BDK's recent post about the Soller Gambit inspired me to rummage through the Polly archives and pull up this "beauty" from 1979. The game is comical in itself, but what makes it funnier is where and when it was played. This game was played at the 1979 Empire City Open (Under 1600 Section) in round three. So what? We were playing on board 1 with the two of us both being 2-0 with the winner of this game having excellent chances at winning the section.
freed-peterson111179.pgn
In round 4 I had a 57 move draw. I don't recall whether my opponent was also 3-0, and we tied for first or not. I guess the prize money wasn't anything special because think I would have remembered whether or not I won the tournament. Pretty wacky, huh?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
I'm Number Two!!
It's official, the Tournament of LEPers II is done. I came in second, which is a nice way of saying I lost in the finals to Ivan. It was a tough match up. We played one game and ended out with this position when he offered me a draw.
I had lost a pawn late, but managed to get it back. There was nothing left in this position except if one of us fell asleep and blundered horribly. The next game was far more interesting, and came to a wild end. Ivan missed a few chances to end it quicker, but both of us were short on time at the end. This is the first one of the games I've played in the two LEPers tournaments where time has been an issue for me.
Here's the game. Ivan and I actually spoke on the phone after the game and discussed some of the different possibilities. As we were talking I was letting Fritz pick it apart. Fritz was the one who found the mate in three he missed.
Ivan-Polly 090608.pgn
Thanks LEP for organizing the event. It's been fun playing with my fellow bloggers. I'd like to say I'm number two in the chess blogosphere, but the tournament was missing some of the stronger bloggers out there like Carlsen, Nakamura, Polgar, Ginsburg, etc. I guess if we want one those guys in our tournament we'll have to give something better then a Mickey D gift card to the biggest loser.
I had lost a pawn late, but managed to get it back. There was nothing left in this position except if one of us fell asleep and blundered horribly. The next game was far more interesting, and came to a wild end. Ivan missed a few chances to end it quicker, but both of us were short on time at the end. This is the first one of the games I've played in the two LEPers tournaments where time has been an issue for me.
Here's the game. Ivan and I actually spoke on the phone after the game and discussed some of the different possibilities. As we were talking I was letting Fritz pick it apart. Fritz was the one who found the mate in three he missed.
Ivan-Polly 090608.pgn
Thanks LEP for organizing the event. It's been fun playing with my fellow bloggers. I'd like to say I'm number two in the chess blogosphere, but the tournament was missing some of the stronger bloggers out there like Carlsen, Nakamura, Polgar, Ginsburg, etc. I guess if we want one those guys in our tournament we'll have to give something better then a Mickey D gift card to the biggest loser.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Happy Birthday Josh!
Tonight was the start of a new season of Friday night action tournaments at the Westchester Chess Academy. I was returning to the scene of the crime where in June the killer kidz, Kapil. Kevin and Josh put the big hurt on me. I had a decent result at the State Championship and another good result on Thursday night. Having gained rating points in those two tournaments, I really didn't want a repeat of my June disaster. Since tonight is the cut off for the October Rating List a decent score in this tournament would give me another month of being off my floor. Woo hoo!!
Things got off to a scary start. Lately it seems like any time there's another female in a tournament I get paired against her. I had three Thursdays in a row where I play Shernaz Kennedy, and on two of those Thursdays I played another woman too. Five games against females and I went 0-5. In round one I played Alexandra. The last time we played she got a nasty attack going and I ended out flagging. This game had some remarkable similarities.
The game started out very quietly but she was using way too much time. I wasn't so sure what she was thinking about because the moves seemed very straight forward. On move 22 she played Ne4. I didn't really think it was such a big deal. I was paying more attention to the clock. She had less then a minute, and I had over 20 minutes. Then she played 23. Nf6+ to reach this position.
At first I panicked, and thought the discovered or double check was going to be deadly. Then I realized that after 23...Kg7 that the best she can get here is a draw. She can force the draw after 24. Nh5+ Kg8 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26. Nh5+ Kg8 27. Nf6+. I can't avoid the perpetual with 24...Kh6?? It's mate in 7. Do you see it? Highlight between the parenthesis for the answer.( 25. Qf6 Qxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Rd2+ 27. Kh3 Rg2 28. Kxg2 Nh4+ 29. Kh3 Nf3 30. Qg7+ Kxh5 31. Qxh7# )
Things got off to a scary start. Lately it seems like any time there's another female in a tournament I get paired against her. I had three Thursdays in a row where I play Shernaz Kennedy, and on two of those Thursdays I played another woman too. Five games against females and I went 0-5. In round one I played Alexandra. The last time we played she got a nasty attack going and I ended out flagging. This game had some remarkable similarities.
The game started out very quietly but she was using way too much time. I wasn't so sure what she was thinking about because the moves seemed very straight forward. On move 22 she played Ne4. I didn't really think it was such a big deal. I was paying more attention to the clock. She had less then a minute, and I had over 20 minutes. Then she played 23. Nf6+ to reach this position.
At first I panicked, and thought the discovered or double check was going to be deadly. Then I realized that after 23...Kg7 that the best she can get here is a draw. She can force the draw after 24. Nh5+ Kg8 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26. Nh5+ Kg8 27. Nf6+. I can't avoid the perpetual with 24...Kh6?? It's mate in 7. Do you see it? Highlight between the parenthesis for the answer.( 25. Qf6 Qxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Rd2+ 27. Kh3 Rg2 28. Kxg2 Nh4+ 29. Kh3 Nf3 30. Qg7+ Kxh5 31. Qxh7# )
She opted not to go for the draw. The game continued 24. Rf3 Rh8 25. Nh5+ Kg8 26. 26 Rg3 Qb5 White loses on time. She has very interesting possibilities after 27. Rd3 Re8 (Not Rxd3!) 28. Nf6+ Kf8 29. Nxe8 Qxe5 30. exf5 Kxe8. Fortunately I didn't have to deal with those possibilities. I felt like I dodged a serious bullet that game.
In the second round I played Michael and Josh played Kevin. This was an exact repeat of the Monday night pairings from a few weeks ago. Like two weeks ago I beat Mike and Josh beat Kevin. Kevin's mom noted that Josh is becoming Kevin's King Kong. However Josh has a lot games before his record against Kevin looks anything like kevin's record against me. I'd like to say that my round three result against Josh was just like two weeks ago, but it was not to be. He won the coin toss for color, but opted to take Black. This kind of surprised me, given his success against me with the white pieces. I guess he figured it would be good practice to take black against me. Kevin's third round opponent also had won the toss and opted for black.
Once again Josh and I were playing for first place. $60 on the line this time. This time he was far more focused. Two weeks ago he gave me a gift rook shortly after my stupid hastily made knight move. I guess he learned that he can't take this old chess dog for granted. She may have some new tricks. However the only trick I did was roll over and play dead. It was his birthday and I gave him the gift of a backward pawn on an open file. Eventually he picked up that pawn and more.
WCAFR136.PGN
I suppose I could have played on, but after he takes the e pawn I'm going to be hard pressed to do anything about the passed c and d pawns. I didn't feel like having to give up material to stop the pawns. He had a sizeable time advantage to go with the material advantage. I could tell from Josh's demeanor that there would be no gifts this time. He looked like a young man on a mission. I had snapped his winning streak against me, so payback was coming and the start of a new streak. Maybe I can break it before it becomes a streak of two or more.
Happy Birthday Josh. Welcome to the world of double digit birthdays. Now I can say I've stopped losing to 9 year olds. Well at least for the time being. I'm sure there are more of them waiting for me.
NY State Championship: Round 6 (Etiquette Rant)
Despite the length of my round 5 game, I had time to have a nice lunch with a few of the local area players that I know. Just getting out of the hotel and eating somewhere besides Subway helps a lot. Poor David. I think Alan and I started to bore the hell out of him when the conversation went from chess to wineries that we've visited in Napa Valley. It's actually nice to be able to discuss something besides the latest opening theory, or how many people cheat online.
Amazingly enough I had managed to go through the first five rounds without playing anyone under the age 21. My last round opponent looked like he was a college student. Even though I didn't have to play any little kids they still managed to find ways to annoy the hell out of me. Sitting next to my opponent was a local kid who's around 10 years old and rated almost 1700. As I mentioned in my 9+10+9+12=40 post from last December, kids like to hang out and watch their friends play. They don't get to do that in scholastic tournaments, so they tend to take advantage of the the more relaxed floor rules in an open tournament.
At one point I looked up and noticed two kids standing on either side of the kid, "Peter" (name changed to protect the guilty.) seated next to my opponent. They weren't simply standing behind "Peter" they were squeezed in between the people seated on either side him. I'm thinking to myself "I'm glad he's not sitting next to me. I probably tell the kid to his right to back off." I didn't say anything at that point. It's Peter's problem, and if it's bothering my opponent he can say something.
Later some kids are watching from the end of the table next to my board, and start whispering. I say "Shhhh!" and wave them away. They go away, but then a little while later the same two kids came back and start having a conversation with Peter whose opponent is on move. This is occuring at Peter's board. At that point I had to say something. It's distracting for both my opponent and me, and Peter's opponent. I walked away from my board and signaled to the three kids to come over to me. I quietly reminded them of several things. First of all having a conversation in the playing room is not allowed, and especially not at the board. Second thing is if you're still playing you should be concentrating on your own game, not on other people's games. I also reminded them if they were at a scholastic this would not be tolerated whatsoever and could cost the game or lead to their team being penalized.
After my discussion with them ,they scattered, and I had to go outside and get myself recomposed. Once the kids start making noise it becomes part of my problem too. That's why I said something at that point. However giving the little lecture got me distracted so I had just leave the room and pull myself back together. I suppose getting the tournament director would have better, but they probably would have vanished by the time I hunt up Steve, and get him to go into the room. That would have taken more time, then simply giving them the two minute speech on behavior at the board. This was a round that I should have been listening to Bach.
Sometimes these kids don't seem to get it. Late in my game I had just made a move and stood up. I wasn't necessarily standing up to leave the room. I change positions a lot while seated. Sometimes I stand behind my chair. Sometimes I kneel on the chair. I'm get fidgety, especially when the position is complicated and I'm ahead. I'm thinking about what's going on in the position and Peter asks me how many points I have. I said "Two. Shhh!" and waved him off.
Gimme a break! What's with asking me about my score in the middle of game? He was sitting on the board next to me so there was a very good chance we both had the same score. Besides even if we both won there were already a number of under 1800s that already had 3 or 4 points, so we weren't winning the under 1800 prize. Besides I had given him this lecture about not talking to people in the playing room, and there he is talking. I'm sorry I don't care if he's only 10 years old. His rating is almost the same as mine. He's played in enough adult and scholastic tournaments to know better.
End of my editorial rant. I did not rant and rave at the kids, despite what the title implies or what some anonymous reader thinks. Here's the game. This was a heart breaker. The win was there, but I messed up at the end and allowed him the perpetual.
matt-polly090108.pgn
Even though I went a second straight year with no wins, it was a direct reversal of last year's score. Last year it was 1 draw and 5 losses. This year it was 5 draws and 1 loss.
Amazingly enough I had managed to go through the first five rounds without playing anyone under the age 21. My last round opponent looked like he was a college student. Even though I didn't have to play any little kids they still managed to find ways to annoy the hell out of me. Sitting next to my opponent was a local kid who's around 10 years old and rated almost 1700. As I mentioned in my 9+10+9+12=40 post from last December, kids like to hang out and watch their friends play. They don't get to do that in scholastic tournaments, so they tend to take advantage of the the more relaxed floor rules in an open tournament.
At one point I looked up and noticed two kids standing on either side of the kid, "Peter" (name changed to protect the guilty.) seated next to my opponent. They weren't simply standing behind "Peter" they were squeezed in between the people seated on either side him. I'm thinking to myself "I'm glad he's not sitting next to me. I probably tell the kid to his right to back off." I didn't say anything at that point. It's Peter's problem, and if it's bothering my opponent he can say something.
Later some kids are watching from the end of the table next to my board, and start whispering. I say "Shhhh!" and wave them away. They go away, but then a little while later the same two kids came back and start having a conversation with Peter whose opponent is on move. This is occuring at Peter's board. At that point I had to say something. It's distracting for both my opponent and me, and Peter's opponent. I walked away from my board and signaled to the three kids to come over to me. I quietly reminded them of several things. First of all having a conversation in the playing room is not allowed, and especially not at the board. Second thing is if you're still playing you should be concentrating on your own game, not on other people's games. I also reminded them if they were at a scholastic this would not be tolerated whatsoever and could cost the game or lead to their team being penalized.
After my discussion with them ,they scattered, and I had to go outside and get myself recomposed. Once the kids start making noise it becomes part of my problem too. That's why I said something at that point. However giving the little lecture got me distracted so I had just leave the room and pull myself back together. I suppose getting the tournament director would have better, but they probably would have vanished by the time I hunt up Steve, and get him to go into the room. That would have taken more time, then simply giving them the two minute speech on behavior at the board. This was a round that I should have been listening to Bach.
Sometimes these kids don't seem to get it. Late in my game I had just made a move and stood up. I wasn't necessarily standing up to leave the room. I change positions a lot while seated. Sometimes I stand behind my chair. Sometimes I kneel on the chair. I'm get fidgety, especially when the position is complicated and I'm ahead. I'm thinking about what's going on in the position and Peter asks me how many points I have. I said "Two. Shhh!" and waved him off.
Gimme a break! What's with asking me about my score in the middle of game? He was sitting on the board next to me so there was a very good chance we both had the same score. Besides even if we both won there were already a number of under 1800s that already had 3 or 4 points, so we weren't winning the under 1800 prize. Besides I had given him this lecture about not talking to people in the playing room, and there he is talking. I'm sorry I don't care if he's only 10 years old. His rating is almost the same as mine. He's played in enough adult and scholastic tournaments to know better.
End of my editorial rant. I did not rant and rave at the kids, despite what the title implies or what some anonymous reader thinks. Here's the game. This was a heart breaker. The win was there, but I messed up at the end and allowed him the perpetual.
matt-polly090108.pgn
Even though I went a second straight year with no wins, it was a direct reversal of last year's score. Last year it was 1 draw and 5 losses. This year it was 5 draws and 1 loss.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
NY State Championship: Round 5
Back to our scheduled programming. I didn't sleep very well Sunday night after discovering my computer had died, and probably wasn't anything I could resolve. There was the angst of why does this crap happen to me? Then there were the what ifs. What if I had done this, or that? The usual ruminations of a person who beats up on herself way too often.
Unfortunately 9 AM rounds come way too soon when one hasn't had much sleep. Despite the lack of sleep I played pretty well. I got paired up against an 1882. We reached the following position.
Unfortunately 9 AM rounds come way too soon when one hasn't had much sleep. Despite the lack of sleep I played pretty well. I got paired up against an 1882. We reached the following position.
I came up with 24. Bxh6. It's a pretty little combination that wins me a pawn after 24...Bxh6 25. Nxf6+ Kg7 26. Nxd6 Bxc1 27. Nxe5 Bd2 28. Red1 Bc3 29. Nf3 b6. I was very pleased with myself for finding this line and working it all the way out to my 29th move. However there's an old axium that says "If you find a good move, look for a better one." It seems the combination would have been more effective after 24. b6 Ra8 25. Bxh6 Bxh6 26. Nf6+ Kg7 27.Nxd7 Bxc1 28. Bxb7 Bxd7 29. Bxa8 Bd2 30. Red1 Bb4 31. Bd5 axb6.
I had looked at b6 at some point, but given my history of losing over extended pawns I opted not to play that way. Sometimes one needs to forget about history. The game continued 30. Rdc1 Bf6 31.Nd2 Rce8 32. Bf3 Bg5 33. e3 Bc8 34. Ne4 Be7 35. Ra1 f5 36. Nd2 Bf6 37. Ra2 Bd738. a5 Bd8 39. axb6 Bxb6 40. Kg2 Re7 41. Rh1 Rd8 42. Nb3 d5 43. Na5 dxc4 44.dxc4 Be8 45. Rd1 Rxd1 46. Bxd1 Kf6 47. Nb3 Bf7 48. Be2 g5 49. Bf1 Rd7 50. Rd2Rxd2 51. Nxd2 Bc7 52. Nb3 Bb6 53. f4 Bh5 54. Kf2 Bd1 55. Nc1 gxf4 56. gxf4 Bc257. Bd3 Bd1 58. Ke1 Bf3 59. Nb3 Bb7 60. Ke2 a6 61. bxa6 to reach this position.
I didn't really see a way to force my way in so I offered a draw at this point. We had played for over four and half hours by now. A possible continuation might have been 62. Kf3 Ke6 63. e4fxe4+ 64. Kxe4 Bb7+ 65. Ke3 Kf6 66. Be4. He can simply move the bishop away and not trade. Even if he does trade I'm not convinced it's easy for white to get in. Maybe someone in my audience with Rybka or understands Monte Carlo analysis can find a win. Likeforests or Chessaholic perhaps???
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Two Words to The Wise: BACK UP!!!
I will say it again! BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!!
As I mentioned in my previous post, Murphy reared his ugly ass head in the worst possible way. The hard drive on my lap top is totally kaput. Gone are all the pictures I took in Seville. Gone are the pictures I took in Seoul and Jeun Ju. It's true my husband took lots of pictures on our Spain trip, and other people took pictures on the Korea trip. However they don't replace the pictures I took. Photography is one way I express myself, and preserve certain experiences in my travels or just day to day occurrences. I can travel with people and they can take similar pictures, but it's just not the same thing. I may compose a certain setting one way. Anyone who enjoys taking pictures can relate to what I'm saying.
The good thing is my 750+ chess games that I've recorded on my Mon Roi and saved on my computer were not on that computer. I had some analysis on that computer, but those games were ones that I had analyzed on one of my road trips and posted on this blog. The games are on this computer, and this is getting backed up today!!
Some of you serious chess study geeks have a lot of work on your computers. If you faithfully back it up, then you are far smarter then me. If you haven't been backing it up, then learn something from my loss. I was hoping that my blog would only teach things from my chess games, but alas I offer another public service to my readers. Personally I would have preferred to show you six ugly losses from the weekend and a wall chart line that castled queen side twice. Instead I one ugly loss over the chess board, and many personal memories lost.
I'm just hoping that maybe I will be able to recover some of the stuff off the hard drive. There are companies that do that sort of stuff, but I have to find out how much it costs and whether it's worth the price.
I guess the only bright side is that the computer still has 4 days left on the warranty.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Murphy reared his ugly ass head in the worst possible way. The hard drive on my lap top is totally kaput. Gone are all the pictures I took in Seville. Gone are the pictures I took in Seoul and Jeun Ju. It's true my husband took lots of pictures on our Spain trip, and other people took pictures on the Korea trip. However they don't replace the pictures I took. Photography is one way I express myself, and preserve certain experiences in my travels or just day to day occurrences. I can travel with people and they can take similar pictures, but it's just not the same thing. I may compose a certain setting one way. Anyone who enjoys taking pictures can relate to what I'm saying.
The good thing is my 750+ chess games that I've recorded on my Mon Roi and saved on my computer were not on that computer. I had some analysis on that computer, but those games were ones that I had analyzed on one of my road trips and posted on this blog. The games are on this computer, and this is getting backed up today!!
Some of you serious chess study geeks have a lot of work on your computers. If you faithfully back it up, then you are far smarter then me. If you haven't been backing it up, then learn something from my loss. I was hoping that my blog would only teach things from my chess games, but alas I offer another public service to my readers. Personally I would have preferred to show you six ugly losses from the weekend and a wall chart line that castled queen side twice. Instead I one ugly loss over the chess board, and many personal memories lost.
I'm just hoping that maybe I will be able to recover some of the stuff off the hard drive. There are companies that do that sort of stuff, but I have to find out how much it costs and whether it's worth the price.
I guess the only bright side is that the computer still has 4 days left on the warranty.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Bad News, Good News: NY State Championship Day 1
First the bad news.....
For a second year in a row I did not win any games in this tournament!
The good news is, I had one loss, five draws against players rated 1800 - 1889 and gained 17 rating points. The tournament did have it's share of "Murphistic" moments, but overall it was a helluva better then last year's event.
Unfortunately Murphy reared his ugly head in the worst possible way. He's a miserable rat bastard in regards to my laptop. Come to think of it, I'd take 0-6 in the tournament to not have the disaster that befell my lap top on Sunday night. One of the reasons there is such a delay in getting this post up is because Sunday night my Mac Book would not start. It was making horrible clicking noises when it tried to boot up. Clicking noises aren't usually good things to hear eminating from one's hard drive. My live-in Mac geek (hubby) wasn't able to do a damn thing. All of my games scores are on this computer. I did have some analysis on the other. However those were games that I posted so I can always get those off my blog. The worst thing is I've lost all my pictures from my Spain trip, and a good chunk of my Korea trip. I can get pictures from other people, but it's just not the same as taking one's own pictures.
I don't know what's with me and hard drives. It's the third time in 4 years that I've had a drive crash. Two PCs and now a Mac. My Mac geek hubby was the one who kept telling me that Dell and Compac are pieces of crap and switch to Mac. Maybe I need to get one of those Panasonic laptops that you can run over with a truck and spill water on. This time I didn't do anything stupid. It just died while I was at the tournament.
Oh yes, the tournament. That's what this post was supposed to be about. Back to chess! I played the two day schedule which meant the first 3 rounds would be Game/40 with a 5 second delay. Then the 4th round would be part of the regular schedule at 40/2 and G/60. In round one I dropped a pawn on move 14. I thought "Here we go again! I can't get much out of the opening and already blew a pawn." However I felt I had compensation for the pawn because he gave up his light squared bishop and had a gaping hole on the h1-a8 diagonal.
anthony-polly083108.pgn
It was a nice way to start the tournament. I told people "I have as many points in the first round as I had for the entire tournament last year!" That was my way of laughing about last year and seeing what I could do about this year.
My second round draw was only interesting because I played a few mind games. My opponent offered me a draw on the 32nd move. The material was even, he was ahead on the clock, and he may have been slightly better. I turned the draw down anyway. I hate taking draws when there's so much material left on the board. We both had a queen, rook, two minor pieces, and four pawns. I figured it was worth using my draw psychology here. Though in this case I was not playing a kid who I out rated by 100-200 points. I was playing an older guy sitting on his 1800 floor. I figured he wasn't very confident in his ability to do anything with his slight edge so I played on. I actually won a pawn a few moves later, but he was able to force a draw in a rook and pawns ending. I couldn't escape his rook checks. Now I've doubled last year's score.
An interesting side light was what happened in round three. My second round opponent was paired against Ethan, the kid mentioned in my draw psychology post. He offered Ethan a draw after 15 moves. Ethan jumped at the draw offer since the opponent out rated him by 150 points. The thought crossed my mind that Ethan really should have kept playing, but then I reconsidered. It gave him a two hour break before having to play the fourth game of the day at the longer time control. I may have accepted a draw in that spot too. Though it begs the question, "If you're going to offer your opponent a draw after 15 moves, why bother playing that round?" Hey, it's not my money. I come to play chess. A 15 move draw is not chess.
So "Ms. I'd rather lose, then take a short draw" ends out drawing her third game in a row. It was not a 15 move, 10 minute draw. I missed a very good shot in round three. We reached this position after 18...Qc7.
For a second year in a row I did not win any games in this tournament!
The good news is, I had one loss, five draws against players rated 1800 - 1889 and gained 17 rating points. The tournament did have it's share of "Murphistic" moments, but overall it was a helluva better then last year's event.
Unfortunately Murphy reared his ugly head in the worst possible way. He's a miserable rat bastard in regards to my laptop. Come to think of it, I'd take 0-6 in the tournament to not have the disaster that befell my lap top on Sunday night. One of the reasons there is such a delay in getting this post up is because Sunday night my Mac Book would not start. It was making horrible clicking noises when it tried to boot up. Clicking noises aren't usually good things to hear eminating from one's hard drive. My live-in Mac geek (hubby) wasn't able to do a damn thing. All of my games scores are on this computer. I did have some analysis on the other. However those were games that I posted so I can always get those off my blog. The worst thing is I've lost all my pictures from my Spain trip, and a good chunk of my Korea trip. I can get pictures from other people, but it's just not the same as taking one's own pictures.
I don't know what's with me and hard drives. It's the third time in 4 years that I've had a drive crash. Two PCs and now a Mac. My Mac geek hubby was the one who kept telling me that Dell and Compac are pieces of crap and switch to Mac. Maybe I need to get one of those Panasonic laptops that you can run over with a truck and spill water on. This time I didn't do anything stupid. It just died while I was at the tournament.
Oh yes, the tournament. That's what this post was supposed to be about. Back to chess! I played the two day schedule which meant the first 3 rounds would be Game/40 with a 5 second delay. Then the 4th round would be part of the regular schedule at 40/2 and G/60. In round one I dropped a pawn on move 14. I thought "Here we go again! I can't get much out of the opening and already blew a pawn." However I felt I had compensation for the pawn because he gave up his light squared bishop and had a gaping hole on the h1-a8 diagonal.
anthony-polly083108.pgn
It was a nice way to start the tournament. I told people "I have as many points in the first round as I had for the entire tournament last year!" That was my way of laughing about last year and seeing what I could do about this year.
My second round draw was only interesting because I played a few mind games. My opponent offered me a draw on the 32nd move. The material was even, he was ahead on the clock, and he may have been slightly better. I turned the draw down anyway. I hate taking draws when there's so much material left on the board. We both had a queen, rook, two minor pieces, and four pawns. I figured it was worth using my draw psychology here. Though in this case I was not playing a kid who I out rated by 100-200 points. I was playing an older guy sitting on his 1800 floor. I figured he wasn't very confident in his ability to do anything with his slight edge so I played on. I actually won a pawn a few moves later, but he was able to force a draw in a rook and pawns ending. I couldn't escape his rook checks. Now I've doubled last year's score.
An interesting side light was what happened in round three. My second round opponent was paired against Ethan, the kid mentioned in my draw psychology post. He offered Ethan a draw after 15 moves. Ethan jumped at the draw offer since the opponent out rated him by 150 points. The thought crossed my mind that Ethan really should have kept playing, but then I reconsidered. It gave him a two hour break before having to play the fourth game of the day at the longer time control. I may have accepted a draw in that spot too. Though it begs the question, "If you're going to offer your opponent a draw after 15 moves, why bother playing that round?" Hey, it's not my money. I come to play chess. A 15 move draw is not chess.
So "Ms. I'd rather lose, then take a short draw" ends out drawing her third game in a row. It was not a 15 move, 10 minute draw. I missed a very good shot in round three. We reached this position after 18...Qc7.
I missed 19. Nb5! Probably his best continuation is 19...cxb5, 20. Rxc7 Bxc7 giving me the queen for my rook and knight. Instead I played 19. Nxd6 and eventually the game petered down to 6 pawns each and bishop against a knight. We agreed to a draw on move 32. This would give us a chance to catch a breather before the 4th round at the longer time control.
Round four, and Murphy is going to mess with my mind. Last year I had "castled queen side" on the wall chart and I got the bye in round four. Last year my sister was away, so getting a bye was going to suck. I opted for a house player, and lost that game too. This year my sister was around, but by the time I heard from her it was too late to ask for a 1/2 bye for round four. It was even too late to ask for a zero point bye. The pairings were up. She and two of her daughters were thinking about going out for dinner, and then go to a movie at 9:00 pm. Hmmm, could I play a game at 40/2 G/60 in less then 3 hours without blundering?
The answer to that question is "NO!" Some times I wish I could stick Post-It notes on certain pieces and squares to remind me of things I need to do, or not do.
"Forgive me Caissa for I have sinned." Note the four queen moves I made in the first 11 moves. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 a6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.e3 Qg5 10.f4 Qh4+ 11.g3 Qe7 12.Nf3 dxc4 13.Bxc4 b5 14.Bd3 Bb7 15.e4 Nd7 16.O-O c5 17.c4 bxc4 18.Bxc4 Bxe4 19.d5
Somewhere between moves 12 and 17 I really should have castled! If I had done that I would not have needed to remind myself not to make a capture with the pawn allowing the file to open up. In fact it was around move 15 that I said to myself "Watch out for f5 or d5, because you can't capture with the e pawn."
The problem was I didn't have a little reminder so when he pushed he played d5 I played 19...Bxd5? Thinking I'm now up two pawns. After he plays 20.Bxd5 I suddenly remember my little note from move 15. "You can't capture with the e pawn." So now he has a bishop for those two pawns. The two pawns are no bargain since I'm sitting there with 3 isolated pawns and he's piling up on my e pawn which is still pinned.
20...Ra7 21.f5 O-O 22.fxe6 fxe6 23.Re1 Rf6 24.Qb3 Nf8. After I play the knight back to f8 I'm wondering what my sister's plans are. (Kids: Don't try this at a tournament.) I go outside to call her, and see that I have a voice mail from her. They're waiting for a table at a place a few miles down the road from me, and then after dinner go to the movies. I call back and get her voice mail. I tell her that I screwed up horribly, and may join them for dinner.
I go back into the playing room and continue my game. My phone vibrates, but it's to tell my I have voice mail. I'm not sure why it kept going straight to voice mail, but we're playing telephone tag. In the mean time my position is just getting worse. 25.Bc4 Kh8 26.Re3 Qd6 27.Rd1 Qc6 28.Ne5 Qa8 29.Qb6 a5. I call her back and leave her another message saying if my opponent plays a certain move I'm resigning. I'm expecting my opponent to simply play 30 Qxc5, but instead he plays 30. Rc8. My sister calls again, and this time I actually get to talk to her. I tell her I'm on the verge of resigning and will be joining her for dinner.
As I'm having this conversation one of the kids I know hears me. So he asks me if I'm going to resign right now. I said "Probably, but I'm not sure." He follows me back into the room to watch. I decided I did not feel like having an audience for my resignation so I played a few more moves. 30...Qb7 31.Qxc5 Ra8 32.Ng6+ 1-0
Ugly game! Remind me next year if my sister is in town, just to take the round four bye and be done with it. Though I can't blame it on her. I always have trouble making the transition from the game/40 to the slower time control. I tend play as if I'm still on the short time control. I have to remind myself to slow it down.
Before my round four game my opponent mentioned that he reads my blog and enjoys it a lot. I told him he should know how I play if he's a regular reader. He told me if I beat him to be kind. So this is for you Scott. I was very kind in that I played like an idiot, and let you have an early evening. :-) Now you know why I played like an idiot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)