Last Look at Liberty Bell: Rds 6 & 7

I've spent a lot of time writing about this particular tournament and analyzing the games. It's actually been very helpful in terms of figuring out some of the things that I could have done better. It's paid off in some of the games I've played in the last few weeks. I'll try to post a few of them before I leave on Thursday to go to BERMUDA!!! Cast and all I'm going!

Back to the Philadelphia story. In round 6 I got paired against another kid! Even younger then the previous round's opponent. I was paired up against Arvind Kumar of New Jersey. He is the highest rated 7 year old in the country. He's a very nice kid and has wonderful parents. His mom had helped me the day before with some of my bathroom runs. I felt bad because she's a petite woman having to push me. I decided that I would not ask her while I was playing her son.

I'm not going to show the whole game, but just a few positions where one of us chose to lock up the pawn structure as opposed to capturing or leaving it up to the other to make the decision

In the first position Arvind had just played 22...c5

I had two choices here; capture or push. I did not want to capture and isolate my a pawn. Also I felt capturing gives his bishop more space. I played 23. b5, keeping the position closed. His knights may be slightly better then my bishop pair but my pawn structure is solid.

A little later in the game he played 31...a5. To EP or not to EP that is the question? Is it better to break up the pawn structure and open the position, or ignore the pawn push and play something else?

Again I felt it was better to keep my pawn structure intact and not let his knight go to a6.

Now it was his turn to decide on whether or not to lock up the position on the king side, trade pawns or let me decide on the trade. He had played 32...f5. I responded with 33. f3

I felt he should have left the pawns alone and let me decide whether I want to trade or not. He pushed 33...f4. I played 34. Ne4. I thought I was much better here since I have the knight on the out post square. However he's able to defend against any attacks I have on the c5 or a5 pawns. He can just shift the bishop as needed. The game continued 34...Be7 35. Bc1 N6d7 36. Ba3 g5 37. Kd2 Bf8 38. Kd3 Be7 39. Bc1 Bd8 40. Ba3 threatening to take on c5. It's easily defended with 40...Be7. We agreed to a draw.



Now I had gone from losing 3 in a row to drawing 3 in a row. Again I could play on, but I didn't see that I could make progress. The only pawns left to push are the h pawns. Neither of us can push without losing a pawn. We can both fiddle around with our minor pieces, but what's the point? If my opponent only had a minute left that would be one thing, but we had the entire second time control left and then some.

One round left. Donna and Alexander are leaving, but she's having someone stay with me and bring me back if I want to play the last round. So the question is; shall I stay or shall I go? There were merits to either decision. If I skip the last round I get to go home earlier. If I stay I get another game at the long time limit that I rarely play. I decided to stay. I stayed knowing that I most likely would play another kid with a single digit for age. He had been sitting a few boards below me and I knew he had won his sixth round game. Our scores were most likely the same, and I was running out of people to play. There weren't many people left with 2 points.

Sure enough I was paired against the 9 year old kid, rated 1633 . So if I add up the ages of my last 4 opponents 14+8+7+9=38. 9.5 years old! A little lower average age then my first four rounds of the Empire State Open in 2007. On the positive side at least I had 3 draws, unlike the 0-4 in 2007.

Zachary is another kid I see with his dad a lot at the Marshall, but this was the first time I've ever played him. With so many people taking byes or withdrawing we had the whole back row to ourselves. However it wasn't quite as vacant as round 3. We didn't have people hanging out in the back talking or going over games. His dad sat a few seats away, and my chess mom substitute was near by if I needed anything.

Unlike my 4th round opponent, Zachary needed no time find 8. O-O in response to my 7...Qa5. He knew the line. It's interest observing how young kids spend their time at the board or thinking about their moves. I had the one kid who couldn't sit still, and was away from the board almost every time it was my move. Then I encounter a very focused 7 year old, who rarely left the board and always seemed to be looking at the position. Zachary didn't leave the board except to go to the bathroom, and he would always tell me that's what he was going.

There were a few times where I wasn't sure whether he was aware that I had moved. He would be looking up at the ceiling or looking left and right. There was that look of "when is my opponent ever going to make a move?" I think I had that look a lot in the opening of round 4. Sometimes the inner coach wants to say "It's your move." However I've learned to just stifle those thoughts and just wait to see what unfolds. I know some kids who appear as if they're not looking at the position, but in reality they're analyzing even as they're looking off into space.

The game started out quietly enough, but one poor choice on my part caused the position to fall apart. It was a choice of blocking an attack on my queen or moving away. I didn't want to give him the pin, so I moved. Wrong plan. I ended out dropping the exchange. Here's the game.


ZTanenbaum-PW011810.pgn


I think what impressed me was the way he gave the exchange back and simplified to a won ending. Many young kids try to hold on to the material instead of figuring out that they can can give back the exchange and win the pawn race.

Did I regret staying for the last round and losing, instead of taking my 3 draws in a row and going home? No. Winning, losing or drawing wasn't going to change anything in terms of money or rating points. A win wasn't going to suddenly gain me points. I just wanted one more chance to break out of the locked up position rut that I was in for rounds 4 through 6. I'm not sure losing to a 9 year old was the best cure to that rut, but since that tournament I haven't had quite as many draws. There have been a couple of butt ugly losses, but I've also had a few nice wins.

Tomorrow I head down to Bermuda for the Bermuda Open. I hope I'll get some interesting games, and not play every low rated player in the event. I guess a first round win might help resolve that problem. Look for pictures and games during the event. I'm not sure if my reporting and pictures will be as detailed as last year. It depends how much energy I have. Having to walk around at least another 3 weeks with this damn cast on my leg isn't exactly making me happy. However there could be worse things, such as not going to Bermuda and having the damn cast still on.

Liberty Bell Open: Part 2

On the two day schedule rounds four and five can be very dangerous. Many players will opt to take a half point bye in one of these two rounds. Some take the bye in round four because they want to rest up for the round five game that will be played at the much slower time limit. Others will play all the fast games and then take the bye in round five in order to enjoy a relaxing evening. Last year I wrestled with the bye issue because I wanted to watch the football game. Despite last year's nightmarish rounds four and five, I decided I was here to play chess. I didn't give a rat's ass about the football game, except to root against the Eagles. However it wasn't worth skipping a round for, and also rooting too loudly for the Cardinals in Philadelphia could be hazardous to one's health.

Round Four: Slam dunk!

Round four had all the makings of a disaster as I got myself into insane time trouble. We reached this position after 30. Qg6. I had less then a minute, and my opponent still had around 5 minutes. However he was one who started tossing pieces away.




The game continued 30... Bxf2 31. Qxe6+ Kh8 32. d5 Be3? He recognized then I had broken the pin with d5, but he managed to move the bishop to another bad square. I didn't have time to really decide whether there was some true sacrifice here, but my king looked pretty safe. I grabbed the bishop. 33. Qxe3 Qxd5 34. Qd4 Qf7 35. a4 Rc8 36.Qd3 Rc4 37. Qd2 Qb7 38. Qd8+ Kh7 39. Qd3+ Re4 40. b5 ? I completely missed the easy win after 40. Ng3 Qxb4 41. Nxe4 Qe1+ 42. Rg1 Qxg1+ 43. Kxg1 Kg8 44. Qd8+ Instead I had to try to force material off the board. The game continued 40... Kg8 41. bxa6 Qa8 42. Kg1 Rxa4 43. Qd7 Ra1+ 44. Kf2 Qf8 45. a7 Ra2 46. Qd4 Qe7 47. Qe3 Qf7 48. Rg1 Rxa7 49.Rd1 Ra8 50. Qe4 At this point the notation has stopped on both sides and the rest of the game is a blur.

We eventually got down to queen, knight two pawns versus queen and two pawns. I'm down to six seconds and I can't find a way to force the queens off, and I can't pick off either of his pawns with my queen or knight. Every time I try to set that up he hits me with a flurry of checks. Every time I interpose with the queen he scoots away to prevent the queen trade. With so little time, I'm afraid I will have to settle for a draw since there doesn't seem to be any way to force the queens off.

At this point with us being the last game we've drawn a crowd to our table. Now my opponent has joined me in the time scramble. I still have six seconds, and he has nine seconds. Both floor directors are hovering near by. I'm sure their expecting an illegal move or some other time pressure issue that will require their intervention. My opponent suddenly makes one of those just horrendous moves that happens in time pressure. He just hung his queen. I made the capture with my queen. I took the captured piece, moved it off the board and let go. However I was not looking where I put it, and managed to drop it into my water cup, which was filled with water. This caused everyone to laugh including my poor opponent who promptly resigned.

I was kind of embarrassed, especially since it was my opponent's nice wood set. I grabbed it out of the cup as soon as possible. How I manged to drop it there without even looking, and not having the cup tip over is beyond me. I think if I attempted to do that again, I'd probably miss the cup all together, or knock it over spilling all the water. As I left the room, I couldn't help giggling to myself over the absurdity of dropping a captured piece into a water cup without looking.

Marshall Chess Club - Philadelphia Annex

Nothing like travelling to an out of town tournament to play people from your home club. However given how close Philadelphia is to New York, and the popularity of this tournament amongst New Yorkers it's no great surprise. I think every time I've played in this tournament I've gotten paired against at least one player I've played at the Marshall before.

In round five I got paired against Linda Diaz. We've played each other a number of times at the Marshall, but always at G/30. This would be the first time playing her at the more civilized time controls of 40/2 SD/1. Usually the first game at the slow time control has not been a pretty sight. Round Six at the 2008 US Open comes to mind as a poor transition to the slow time control. In fact round six at the last 3 US Opens has been bad. In 2006 I walked into a Smith-Morra trap and lost in 15 moves. Since it was BB (before blog) I don't have a link to it. Round five in this tournament last year also wasn't so hot. So what would this year bring?

There were two things working in my favor this time around. First was winning in round four despite my time pressure issues. I was already in slow mode before starting round five. The second was being familiar with my opponent. We've played a few times so I know a little something about her style. Also I have a winning record against her, so I knew I was capable of winning against her despite her higher rating.

This was an interesting game. I was playing very slowly. Part of my slow pace was due to my difficulty in coming up with a coherent plan. I would play a move, she would respond and then I have to rethink my analysis. When I'm in that type of thinking mode it's normally not a good sign. I was getting frustrated with her knights and the potential threats from her passed d pawn. I fiddled around with my rooks and doubled them on the e file. I didn't think they were going to amount to much since she had one of her knights sitting on the e4 outpost square guarded by the other knight and her d pawn. Even if I trade my light squared bishop for the knight she can recapture either with the other knight or the d pawn. Then her passed pawn would become protected on the e file. Here is the game, but below I have put up the critical position.


Polly-Linda011809.pgn


She made a critical mistake when she took her knight off the outpost square and chased my queen to the g file where I have a mate threat on g7. Her move 33...Nd2 was a classic example of making an attacking move that helps the opponent. I'm not sure what I was going to do if she starts pushing the d pawn or doubles her rooks on the c file.

When we reached the position below, I came up with one of the most daring moves I've made in chess.



I'm not one to sac a queen unless it's one of those simple cases of sac it one move, and promote on the next move. This was a matter of making sure there was absolutely no saving move for Black that allows her to take my queen and prevent mate. While I was thinking about 36. Qxf6 my opponent had left the board. I had been listening to music, but decided I needed absolutely nothing going through my head except the analysis of the position. In many situations music acts as a calming influence when I'm agitated or distracted. I had needed the music earlier when I found myself frustrated by inability to come up with a a good plan. Now I needed a clear head to work all of this out.

I finally took the knight and waited for her to return to the board. She spent quite a bit of time before she came up with 36...Nf1+. I almost freaked out when I saw that move. I can't take the knight because then my rooks aren't doubled any longer and she can play 37...Qxf6 without worrying about 38. Re8+. At first I thought I would have to allow her the 3 fold repetition with 37. Kh1 Ng3+, 38. Kh2 Nf1+, etc. However then I realized 37. Kg1 is okay. It doesn't matter that she's pinning the rook on e3. If she doesn't take my queen then I mate on g7. If she does take the queen then my rook is no longer pinned and I have mate after 38. Re8+ Rxe8 39. Rxe8#.

She ended out being the one to sac her queen, but all that does is postpone the inevitable. I was surprised she played it all the way out to mate. Normally that kind of thing bothers me, but I just treated it as an opportunity to work out knight moves in my head to set up winning her pinned rook, and later on forcing mate without allowing her any stalemate possibilities.

Sunday was rather anti-climatic after my crazy Saturday. I ended out with two rather uninspiring draws that left me out of the money. However I was very happy to achieve a plus score and not lose any games on the slow time control.

Liberty Bell Open: Part 1

I'm still catching my breath from a very interesting weekend of chess. I didn't get much time to hang out in my room, so I decided I wasn't paying $9.95 for what would have amounted to maybe an hour's worth of time online. The Internet functioned fine without me. The chess blogosphere went on without my comments and insights. The USCF Forums had enough rational people to respond to the irrational people, so they didn't miss me there either. Truth be told, I didn't miss a thing.

This year's report on the Liberty Bell is different because I'm not blogging live. I've had time to gather my thoughts together in order to share the highs and lows, the serious and not so serious. The short version is I scored 2 wins, 1 loss and 4 draws in the under 1900 section and gained 19 rating points. (Note: I proceeded to give back the 19 points on Thursday night, but that's another story.) The way I started off the tournament I really didn't expect to get a plus score. In fact after the first game I wasn't sure I'd get any score.

Round 1: What's in a name?

In round one I was paired against a player with the name of Broxie Pace, rated 1775. Broxie! What an interesting first name. Is it short for something? Is this a kid with a set of 60s parents who decided to give their child some funky name? A brash kid with moxie, therefore named Broxie? Nope, not a kid. The kids would come later. After all, when don't I play kids? He's a local player who is probably older then me. I'm not going to venture any guesses though. I've never across him before, but he's played in a lot of the big tournaments in Philly such as the World Open and the National Chess Congress.

In preparing to write this story I was curious as to when he started playing. His first tournament was the 1993 World Open and he played in the Open section. That's quite an ambitious foray into tournament chess. He ended out with a rating of 1696 based on his 9 games. In looking at the cross table for the event I wanted to see who he played. If you click on a player's final ranking you get a list of all of the opponents with the results and pre and post ratings. I noticed that one of the players he lost to was an unrated named John Von Neumann. That name seemed very familiar, and then I remembered why. (For math geeks the name John Von Neumann should strike a chord.) He had caused quite a stir at that tournament when it became apparent that he was getting some sort of assistance via computer. This article from Chess Base tells the story far better then I can. Poor Broxie was one of the unfortunate people that "John Von Neuman" was able to beat.

However I will not wax poetic and mourn over his misfortune from 15 years ago, especially considering what a pounding I got from him. Though part of the pounding was my own damn fault. Once again I allowed myself to be overly intimidated by a sac that wasn't as deadly as it seemed. Here is the damage.







Broxie-Polly011809.pgn





Round Two: Bye Bye, Bye!

Having lost round one, I was already having to deal with the annoying prospect of the "Please Wait" in round two. I was the second lowest rated in the two day schedule, and we had an odd number. I considered taking a preemptive round four bye to avoid getting a bye in round two. Round four was the last game of the fast time control before merging into the slower schedule. Considering how many implosions I've had going into the last round of the first day, it might have been a good idea. However the chess addict in me wanted to play all seven rounds. I figured I'd take my chances with getting a game from a bye player in another section. It almost blew up in my face.

I hadn't noticed the pairings for the Under 1700 section so I thought the only other player with a bye was an 1100 in the under 1500 section. I wanted to play someone closer to me in rating. One of the tournament directors misunderstood me, and thought I didn't want to play the player in the Under 1700 section who got the bye. He told her I didn't want to play. In the meantime I'm trying to find someone who was hanging around and might want to play as a house player against me. Then I found out about the player in the under 1700 section who was also looking for a game. She and her dad were playing in the under 1700 section. I asked her dad where she was. He wasn't sure. Either on the mezzanine or balcony level.

It became a game of cat and mouse. I think we kept missing each other. I'd be upstairs, and she'd be downstairs or visa-versa. Finally one of the NYC parents I know told me she just went upstairs. I dashed up the escalator, hoping to catch her before somebody told her I was downstairs. We finally found each other and got to play. Since she was being moved into my section for the round, she got to keep her bye point regardless of what happened in the game. If I lost the game then I would be out the point. I didn't really care. I seriously didn't think having the full point would make much difference if I did end out losing or drawing.

Alice and I have played each other three times at the Marshall Chess Club. I'm 2-1 against her. The games I won against her have been tight, but the clock has been a factor each time. Since we started late we had to deduct an extra five minutes from each side. She was totally outplaying me and won a pawn. Then she hung a piece. It still wasn't going to be easy for me since she got a second pawn for the piece and it was down on my third rank. I hung the piece right back several moves later. We reached this position. I'm down a pawn.

I'm not sure what I played at this point. I think I may have played either Rb4 0r Ke2. I offered a draw which she took. She had a minute and a half. I had 30 seconds. I was surprised she took the draw. Afterwards she admitted afterwards that she was nervous about the clock. Considering how we both blundered away pieces perhaps a draw was the correct result. Note to my end game fan readers: Feel free to offer some analysis. If time is not a factor can Black convert this?

Round Three: $80 down the toilet. (Not my $80)

This tournament wasn't getting off to the smoothest start. Getting smashed in the first round and eking out a draw in the second round doesn't have the makings of a good tournament. However things could have been worse. I could have been like my third round opponent. He started off .5 -1.5 in the three day schedule, and decided to re-enter the two day schedule. He started off the two day schedule 0-2. That's not the results one wants when he pays another $80 to re-enter. (Don't get me started on re-entries. Waste of money!!) I guess the 0-2 explains why he refused my draw after after 38...Qxd4+ to reach this position.


We fiddled around with our queens for another 13 moves and then he finally accepted my second draw offer. I try not to make a second draw offer before my opponent has made one of his own. Repeated draw offers though technically not against the rules are annoying. In this case the position was going nowhere. I figured 13 moves after my first draw offer, I was justified in making a second draw offer. At that point he accepted the draw.

I still had two more rounds to play on this first day. If you thought all of that was fun. Wait until you see what happened next. Stay tuned for part two.

Chess Psychology 101

I already gave away the ending with my previous post, but now it's time to talk about the two battles going on during this game. In any chess game there is the battle that occurs on the board with the pieces, and then there's the battle with the mind. As much as one wants to start each game with a clean slate and only think about the moves on the board, often there are other issues at hand. Sometimes it's about what happened in the previous round. Sometimes it's about who you're playing, or how he is acting. Sometimes it has nothing to do with chess itself.

For me I was fighting the battle of what had happened to me from the fourth round onwards. I should note that my fourth round opponent who received the gift of my rook went on to win the section with a score of 6-1. *Sigh* If only I hadn't hung the rook...... I'm playing a kid from New York City who attends one of the major chess power house schools. That's not exactly who I want to be paired against when I'm in one these foul funks, but I can't dwell on it. I knew before the pairings went up that I was going to play him. So it wasn't a big surprise. Yes I too sometimes succumb to the pairing game and try to figure out who I'm playing next.

This is the game, and I have added some annotations to it. However the analysis only tells about what I saw on the chess board. It was what I saw off the board that was crucial to how this game went.


As I have stated on this blog and in the comments of other people's blogs I much prefer the human element of live chess that one does not get when playing on the Internet. Seeing my opponent let's me know more about him or her. Sometimes that's good, and sometimes it's not so good. It's interesting to watch how certain players sit at the board, how they handle the pieces and clock, how they react to what's going on around them, etc.

Some players sit very still, while others are in constant motion with bouncing legs, tapping feet, or changing positions in their chair. Some players move the pieces in a very deliberate and precise manner. Others casually flick the pieces out and if you're lucky they land on the center of the square. Then there are the slammers. Those are the ones who on every single move slam the piece down like they just played the killer move. Some players show a calm confidence in their move as they deliberately place their piece on the square. Others are showing a "in your face" cockiness as slam their pieces.

Most of the time one needs to tune out their opponent's "board side manner" and not read anything into how they physically move the pieces or how they're sitting in their chair. In this particular case I couldn't help but to notice my opponent's demeanor during the game. He has been trained in the Kotov "write first, move after" school of thought. There's been much debate about how useful it is, and whether it should be allowed at all. In my pre-Mon Roi days I had tried it off and on, but didn't find it overly helpful for me. I think it's helpful for some players to follow that routine, and I when I'm playing I don't care whether my opponent is writing before or after he makes his move.

The only reason I paid much attention to it this time was because what he did after going through his analysis. Most of time when a player uses this method he will think about the move, write it down, think about it some more and then play the move. If they don't like what they've seen, they'll erase it and repeat the process again. My opponent would go through the first three steps, but then when he went to make the move there was often significant hesitation. It seemed like he was spending an awful lot of time on the opening moves. If one plays e4 as White one should have his set lines for openings like the Sicilian. The c3 line gives White the opportunity to steer the opening into something that he knows, so spending 5 minutes on his fifth move of h3 indicated to me early on that perhaps he wasn't going to be the next King Kong of my chess career.

He spent 14 minutes on his twelfth move, Ke2. He had written it down, had looked at it for quite awhile and then when he went to make the move he kept hesitating. He'd reach towards the king and then pull his hand away, then he'd reach for the king again and pull it away again. Then he picked up the king, hovered over e2 and then pulled it back to e1. He's still holding onto the king, but now he has three plausible choices for connecting the rooks; 12. Ke2, 12. O-O or 12. O-O-O. He finally did play 12. Ke2. His reasoning was that I had already pushed a6 and b5 so he was concerned my queen side attack would be faster then his king side attack.

The funny thing was when he played this move I was actually nervous about the potential onslaught of pawns backed up by his rooks on the g and h files. I was even more nervous after he played 13. Rag1. I've fallen victim to many of these types of attacks while not being able to get at the opponent's king on the other side. Given my mental state going into this game I was having one of those "Here we go again" moments. However what I was forgetting about was that this position had not come from a typical Accelerated Dragon so I had actually gotten in a few extra moves on the queen side while he pulled the bishop back to c2 and pushed d4. So even though he had the center, my king side was solid, and I had nice possibilities on the queen side.

I figured I'd try to distract him with 13...Na5 with the idea of 14...Nc4. I thought he might just ignore it and play 14. Bh6. This was the point where his hesitations over making moves became more pronounced. I sensed that he was scared of the play I was getting on the queen side. I still didn't think my moves were such a big deal, but he did and I could tell that was his thinking. He actually was correct in his assessment of the position after Na5. He can't simply ignore 14...Nc4. Though b3 was probably too passive on his part.

When he played 14. b3 that changed my entire attitude about the position. I think if he had confidently played Bh6, I may have been intimidated by the move. Given my recent record against kids playing intimidating looking moves it might have totally psyched me out during the game. However looking at the game afterwards with no pressure and the aid of Fritz I can see that 14 Bh6 is an illusion. It's actually not so good any more since if he plays it, 14... Nc4 allows black to pick up the b pawn after 15. Qg5 Bxh6 16. Qxh6 Nxb2. Even with White's queen on h6 his attack is too slow. Black will get a lot of play with White's king in the center. However I wasn't seeing any of this at the time so when he played the defensive move of b3 I felt tremendous relief and I went on the offensive with 14...Rc8.

He could have played 15. Rc1 to shore up his weak c file, but he was overly concerned about 15...b4. At first glance it appears I win the pawn on e4, but after 16. Nb1 Bxe4 17. Bxe4 Nxe4 18. Qxb4 it's equal. At that point anything could have happened. Instead he play the very passive a3 weakening the queen side even more. That move totally energized me. Now I was feeling like a shark who smelled blood and was going for the kill. I was seeing lots of possibilities in the position for me. The game kind of played itself after that.

This game clearly showed me why it's important to play with confidence and not give anything away with body language. Poker faces are important in chess too. Even my third round opponent who was totally busted and had very little time kept playing his pieces as if he had some crushing blow. I think he was waiting for me to blunder in the time scramble. So by playing quickly and decisively he certainly made me nervous, but I kept telling myself I had time and not to be hasty in my responses.

There is a fine line in reading too much into an opponent's actions, but I think an experienced player has a feel for what is real, and what may be for show. Even though I've never played this particular kid before, I've played enough kids to have a feel for their perceptions of the game in progress. Kids can be intimidating and scary to play at times, but I think they're easier to read. Kids are more real in their emotions. I think adults are better at BS-ing their way through stuff so they're harder to read.

Phine Phinish In Philly!

If you read my previous post I discussed whether I could rebound mentally from playing three horrible games in a row. As you can probably guess from the title, I did indeed rebound. So how did I do it?

I decided I needed to just get away from the chess scene, so I was going to take my trashy murder mystery and go sit in the hotel restaurant and have lunch by myself. As much as I like this hotel their dining hours are rather limited. They seem to want force you into the fancy seafood place or the lobby bar. I was not in the mood for either. I spent enough time in that bar last night. (Go Giants!!) So I ran into Lilia's and Maddie's parents and they were planning to walk over to the Reading Market. Anyone who's been to Philly is probably familiar with it, and those from Boston can think Faniuel Hall (sans trendy stores) or Seattle's Pike St. Market. There's nothing like a brisk 10 block walk in freezing weather to wake up the brain! The food choices are rather overwhelming and then there's the chocolate shop. I ended out at the chocolate shop before I decided on lunch. Priorities!

Now as much as playing kids makes me crazy, I love hanging out with them, especially the girls. Maddie and Lilia were regaling us withs stories about their friends (Boys! I don't think girls do that stuff.) standing behind their friends' opponents, making faces or doing bunny ears with the opponent being clueless about what is occurring behind him. Dam I had an overwhelmimg urge to do that to Lilia's seventh round opponent, but decided it would not look good.

It was funny because walking over to the market we passed a art gallery with a like size gorrilla in the window. Damn! I wished I had my camera with me, because it was make a great visual to my next King Kong post. You know they'll be a another King Kong post in the near future. I have to keep up with Tempo with all his wonderful pictures that accompnay his well written material. King Kong will have to wait another day.

When we got back to the hotel there was still 45 minutes until the round, so I went up the the next level away from the chess players and tried to find a quiet spot to listen to something very mellow. A good piece is Ralph Vaugh William's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. The piece lasts about 15 minutes. It's worth a listen from the You tube link I provided. It's soothing and also being a bit on the mournful side it helps bring the hyper brain back down.

Once again I'm facing a NYC kid from a school that I direct tournaments at. Just what I need at this point. I wasn't surprised by the pairing. I too can stare at the wallchart and figure out pairings. My only hope was if there was an odd nimber in 2.5 score group that dropped down to play me. No such luck. Tomorrow I will post the game with commentary, not just the moves of game itself, but also the psychological aspects. Physchology played a big part in my vctory. Stayed tuned tomorrow for the game itself.

Is This Philadelphia or Green Bay??

It's absolutely frigid in the playing room, and this morning there was no hot water. There was no way I was taking a shower in ice cold water. I guess it was good that I didn't work out before the round. I stayed in bed until 9:00 AM.

I think my brain has frost bite. Once again it's absolutely freezing in the playing room. I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, a fleece warm up jacket, and a heavy leather bomber jacket.

If it weren't for all the chess players in the background and me sitting at the board, one might think I was at yesterday's football game.

So last night I had the stoic old gentleman who played slowly and only left the board once. Today I played a little kid with a 1514 rating. (Geez! Can I ever play in a tournament without dealing playing little kids who are playing up??? Yes, If I had plus score.) The game was going just fine until some of his friends came by to watch the game. One kid said something to my opponent. I don't know what he said, but his clock was running on my move and I don't know if the kid said something about it. Then the two kids are having a conversation with each other behind my opponent. I'm trying to work out what I wanted to do because I made a slight mistake which allowed him to put his knight in the center. I chase them away and go back my analysis. (My opponent did finally punch his clock.) I finally decided to trade my dark squared bishop for the knight. The position was even, and not much was happening. After I opened things up a bit with 24. f4 it started getting interesting. (Note to self: Don't open up position against little kids! )

On move 26 we reach this position.

When I made the series of moves that lead to this position my intention was to play 27 Rg4. I decided not to play it, because I was concerned that the rook my gets trapped there since there aren't many squares to go to once his queen moves away. I had several different possibilities. I wanted to double the rooks on the file so I did not consider Rff1. That left Rf3 or Rf5. I didn't really like Rf3 since it blocks my bishop. I knew that after Rf5 he might sac on g3, but I miscalculated the strength of the sac. I thought he'd play 27...Bxg3 28. hxg3, Qxg3. I wasn't afraid of the passed pawns since the board would be wide open on the kingside.

I played 27. Rf5, Bxg3! I instantly took 28. hxg3?? Qh6+! I missed that move completely. 29. Rh5 Qxc1+ 30. Kh2 Qxa3. I'm totally toast. I'm down the exchange and two pawns. Now I'm really pissed and frustrated. The next series of moves I play in a rage. I guess it didn't matter at that point. I can play on and lose painfully slow or I can just go into meltdown mode and have it end quickly. 31. Qd2 Rbe8 32. Bh3 Re5 33. Rh4 a5 34. d4 Re7 Now here's where I have a major implosion. I'm looking at playing 35. Qg5 Ree8 36. Qh5 (Crude cheapo and totally stoppable with h6.) But before I play Qg6 I decide to trade off the b pawn since it's hanging. 35. bxa5 Qxa5 36. Qg5?? Qxg5! White resigns. If I ever wanted to sweep the peices off the board in a rage this would have been the time. I suppose it was not as bad as hanging the rook yesterday in a better position. At least this game I was already lost, and hanging the queen just put me out of my misery earlier. But it's just the principle of not being able to control my anger and stay focused on trying to make good moves.

It was tempting tell the tournament director to take me out and go home. However I just can't leave on that note. So here I am the computer center at the hotel blogging this mess, and waiting for round seven in a few hours. I will either redeem myself in the last round or be even more pissed off if I lose again. What are the chances that I can forget about rounds 4-6 and play a decent last round? Leave your bets in the comments section. I promise I won't look at them until after the round is done. I start playing again at 4:30 pm eastern time.

Major Phaux-Pas in Philly

I'm in Philadelphia for the Liberty Bell Open. I'm playing in the 2 day schedule of the Under 1900 section. I've gotten off to a good start with two draws against high 1800s and a win against another high 1800. In round four I play my lowest rated opponent so far, a 1776. I have a great game going, and we reach this position on move 41.

I had a really nice attack earlier, and was sure I was going to win a pawn or a piece, but he defended very nicely. I probably should have offered a draw after the queens and one pair of rooks went off, but I felt I was better and I was ahead on the clock by a bit. I had played 41. f4 and he played 41...e5. At this point I go into a deep think about whether I want to check on d6 with the rook. I was afraid of the interposition after 42. Rd6 Re6. I thought his king would get very active after 43. Rxe6. What I didn't consider was instead of taking, pushing f5+. That actually is very strong for white so Re6 is a mistake. Kf7 is probably best for black, but Fritz rates it + over minus 0.72 for white. I only had considered 43. Rxe6 Kxe6. I decided I didn't want to give the check until I moved my king up to f3. So in that position I played 43. Kf3??? I didn't even notice exd4 until he made the move. Unbelievable!!

Sometimes this damn game gets me so pissed off. I have a great position, and I'm off to a great start in the tournament and I totally screw up up the game with the dumbest move possible. I over analyzed the check, and forgot that the pawn is attacking the rook. Duh! Sometimes I just feel like I just can't deal with success over the chess board. I wasn't in time pressure. I was actually ahead on the clock for most of the game. I had almost 5 minutes left after I made that horrible move. That was just one of my classic ADD moments where I had a serious brain fart.

My fifth round was the first game for me at the slow time control. I played an old guy who spent lots of time on every move, and notated in English Descriptive. I was so freaking antsy that game. I was more twitchy then the little kids playing in the lower sections. I wasn't even thinking about how stupid I played the previous round. I just wanted to go watch the Giants game. The hotel has a bar in the lobby, and you could hear all the shouting every time something happened. I had toyed around with taking a bye for round 5 so I could watch the football game. Being the pessimist I am at times, knowing my luck the Packers would be winning 28-0 by the half and I be super pissed off that I skipped the round to watch a sucky football game. Instead I played a marginally sucky game of chess for three hours and got to watch the last quarter and overtime.

The funny thing was a lot of chess people got to see Polly the crazy sports fan for the first time. Chess people are used to watching me play or direct. I'm usually pretty intense, and not loud. Tonight they got to watch me yell at the TV and curse out the Giants kicker during the fourth quarter. Then they got to watch me run around the bar giving high fives to strangers wearing Giants jerseys. Damn! I can't believe the Giants are playing in the Super Bowl! Can they beat New England? Probably not, but who knows? Nobody thought they could beat Dallas or Green Bay.