took even less time. One hour and 35 minutes. Winning ugly and quickly sure beats losing ugly and quickly. Here is my ugly win. Both of us moved too fast.

KSimmons-pw02122011.pgn

After the fast loss on Saturday, I said to someone "Knowing my luck, Sunday I'll have a four hour game when the weather is better." I know my luck. Sure enough we played for almost four and half hours. I got paired against Ken Sloan who I've known for a very long time. We've been at many of the same tournaments but this was the first time we ever played. I won a pawn, but got sloppy in my attack. I sac'ed the exchange thinking I was getting it right back. It was one of those cases of not visualizing what the board would like like after I moved my rook. With no rook on d7, e6 is now covered by his queen. I had a lot of play for being down the exchange, especially after I picked up a second pawn. I didn't see the h4 break so I ended out just repeating the position and taking the half point. Here's Sunday's marathon.

pw-ksloan021311.pgn

As usual the tournament ended with dinner, blitz playoffs and awards. There were 5 players tied for 1st. The top player wins a trip back the following year. That gets settled by a blitz playoff. With 5 players in the tie it ended out being a round robin. GM Larry Christiansen won the playoff for the return trip. GM Alexander Ivanov got the Bermuda longtail on tiebreaks.

GM Larry Chistiansen and Larry Ebbin

In tiebreak order the top 5

GM Alexander Ivanov
GM Pascal Charbonneau
GM Larry Chistiansen
GM Nick de Firmian
IM Dmitry Schneider

The top scoring non-titled player also wins a return trip to next year's event. There was the potential of an 11 way tie for that prize but thankfully Martin Huba won his game to take clear 1st in that category. It would have been brutal having a playoff with 11 players. We wouldn't have gotten out of there until the wee hours of the morning. At that point I probably would not have gone to bed since I had to leave for the airport at 6:15 am.

Martin Huba

Bermuda longtail and a return trip

There are various special awards including one for the player traveling the longest distance. This year the winner of that award was Stephen Kisuke of Uganda. He received a glass angel fish. The hand blown glass pieces they give out are just beautiful. Maybe I'll have to move to Australia and then come back for the tournament. I'm sure never going to win distance award flying from New York to Bermuda. I got the walloping 1500 frequent flier miles for that round trip.

Stephen Kisuke of Uganda

Next report from beautiful Parsippany, New Jersey.

Bermuda Blitzed (I mean blitz)

2011-02-12T18:18:00.001-05:00

It's Saturday. In the 3rd round today. It's been a rough start for me. Played tough game against an expert last night, but losing a pawn is not healthy for one's winning chances. This morning I just played horrendously against a 1900, and ended out resigning after about 17 moves. At a long time control like this I just couldn't see trying to prolong the agony. I was rather discouraged and just felt it was better to walk away from that game, and try to get over it. It would have been better if the weather had been nicer, but I did venture out for a walk in the howling winds. At least it didn't rain on me.

I managed redeem myself in round three with a crazy win. It wasn't pretty. I gave away a pawn, but a few moves later he gave it back. Then I had a nice little combination that forced mate. I will post a few of these games later. I just wanted to post a few pictures from Thursday and post some results from the blitz tournament. As usual Larry Ebbins hosted his Thursday evening party at his house. He claims his rum swizzles weren't as good as usual, but I thought they tasted pretty good.

Alexander Ivanov and Ester Epstein enjoying the food.

I'm with Larry Ebbins, Martin Huba and Stephen Kisuke

After the party we went back to the hotel for the blitz tournament. No big surprises there as the standings at the top were as follows:

1st GM Alexander Ivanov 9/10

2nd/3rd GM Pascal Charbonneau 8/10

2nd/3rd GM Larry Christianson 8/10

GM Ivanov

GM Charbonneau

GM Christianson

As for myself, I scored 5/10. Very disappointing when I missed mate in 1 against an expert, and went on to lose the game. Blitz is not my strength. I got lucky and won a few games on time that I should have lost. Also chucked a few winning positions, so pretty much a wash. One game that I won on time my opponent was griping about my Chronos clock. I'm not sure what his gripe was. C'est la vie.

Last round match.

I had chance win class prize going into last round. However I split 1-1. 2-0 gives me under 1800 prize. I guess I shouldn't complain since I was toast in 1st game and won on time by giving a bunch of checks. Made him burn time trying avoid the checks. Next game with him, I'm two pawns and just hung a knight. That's blitz for you!

Alive and Well in Bermuda!

2011-02-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Bermuda. I'm here for the Bermuda International Open.

To answer Chess Tiger's question. I am alive, and blogging will resume. I've had an incredibly busy January. Lots of chess. Some of it good, a lot of it ugly. (So what else is new?) I never did get back to reporting on the Liberty Bell Open. It was an interesting event both chess-wise and psychologically. I got off to an excellent start playing up a section. Started out 1.5 out of 2. In round 3 I got paired up against one of my former students. I was up two pawns out of the opening. However he got a lot of counter play, and I messed up. It was a quasi-train wreck. I didn't think it was a terrible loss until I started analyzing the game later. Unfortunately I had made the mistake of looking at that game right before round 4. I went into that game not in the best frame of mind, and got smashed.

I then lost two more games in a row and was horribly depressed. I did bounce back in the final round, but overall I was a bit discouraged. I realized that getting off to a good start may have not been the best thing for me. When I play up and start off with a string of losses my mindset tends to be "It's okay. I'm playing up and I'm not expected to win many games." I'm relaxed and don't put pressure on myself. However if I start off well then my expectations go up. I put more pressure on myself and I tense up. If I have one of the moments where I've lost focus and lose a winnable game, then I get down on myself. That feeds on itself and then I hit a miserable losing streak. It's hard to get out of that rut.

Hopefully I will avoid such pitfalls this weekend in Bermuda. The social aspect of this tournament makes it enjoyable regardless of the quality of my play. Last year I did win my class. We'll see if I can repeat that feat. I will settle for not playing like a moron, and not blowing a won game.

Philadelphia Freedom!!

2011-01-15T10:53:00.001-05:00

That damn Elton John song kept running through my mind.

I'm back in Philadelphia for this year's Liberty Bell Open. Unlike last year where I spent the weekend being pushed around in a wheelchair, I am quite mobile and free to move about the playing room as needed. That's a good thing because I played a 5 hour and 48 minute game last night in round . I drew with a 1900 from upstate NY who I've played a few times before. I'm so glad to travel to Philadelphia to play players from New York. Italics for the sarcasm challenged. :-)

I will post the game later. I'm about to start round 2. I decided to play up in the under 2100 section. Am I nuts? Maybe. But I did get a draw against a higher rated player. I'm playing the 4 day schedule which means all 7 of my games will be 40/2 SD/60. I can't use the "I had trouble transitioning from the fast control to the slow control" excuse. Last night's game lasted longer then my last 6 games this week combined. That's what happens when I play 6 games of "cracktion" in a week. Last night I scored a half point less then my other 6 games combined. Yep it wasn't a great week. Lots of clock issues. More on that later.

It's The Most Blunderful Time of the Year!

2011-01-04T17:19:00.001-05:00

Cheers! Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year to all! It's hard to believe a year has passed so quickly. It seems like last week I was tumbling down the stairs and messing up my Christmas, New Years, and Tae Kwon Do training. Fortunately I managed to stay upright while going up and down stairs this past December. The only thing that was going down this December was my rating. Started off the month at 1731 and by the end of the month I was sitting on my floor.

Last week was the week of "lasts". Last "10 Grand Prix Points Tonight!" of 2010 on Thursday 12/30/10 and "Your Last Blunder of 2010" on 12/31/10. 9 games of cracktion in less then 24 hours. At least I had the good sense not to start off 2011 by playing in the insanity tournament at the Marshall Chess Club on 1/1/11 - 1/2/11. The thought had crossed my mind, but I didn't want to start the year totally trashed by playing 10 games of cracktion chess in the middle of the night into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

The last two days of 2010 certainly contained some interesting games for me. However like most of the year the losses out numbered the wins. The clock played a big part in most of Thursday's games. In round one I was holding my own against a 2200 until I imploded with seconds left on my clock. Round two was probably more frustrating as I totally outplayed a 1997, but couldn't finish him off because I panicked in time pressure and took a draw in the position below with two seconds left on my clock.

Black to move.

It's mate in 5, but I couldn't find it quick enough and I didn't want to lose on time. 1...Qb8+ 2. Ka6 Kc6 3. b5+ Kc7 4. b6+ Kc6 5. a5 Qb7# (I tried to hide the moves, but couldn't quite find a color that matched the background.) One of the little kids who plays on Thursday night asked me why I took a draw since it was such an easy win. It's easy when you have time, but not so easy when the clock looms large. All I saw was when I stop checking and bring my king in that the white pawns start checking my king. Taking the draw in that position was not my last blunder of the year. In fact it wasn't even my last blunder for that tournament. I would end out losing rounds 3 and 4.

My last blunder of 2010 would come on the last day of 2010. In my case maybe the tournament should be named Your Last Blunders of 2010 since I blundered more the once during the course of the tournament. It started right in round 1 as I played poorly against WIM Iryna Zenyuk (2320) and got crushed. I don't expect to win a match up like that, but I would have liked to put up a better fight. I just made the break in round 2 so I got paired down to a 1340. He offered me a draw late in the game which I turned down. Several moves later I overlooked a fork and found myself in the following position.

When he played the move 26...Ne2+ I was about to say jokingly, "Do you still want that draw?" But before I could even ask the stupid question, he offers me a draw. I was rather stunned and asked "Why?" He was afraid of the time difference on the clock and felt he couldn't win it with the time he had. Sound familiar? However he had 01:49 on the clock to my 09:27. That seems like ages especially in comparison to the 2 seconds I had on Thursday. I considered turning down the draw because I really didn't deserve it. However he wasn't acting like my "not so secret admirer" who just can't stand the idea of winning against me. He really didn't feel like he had the time to win the position. I did accept the draw offer, but told him he should have played it out. I guess this draw was payback for Thursday's draw.

Walking into that fork was not my last or biggest blunder of the tournament. That came in round 3 against Guy Colas. He clearly has my number even though our ratings are usually within 50 points of each other. We've played 33 times and he's beaten me 22 times. Usually he gets me on the clock. He tends to play much faster then me, so often our games have come down to my flagging or imploding in time pressure. The clock was not a factor in this game. I can't even blame it on losing focus or getting overconfident. In one of my rare moments of wanting to sac something, I chose to sac the wrong piece. The position below just screams "Sac something to bust open the position!"

Position after 23...f4

I spent a lot of time on my 24th move trying to work out the attack I would have after 24. Rxg7. I think I was imaging that somehow I would end out picking off the h pawn with my queen and threatening Qg7#. After he played 24...Kxg7 I realized my imagined scenario was not going to occur and that the best I would get was getting the rook back for the bishop and be up two pawns. Instead of settling for that variation with 25. Bh6+ Kg8 26. Bxf8 Qxf8 27. Rxe6, I chose 25. Qh6+. I figured after 25...Kg8 26. Rxe6 Rxe6 27. Qxe6+ Kh8 28. Bf6+ Rxf6 29. Qxf6+ Kg8 30. Qxf4 I would be in a queen and pawn ending up 3 pawns with his king wide open. I completely overlooked that after 26. Rxe6 he doesn't have to recapture with 26...Rxe6. Instead he plays 26...Qf5! I saw that he's attacking my rook a second time, but totally missed that the queen is also hitting b1. Attempting to sac the bishop with 24. Bh6 was what I should have played. Coulda, shoulda, woulda......

Here's the entire game.

pw-gcolas1213110.pgn

Since my mistake was not due to the usual overconfidence or lack of focus issues I didn't beat up on myself. Instead I joked with Guy and said "I think your son is rubbing off on me." His son had played a game recently where he had sac'ed a rook in a position he was winning and ended out losing. Although I clearly had blundered I was satisfied with the fact that I had tried to be aggressive and not play like a chicken.

I bounced back with a win in round four against a grossly under rated high school kid. His rating on the wallchart was posted as 790. That was a very old rating from 2009 and since then he has been playing again and has a rating of 1100. He played much better then that rating, and it was not an easy win. However it was a win, and after an ugly loss I often fall apart for the remainder of the tournament.

In the last round I was paired against a 1750. I was a little surprised I was playing someone so close to me in rating, but there was no one else lower then me who I had not already played. A win would give me an even score, but wouldn't lead to any rating gain. My year would end as it started with me sitting on my floor.

After I made my 12th move my last round opponent got up and left the room with his clock running. I thought that was a bit odd given the short time control of G/30. I used the moment to go to the bathroom since that's something I generally don't want to have to do during time pressure. I noticed he was staring at the wallchart. I assumed that he was trying to figure out if he could win money or not. It certainly had not entered my mind that I might possibly win money in this tournament. I was just licking my wounds and recover my pride after the round three ugliness.

When I came back from the bathroom he pointed out his move and said "I offer you a draw." That kind of surprised me. I'm used to lower rated kids offering me early draws, but not slightly higher rated adults. It was tempting to go out and look at the wallchart, but I didn't want to make it obvious that I suspected why he was offering the draw. Instead I said "I'd think about it." I'm not sure why I even said that since on general principles I refuse early draw offers. I played my move, went out and looked at the wallchart. Now I could see why he wanted the draw. A draw would give him the Under 1800 prize. If I won I would get the under 1800 prize. A draw would not help me since he had 2 points and I had 1.5. I had to play for a win.

Playing for a win when I'm Black and the opponent is playing very safe is hard. I kept trying to avoid trades and come up with some kind of play. I did miss a chance to win a pawn. Even then it's not an easy win, but it certainly would have given me better chances. He did finally get his draw and the Under 1800 prize. Here is that game.

JHains-PW123110.pgn

At least 2010 ended with something besides a loss. 2011 started with a win last night. I filled in for one round. At the moment I can say I'm undefeated for 2011. Give me a few days and that will probably no longer be the case. Who knows where my chess journeys will take me in 2011. Last year I did not play in any new states. I can't count Victoria, British Columbia as a new state. Perhaps this year I can add a state or two to my quest to play all 50. Hawaii and Alaska would be good choices. However it's more likely I'll play some states a little closer to home.

Adventures in Chess Journalism: Getting there is half the fun!

2010-12-18T23:16:00.001-05:00

I got back from Orlando on Monday. It's taken me most of the week to catch my breath and collect my thoughts. It was a busy weekend as I tried to keep track of what was happening in 13 different sections, and sort out who I had taken pictures of and who I still needed shots of. Multitasking was the operative word as I juggled my various tasks over the course of the three days. However getting there was probably my biggest challenge.

In the past I've usually traveled on the same flight with the kids on our team. We would get down early so the kids could play in the blitz tournament. However this year people made all of their own travel arrangements. Some came down Wednesday so they could go to Disney or Universal and then play in the bughouse tournament Thursday morning. Other came down Thursday morning so they would get there for the blitz. I had three classes to teach on Thursday so instead of trying to get substitutes I decided to do my three classes. Chess teachers don't get paid vacation, so I decided it was worth teaching the classes and taking a later flight.

My last class on Thursdays is in Manhattan on the Upper East Side. It finished at 4:00 pm, so I had 2.5 hours to get to JFK airport and still have an hour before my 7:29 departure. There are two things I don't like to do during rush hour. One is try to take a bus to the airport. The other is to take a taxi to the airport. The fastest way around New York City is by train. However unlike some of the wonderful cities I've visited where there is direct train service in and out of the city to the airport and back, New York sorely lacks in that department. Chicago has the Blue Line into city and easy transfers. San Francisco has BART into Powell St. Seattle recently put in a direct train from SeaTac. Then there is London and Paris where it's easy to get to and from the airport. So what the hell is New York's problem?

It's relatively easy if you're near Penn Station. You can take the LIRR out to Jamaica and catch the Sky train there. However 82nd St and Lexington Avenue is 3 different trains to get to Penn Station. Lexington Avenue line to Grand Central, shuttle train from Grand Central to Times Square and then #1, 2 or 3 line to Penn Station. Once you get there you still have to get a ticket for the LIRR train. I hate Penn Station under normal circumstances. It's the basement, the ceiling are low and feels claustrophobic. It's even worse during rush hour. I really didn't want to deal with my luggage, getting a ticket and dealing with all the crazed commuters trying to get home.

I decided I would adventuresome and try to do the entire trip by subway. I got on the subway and when I got to 59th St. I thought one of the train lines that goes straight out to the Sky Train left from 59th St. I was wrong, however I really nice lady explained what I needed to do. She said take the R strain one stop to Queens Plaza and transfer to the E train. The E would take me right to the Sky Train. The next train that pulled in was an N train going to Queensboro Plaza. I figured that was same thing. However if I looked at a subway map before I got on the train I would have discovered that Queens Plaza and Queensboro Plaza are two distinct stops that have nothing to do with each other except they both begin with Queens and end with Plaza.

Oh crap! Now I'm in Queens, but not sure whether the train I'm on is going where I want to go. I look at the subway map to see if the N line has a place where there's a transfer to the E. It looks like there is, but I ask someone to see if I'm right. She tells me I need to get on the 7 train, and transfer. She tells me to follow her. So we get off the N train in a few stops and get on the number 7 train. I have no idea where I'm going at this point, but I'm putting my faith in this stranger that she'll get me to the E train. In the mean time I'm starting look at my watch nervously, wondering if I'd make it on time to catch my flight. Fortunately I wasn't checking any bags and my frequent flyer status on American would get me through security quicker. I also had purposely left myself plenty of time to get from the upper East side to JFK.

My guardian angel tells me we're going to change from the number 7 express to the local because the express skips the stop I need. We get off the train and wait for a local. Again I'm glancing at my watch, but I still have over two hours until departure. It just means less time in the Admiral's Club to surf the internet and finish up the previous post. A local train pulls in. She tells me that she's getting off at the next stop, and that I should go one more stop. She tells me the E train is all the way at the bottom of that subway stop. She told me there were elevators to the bottom. However when I got off the train I couldn't find them right away so I started walking down many flights of steps with my suitcase and backpack. On one level I did find the elevators, but there were a number of people waiting so I just kept taking the stairs.

Finally I get to the platform for the E train. It was obvious which side of the platform I wanted. I could safely eliminate the side with Manhattan bound trains on it. I spent way too much time getting out of Manhattan. I knew I didn't want to go back. I still didn't know how long it would take me to get to the Sky Train. Nor did I know how long the ride on the Sky Train took to get to JFK. However at this point I was just relieved to be on the right train. Finally I knew where I was going, and no longer felt like some dumb out of town tourist without a clue. I pride myself on being a savvy New Yorker who can help tourists get where they want to go on the subway. I guess every once in awhile it doesn't hurt to have someone return the favor.

I finally got to JFK and to terminal 8. I couldn't believe how dead it was. Even if I had a bag to check it would have taken no time at all. I already had my boarding pass so I just went straight to security and breezed right through. The hardest part was pulling myself back together once I got through. Now I remember why when I'm traveling I don't normally wear pants that require a belt. It's just one more thing to have to fuss with at security and when using the bathroom. That morning I put on normal work clothes because the new travel outfit I got really didn't fit right. The pants I grabbed are a little big in the waist so a belt is necessary. Note to self: When traveling never wear pants have a zipper and need a belt. There is a reason woman's travel clothes always have an elastic waistband.

The flight was very uneventful. I saw a few familiar faces of other chess people heading down for the tournament. When I got off the plane I hooked up with one of the other coaches I knew. He too hadn't checked any luggage. He was also taking the Disney Magic Express to the hotel. It's a free shuttle to the hotel and if your flight arrives before 10:00 PM they'll pick up your luggage and deliver it to your room. Our flight didn't get in until 10:30 PM, so that wasn't an option for me. I didn't really care, especially since I had checked luggage anyway. I'd never used the shuttle service before since in past trips I've traveled with the team, and we would have vans take us to the hotel. Jeremy had used it on his last trip, but couldn't remember where it was. We spent a lot of time wandering around the A concourse looking for the bus and finally found out we needed to go to the B concourse. It would have helped if I read the instructions that had been mailed along with my bus vouchers. DUH!

However at least I had read the part about the luggage transfer service not being available after 10:00 PM. One of the other coaches did not read that part, and left his bag at the airport to be transferred to the hotel. It was only when he got to the hotel that he found out that his bag was not being picked up and he needed to go get it himself. By the time he went back to the airport, found his bag, and came back it was well past 1:00 am. So much for a good night's sleep before Friday's games. Fortunately round 1 wasn't until 1:00 pm. That still gave him plenty of time to sleep in and still help prep any of his students who wanted to do a last minute review before the first round.

I was happy that I got a room in building 3 which was just as close as building 1 to the convention center and main part of the hotel. My colleague with the AWOL suitcase ended out in one of the buildings on the other side of the lake. The first year we attended this tournament at this site we were in one of those buildings far away from the convention center. When we came back two years later we made a point of booking early and getting into building 1. This year I had made my own reservation, but I was hoping one of the early arrivals from the team could check me in. However they needed my photo ID. At least she was able to request that I be put as close to the rest of the group as possible. Building 3 was fine.

I don't mind the walk around the lake. I did numerous laps around the lake with various people during the course of the weekend. It was a nice way to catch up with people without being interrupted by questions or the overwhelming desire to hunt for the next picture or story. Sometimes the only way to relax is to just go for a walk far from the action. I needed the walk breaks in order to clear my mind, and mull over possible ideas. Fortunately as the tournament progressed it was easier to come up with ideas for my story.

Stay tuned...

Black Is Beautiful!

2010-12-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

I'm not referring to how I play with the Black pieces. I'm referring to my new Tae Kwon Do belt.

Black Belt - 1st Dan

The week before Thanksgiving I did my Black Belt test. Somebody in the comments section asked me if I passed. If you make it to the Black Belt test, you're not failing. You've made it that far because you met all the training requirements, including a 24 hour fast, a three hour meditation and successfully passed four other tests (gup tests). I suppose it's possible screw up so badly at the Black Belt test that they make you do it over again. However that would mean pulling the all-time choke job.

I actually was pretty relaxed going into the test. I think I was more nervous during the four gup tests I had done in the last year. I think that's because I never knew what I would have to do. I would be told I would be doing certain color belt forms, but most times I ended out doing other ones instead. It often depended what color belts were testing at the same time. For this test we knew exactly what forms and one-step sparring routines we would do and we knew what type of breaks we would do.

Everything I did leading up to board breaking had gone well. I didn't mix up the forms and I remembered all the defensive moves in the one-step sparring. In the picture below I'm completing the take down move of this particular sequence.

After all the forms and sparring, Grandmaster Kim had us doing pushups, situps, some endurance drills of 100 punches and then 100 kicks. The 100 kicks are particularly exhausting. In the picture below I'm doing the 100 punches. If you look at the picture you'll notice I'm the lone adult on that one row. That's what happens when you're the shortest adult test candidate. There were 5 people in each row. With 14 children there three row of kids, but I filled out the last spot in the last row of kids.

Fortunately in Tae Kwon Do I don't have to compete against kids like I do in chess. Given my "success" in chess against kids I found it kind of amusing that I would be the one adult in the row of little kids. There were two teenage kids in the row behind me. Teenagers are treated like adults in these tests.

By my feet is the board that I was supposed to break using a speed chop. I hold the board in one hand and break it with the other hand. The Monday before the test we had a board breaking class. In that class I nailed my breaks. The speed chop and back kick breaks I did on my first try. The spinning hook kick break took a few tries. However that was vast improvement over the previous month where I had a lot of difficulty with it.

Notice everyone else is watching because they're all done.

For what ever reason I could not do the speed chop on the first try. Nor could I do it on the second, third or 4th try. Each attempt got me more flustered and my focus was rapidly vanishing. Finally they held the board and had me attempt the chop. I still couldn't do it. They finally had me do a hammer fist break. The hammer fist break is the most basic break. That's the break a new student does in the trial lesson. It's also the break that a newbie does in his first belt test. Here I am having to resort to that break to do a hand break. Note: Last week in board breaking class I once again nailed it on the first try.

Once the speed chop went awry I could not get my focus back to perform the back kick and spinning hook kicks. Again I was the last one to finish. I eventually got the back kick done but they held up two children's boards instead of the regular board. The spinning hook kick did not happen at all. That's a kick I have difficulty with even under normal circumstances. Under pressure to perform I couldn't do it.

What happened during that portion of the test reminds me of some of my chess meltdowns. It's hard for me to get back on track when I'm still thinking about what happened before. Since taking up Tae Kwon Do I have found many similarities in the mind skills necessary for chess and martial arts. The same type of concentration and focus is needed to progress and be successful in both. As I discovered in this test, the loss of focus or inability to move on can disrupt one's form in Tae Kwon Do just as much as it can in chess. I know doing a martial art has helped me in chess though at times my results don't necessarily reflect it. I've been working on a post reflecting on my Black Belt training and preparation and how it compares to chess training. I will finish it eventually!

This picture was taken at the Black Belt Tea Ceremony that was held several weeks after the test. One does not receive the new black belt at the test like one does for color belts. Instead there is a waiting period and then this formal ceremony where you are presented your belt. It's a lovely ceremony and steeped in much Korean tradition. Grandmaster Kim ties each belt first around his waist and then around the recipient's waist. The reason behind this is a symbolic gesture of the bond between teacher and student. The teacher being loyal to his student and his student being loyal to her teacher.

I started this post Wednesday night. I continued working on it sitting in the airline lounge at JFK yesterday evening. I'm finishing it in between rounds at the National K-12 Championships in Orlando. I will be taking pictures for Chess Life Online and also writing another article for Chess Life. Come back for the adventures of Polly the chess journalist. Getting to the airport was just the beginning of my adventures. Stay tuned.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. To my readers abroad have a nice Thursday. :-) At least for a week I can hold on to the 30 rating points gained on Monday.

Usually at this time I'm off to play in some Thanksgiving weekend tournament. This year I decided to stay home. For once this travel crazy chess player is tired of traveling this year. So there will be no train wrecks at LAX or a blogger get together in Redmond, WA. I am thankful for a nice weekend at home, and the chance to visit old friends.

By the way I did my Black Belt test last Saturday. It went pretty well except some problems with board breaking. It reminded me a little of what sometimes happens to me during a chess game. I will be back later to share some observations on this past year of intense Tae Kwon Do review, and how it relates to chess.

Monday Money Madness

2010-11-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

There are the behind the scenes part of a director/organizer's day that many players never get to see much of. Players show up for a tournament, pay their entry, get their pairings and start playing. A good director/organizer makes the process appear to be seamless. Players will sometimes take for granted how well a tournament is run, and the timeliness of rating report submissions. That's assuming everything goes smoothly. It doesn't matter how good one is at running tournaments, sometimes Murphy can show up.

As my regular readers know I run a chess club on Monday nights. Sometimes I direct and play and on other days I just direct. It all depends on the number of players. As long as there's Internet access I'm content to direct only. However if my playing avoids giving byes I will play. How I structure the sections depends a lot on who shows up and the rating distribution. Sometimes I run quads which are 4 player round robins. Other times I may run 6 player Swiss sections. It's always a delicate balancing act as I try to keep everyone satisfied with their competition.

These Monday night tournaments are not big money events. I charge a $10 entry fee and there's a $40 first prize. The larger sections will usually have a second prize too. Since I pay out the prizes on the spot, I just take cash. I had one player who always wanted to give me a check. That would have been fine since I could have him make the check out to cash and cash it myself. However there would be times he'd post date the check and forget to tell me. After one trip too many to the bank only to have the teller inform me the check was post dated, I told him no more checks. I didn't want to be the guy's personal banker.

Cash works great until I get the occasional player who shows up with a hundred dollar bill and wants $90 back in change. It's hard to pay out a bunch of small prizes when all my cash is in the form of a hundred dollar bill. I know I'm going to get players showing up with twenties so I usually try to show up with some tens in my wallet so I can make change. On Mondays I end out playing various games to get extra change during the course of the day. One of my tricks is to give the parking garage guy a twenty for $4.00 parking. Sometimes he gets a little cranky and asks me if I have something smaller. I apologize and say no even though I may have a five sitting in my wallet.

Last Monday I had a fifty that somebody had given me for some work I did. I figured I would get rid of the fifty at the gas station where the cash price is five cents cheaper then using a credit card. I get gas and it comes out to $33.00. I hand him the $50 thinking to myself "Great I'll get $17.00 in change." He asks me if I have $3.00. I could have be obnoxious and said no, but I was nice and scrounged up two ones and four quarters. He doesn't even say thank you as he hands me back a twenty. That's the second time he's been rude to me. I decided I'm not going back to that station. Although the trip to gas station did allow me to get rid of the fifty, I'm still stuck with a twenty.

I did manage to find $30 worth of tens and ones at home so I would be going to the chess club with $50 in hand. If there's a Murphy Law of handling tournament registration it would be "The first people to enter will not have exact change." Sure enough the first player who shows up comes in with a twenty. I go into my wallet, take out the two tens, put the twenty in my wallet, give the player one ten and put the other 10 in the entry fee kitty. I have to be very precise in the sequence that I use to handle tournament money and making change from my personal money. That's because there have been times where I've shorted myself because I put the twenty in the entry fee kitty and not replaced it my wallet, or I've put everything in my wallet and nothing in the entry kitty. On a bad night I end out handing the two tens back to the player. I would not make a good cashier.

The next player that comes in hands me a fifty. That wipes out any sort of change I might have in my wallet. I hand him my two twenties and put the 10 ones in the entry fee kitty. Eventually as players come in I start accumulating tens. I actually get to a point where I can give change. It looks like my day is going to end the same way it began with me having a fifty dollar bill in my wallet and no other cash.

When I'm taking entries I'm having to multi-task between collecting money, writing down who paid, and entering names on the computer. I always have a couple of players who come in near the end of registration. They're regulars at the club and their ratings are such that it gives me some flexibility in terms of how I'm going to divide up the sections. It appeared that I had 14 players so it looked like the best format would be two quads at the top and a six player Swiss at the bottom. My top quad had four masters in it. The second quad had four experts in it. Those sections were perfect. The 6 player section had an ugly rating distribution starting with a 1990 followed by a 1750 and then going down to 1150. Sometimes you can't make everyone happy. For the most part players at my club would rather play up then down. Some don't really care.

I set up the three sections and then read off the pairings. One of the latecomers asks me "Who am I playing? I didn't hear my name." I realized that I had written his name down and taken his entry fee, but not put him in the computer. That meant I was going to have put myself in the tournament and redo the bottom section. Now having 8 players, I decided to make two more quads. So much for me having an evening where I could catch up on blogging and not have to play. I wanted to analyze a couple of my games from the previous week's lose-a-thon. (0-3 on Monday followed by 0-4 on Thursday.) This would be the third week in a row that I was playing on Monday night, and it would be the third week in a row that I had Alan and Hubert in my quad.

I was concerned that my 7 game losing streak could balloon to 10 games if I had a repeat of last week's results. Once again I was at the bottom of the quad and would start off with Black against the number one player. To make a long story short, I did lose to the number one player rated 1990. However I bounced back and avenged last weeks losses against Alan and Hubert by beating both of them. I will put the games in a separate post as it was interesting to see how I adjusted my play against both of them.

It's time to pay out the prizes, but there's still this matter of the fifty dollar bill in my wallet. Since I had to enter myself into the tournament at the last second I had not put in my $10 entry fee. This meant I would have to take $40 worth of change to put in my $10 from the fifty. I resolved the issue by giving the fifty to one of the winners who I had given change to at the start of the evening, and got the ten back that I had given him earlier.

Perhaps a fitting end to my day was going out to a diner with a few players after the tournament. When it came time to settle the bill, I gave one of the guys a twenty for my $7.00 portion of the bill. Finally I got my change of a twenty that I was trying to get from the snarly gas station attendant. I think next time I'll go to the bank and ask the teller for 5 tens for my fifty.

BTW I have another fifty in my wallet after last night's tournament. Once again I was a reluctant last minute entrant. However it worked out well as I scored 2.5 out of 3 and won my section. I took the fifty and gave back ten. Let's see if I can break it before next Monday without pissing off some merchant.

Get Over It!

2010-11-12T23:39:00.001-05:00

What does one say? "Do as I say, not as I do." How often have I told a student after a tough loss "Forget about that game. Think about your next game"? How often have I not been able to follow my own advice? Probably more times then I've admitted to in various posts to this blog. Usually the dwelling on a bad game just impacts the rest of the games in that particular tournament. Last year's American Open comes to mind. However sometimes a game like the one in my last post can come back to haunt one several tournaments later.

I had lost that game on a Thursday and the following Monday I ended out playing because there was an odd number. There was nothing spectacularly great or awful about the tournament. I got paired against a 2000 in the first round and lost. In the second round I got paired against Silvio for what seems like the gazillianth time, but was actually only the 110th time. I beat him for the 61st time. In round three I got paired against one of my former students who is little higher rated then me, and I lost. No big deal. I've lost to him before. I got outplayed and also had clock issues.

Two days later I played at the Westchester Chess Club in a one game a week slow tournament. The time limit was Game/80 so time pressure implosions should not have been an issue. In fact what occurred had nothing to do with the clock except perhaps I should have used more of it. We reached the following position after 32...Kc4.

I was delighted with my position. I felt it was easily won ending, especially after he allowed me to trade off the last bishop pair. Fritz gives the position - + (-9.22) for Black. I had made the move 32...Kc4 rather quickly because I was so relived that he had not played 32. Kd3 before I could get my king in. I was a little concerned about his queen side majority so I wanted my king close to the action over there. I've lost too many "won" games by allowing the opponent to convert on the queen side, including the round 4 train wreck at LAX.

After I played the move he played 33. b5. In my brief analysis leading up to my Kc4 move I determined 33. b5 was no big deal because after 33...axb5 34. axb5 I just play Kxb5. Then I realized to my horror that he isn't going to play 34. axb5. he's going to play 34. a5! It was at this point I just totally lost my internal cool, and had a serious analytical and emotional meltdown. I didn't think I could get my king back in time to stop his pawn. Instead of taking a deep breath, looking at the position and do a little counting I went on one of those emotional beat downs. I got really angry with myself and started thinking "Here you go again. You have a totally won position. You get overconfident and play too fast. This is a friggin' repeat of last Thursday! How can you keep doing this to yourself, especially against these players you're supposed to beat?"

With all of that going through my mind and trust me friggin is the PG13 version of what really was going through my mind it's hard to find this simple solution. 34... Kc5 35. Kd3 e4+ 36. Kc2 b4 37. a6 Kb6. Instead the game continued 32... Kc4 33. b5 axb5 34. a5 b4 35. a6 b3 36. Kd2 e4 37. a7 to reach the position below.

I still have drawing resources and potentially winning chances if White misplays it. 37... e3+ 38. Kxe3 is forced otherwise after 38. Kc1 I can play 38...e2 39. Kd2 b2 40. a8/Q e1/Q+ 41. Kxe1 b1/Q+b2. If he plays 38. Kxe3 the line would go 38...b2 39. a8=Q b1=Q 40. Qc6+ Kb3

However because I was still kicking myself over my alleged mistake of Kc4 I didn't see those moves. Instead I resigned myself to his queening his a pawn and me trying shove the b or e pawn through to get my own queen. Needless to say it did not work. Here is the game from move 32 onward.

ls-pw-ending.pgn

Since this particular game I have managed to get over the meltdown. I analysed the position and realized I had not thrown it away at the moment that I thought I had. I threw it away when I lost control of what was going through my mind at the time. I've been making a conscious effort to keep my thoughts on what's really happening on the board. It's meant slowing down which at times causes clock issues, especially when playing "cracktion." I've had some up and down results. Unfortunately mostly down. One Monday night I scored 2.5 out of 3 and picked 47 rating points. The following Monday I went 0-3 and lost 35 rating points. Two out of my three opponents were the same both weeks. I lost another 4 games last night in the Thursday "cracktion" event. Right now I'm on a 7 game losing streak, but I'm not overly concerned at this point. I've gotten the emotions back under control, but I know I need to do work on my openings. Some of my recent games I've just not done well out of the opening. I almost feel like I don't remember how to play my openings.

However the chess stuff can wait. In 8 days I will be finally doing my Black Belt test. I've been very focused in sharping my technique. It's taken me over a year since my last color belt promotion to reach this point. It's been a lot of reviewing of things I learned at the lower belts. It's also been refreshing my memory on things I forgot. At times it's been frustrating as I've done the same things over and over again, and have not learned new forms. However the benefit of spending so much time on the old stuff is I know it really well now, and I've sharpened my technique. When this is done I will analyze how and what I did leading up to this test and see how I can apply to refreshing my chess memory.

Wacky Wednesday: Eating My Words

2010-11-03T23:20:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I shared part of my Black Belt essay, and then ended the post with the following:

I'm still working on how to transfer the focusing and self-discipline piece to chess. I'm encouraged by the fact that I've managed to not toss away winning positions by losing focus, and getting distracted by external factors. Every time I've gotten a winning position recently, I've reminded myself that it's not a win until checkmate, the opponent's flag falls or he resigns.

I guess this blog would get pretty boring if all I showed were mundane wins and losses with no good story behind the result. I don't think it's my deep and insightful analysis of the moves themselves that draw most people to this blog. There are far better players and annotators out there that can provide the deep analysis of various positions. What I have to offer is another train wreck story which would not have occurred if I had been able to make an earlier train.

In a recent Thursday night cracktion tournament I was having a bad night. I dropped 2 pawns against an IM within the first 20 moves. By move 26 those pawns were being shoved down my throat. In the second round I played a kid rated over 200 points lower rated then me who seemed to want to do nothing but trade and go for a draw. She got her wish because it was just a nothing position and I couldn't see anything worth playing for. In the third round I played another kid and I managed to get my knight and bishop forked on move 14. It just went downhill from there.

It was one of those nights if the round 4 pairings had "Please Wait" next to my name I would have probably given the tournament director a kiss. Making the 11:15 train would have made my day. However on a bad night things don't work out that way. It was one of those nights where the pairings were up 20 minutes early but my opponent had left the building. Every single player in the tournament got to start 15 to 20 minutes early except me. I couldn't even start his clock before 10:45 because that was the scheduled start time.

Up until this summer I had this kid's number. Every time we would play he would have some meltdown and after losing a piece would resign. Some kids wait far too long to resign but this kid sometimes resigns without even trying to put up a fight. After drawing with me in June he started beating me in July. From July to early October we played 4 times and he won every game. I'm not so sure it was him improving tremendously or me just having lots of time management issues. Whatever the reasons now he had my number.

I was till a little annoyed about our last game which ended out being a draw. It was annoying because I had filled in for one round and had to play him. He just started trading things off and we ended out in a bishops of opposite colors ending with an even number of pawns. I offered him a draw after playing 32...Ke6 to reach the following position.

There was not going to be any clock issues. We both had about 15 minutes left. I think I could hold a draw in the position even with 2 seconds and delay on my clock. He refuses the draw. What? He trades down and then refuses the draw? The game continues 33. Bc3 Bc6, 34. g3 f5 35. Ba5 g6 36. Bc7 a6 At this point all my pawns are on light squares and his king can't get in. We were not using my clock or set. The clock owner wants to leave, so I get my clock and set it with the correct times. I give him back his clock. Then he says "that's my board and set." I'm thinking "Am I really going to have to get out another set and set up this position because my opponent wants to keep playing on?"

Most of the time I will not say anything and will quietly stew over what is happening, but I couldn't help myself. I asked my opponent "Are you really going to make me get out another set in order to play out this ridiculous position?" He looks at me like he has no idea what I'm asking. I finally say "I'm offering another draw. Do you really want to keep playing out this position?" He takes the draw and I give the other player his set and board.

Afterward I ask my opponent why he wanted play the position out. He tells me his dad isn't coming for another 45 minutes and he's bored. I offered to play blitz chess with him, but he declined. Then I made the observation that he was better at one point in the game and wondered why he didn't opt to recapture with his rook at one point. Recapturing with the rook would have given him a battery on the d file. He tells me he doesn't feel like he's good enough to try to win against me. What the hell? He's beaten me the last 4 times we've played and he's telling me he's not good enough to try to play for an advantage against me! He blames his winning on my blundering. Yes I did blunder in our games, but he was making things difficult which in 3 of the games put me in bad time pressure.

Back to round 4 on that Thursday. I'm irritated because; 1) I was played like crap all evening. 2) I really didn't want to be playing the last round, but I don't like to drop out and stick somebody with the bye when I'm having a crappy tournament. I was so hoping to get the bye and go home early. 3) Everyone else has started early and I'm still waiting for 10:45 to come so I can start his clock. Finally I can start his clock. He still hasn't come back. Now I'm thinking to myself "So help me if he left thinking he told Steve he was taking a bye for the last round I'm going to kill him!" I've actually have had that happen to me. I've been paired against someone whose coach was supposed to tell Steve he wasn't playing the last round, and the coach forgets. I have to sit there for 30 minutes until his time runs out.

Finally my opponent comes in at 10:52 so I have a 7 minute edge on the clock. Just like our last game he has White and plays the c3 Sicilian. I have mixed feelings about this line. It can be annoying at times, but I'll take transposing into it versus accepting the pawn in the Smith-Morra. I decided I would play a little more actively and not necessarily make every trade offered to me. After 7. Nc3 instead of trading right away I played 7...Bb4. I did trade after he broke the pin with 9. Bd2. I was interested in seeing whether he would try to trade down again. After I played 9...Bxc3 he recaptured with 10. bxc3.

One of the problems with having a big edge on the clock is the temptation to move too fast. For the most part I didn't feel like I was rushing my moves, but I did miss several opportunities to either win a piece or the exchange. The first opportunity on move 20. I saw the move after I played a different move. I won a pawn on move 27 and then went conservative trying to nurse my pawn advantage and the big edge on the clock. I figured I might just be able to squeeze him and run him out of time.

Then something bad happened. I was winning the exchange. Normally that's a good thing, but not when the mind set switches from play safe and squeeze it out to "I'm going crush this sucker!" We reached the position below after I played 34...Ng5.

My opponent had a dejected look on his face after my knight move. In a number of the games where I've beaten him he's resigned the moment he drops a piece. Given his past, I'm thinking to myself "He's going to resign soon. I'm going to be up an exchange and pawn and he has less then two minutes left and I have 10 minutes." He didn't resign. Instead he played 35. Qb2. I see that there's a discovered check after 35...Nxf3 36. Nxf3+. I didn't think the discovered check was a big deal after the recapture. Instead of moving my king off the diagonal and eliminating the discovered check, I mindlessly played 35...Nxf3. In my rush to crush him in time pressure I neglected to notice that he doesn't bother to recapture on f3. Instead he plays the killer knight move 36. Ne6 + +. It took me a moment to realize it was not a simple discovered check, but instead it was double check that had no outs for me. My two choices were 36...Kh7 or 36...Kg8. Both moves are answered with 37. Qg7#.

I stared at the position for probably a minute or two just soaking in what had happened. I look up at my opponent and just shook my head and laughed. I couldn't believe how an easily won game quickly turned into mate in one for my opponent. Laughing was about the only thing I could do at that point. I suppose crying or sweeping the pieces off the board in a fit of anger might have been a more normal response. However there was just something utterly comical about expecting a resignation from my opponent, and instead being the one that was doing the resigning. I was not going to make the king move hoping he didn't see it. It was clear from the speed at which he played the last two moves that he went for a desperate cheapo and it was successful on his part. I wasn't going to allow the game to end in mate.

Here's the game in it's entirety.

meltdown.pgn

It wasn't until the train ride home that I realized how I let myself lose focus and got over-confident. It was stupid on my part. The rook was going nowhere even after I spend a move to get my king off the diagonal. His rook will still be pinned. There's a fine line between self-confidence versus over-confidence. I'm not there yet. I would have another one of those moments the following week in a slow game at the Westchester Chess Club. I did bounce back this past Monday with 2.5 out of 3 and a nice gain of points. I continually need to keep my emotions and focus in check.

Chess!

2010-10-19T12:49:00.002-04:00

As promised in my last post, I would start writing about chess again. So here it is; a post that's completely about chess.

A few weeks ago I did a lecture for one of my chess classes. I showed one of my favorite games that Judith Polgar played back in 1988 at the tender age of 12. It's short, but full of wonderful tactics and ends with a spectacular queen sacrifice. When I show the game I bring up a few different themes in terms of development, removing the defender tactic and square weaknesses.

Angelova

J. Polgar

Position after 12...Qb6

It's easy to see from the little arrow that Black is threatening White's bishop. I typically ask the students what the threat is, and how to defend against the threat. Most students can see that the bishop is hanging, but I'll get various answers on how defend. Answers range from moving the bishop to guarding with a4. Some students will come up with Polgar's move 13. Nc3. With a more advanced class, the students will be able to explain that the move not only defends the bishop, but completes White's development by connecting the rooks on the back row. With a group that hasn't quite gotten the hang of opening principles it's an excellent example of how to complete one's development.

After 13...Bxe5 14. Rae1 Bxc3 15. bxc3 this gives me a chance to discuss the tactic: removing the defender. Even though Black erred in going this route it's still a good example of how remove a defender, leading to the win of a piece. However in this particular position 15...Qxb5 is a blunder. This leads into the last lesson of weak squares. Exchanging off the fianchettoed bishop protecting the king is dangerous if one is not getting the same color square bishop in return. Polgar punished Black with 16. Qh6. No matter how Black defends she can't stop White from mating.

Here's the complete game with the crushing queen sacrifice on move 17.

Jpolgar-Angelova1988.pgn

I did that lesson on a Tuesday, and on Thursday I would play a game with another female where we would both be giving up our fianchettoed bishops for some other then the same color squared bishop. It was the race to see who could mate first on g2 or g7. Admittedly the game was sloppy on both our parts leading up to the crucial position. This was one game where Caissa blessed me with kindness.

Position after 27. Qd2??

Here is where Caissa truly smiled on me. Move order is the difference between life and death in this position. Black played 27...Nxf1+? which causes the game to continue 28. Rxf1 Bxf1 threatening mate in two with 29...Qh3+ 30. Kg1 Qg2#. I defend against the mate with 29. Qh6. creating my own mate threat of 30. Qg7#

However if Black reversed the move order by playing 27...Bxf1!, it leaves White with the unpleasant choices of 28. Rxf1 Nxf1+ forking the king and queen or 29. Qxe3 Qh3+ 30. Kg1 Qg2#. Fortunately that move order did not occur so I was able to play 29. Qh6 to reach the position below.

Position after 29. Qh6!

Once again Caissa smiled on me as Black played 29....Kf7?? allowing me 30. Nd6+ forking her king and queen. She could have defended with 29...Qh3+. After 30. Qxh3 Bxh3 31. Nd6 Bd7 we'll end out in a complex position with White having two pawns for being down the exchange. Given that we were playing cracktion and both were under 8 minutes who knows how it would have gone. I'm not sure Caissa would have given me another second chance.
Here is the entire game. It was rather sloppy I probably should have been punished by Caissa for my play, but maybe she was just being kind knowing how the last two rounds would go for me, two ugly losses after an ugly win.

pw-SAscherman.pgn

The Write Stuff

2010-10-16T00:52:00.000-04:00

My posting has been rather sporadic as of late. I have been playing some chess in September and October with mixed results. Some games have been pretty good, and other games just butt ass ugly! I will confess a majority of the games have been played at the "cracktion" time control of G/30. On a positive note there weren't many time pressure induced implosions. On a not so positive note some the games I got smashed out of the opening or missed simple tactics early before time became a factor. In those cases blaming the clock doesn't help.

I have been doing a great deal of writing for the past two months, but it hasn't been blog related. As my regular readers know, I am testing for Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do in November. At our school the requirements for becoming a Black Belt go beyond knowing the forms, breaking boards and sparring. We have to do a fast, go on a group hike, read a book and write a book report on it, write an essay and do a 3 hour sitting meditation. Yes, "Ms. Can't Sit Still During a Long Chess Game" actually sat still for 3 hours! I did have to change leg position sometimes because sitting cross legged for such a long time tends to hurt after awhile. No I can't put my legs up on top each other like the very limber yoga types or even like Grandmaster Kim did for the meditation.

The essay we had to write was about our goals in Tae Kwon Do, and benefits we receive from Tae Kwon Do. Being one of many words I wrote an eight page essay on the topic. I wanted to share the benefits portion of the essay because I think a lot of what I've gained through Tae Kwon Do transfers over to chess. In these last couple of months as my Tae Kwon Do training has intensified I've started to actually see that some of what I've gotten from the sport is transferring to chess. There are still technical elements that I need to work on in chess, but some of the psychological elements are falling into place. If I can get back to the technical elements (tactics training, opening preparation and end game study) I believe I can perhaps get my rating back over 1800.

Black Belt Essay

Introduction

....

"I would see ads in the newspaper for various martial arts schools. Each ad would tout the benefits of martial arts for children with phrases such as “Develops self-discipline.” “Improves their behavior at home and school”, “Builds self –confidence”. The marketing to adults was more on the line of physical fitness, self-defense and losing weight, with no mention of self-discipline or self-confidence. I would look at these ads and think to myself “Couldn’t adults get some of the same benefits that were being marketed to kids?” I knew I sure could use a dose of self-discipline and self-confidence to help me find some direction in my chaotic dyslexic ADHD driven life.

For a number of years on trips to Borders bookstore I sometimes would stop and look in the window of Grandmaster Kim’s and watch the kids doing class. I think even one time I walked in and asked about adult classes, but got scared off by the time commitment and the cost. At that time I wasn’t ready. It was on one of those trips to Borders that I saw 6 adult women taking class during the day. That was when I walked through the doors and signed up for a trial lesson, “and the rest is history”, or so they say.

The rest is not history. It’s journey that started the day I took that trial lesson, and decided I wanted to learn Tae Kwon Do. I’m sure Instructor Mitchell probably wasn’t convinced he would make a sale from that trial lesson. I think one of the first questions I asked upon seeing him bring out a board with the paper work was, “You’re not going to have me break that?” Yes he was going to have me break a board before our time was up. I kept saying there was no way I could break that board. Talk about needing self-confidence! I did break a board in that lesson, just not the one he initially brought out. I was so afraid of hurting my hand, he had me break a children's board instead.

The trial lesson convinced me that Tae Kwon Do was something I needed in my life. I signed up for a one-year program and paid for the whole thing up front. I figured that would be good motivation to get me going in a new direction. I left the school that day with a crisp new dobak and a student handbook.

After having read the student handbook several times, I decided it was time to fill in the Personal Goals section in the back of the book.

“HOW IS TAE KWON DO GOING TO HELP ME IMPROVE MYSELF?”

Fill in three things you would like to improve or accomplish through Tae Kwon Do.

This is what I wrote at the time:

Build up confidence and self-esteem.

Develop better focus and concentration.

Get stronger physically and mentally.

These were pretty general goals. They weren’t as specific as what was quoted at the bottom of the page. “My Goal is to be a Black Belt, Instructor, Master and Grandmaster!”

At the time I didn’t have such ambitions. After my first class my goal was to make through my second class without having another meltdown, and perhaps get past #2 of Kam Sa Hyung. The idea that I could become a Black Belt seemed absurd at the time. In fact I had told myself before I even started taking classes that I wasn’t going to get wrapped up in this whole “belt thing.” I just wanted to get a workout and see if I could learn to focus better.

It would take me 3 weeks to get my first patch. I found it humiliating to come in week after week with this plain white uniform with no patches on it. In my mind having a totally unadorned uniform screamed out “Total newbie!” I felt like people were looking at me and thinking, “She is so hopeless, she’ll be gone in a month.”

What I was feeling was not what was actually happening. I was not being made fun of, instead what I found was a group of very supportive people who were at various stages of their Tae Kwon Do journey. Every single person whether he was a White Belt, or a seasoned Master said the same thing, “I started in the same place.” These people were able to help encourage me, and explain things that I was having trouble understanding.

Benefits of Tae Kwon Do

Those early months as the most junior of belts were very humbling. Anything that I had accomplished as an athlete in the past did not matter when I stepped into the dojang. It didn’t matter how many medals and trophies I won as an accomplished age group triathlete. It didn’t matter that I had represented the United States in the Triathlon Age Group World Championships. These things weren’t going to make me into a Black Belt. Only hard work, focus and patience would put me on the path to Black Belt.

I would have to say a benefit of Tae Kwon Do that is not touted in advertisements for martial arts schools is humility. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad announce “Learn Tae Kwon Do to get humility!” Most people don’t want to be told they need to become humble in order to succeed. They want to be able to accomplish great things and let everyone know how great they are. Being prideful and arrogant are major roadblocks on the Tae Kwon Do journey. In his book Tae Kwon Do Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Warrior, Master Doug Cook states "By allowing humility to become the medium in which discipline can germinate and prosper, the martial artist will harvest a newly found sense of self-esteem that will act as fortification against the enemy within.". Without humility it's very difficult to reap the other benefits of Tae Kwon Do.

In many sports people are ranked by ability. If someone joins a running or cycling club, he will be placed in a group that is appropriate for his ability. It may be the first day he runs or rides with the club he might be in a group that’s either too slow or too fast. After a meeting or two he’ll find the group that’s appropriate for his pace. As he improves he’ll move to a faster group. However there is not necessarily a step-by-step progression he takes to move to a faster group. Not every single person in that club will have started in the beginner group. Some people are naturally talented, and it doesn’t take much to progress from back of the pack to front of the pack. Sometimes these very talented athletes don’t have an appreciation for what it takes to progress in their sport.

Every single person who comes into Grandmaster Kim’s dojang to learn Tae Kwon Do starts in the same place. He or she starts in the back of the classroom in a brand new uniform with no patches and no belt. It doesn’t matter if she’s the prettiest girl in her class, or the fastest runner in her school she will start her Tae Kwon Do journey the same way we all did. Learning and showing proficiency in the basics will earn the patches and that White Belt that she’ll eventually will wear. The basic requirements will be the foundation on which everything else is based.

It took time to adapt to the traditional ways of a martial artist. The etiquette was nothing I had learned before. I was not used to bowing and greeting people as sir or ma’am, or having people greet me that way. At first I felt awkward when I would come into the dojang and people would say “hello ma’am”. It wasn’t something I was accustomed to, or even something felt I deserved. I thought sir and ma’am were just for those senior to me. I quickly learned that regardless of rank, students greet one another this way as a show of respect. It took getting used to following instructions in manner that wasn’t natural to me. At times it was difficult to accept the fact that it the master’s way, not my way. It took time but I eventually learned what was meant by rule #7. Establish trust between teacher and student.

It may take some students longer then others to learn humility. Once learned then it gives each student a greater appreciation of what their seniors went through to get to where they are now. It also helps them relate to their juniors who are facing the same challenges they dealt with at their stage of their development as a martial artist. Grandmaster Kim continually reminds us to respect our seniors and love our juniors. It’s hard doing those things if we're so full of ourselves. Personally I’ve found myself looking at people and things with a greater sense of appreciation. The world I live in does not revolve around me. I find myself spending more time looking at what I can contribute to others.

What is the very first set of movements we learn? Kam Sa Hyung. Those movements are the building blocks of the basic stances and punches. It's also referred to as the Appreciation Form. The understanding being, “The more knowledge we posses, the more we appreciate everything around us.” It's a form that is common ground for every single student. It’s the first thing we do as a group after meditation and warm ups. Everyone from No Belt to Master performs Kam Sa Hyung every time she or he attends class.

With humility comes another benefit of Tae Kwon Do: Self-discipline. Discipline starts from Day 1. In fact it started before Day 1. In my trial lesson I learned the proper way to bow, how to address instructors and masters, and how to enter and exit the dojang. All of this I learned before I even signed up. There are no short cuts in Tae Kwon Do. Every kick, block and punch must be practiced over and over again. The 10 basic motions and poomse become ingrained in our minds with constant practice. It takes self-discipline to continually practice in order to make our forms better. It is too easy think "I know this. I don't need to practice anymore." It's also easy to get discouraged when learning something new. There were times when I would be learning a new form and felt like I would never be able to do it correctly. It was during those periods where I would have to force myself to keep trying.

There is also the discipline that is demanded of each of us during class. Proper discipline requires us to give our complete attention to the masters and instructors. When we hear Cha Ryut that's the command to come to attention. No looking around the room or adjusting of uniforms. Mind and body together. This attention to discipline has helped me focus better. The focus and discipline not only helps in class, but also in other things that require a lot of focus and concentration. Staying focused has always been a challenge for me. I was the kid who was bouncing from one thing to another and not paying attention in class. I was ADHD long before anyone knew what it was. It's something that has continued to be a struggle for me even as an adult. The self-discipline I've had to develop to make progress as a martial artist has been helpful in other areas of my life.

This self-discipline has helped me in making better food choices and lifestyle changes. With these changes I'm finally getting my weight back to where it was when I was in racing condition. I'm not quite there yet, but it's a goal that I'm very close to reaching. Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight will play a big part in being able to achieve my long-term Tae Kwon Do goals.

As I have developed discipline I have derived another benefit from Tae Kwon Do. Self-confidence. Self-confidence can seem contrary to the humility that we gain in our training. However there is a big difference between self-confidence generated by belief in yourself and your knowledge and the over-confidence that comes from false bravado and cockiness. Grandmaster Kim encourages us to believe in ourselves. He tempers that belief in ourselves by asking us to be honest with ourselves. If he asks, "did you do your best?" it's up to us to answer the question honestly. There are times where I've lacked focus and really didn't do a very good job. If I raise my hand to say I did my best then I'm not being honest with Grandmaster Kim or myself.

Having the confidence in myself makes it a lot easier to be honest in evaluating myself. I can tell myself "I can do better." When faced with new challenges I can tell myself "I can do this." Staying positive and being confident makes it easier to deal with difficult situations. The self-confidence I’ve developed in class helps me in real life situations. Something may prove to be very difficult, and I might not be successful at first. However having self –confidence gives me the determination to keep working at it. I often will think to myself “Yes I can!” when I need a little encouragement to get over whatever hurdle I’m facing.

In Master Cook's book Tae Kwon Do Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Warrior, he devotes an entire chapter to "The Enemy Within". This is an area of my life I've spent much time thinking about and working on. With my learning issues and ADHD I've had many problems with discipline and self-esteem through out my life. It's been difficult to be confident in myself when through out much of my life I've been criticized for being lazy, unfocused and disorganized. As a child I was teased a lot about my funny speech and the way I acted. Even as an adult I've struggled with insensitive people who ask me about the way I talk. I’ve struggled with organization and then have beat myself up when I can’t find something or miss an appointment. I truly have been my worst enemy in terms of emotional growth.

In the chapter, “The Enemy Within”, Master Cook states, "....the image we perceive is a reflection of the person we've created in our mind. Our persona is (in addition to a multitude of other psychological and physical factors) a product of the manner in which we were raised, our physical appearance, the criticism we receive from others, and our successes and failures. ...it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to remain genuinely objective regarding our self-image. To dwell too long on this topic can result in either conceit or despair. ...given the wide spectrum of emotional possibilities we are capable of, we should not be overly critical of ourselves. Rather, we should concentrate on developing our strengths while transforming, fortifying and eliminating our weaknesses."

Master Cook pretty much summarizes what has been the biggest obstacle in my Tae Kwon Do journey. For me it took a long time to build up confidence in myself. As I slowly progressed through the color belt ranks, I was extremely hard on myself. It was too easy to blame age, my learning issues and poor coordination on my lack of progress. It probably was around Blue or Purple Belt that I realized that I really was becoming a martial artist, and that my past history should not be a hindrance to becoming a Black Belt. It was at that point I could really start believing "a Black Belt is a No Belt who never quit."

Each promotion test is measure of progress that helps remind me of just how far I've come. To progress from the 53-year-old woman who cried her first night of class to the woman who is on the verge of becoming a Black Belt has been a life-changing event. I feel as though I've had an emotional breakthrough as I've overcome both mental and physical challenges to reach the point I'm at right now. This is the first time in many years that I have undertaken something brand new, and stayed with it. Traveling this road towards Black Belt makes me realize that I have it within me to try new things and make changes that will have a positive affect on my life."

I'm still working on how to transfer the focusing and self-discipline piece to chess. I'm encouraged by the fact that I've managed to not toss away winning positions by losing focus, and getting distracted by external factors. Every time I've gotten a winning position recently, I've reminded myself that it's not a win until checkmate, the opponent's flag falls or he resigns. It's true I had a close call last week when I went for an insane attack. However that was not overconfidence, it was overlooking one line. I'd rather miss a line then throw it way because I thought it was a win.

Stay tuned as I will resume analyzing some of my recent games.

Phantom of the Chess Board

2010-10-01T16:25:00.001-04:00

The New York State Championship is old news at this point. However my round 5 was quite interesting. Not just the game itself, but the contrasting personalities at the board. Before I could even play my game there was still the long drive from Westchester County back up to Albany. Fortunately I was not the one driving. I could just sit in the front seat, watch the scenery and talk to the dad who was driving. We made very good time back up to Albany. Just about two hours. So we arrived by 9:45 AM for a 10:00 AM start.

When I arrived at the board my opponent already had his set and board set up. His set was a wood set with stylized pieces where it was hard to tell the king from the queen, and bishops from pawns. It was not a Staunton set, so despite being White I asked to use my set. There was just no way I could play with this set and not risk doing something stupid because I can't tell the queen from the king. I can find other ways to be stupid without trying to blame it on the pieces.

I really don't like being a nudge about whose set we're using, especially when the opponent has set his up already. I've seen players who had Black insist on using their set despite the fact that the opponent has his out and set up already. It didn't matter that the sets were pretty much the same, or that White's set was actually nicer. The player with Black just does it to be annoying, or to intimidate the opponent. I wasn't trying to do either. I just wanted to know for sure what piece I was actually moving.

He didn't say anything about changing sets. He simply started picking up the pieces and putting them back in his bag. I helped him clean up his set and set up mine. I didn't think to swap boards so we used his. The board didn't matter. It was a standard green and buff roll up board. After all the equipment adjustments we finally got down to playing chess.

The game started out very quietly. We traded pawns early and then after he took my knight on c3, I recaptured with the d pawn giving him a chance to trade queens. He did not want the queen trade so he moved his queen off the d file. If I had any concerns about making the transition from Game/40 to 40 moves in 2 hours followed by Game/60, they were quickly dispelled. It took us 40 minutes to play the first 10 moves. He had used more time in the opening. I would be the one using more time for the next 30 moves.

I wish I could say that it was time well spent. I find with these quiet positions it's sometimes difficult to come up with an attacking plan. With so much time available I often spend a lot of it looking at many different things. Often it's easy to get bogged down in looking at all sorts of complicated ideas, and overlooking the obvious. A clear example of this occurred on move 25. In the position below.

Position after 24... Kh7.

I thought I was going to be able to win a piece by playing 25. e5 Qxe5 26. Bd4 attacking his queen and blocking his rook from defending his bishop on d3. Sometimes in the pursuit of something clever like a pawn sac, it's easy to miss the simple way of winning a piece. I can simply play 25. Qd2! I didn't play it because I was concerned about a discovered attack that's not there. The bishop is pinned. If he plays 25...Qd7 I have 26. Rd1. The game continued 26...Qb5 27. a4 Qa6 28. Qe3 Bg6.

I knew I had something in the position, but I just couldn't find it. This was match of Ying and Yang at the chess board. My opponent had not budged from his sitting position. He was hunched over and just staring at the board. He made no eye contact with me, or even looked around the room. His only movement was making moves over the chess board, pressing the clock and keeping score. I on the other hand was in non-stop motion. I was constantly changing positions in my chair. The week before I had fallen on my back and was still in pain. I couldn't do my usual kneeling on the chair or bending way over the chess board. I'm trying to maintain some sense of decent posture, so I ended out standing and sitting a lot. When I was sitting my legs are bouncing up and down or I was fidgeting with my hands.

I kept the pressure him, but somehow I missed another opportunity to win a piece. We reached the position below after after a series of moves that allowed me to win a pawn with 29. Qxe7 Re8 30. Qd6 Ne4 31. Nxe4 Bxe4.

Position after 31...Bxe4

I was debating about whether I should continue with the trades in the center with 32. Bxe4 or play 32. Bxg7. I didn't like the idea that he would play 32...Bxf3. I was concerned about him having the light square bishop and follow up with 33...Qe2 after I retreat my bishop from g7. His fierce attack is all a mirage. After 32. Bxg7 if he does play 32...Bxf3 I have 33. Qxh6+ Kg8 34. Qh8#. He has to play 32...Kxg7 which allows me to win the Bishop on e4 with 33. Qd4+. Because I had not seen the mate threat I chose to simplify with 32. Bxe4 Rxe4 33. Bxg7 Kxg7.

With that series of trades I managed to allow Black to activate his rook. I totally missed that when he played Rxe4 he's attacking my a pawn a second time. I brought my queen back to d2 because I wanted to get my queen back for defensive purposes. He can bring his rook to e2. However he simply wins his pawn back with 34...Rxa4.

It was disappointing giving the pawn back, but I still felt I was slightly better with my solid pawn structure. However I made a few so so moves right before time control. I made my 40th move with 13 seconds to spare. At that point I should have gotten up from the board, and walked away from the position for a few minutes. I was still in the hyper state of constant movement and being a bundle of nerves. Walking away for a few minutes perhaps would have let me catch my breath, control my thoughts, and slow me down. Instead rushed my moves as if I was still racing the clock. One of the moves I rushed was 43. Kh3?? which allowed him to push his a pawn to a3. At that point I had a serious meltdown and allowed him to push the pawn and queen instead of playing Ra3 which allows him to win a pawn, but it's harder for him to queen in that position. Here is the game.

pw-djohnston090610.pgn

I spent over a week working on this post. While trying to come up with ideas for my narrative, I ended out going over the game several more times and got thinking about what was going on in my head. It's easy to chalk it up to poor tactical understanding on my part. However I think it goes deeper then that. I've written about tournaments where I've had trouble making the transition from the accelerated schedule time control to the slower main time control. I've gotten in trouble by playing too fast and not using the available time. In this case I think I was making such a big effort to use my time that I allowed myself to get bogged down by unnecessary analysis. I also was looking for problems that weren't really there. Guarding against the phantom threats distracted me from the real threats that I had.

This is a pattern that has shown up in a few of the games I've played in the past 10 days. I see things that I can do, but don't because I think the opponent has a big threat. I'm not sure why it's happening. Sometimes I think when I'm in a bad mood or a little down on myself, I go looking for the worst in a position. It may be I'm looking at the position in "the glass is half empty" mode when in reality "the glass is three quarters full." I know I'm stressing a lot over my upcoming Black Belt test so I'm sure it's impacting what I'm thinking about.

It's also been hard to keep up with my blog. Writing has not been coming easily as of late. I've had to do several writing projects in conjunction with my Black Belt test. Even those I've had some difficulty with. I had a book report due last week. I felt like I was back in college as I was madly writing even on the day it was due. Some of it may have been procrastination, but most of it was just trying to figure out what I wanted to say about what I read. I think I changed my overall theme two or three times before I finally finished it. Even this post changed a lot from my original premise.

Perhaps one of my upcoming posts will be the essay I have to write as part of my testing requirements. The topic is "The Goal You Set, Is the Goal You Get." I have to admit I have not set any chess goals, which is perhaps why I'm coming up with a lot nothing in chess.

Just In Case You're Wondering.....

2010-09-21T23:49:00.000-04:00

.....I have not been abducted by FIDE space aliens. I've been away for a few days and the space between tournaments was 11 days. My mind has not been on chess lately. I'm busy trying to get a handle on all the stuff I need to do for my November Black Belt test. Here are a couple of pictures from our 5 hour boot camp last Saturday. What I love about Tae Kwon Do is being able to yell at the top of my lungs, and not have people look at me like I'm strange.

Start of a running drill. Sometimes I would like to scream like that when I blunder.

Can I kick my opponent under the table like that?

3 tapes down, one to go.

Tonight I did the 3rd of 4 preliminary tests before the Black Belt test in November. Each of the yellow tapes on my belt represent a test leading up to black belt. The first one I got a year ago. Then I had the hiatus due to my inability to talk and walk down stairs simultaneously. When I fell on my back month I could help to think "Here we go again! It will be another 6 months." However the back is doing better. When does it hurt the most? When I'm sitting atbthe chess board.

I will be glad when this is done. Between having to read books, write a book report, and write an essay, I feel like I'm in school again. At least I'll get a break from that stuff. However becoming a Black Belt doesn't mean it's really over. I'll start learning new things the moment I'm promoted. However I won't be stressing so much over everything I'm trying to do right now.

I will get back to some chess games in a bit. I realized I never did finish up my NYS Championship report, and then there are the misadventures of another Thankless Thursday.

Even Score After Four

2010-09-11T23:24:00.000-04:00

Spoiler alert! My title gives it away. I did get a win on Sunday. In round 3 I got paired against a 1790. I couldn't get paired any higher in the section since he was the number one seed in the section. He had 1.5 points, but since there were only 4 of us in the 2 day schedule I had to play him despite only having .5. He had beaten my 2nd round opponent and had drawn with the other player in our little foursome. I'm thinking to myself that I have my work cut out for me. I'm also thinking that if I lose again I may just shoot myself. Not really, but I might just not come back after my 4th round bye. (More about that later.)

I did tell Steve if I lost again in the Under 1800 I would want to go back into the Under 2000 section with all the 1/2 points byes I'd be entitled to. I figured playing in the Under 2000 section with 1.5 points worth of byes would be better then staying in the Under 1800 section with 1 point worth of byes. Fortunately that became a non-issue. The game was a back and forth affair with both of us missing chances to gain a material or positional advantage.

At one point I was convinced I was going to get my queen trapped, but he didn't play the move. As it turns out the queen doesn't get trapped, but White will have a strong position. It got a little hairy towards the end as we both were short on time. I mated with 9 seconds to spare. He missed the defense that puts mate off for 5 moves. hopefully with 9 seconds I would find all the correct moves. However one never knows when the clock is running down. Here's the game:

TWarner-pw090510.pgn

In past years I've had timing issues with round 4 when trying to make plans to meet up with my sister. This year that was not an issue since she left Sunday morning to visit a friend and wouldn't be back until late Monday or Tuesday. However I did have a conflict. I had been invited to a party that was near where I live. 3 other people in the tournament were attending this same party. At first I thought they would play three rounds, go to the party and not come back. I didn't want to play half the tournament and go home, so initially I declined the invitation. However I noticed all of them had requested 4th round byes, but not byes for Monday's rounds. I found out they were planning to come back and play on Monday. I decided I would attend the party and come back with them to play on Monday.

Why was I willing to attend this party over 2 hours away, spend the night at home and come back on Monday to play the last two rounds? Am I nuts? Perhaps, but there were two good reasons to attend. The main purpose was to inform people about Chess for Change, a charitable organization that is bring chess to children in South Africa. This is something that really interests me because I would love to go to Africa for chess or to volunteer for a Earthwatch project. These are things on my "bucket list". The other reason to attend was Jeremy Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles was coming. I'm a big baseball fan, and grew up in Baltimore watching the Orioles. I still root for them even though I'm in New York. I can't be a New York Yankee fan. Hating the Yankees was all part of growing up as an Oriole fan.

It was a nice party. I saw a lot of my chess friends and it was a "Who's Who" of chess coaches with Bruce Pandolfini, Sunil Weeramantry and GM Maurice Ashley in attendance. It was funny when our host introduced me to Maurice Ashley. We both laughed and Maurice said "We don't need an introduction. We go back a long way."

Bruce Pandolfini Dvid Berman (party host) FM Sunil Weeramantry and GM Maurice Ashley

Jeremy Guthrie was a big hit at the party. He talked about playing chess as a kid and attending two National Elementary Championships in 1990 and 1991. I was at both those tournaments. I volunteered and observed in 1990 in Hollywood, Florida, and then we organized the 1991 championship in Rye, NY. Needless to say I don't recall meeting him as a 4th or 5th grader at those tournaments. He hasn't played in any tournaments since then, but he has a rating of 1472 from that time. That's a pretty good rating for a 5th grade kid. He still loves to play, and when the Orioles are in New York he likes going to the Chess & Checker House in Central Park.

Only 3 people in that picture are lower rated then me!

Jeremy was one of the last ones to leave. He played a game with Joshua Berman, and won. It was an interesting game that went down to the ending. For a guy who makes his living throwing 95 mph fastballs, he plays a good game of chess. It would be interesting to see how he'd do in a tournament after a very long lay off.

Sunday was a long day and Monday would be a long one too, starting with the two hour ride back up to Albany for rounds five and six. Fortunately I did not have to drive. How would a two hour commute affect my 10:00 am game? Stay tuned.....

2010 New York State Championship Switcheroo!

2010-09-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

The report on how the big guys fared can be found at the US Chess Federation site Labor Day Madness I. My pictures are included on the New York portion of the write up. My name appears on the photo credits, but you will not see me listed amongst the winners. Just one of those weekends.

All I can say about this tournament is, it was a weird one for me. There are inherent dangers when one plays in the same tournament year after year. I should have learned my lesson in February when I just assumed that the Saratoga Open would have the same format and schedule as previous years. Instead I discovered late on Friday evening that the tournament started already. This wasn't a scheduling mishap, it was just not knowing the section formats had changed. Usually there has not been an Under 1800 section, but there has been an Under 1800 prize in the Under 2000 section. Last year with a good Monday and a lot of right things happening, I managed to take a share of that prize.

Out of habit I entered the 2 day schedule of the Under 2000 section. It was only after this exchange on facebook that I found out there was an under 1800 section.

Meghesh Pansari im gonna be one of the bottom seeds. my published is about 100 points lower than my current rating xD hopefully i can perform well and i just wanna place with 5/6
September 2 at 4:00pm ·
Matt Slomski so a low seed? sounds like we might get paired since you will make an "upset" win over a low 1900 guy the first round and then I might have to play you the second or third even. lets hope we don't get paired so we can both have a shot for 1st without having to knock one another out
September 2 at 4:48pm ·
Meghesh Pansari yeah im gonna be a very low seed :D mwahahahaha. so i should get some "upsets" like you said in the first couple rounds. hopefully this time i play more consistent that last year tho. 2.5/3 with good upsets...then 3 losses in a row smh
September 2 at 4:57pm ·
Polly Wright ‎1818 isn't REALLY low seed. @1726 I'm a REALLY low seed.
September 2 at 6:09pm · ·
Meghesh Pansari you know there's a U18 section right?
September 2 at 6:10pm ·
Polly Wright No. In past years there been Under 2000 with an under 1800 prize. Last year I actually tied for 1st under 1800 in the under 2000 section.
September 2 at 10:35pm · ·
Meghesh Pansari there is actually in under 1800 section this year
September 2 at 10:35pm ·
Polly Wright
LOL I entered under 2000 out of habit. The way I've been playing lately it may not matter which section I play in. I can get clobbered by 1800s or by 1600s.

I may switch depending on what the various sections look like. If there are bunch of little kids rated 1400 who are playing up I may just stay in under 2000.
Being rather disgusted how I played the previous week, I didn't really feel like it mattered what section I played. Sunday morning I arrived at the playing site for our annual state association meeting. I told Steve he could leave me in the Under 2000 section or switch me if there was an odd number. He left me in the Under 2000 section. In the first round I got paired against Robert Campbell. This is the second year in a row we've been paired in the first round. It was also the 4th time in the last 5 years we've played each other in this particular tournament. I drew with him last year.

A draw was possible this year. Unfortunately I spent most of the game slightly worse, and had clock issues. Just when I thought I could hold, I made a couple of marginal moves and let his king get in. A rook pawn wins when there are other pawns on the board. Unfortunately as one can see from the position below, there were other pawns.

Position after 60...Ka3. Mate in 3
Too bad White has that f pawn that can move.

Here is the entire game that leads to the final position.
pw-rcampbell090510.pgn

At the time I thought I played alright, but in looking at the game later I realized my play was indecisive and overly cautious at times. My opponent probably could have taken advantage of the position earlier. However I felt as though choosing the Under 2000 section was an alright choice. However the tournament director had other ideas at this point.

When there are 3 different schedules to choose from and 6 sections sometimes there are weird section configurations. The Under 2200 section started with only 2 players. If 2 more players couldn't be found then those two players would have to play a 3 game match for their 3 rounds on the 2-day schedule. Steve offered Evan Rabin a free re-entry on on the 2 day schedule with a 1/2 point bye for round one. This actually worked out well for him as he went on to tie for first in the section.

Steve also drafted Anatoly Ostrovskiy to fill in as the house player. Anatoly is always available for house player duty while his son Aleksandr is playing. I've played Anatoly on more then one occasion when he's being house man so that I didn't get a bye. Now with 4 players Steve could make somewhat sensible pairings until the merge.

The Under 2200 section wasn't the only section with pairing issues. The Under 2000 section had 5 players including me after a late arrival made it an odd number. The under 1800 section only had 3 players. One player had to take the full point bye as the low rated player in the section. At this point Steve offered me a free re-entry to move to the Under 1800 section. Me re-entering? It's certainly not something I would pay to do, but since I had not really cared about which section I was in, it's was worth a clean slate with a 1/2 point bye in lieu of the loss incurred in the other section. The loss still counted for rating, but no big deal. I played up 200 points and I'm on my floor.

Having to playing little kids with 1400 ratings was not going to be a problem. Of the 3 players who had entered the 2 day schedule, two of them were higher rated then me. I would end out playing both the higher rated players. My second round opponent was a 6th grader from Burlington Vermont. That's my old stomping grounds, and he and his father know many of the people that were there when I was playing chess up there in the 70s. It was a fairly quiet game and we got into an ending with 6 pawns, a queen and bishops of opposite colors.

He just played 35...Bd4. We both had under 3 minutes. Since we were playing the two day schedule the time limit for the first 3 rounds was game/40 with a 5 second delay. I thought the position was rather drawish so I played 36. a4 and offered a draw. He turned it down immediately. That didn't surprise me since I find most kids like to play these positions out with not much time left. What did surprise me was the real reason he turned down the draw. I had missed 36...Bxf2 winning a pawn. 36. Bd3 or 36. Bf3 eliminates that threat, and then drawing chances are more realistic.

What a sick feeling when I offer a draw after playing a random move that loses a pawn. I suppose worse would be offering a draw, and getting mated on the next move. At that point I was rather annoyed with myself, and starting thinking "How could you have missed that? What a stupid move." etc. The problem when those thoughts cross my mind it's hard to focus on the position itself. I wasted time trying to find a way to perhaps get the pawn back. It didn't take long to determine that:

a) I'm not getting the pawn back any time soon.

b) Don't play 37. Qxf2 since that will be followed by 37...Qxe4+ and picking up at least one more pawn after I move my king.

Keeping the bishops on the board would be my only hope for holding the position. The game continued 37. Kh3 Bc5 38. Bg2 Qe5 39. Bf3 b6 40. Kg2 f5 White loses on time. It probably would have been difficult to hold even with enough time, but it would have been nice to have the time to try.

So now I've managed to lose a game in each section. So much for the fresh start with the re-entry. It's games like that one which reminds me why I don't re-enter. Why throw good money after bad by re-entering and losing again? However since I didn't have to pay for the privilege of losing in two different sections, it wasn't a terrible thing. I still would get a decent pairing for round 3.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga of Polly's NY State Championship.

From Monday Madness to Thankless Thursday!

2010-09-04T01:03:00.001-04:00

Anyone who works a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job knows what it's like to have the Monday morning blahs. Great weekend followed by having to go back to work Monday morning. Since I left the corporate world in 1992 or I should say the corporate world left me, I don't experience the Monday blahs like most people. If I have to get up early on a Sunday to go direct a tournament, then I might have the Sunday morning blahs. All that being said, it doesn't necessarily mean I love Mondays.

This particular Monday it was rather dreary and a bit of rain. I woke up around 7:00, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. Before I knew it, it was 10:00 am. Had my weekend of Tae Kwon Do training wiped me out that badly, or was it just the weather? Perhaps if I knew how the rest of the day would go maybe I would have just stayed in bed.

I had a bit of a mishap at Tae Kwon Do. We were doing a kicking drill, and somehow while trying to execute a roundhouse kick I landed flat on my back. I've fallen plenty of times when my balance has been off, but not as hard as this landing. Also I fell squarely on my back, and it went into spasms. Fortunately since I happened to have had with my doctor that day, I was able to have him check it out and give me a physical therapy referral. He felt it was best to not mess around with it, and start PT as soon as possible.

It was kind of ironic given that one of the main reasons for having the doctor's appointment was to get him sign my medical clearance for Black Belt preparation and training. He did sign the form! I must say my road to Black Belt seems to be filled with potholes. First the broken ankle and now a cranky back. Hopefully this will not entail another delay. I just want to get past this hurtle and move on to the next challenge.

Every week I send out an email announcing the next tournament being played on Monday night at the Bob Peretz Chess Club. I try to get people to let me if they're coming. That way I can get names into the computer ahead of time. I got about 8 people who told me they were coming. I figured I would have another 6 to 8 people who would just show up. With my back barking at me I was hoping it would be a simple tournament, and that I would not have to play. I guess my buddy Murphy had other plans in mind for me. I had 22 players that I put in four quads and one 6-player Swiss. At least that's what I thought I had.

I starting moving the players into their respective sections and announcing pairings. Quads are a nice format because the players know who their opponents are and what color to play. Once the sections are set up, they pretty much direct themselves. The problem was I got to the 4th section and realized I had forgotten to put one of the late arrivals in. His rating would put him into either the 2nd or 3rd quad, so I had to undo some of the sections and figure out where he belonged. This also meant I had 23 players, thus making it an odd number. This meant I needed to play.

I quickly switched people around and set up 6 quads. I know the club has grown and gotten stronger when I find myself playing in the 5th quad. I managed to get all the 1st round pairings out, and hoped that I would have time to write out the pairings for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Even though I do everything on my computer, I don't bring a printer. Parking is too much of a crap shoot to bring a printer. Sometimes I'm parked several blocks away. Most nights it's not such a big deal to have handwritten pairings. This particular night, especially with the delay hand writing the pairings slowed things down.

Fortunately my first round game didn't go the entire hour. Silvio and I played for the 108th time. I beat him for the 59th time. He's beaten me 32 times and we have 17 draws. Every time we play he does something different in the opening. If I'm Black against him I never know what he'll start with. This time I was White and opened with 1. c4. We had one of our typical games where he plays a bunch of random moves in the opening, and I waste time responding to the randomness. Here is the game.

pw-Srosato082310.pgn

This gave me time to write out 2nd and 3rd round pairings so that everyone could mark their results and find their next opponent without me making lots of announcements. Not having to do pairings in between each round gives me the chance to concentrate on my own games. Not that it helped me in round two. I had one of those games where it went down to an ending that probably could have been held, but the clock eventually caught up with me.

In round 3 I played Guy Colas, Joshua's father. Guy and I usually have very close games, but more often then not he gets a big advantage on the clock. The result being, I often lose on time or have a time pressure induced implosion. It looked like I was just going to run out of time in a position where material was even. He had a passed pawn on h3, and a potentially troublesome queen side majority. We reached the following position after I played 55. Qf2.

I had a little over a minute left, and he had 10 minutes left. Black's best move here is 55...Bxf3 followed by 56...Qf5. Taking the h pawn and allowing Black to trade queens would allow him to convert the queen side majority into an unstoppable passed pawn. Instead Guy played 55...Kf5. After he let go of the king he flinched. Guy doesn't have a very good poker face. At first I thought "What's the big deal? We're going to trade bishops, I'll get a couple checks and win the h pawn but I'll still have clock issues." The game continued 56. Bxf4 Kxf4 57. Qg3+ At this point I realize that no matter what Black does he's in big trouble. 57...Kh5 leads to 58. Qg5# He played 57...Kf5. I played 58. Qxh3+ winning his queen on d7. That was a big break for me. A potentially ugly evening turned out to be a modest gain of 9 rating points.

However the rating points would not last long after a horrendous Thursday at the Marshall Chess Club. It started off with my having to play Joshua Colas in the first round. We went through a period where we played each other two straight weeks in the first round. After that happened I had asked the director to try avoid pairing us in the first round since we come to the city together. Since I had not had to play him in a long time I kind of forgot that there was always a possibility we would get paired. We had not played since March when we had the back to back weeks of playing. It was kind of ironic that we ended out playing since I had chosen not to play him the night before in his simul.

On Thursday nights my second round opponent is often Jay Bonin's first round opponent. Often he gets my first round opponent in the second round. I figured that would not happen this time because his opponent Black in the first round just as I had. If there aren't many upsets and the rating differential isn't too big the pairing program can usually make it so colors alternate. However for the second week in a row, I would end out getting Black twice in a row. I was paired against Scot Mc Elheny. I hate playing Black against him because he plays an annoying line against my Accelerated Dragon. I decided I would play a little differently. However as this Wacky Wednesday worthy miniature demonstrates, sometimes "it's better to deal with the devil you know, not the devil you don't know."

SMcElheny-pw082610.pgn

Ouch! However despite losing in less then 10 minutes, I was not the first one done. Grandmaster Michael Rohde won his game in even less time. That's not supposed to happen on board two! I finally got White in round three, but that did not make things any better. The game lasted a lot longer, but clock issues cost me in a drawish ending.

This was one of those nights that I would have been perfectly happy to get the bye in the last round. I would have taken the train back instead of riding back with Josh and Guy. As it turned out the number was even so I had a last round game. What I didn't know before the start of round four that Josh was tired and withdrew. Guy told me they would be waiting for me to play my game. If I knew he was withdrawing, I probably would have withdrawn too and we all could get home earlier. However once the pairings went up, I wasn't going to tell my opponent "Sorry I'm not going to play." If I had withdrawn before the pairings went up, my fourth round opponent would have been the one to get the bye. However I didn't feel it was right not to play.

One side of me wanted to play 5 or 10 moves and offer a draw. However I can't bring myself to do that even if the situation would excuse such an action. My opponent was playing in his first tournament so the least I could do was play a real game and see what happened. I ended out getting a third Black because he had played Black in rounds two and three. One never knows how weak or strong an unrated opponent is going to be. He played solidly and we ended out drawing anyway. However I felt better about the game being a legitimately played draw.

I took this entire week off from playing chess. I was away on Monday and Thursday we went out to dinner with one of our neighbors. This weekend I'll be playing in the New York State Championship. Because I play every year, I tend to do things on auto-pilot. I didn't even look at the format for this year's tournament. I just automatically entered the under 2000 section because there's never been an Under 1800 section. However after a little exchange of comments on Facebook I found out there is an Under 1800 section this year. The question is, should I switch to that section or take my chances in the Under 2000 section? I'll make up my mind once I see whether or not the Under 1800 section is loaded with under rated little kids playing up a section or two.

Stay tuned....

Joshua Colas Simul at Westchester Chess Club

2010-08-28T00:17:00.000-04:00

Even though many of you have not met Joshua in person, you have met both him and his dad through this blog. My first encounter with Joshua was when he was 7 years old and rated around 1100. He gave me a good scare before blundering in my time pressure. I knew this was a kid with talent, and sooner or later he would go sailing right past me. It was less then two years later when his rating crept by mine. Then it just flew by me. The last time I beat him was August 26, 2008. That ended a 6 game losing streak against him. Two weeks later on his birthday a new losing streak would begin.

In the mean time his rating has risen substantially and in October he will be representing the United States at the World Youth Championships in Halkidiki, Greece. Qualifying participants have to pay their own way. Between airfare, meals and hotel for his dad and him it's quite an expense. The chess coordinator from his school has been spearheading a fund raising drive. The Westchester Chess Club helped out by hosting a simul at the club on Wednesday, and asked participants to make a donation towards his expenses. He played 15 people who ranged in rating from 1100 to 1750. Participants contributed over $600 and the club contributed another $200. He had 10 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. His lone loss was to Jacob Spitzer, rated 1719.

I decided I was not going to play in the simul, but would come and take pictures instead. I figured I've played him enough times in tournaments. I did not need to play him in a simul too. I have very little patience with simuls. It's hard enough sitting still and staying focused in a game where I have the opponent's undivided attention. It's even harder in a simul when it may be several minutes before the player gets back to my board. Little did I know that my next opportunity to lose to him would come the next night at the Marshall Chess Club.

Here are some pictures from the simul.

Young and old played against Joshua.

Joshua going head to head with his dad.
Yes he beat his dad.

Thinking about his next move.

Jacob Spitzer, only one to score a full point.

If anyone would like to contribute towards Joshua's travel expenses and coaching tax deductible contributions can be sent to:

White Plains Foundation for Public Education
3 Milford Close
White Plains, NY 10606.

Write "Joshua Colas — Chess" in the check's memo line.

I have made a financial contribution. I also contributed a few more rating points with this game on Thursday night.

JColas-pw082610.pgn

I would like to say that beating me in the first round helped inspire him in his second round win against a 2200 and his third round draw against a grandmaster. Somehow I don't think the former had anything to do with the latter, but one can hope. The loss sure didn't do anything for the rest of my evening, but that is a whole different story.

Riding the Orient Distress Right Out of Town

2010-08-22T23:46:00.000-04:00

Normally when I play in a tournament that I have flown to, I spend Sunday night at the hotel. That way I don't have to worry about how long my game is going to be, or whether I'll make my flight on time. There have been times when I've taken a red-eye flight back home. With 11:30 pm departures, games running late are not an issue. However I wasn't leaving California after the tournament. I was heading down to San Diego to spend a few days visiting my nieces. It's great having family out in California. Makes for a good excuse to spend extra time out there.

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm not the most organized person on the planet. At times I'm "Last Minute Molly" when it comes to little details such as how will I get from Irvine to San Diego. My original intent was to rent a car in Irvine and drive down to San Diego. I was going to need a car in San Diego anyway. However when I went online to try to book a car the prices for a one way rental were insane. It was going to cost over $100 a day even for a little rinky-dink economy car. I even tried Priceline.com where I normally have really good luck getting a reasonable price. I had gotten an excellent deal on a one way rental from Hilton Head to Savannah last fall, so I figured I could do just as well. Wrong!!! California is not South Carolina and Georgia.

Time for plan B. What was plan B? Could I get a ride from someone heading to San Diego after the tournament? Was there a train to San Diego? Amtrak has train service to San Diego. Next question. How often and how late do they run? It turns out they run a number of trains and they run one as late as 11:09 pm. I would only need that train if I played the full 6 hours from 3:00 pm to past 9:00 pm. Not likely that would occur, but at least I had late options if necessary.

The problem with leaving on the last day of the tournament is having to check out of the room ahead of time. That means having everything packed and ready to go ahead of time. I was a little slow getting up on Sunday because I had stayed up late playing hearts with friends. It was the renewal of an old tradition from the 80s. Consequently I found myself running around the room throwing stuff in the suitcase as I'm eating breakfast on the the move. Eat a few spoonfuls of cereal, throw a few things in the suitcase, eat a few strawberries, pack up my assorted chargers for my various electronics, so on and so forth. Also I was getting bombarded with instant messages from someone who was upset about one the decisions voted on by the delegates. I don't type really fast, and when I'm trying to do three things at once, eat, pack and message I slow down even more.

Fortunately I didn't have to check out until 1:30, so I would have time to clear out of the room after the delegates meeting was done. I finally got my computer and headed down for the second day of the delegates meetings. As I got there they were discussing suspending the rules in order to go back and reconsider one of the decisions voted on the day before. Yes it was the decision that I had gotten bombarded about via Facebook messenger and my email box. It was decided to hold off implementing the rule change until January of 2012.

Here is how John Hillary of Western Chess described it: "Motion by Mike Atkins to suspend the rules to delay implementation of abolishing the 5-minute deduction. Steve Immitt in New York has apparently been haranguing everybody who will take his IMs, and and we get to waste a lot of time on this to placate him. Lots of smoke and mirrors. Since I've spoken against this, it would be unfair for me to summarize everyone's argument. We're up to 9:45 now, no real progress. Several claims that the Delegates "didn't understand" what they voted on. I certainly did. Motion to delay passed implementation for a year. Idiots."

I guess I'm an idiot since I not only voted to delay, but I spoke in favor of delaying. If that was the most idiotic thing I did all day, then Sunday would have been a good day. However there's still this matter of playing another under rated kid from California later that afternoon. Despite Hillary's perception of no progress in the meeting, we actually breezed through the remainder of the agenda. The meeting adjourned at 12:05 which was 55 minutes ahead of schedule.

I stayed in the meeting room to finish up my round 4 train wreck post. I had not paid for additional internet time in my room, so it was finish the post in the meeting room or wait until I got to San Diego. Considering that I did absolutely no blogging in San Diego, it would have been back in New York when I'd finally get around to finishing my round 4 post. Since it's the only one of my US Open posts that has generated any sort of comments, I'm glad I got it up in a somewhat timely manner. My remaining posts have been rather late and very out of date. Perhaps my readers enjoy my train wreck stories more then those moments when I play decent chess.

To make a long story short, I manage to clear out of the room on time, go out for lunch and make it back in plenty of time for round 9. I had forgotten to write down the train times for getting to San Diego, so before the round I asked Kim Cramer to look up the times for me. Kim runs the registration table and chess control at all the big nationals, so I knew she would still have internet access. She gives me the times starting with 5:09 pm. I wrote the time down, and said to her "That's rather early. If I can make that train then something has gone horribly wrong." You would think after "me and my big mouth" remarks on my part I'd know better then to say something like that.

I grab a piece of paper and make a list of train times:

5:09 (WTF happened? or Gift from Caissa!)
6:11 (Oh crap! or Somebody played too fast?)
8:17 (4 hour game with an hour to spare.)
9:31 (5+ hour game, and/or extended good byes.)
11:09 (Last game done. Miss this train, spend the night in the station.)

Now at least I knew how I would get to San Diego. The only question that remained was how would I get to the station without taking a taxi. The taxi ride would cost more then the train ticket. I figured depending on what time I finished I could find a ride with someone who was heading out at that point. However before I could figure that all out, I still had a game of chess to play. So what happens when my score is 3 out of 8? I get paired down again! Not only do I get paired down, I play another kid, and another female. I'm not sure if I've ever played another woman in the US Open, but I've certainly never played more then one, much less three in one US Open.

I had Black which actually I was very happy about. I was even happier when she opened 1. e4. In fact I was very pleased with how things were going until I noticed on move 14 that I was down a piece! How the hell did that happen? She walked into a line where Black wins a pawn. Unfortunately in this case Black had a serious brain fart, and totally misplayed the line. After White plays 10. Nxc6 Black is supposed to simply recapture. Instead I played 10...Nxd2. It wasn't until her 14th move I realized I had misplayed the moves and was down a piece for the pawn I "won".

I finally noticed when she played 14. Nbd5. She has all these really annoying threats, and I'm thinking to myself "Wow she's gotten a lot of play for that pawn. She might trap my rook on a8. I haven't developed my light squared bishop....Hey wait! Why do I only have two bishops and she has two knights and a bishop? Where did my knight go?"

That is probably one of the most sick feelings to have in a game. I'm worrying about losing the exchange or giving back the pawn, and then realize I'm already down material. WTF? She launched a vicious attack, won pawns and forced me to make trades that I didn't want to make. By move 24 she was forcing a pair of rooks off the board, and I was going to lose more pawns. I resigned at that point. I was shell shocked. Totally crushed by an 11 year old girl. Don't let anyone tell you that girls play more positional type of games. Not true. Why I played the opening that way defies logic or explanation. However I give my young opponent credit for how methodically she forced trades and made threats. Here's the game:

SShao-pw080810.pgn

My snarky comment about not needing information about the 5:09 train had come back to haunt me. It was just after 4:00 pm. We played less then an hour. I could make that train with no trouble if I could find a ride to the station. I was ready to get out town, and go down to San Diego for my real vacation. Dewain Barber was willing to give me a ride as he was getting ready to leave. I just wasn't sure if my niece would be ready to pick me up for that early an arrival. I also wanted to say good bye to a few people first. Skulking out of town on Amtrak was not how I wanted to exit the scene.

I took the 6:11, which was still way earlier then I anticipated. I had not planned to lose the last round in an hour. However bad things happen, and one has to find the silver lining. What was the silver lining behind the black cloud? Views that I've never seen on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line. Views that I would not have seen in the dark on the 8:17 or 9:31 train. This is what I saw from my seat on train #784, Pacific Liner to San Diego.

My early arrival in San Diego also allowed me to enjoy some outstanding pizza and local brews with my niece. Losing horribly doesn't have to be too horrible.

So where do I go from here? One anonymous poster asked me what has happened to my chess? I don't have an answer yet, though a few wins since I have gotten back makes me feel that all is not lost. I have a lot going on as I prepare for my black belt test this fall. In a future post I will discuss some of the challenges I'm facing, and how I might be able to apply them to my chess.

US Open Round 8

2010-08-20T23:43:00.000-04:00

Despite a few crappy games in rounds 2 and 4, overall I was satisfied with how the two days of multiple games went. I felt I spent my time well, and I wasn't moving too fast. The transition from G/60 to 40/2 went smoothly despite my opponent's annoyance with my finger fidgeting. I think trying to take it easy in between rounds, and not go jumping into the various workshops helped. It's too easy to get sucked into all the political stuff that comes up at the workshops. Unfortunately it was hard to avoid the politics once the weekend came. I'm a USCF delegate for New York, and delegates meeting is held over the weekend at the US Open.

Back when the US Open was two weeks long it would start on a Sunday evening. We would play 6 rounds from Sunday through Friday. There would be no round on Saturday evening. The delegates meetings would run on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday evening the second half of the tournament would start. I recall that sometimes the delegates meeting on Sunday would run up to shortly before the evening round. I also recall that almost every year I was a delegate, I would lose that Sunday evening round.

With the 9 round schedule we now play on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Fortunately they have made it a point to end the meetings a few hours before the scheduled start of the round. That gives delegates who are also playing a chance to eat and unwind before playing their Saturday and Sunday rounds. At least that's what's supposed to happen. I got the eating part down right, but not sure about the unwinding and refocusing on chess part.

The meetings weren't quite as brutal as last year's. The room where we had the meeting this year was fabulous. It's an amphitheater meeting room with built in desks, really comfy chairs, power outlets at each seat, and internet access.

Delegates Meeting. Doesn't everyone look excited to be there?

A portion of my round four train wreck post was written during a boring part of the meeting. John Hillary was posting live updates of the meeting on his Western Chess blog. If one is really curious about what we talked about for two days, check out John's posts. He has a concise and somewhat snarky way of presenting the proceedings. I won't reinvent the wheel to give my take on the meetings. There wasn't much that I was particularly passionate about. I only got up and spoke once during the entire two days of meetings.

At the mike. That's Bill Goichberg standing behind me.

On Saturday we went to 5:00 pm, which gave me 2.5 hours to relax and have dinner. I had dinner with one of my old friends at this soup and salad buffet place. Nothing spectacular, but I still managed to eat too much. Buffets are dangerous, especially when I find something I really like. They had a number of different breads that I kept going back for more of.

I'm not sure why I was having so much difficulty playing with White in this tournament. Every game it seemed to be a struggle to get my pieces developed and coordinated. I did mange to get my pieces out, and I did not throw my queen out early. However I went too deep into enemy territory with my knight and it got trapped. Unfortunately I got no play for the piece, and things quickly went downhill from there. Here's the game.

pw-frei080710.pgn

That loss assured me of another US Open with a negative score. The best I could do would be 3 (w)-2(d)-4(l) if I could win on Sunday. Unfortunately Sunday would be no better then Saturday.

Very Belated US Open report: Rounds 6 & 7

2010-08-16T00:25:00.001-04:00

I know this is over a week after the fact. That's what happens when I continue on with a vacation after the US Open. Thoughts of the tournament get pushed to the side as I enjoy the true vacation part of my trip. Considering the ugly ending to my tournament, there were good reasons to put it out of my mind, and enjoy my time in San Diego. Details will follow in a separate post. A few pictures from San Diego and then chess.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

Beach at Torrey Pines

San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park

Up close and personal with giraffe on photo caravan tour

She looks like she wants a belly rub, but who's going to volunteer?

I could fill up several weeks worth of posts with pictures from the Wild Animal Park, but I will resist the urge. However if one would like to see more of my pictures click here.

Back to chess: Having squeezed out the long win againts the 8 year old 600, I still had two more games to play. One more at G/60 and then round 7 at the normal time control of 40/2. Once again I played a lower rated kid though at least her age was in double digits. She's 11. The game was very quiet. No big mistakes on either one of our parts. I played 30. Rfc1 to reach the following position. I offered a draw which she accepted.

One my friends saw the position and made the comment that there was a lot of play left. I didn't really see a clear cut way to gain some advantage. I had around 11 minutes left and my opponent had 21 minutes. Considering the clock issues I had in earlier rounds, I didn't want to risk getting even further behind on the clock. Also knowing I had another round to play, I felt getting a draw at this point would give me more time to relax before round 7.

Little did I know how wise it would be to conserve energy for the 7th round. I was paired against a much older woman who took a lot of time on many of her moves. Sometimes I've had difficulty with the transition from the fast time control to the much slower 40/2 G/60 controls. There have been many times where I've played too fast because my mind is still thinking in "fast mode". I was not having that difficulty in this particular game. I think part of it was due to how much time I did use in most of my G/60 rounds. Two of them I flagged and one game I had a minute left when I won. Given those games I was happy to have more time to think things out.

Sometimes I'm not sure whether it's worse playing hyper kids or elderly adults. My last game against a much older opponent did not turn out well for me. This time I was hoping the rating difference and the time of day would work in my favor. She opened with 1. d4 which made me groan to myself since I'm not particularly fond of playing against d4, especially if it goes into some sort of Colle or Stonewall type set up. It ended out be neither. It was sort of a Queens Gambit-Kings Indian Attack hybrid.

There were going to be queen side development problems if I wasn't careful. I played 8...Na6 since c6 was occupied by my c pawn. She played 9. a3. I guess she was concerned about my knight coming into b4 and attacking her queen. That wasn't really my plan at that point so when she wasted a move with a3 I decided I would take the pawn on c4. I knew I was allowing her e4 with the threat of e5, but I wasn't overly concerned since the threat was easily defended. She should be able to get the pawn back relatively easily, but she wasted time by playing a4 which allowed my knight to come to b4 followed by d3.

The first 25 moves took a little over two hours. She was using more time then me, but I had managed to not be bouncing off the walls. Though I had stayed seated that didn't mean I was totally still. Sometimes I bounce my legs up and down when I get really nervous. I wasn't at that stage, but I had started fiddling around with the captured pieces. I wasn't tapping them on the table or making noise with them. I just would pick one up and fiddle with it between my fingers. I guess it may have been in my opponent's line of sight because she got really annoyed with me and told me to stop it. I put the piece down and regretted the fact that I had left my beaded bracelet at home. Often I will take the bracelet off and hold it in my hands under the table. The beads have a nice texture and gives me something to do with my hands while I'm thinking.

By move 28 I was up 3 pawns, but she was defending tenaciously. It took almost an hour to play the next 10 moves. I was getting increasingly antsy because I had a protected passed pawn on c3, but she had blockaded it, and I was having trouble coming up with a plan to bust through. One of my other little quirks when I'm restless is playing with my Mon Roi stylus. I used to chew on it, but after a couple incidents where I bit on it wrong and launched it I decided perhaps that wasn't such a good idea. I like keeping it in my hand because sometimes I end out dropping on the floor. I try to make sure I don't tap it on the table. I've had to tell a few opponents not to tap it on the table or pieces. I'm not sure what I was doing with it this time, but once again my opponent snapped at me.

I was getting frustrated with myself because I'm up 3 pawns and I can't make progress. I'm almost afraid to make any sort of motion lest I incur her wrath again over my quirky fidgeting. I resorted to tapping my stylus on my leg to resolve the twitchy hands issue. Finally after 4 hours I come up with a plan to chase the rook off c2. She resigned when she saw my knight was coming into a3. Once her rook vacates c2, I can push the pawn. She'll end out losing a rook to stop the promotion. After the game is over I whispered something about how well she defended. At that point she tells me I need to speak up because she's hard of hearing. I guess it wasn't that I was making noise when I was fiddling with the piece and stylus. I wonder how she fares against the little hyper kids who are far more restless then me.

Here's the game.

CMayer-Kleist-pw080510.pgn

Next: Chess and chess politics don't mix.

The 4th Annual US Open Round 4 Train Wreck

2010-08-08T16:05:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I felt good and relaxed heading into Friday's rounds. Friday is a brutal day on the four-day schedule. Three more games at the G/60 time limit, followed by the merge into the main event for round 7 with the 40/2 followed by G/60 time controls. I went into the fourth round not thinking about previous years' disasters.

Thursday's 2nd round game with White was pretty ugly. I was lucky to scrape out a draw in that game. Here is that game:

PW-TRouse080510.pgn

That game was in the back of my mind, but I knew that I had to avoid wasting moves in the opening. I had been happy with my third round play despite losing, so I felt like I could bounce back. Overall I had been satisfied with my play on Thursday.

After getting through 3 rounds with no kids, that streak came to an end with my 4th round opponent, a little kid rated 1247. I had the White pieces. I stayed with my English Opening despite Thursday's ugly game. When he replied with 1...e5. I was perfectly happy to play an Accelerated Dragon in reverse. Sometimes when I'm playing my Black opening as White it's easy to try to stay "in book" or go back to book. The problem in trying to with trying to stay or revert to book, is sometimes it's easy to overlook better moves. When I play the Accelerated Dragon as Black I play 7...Qa5 in the main line.
In this particular game I opted to play 8. Qa4, however I missed 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. d4. Ultimately playing 8. Qa4 caused many problems as the game progressed.

Sometimes I've had problems with behavior issues when playing little kids in Southern California. This was not the case. With the exception of the occasional foray to look at other boards, he was very focused on the game. I was also happy to note that there wasn't the crowd of friends, coaches and parents coming over to watch. Mom brought him to the board, and I didn't see her again until after the game was over.

Sometimes things happen that defy explanation. Mentally I felt alert and calm. I wasn't anxious, and I certainly wasn't taking the kid lightly despite the rating and the young age. However all it takes is one bad move and things can go to hell quickly. I was so the most annoying aspect was every time he gave check he announced it in a voice that could be heard beyond our board. He was not being obnoxious about it. He was just letting me know it was check. I did not need the reminders. Each pronouncement of check make me want to sink further and further into my chair. I was being totally crushed and each check was a reminder of the checkmate that was inevitable. Unlike many of his previous opponents who probably play all the way to mate, I chose to resign. I asked him how old he was. 7 years old. At least he wasn't 6 years old. I've yet to lose to a 6 year old. I'm sure that day will come.

Here's the game.

pw-SGe080610.pgn

Solomon Ge with his coach Joe Hanley

Often when I get smashed by some little kid I take consolation in that his real rating is probably 200 points higher. I was quite distressed to find out he had dropped almost 200 points since National K-1 Championships. So his pre-event rating is 1077. Oh well! One of my friends who was following the game live on Mon Roi told me "He didn't play like any 1200 I know."

I didn't sweat the blow out much. It left me over 2 hours before round 5. The advantage of being in a nice location is there is life outside of chess. I borrowed a bike from the hotel and went out for a nice bike ride on the Mountains to Sea Trail. It was not a fancy bike, but it served its purpose.

The problem with going into the 5th round with .5 - 3.5 is getting paired way down. Welcome to the back of the room in the children's zone!

Paired with another little kid was inevitable. This kid was 8 years old and had a 637 rating. His September rating is 910, but even so he played way better then that! It went all the way down to a rook and pawn ending with me short on time. I did manage to win, but it took 66 moves.

Do I look scared??

Here's the game.

APaul-pw080610.pgn

I'm running out of time. Qick recap of remaining games on Friday. A draw in round 6 aaginst a young girl, and a long win in round 7 against an older woman. Details in another post.

US Open: Day 1 Summary & 1st Round Game

2010-08-06T12:48:00.000-04:00

It's Friday morning and I'll be playing round 4 in less then an hour. I got paired up again in round three. Once again I totally outplayed my opponent out of the opening with Black, but couldn't hold my positional or clock advantage. I over extended my queen side pawns and then ended out in a good knight versus bad bishop ending. Unfortunately I was the one with the bad bishop. Games like this remind me of why I like knights when I have them.

After three rounds I have a score of .5 - 2.5. Slightly worse then the last two years at this same juncture. The fourth round is a crucial one for me. I'll get paired down this round. If I can avoid being victimized by a lower rated player then I will have the hope of decent pairings for the enxt few rounds. If I lose then it will get ugly. However I'm not sweating it. Even though I only have a half point, which BTW I did not deserve, I'm actually satisfied with my play for the most part. I'm taking my time, albeit sometimes too much of it. More importantly, I haven't had the overwhelming desire to be bouncing around the room looking at other games. We'll see how long that lasts when I play the slow game tonight.

I'm taking a little more holistic approach to the tournament. Yesterday morning I went out for a walk. I had a manicure and massage, and then did some grocery shopping. I brought back lots of fresh fruit and milk. I'm also making an effort to come back to the room between rounds, relax and eat a healthy snack. It's easy for me at this tournament to get totally overstimulated by the reunion atmosphere of the event. I actually came back to the room after taking some pictures in the tournament room and ate a little bit, relaxed and meditated before bed. I know if I had gone to the skittles room I would have ended out staying up until 1:30 am.

I also have not been running from one workshop to another. The workshops are sometimes interesting, but depending how involved I get in the discussion they can be draining. I'll have my fill of meetings and hotly debated discussion when I attend the delegates meetings on Saturday and Sunday. This hotel is nice and quiet so I don't have to deal with all the noise of a casino in the lobby. This is not Vegas!

While eating my breakfast of cereal, fresh strawberries and green tea I went over and analyzed my first two games. Round one was a good game. However after spending much of the game with a positional and time advantage, both managed to disappear at the worst possible moment. I didn't all the moves down, but here is the final position when I ran out of time.

Black to move

It's unclear whether I can actually hold the ending. White is probably going to win my h pawn. Then becomes a matter of whether or not I can pick up his b pawn. I looked at one possibility using Fritz, but I don't think Fritz plays ending very well. The analysis pointed to me holding the position. However the clock was too big a factor. 1... Kc6 2. h4 Kb5 3. Ne3 Kxb4 4. h5 Kc5 5. Ng4 Kd6 6. Nxh6 Ke7 7. Ng4 Kf7 8.Kg5 Ba7 9. Nh6+ Kg7 10. Nf5+ Kh7 11. Kf6 Be3 12. Ke5 Bg5.

Here's the game up to where I stopped keeping score.

RJhunjhnuwala080510.pgn

Almost time for round 4, so I'll sign off here. To be continued.....

US Open: A Quick Recap of Rounds 1 & 2

2010-08-05T22:35:00.000-04:00

I've played two rounds so far. I have another round in 40 minutes. Yes I'm playing the crazy 4-day schedule with 3 games today at game/60 and 3 more tomorrow followed by 1 at 40/2 g/60. After my colossal meltdown in Vegas playing all slow games I decided I would just play the fast schedule and get 6 games in at game/60. That time control suits my temperament better. My ADHD brain can deal with staying focused for 2 hours at a time. Maybe by the time I get to play the regular time control I'll be ready to sit still for more then two hours.

In the first round I played a 2300 who unbeknownst to to me until afterward was playing in his first tournament in 20 years. I gave him a good game even after I lost a pawn, unfortunately things got complicated. After winning the pawn back I lost it again in wild time pressure. I lost on time, but the ending was probably lost anyway.

In round two I played a rusty 1200 who hasn't played in a tournament in 13 years, but he does play on ICC so an old 1200 OTB rating is rather meaningless. I played stupidly out of the opening and struggled to get a draw. It seems like he did have a win if he didn't trade off the last pair of rooks. I haven't had a chance to look at it with Fritz, but someone who was kibitzing our analysis showed a way he could have won. Phew!!!

If you're curious about the games or want to follow me live you can go to the MonRoi website and follow the live broadcast or look at other games from the tournament. I will have more detailed analysis at some point. It depends if I escape to my room after the game, or catch up with the latest US Open chess gossip. More likely the latter then the former will occur.

Greetings from Irvine & An Airline Happy Story

2010-08-05T16:44:00.000-04:00

I would like to believe that when something good happens on the way to a tournament that it will bode well for the whole trip. Many travel blogs are filled with airline horror stories. In fact when I Googled airline horror stories it came up with 241,000 hits. I've had my share of misadventures when traveling, such as the La Guardia bomb scare that delayed my departure to Chicago last year. However I've also had airline good stories. If you read my final National Open post you may recall my narrative about my good fortune on the return trip. So here is another case of "What did you step in?"

When I finished yesterday's post from DFW it was 2:21. I know the time stamp on the post says 3:21. My computer was still on EDT. My flight was scheduled to start boarding at 2:20. If I have a suitcase that I'm going to carry on the plane then I make sure I'm at the gate and ready to board when I'm called. There is nothing more annoying then getting on the plane with tons of people in front of you and finding no space in the overhead bin near your seat because some knucklehead has decided to put his stuff in the overhead bin over seat 9A, but he's sitting in 25B. He's put his carryon items there because he doesn't feel like dragging his somewhat oversized suitcase back to his row. Also he assumes that there won't be any space back there because the back rows boarded first.

Since I only had a backpack and purse that both could go under the seat if necessary I didn't rush down to be one of the first people in coach to get on the plane. I calmly finished the post, and went to grab a sandwich and bottle of water for the flight. Trying to pay for the items I got in a line with a slow cashier and some person who was trying to purchase something where he had some card that would give him a discount or for free. This took several minutes to take care of. I almost just left the stuff, but I didn't feel like paying $10.00 for the same sandwich on the plane, assuming they didn't run out by the time they got to me.

Finally I pay for the stuff and get to the gate expecting to find a bunch of people still standing in line on the jetway. There were 4 or 5 people who look like they were standby passengers hoping to get on the plane. The gate agent sees me coming and says you must be "Mrs. Wright, we've been looking for you." As I hand her my boarding card I hear over the PA "Last call for Flight 1285 passenger Wright". Any time I've heard those announcements I've thought to myself "What knucklehead didn't leave enough time to get to the airport and to the gate on time?" Now the good folks from American Airlines are wondering where I am. Oops! Stupid cashier!

The gate agent takes my boarding card and hands me a new one and tells me I'm now in seat 3B. Sweet! Instead of being tossed off the flight because I was late and they gave away my seat, I got upgraded. Bulkhead window seat in first class! How nice is that? The sandwich that nearly caused me to miss the flight now has become irrelevant because I will be served a hot lunch. As I'm standing on the jetway to board I texted my husband to tell him I was late to the gate and got bumped to first class. His response was "What did you step in?"

Good question, but I think the answer is; it pays to be loyal to an airline and accumulate enough miles to get elite status in your chosen airline's frequent flier program. In this crazy "make flying as annoying as possible" age having elite status makes flying less annoying. With my frequent flyer status on American I don't pay bag fees, my bag comes off first, I can check in on the first/business class desk, I can choose any seat in coach including exit rows when making my reservation, I get to board early, and at many airports I get to go through a shorter security line. These are the things the airline touts as benefits to being in their program, but there are the unwritten benefits that arise in situations such as mine yesterday.

They have some empty seats in coach including mine that they want to fill with the waiting standbys and they have yours truly who is late, but has platinum status in their frequent flier program. What to do? Do they give away my seat because I'm not there within the time set by their rules? Yes they could do that and if there had not been any empty seat in first class I might have been SOL and ended out spending another 2 hours in DFW. I suspect they're not going to put a standby in the empty first class seat, but they can move me because if I had been on a full fare ticket I would have gotten the upgrade automatically. They win on all counts. They fill up the plane and they make a loyal customer very happy. When things like that happen it affirms why I prefer to fly American even if there is a cheaper fare out there on the competition.

It was nice to arrive in style. John Wayne/Orange County airport is a nice little airport. Easy to get through and close to the hotel. The hotel has a free shuttle to and from the airport. I wasn't even sure American flew in there since I know it's a very popular spot for Southwest Airlines. When making my plans I thought I might have to fly into LAX (gasp, gasp) or San Diego and rent a car. Fortunately I won't need a car until I leave on Sunday to drive down to San Diego for a few days to visit my nieces. I love having my nephew and nieces in California. They're a perfect excuse to come play chess in California.

As I mentioned yesterday one of the things I do love about the US Open is seeing old friends. It's like a gigantic family reunion where you see the cousins that you haven't seen ages. Every year I go to the US Open I come across somebody that I wasn't expecting to see. Yesterday I ran into friends who I had traveled to Budapest with for Susan Polgar's chess and culture tour of Budapest. They weren't playing in the tournament, but they wanted to visit and see who was there. I also ran into one of my friends who were part of our US Open late night hearts games. I haven't seen him at a US Open since 1991. I have seen him a few times since then, but it's been a long time since we've attended a US Open together. We had a lot of catching up to do. I'm sure before the week is over I'll meet up with some other old friends and make a few new ones.

20 minutes until game time for me. I need to pull myself away from the computer and get ready for some chess. I haven't seen an advance entry list for the 4 day schedule so who knows whether I'll get the 2600 who will have me for lunch, or the 900 who hopefully I'll have for lunch. I'm not really concerned about it. It's times to play some chess!!

US Open Bound

2010-08-04T15:21:00.000-04:00

Greetings from DFW airport. I'm on the road again. If you've been following my rather intermittent posts on this blog of late, you're probably surprised to see that I'm playing at the US Open this year. It's been on my schedule from the get go, but I must admit I have very mixed feelings about this trip. One side of me looks forward to seeing a lot of my friends at the tournament, the other side of me is anxious about the quality of her recent games. At least on Monday evening I redeemed myself with a score of 2.5 out of 3 in the tournament. One tournament doesn't necessarily mean a major turn around, but at least I can come into the US Open knowing that I can win won games, and can hold a draw when needed.

The other source of my angst is my taekwondo training and preparation for my black belt test in the fall. This was something that originally was supposed to be done by now. Unfortunately an unplanned trip down the stairs changed my entire schedule. The original plan was to be training during the winter and test in the spring. That would have put all of this behind me and then I could have spent the summer actually enjoying my chess travels. Instead I find myself in the midst of a serious panic attack as I think to myself, "Ack!!! I'm going to be missing all those days of classes while I'm out in California! Why did I decide to take this trip? I should be staying home, and training."

So why did I take this trip when conventional wisdom says I should be home working on my taekwondo? There are several reasons. Some of them are valid, some perhaps not so valid.

Reasons to make this trip.

1. It's the US Open. I love going to the US Open. Okay, okay I admit I hate the extreme pairings of playing a 2600 one round and a 1000 the next round, or visa versa. Yes and I hate getting the string of under rated little kids that I tend to play after I get upset in an early round. Other then that I love the tournament. Maybe one year I should just go hang out, socialize and play in side events only.

2. It's the Jerry Hanken Memorial. How could I miss it? Where ever he is, he would be saying "Polly how could you not be there?" My trip to last year's American Open was a small tribute to a good friend. This is the big tribute. Besides they're using one of my photographs of him. The one they had in the advertisement was pretty bad. They asked me if I had a better one. The answer was yes.

Here's Jerry being Jerry at the 2006 US Open.

Hand him a mike and he comes alive!

3. It's California in summer. I'm going to San Diego for a few days after the tournament to see my nieces who live there. San Diego is one of my favorite US cities. If I could afford it, I'd move there in a heart beat.

Those are good reasons to go. I have to wonder if I still would have gone if I realized just how difficult it was going to be to prepare for my black belt test in the fall. In May I got to see what the test was like. I even did much of it along with the candidates. The difference was, the testers weren't paying much attention to how well or poorly I was doing on various components of the test. This time around they will be paying attention. What I'm discovering since getting back from Korea is that I don't know as much as I thought I did, and I've forgotten more then I realized.

Progressing through the various color belts in taekwondo is much like progressing through various levels of chess. I discussed this topic back in April 2009 when I did my promotion test to red belt. In some ways I find learning new forms is similar to learning new variations of a opening. There are similarities in the sequence of steps in each form, but there are also distinct differences. It's possible one is doing the same block, but the stance is different from one form to another. At times I find it difficult to remember the differences between the various forms. Sometimes I will start doing one form and then find I have transposed into a different form because a stance was the same in both forms, but I went into the other form. It may not be as bad as reversing moves in an opening and giving away a crucial tempo, but when you're being judged on how well you know the form, and how cleanly you're performing it then it can seem as devastating as messing up the move order in a chess game.

What I'm experiencing right now is the feeling that everything is getting jumbled up in my mind, and I'm having trouble coping with it. I have to find a way that's going to help me keep one form straight from another. It's not only important for the test, but I'm also starting to assist in the peewee and children's classes. A few weeks ago I had to show a purple belt the first eight steps of his form. I was having one of those mushy mind moments when I was having trouble remembering the form. I think I confused the kid, and confused myself. However I think there is wonderful benefit from doing this type of instruction. It forces me to make sure I really have a handle on the forms I'm having to teach. It doesn't matter whether I'm dealing with a 5 year old or 12 year old, I better know what I'm showing them or helping them with.

When I'm teaching chess to beginners or inexperienced players I don't find a benefit that carries over to my own game. I'm not going to be showing them the openings I play so it doesn't really carry over in my own game. The running joke amongst chess teachers and scholastic tournament floor directors is that every time they watch kids leave their queens hanging for moves on end or miss a simple mate on move that their own ability drops another 50 rating points. I've met very few chess teachers whose rating goes up when they start teaching. Most of them have their ratings go down. I will say I've gotten really good at executing the king and queen checkmate with 2 seconds on my clock due to the number I've times I've shown it to classes.

Why is teaching Tae Kwon Do different? I think it's because I'm doing the moves in front of the students which reinforces them for me. The question is can I make my Black Belt testing preparations and teaching translate into something I can use in chess? I don't know. All I know is I have my hands full with Tae Kwon Do at the moment so chess study is not on the menu. (Not that it's been on the menu much anyway.) I will see if I can find ways to make it translate from the one to the other.

Signing off. It's almost time to board. BTW Dallas seems to have its own alphabet order. I figured taking the Sky Train from Terminal C to Terminal D would only take a stop or two. Nope in the Dallas alphabet the order is C, E, D. Oh well at least I had plenty of time between connections despite the delay out of New York. See you in California!!

Jeju Island

2010-08-01T23:54:00.003-04:00

I guess I wouldn't make such a great travel bog writer since here it is over a week since my last post, and two weeks since I got back. Then again I don't get paid for this stuff and life has a tendency of getting in my way at times. Then I have another chess-related trip coming up Wednesday. So this post is "Korea trip light" with the emphasis on pictures and not so much detail. Jeju Island is beautiful, but is known for its crazy tropical weather, and is the rainiest part of Korea. Needless to say when one travels there during the rainy season, expect to see rain. We actually got pretty lucky in terms of rain. We left rainy Busan, and arrived to cloudy weather. We visited Sangbangsan and walked up to a cave where there is a simple stone Buddha. The views on the way up and down are beautiful. Here are a couple of them.

Buddha in cave.

After our walk up to the Buddha cave and back we then went to Jusangjeolli Rocks. This is a 2K stretch of coastline known for hexagonal rock formations. Click on the images to see the rock formations in more detail.

It was rather overcast and grey. When I was previewing the pictures on my camera I thought they were coming out in black and white. There is color, but it's hard to see.

This was near our hotel. The beach was down the road a bit so I never made it down that far.

Lava formed rock.

We did a site seeing cruise around different parts of the island. We got lucky with the weather during the cruise. It was beautiful and sunny. That would not be the case later on. Below are some of the interesting sites we passed on the boat.

By the time we got to Cheonjiyeon Waterfall it was pouring. I felt as though I was standing under the waterfall itself. It was beautiful, but difficult to photograph when I'm trying to keep the camera dry.

Rain or waterfall?

The rain would continue into the next day. Needless to say there weren't any people hanging out by the hotel pool!!! It was not only raining but the wind was blowing hard too.

Not a tanning day!!!

We only had one place to visit before we would have lunch and then catch a flight to Seoul. We visited Seongeup Folk Village. Unlike the folk village we would visit near Seoul, this one is still home to a number of people. Many of the villagers have added modern conveniences, but not all.

The thatched roofs have ropes to hold them in place.

Strong winds could blow them off.

Happier then a pig in $#!+

Yes that pig is sitting in village sewage.

TMI!!!

Surprisingly enough despite the weather our flight to Seoul went off on time. It probably helped that the weather in Seoul was actually nice. Once we got to Seoul we visited the Kukkiwon, world headquarters for taekwondo. There wasn't anything happening when we got there, so we pretty much wandered around and did some shopping for taekwondo gear.

Arena at Kukkiwon

After our visit there we would be taken to the Seoul Palace Hotel for a banquet hosted by Taekwondo Promotion Foundation. There was no time to shower, freshen up or change before this dinner party. Here comes this group of tired and sweaty tourists tromping through this very elegant hotel for a very nice dinner in the grand ballroom. It might have been nice if the dinner was at the hotel we were staying at so that we could at least change clothes. However I learned that when it comes to planning meals, dinner always occurs before check in. Otherwise probably half the group would go up to their rooms and collapse!

It was actually a really nice dinner with lots of food choices. After the dinner we got back on our busses and headed to our hotel which was over by the COEX convention center in a completely different part of Seoul. There is no such thing as a short bus ride through Seoul. I've experienced traffic in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Seoul's traffic is just as bad if not worse.

I will post some pictures from Seoul, but I am going to post some chess before that!

A brief chess update followed by more pictures!

2010-07-24T22:09:00.002-04:00

I have played a little since I got back. In 7 games I have 2 wins and 5 losses. None of the losses were total blow outs, but I was having clock issues. It's hard calculate quickly when one's brain is functioning at 1/4 speed. I will post some games later, just so that people will remember that this is a chess blog. In the meantime a few mores pictures and highlights from my trip.

Busan city skyline from my hotel window.

Rainy night, and a rainy next day.

We spent the night in Busan, which is the second largest city in Korea. It's a major seaport and has many beaches. We actually spent the night in a hotel across the street from Haeundae Beach which can get quite crowded in the summer months. However the morning I walked on the beach it was pouring rain, so with the exception of a few hearty souls swimming it was very empty. I was not amongst the hearty souls in the water.

Wet in the water or on the beach.

Can I find a place for my beach chair?

Singing in the rain? Fred Astaire I'm not!

Fortunately our touring activities for the day were indoors. However one of them was a visit to Yongdusan Park which has a tower in it. The views from the top were not as spectacular in the rain and fog as they are on a bright sunny day as pictured in this blog.

Busan Tower

Harbor in Busan

Play ball! There actually a baseball field on top.

Even though the views from the top weren't great there are a number of very interesting buildings, statues and trees in the park. Photographing them without get the camera wet was challenging. That's what husbands with umbrella are good for.

Information booth in old style building.

Dragon Sculpture _ Plaque all in Korean

Yes those are raindrops on the lens!

General Lee Sunsin

Many interesting trees in the park.

I was so glad we had lunch before our next stop. We ate at a fish restaurant and then afterwards visited the fish market. Maybe my chess game is off because you are what you eat. I was eating a good amount of fish on this trip. I did not have any of the types of fish pictured below.

I'm not sure what these were.

Eel

Squid

Not sure what these were either.

After the fish market tour we went to the airport to catch our flight to Jeju-do Island, the Hawaii of South Korea. (South Korea is probably redundant since I suspect there is not an equivalent place to the north.) With all the rain, our flight was delayed. Though the Korean idea of a delay is much different then a US delay. They wrote on a white board that the flight was delayed until 15:32 which was 2 minutes later then the scheduled departure. Then they changed it to 15:34. Stop it! You're killing me with those delays.

After a flight of less then an hour we arrive in Jeju-do. Stay tuned for my next report.

Jeju-do Island as seen from the air.