Wacky Wednesday!

I mentioned in my first post about my weekend at the UMBC Open about my second round game that was worthy of Wacky Wednesday status. As promised (threatened?) is the story of my second round.

I have been known to resign prematurely on occasion. Sometimes it's been done in haste without seeing what is really happening. Sometimes it's just simply not being in the mood to fight on in a position that is most likely lost, but has a little fight left. No matter how you look at it, you'll never win by resigning. As Yogi Berra would say, "It ain't over til it's over." But it's over if somebody resigns.

In round two I'm paired against an 1854. I've actually played this guy two times in Philadelphia at the National Chess Congress and Liberty Bell Open. I have a 1-1 record against him. It's unusual for me to play somebody from a different state in several different tournaments. Like the first round, I was not in synch with the slow time control. I was playing too fast and had dropped a pawn. We reached this position after I played 34. Re2 in response to 33...g5.

I had only used a little over an hour, and he had used closer to an hour and a half. I was disgusted with my position, and my mind was off on one of its "looking ahead to next round pairing scenerio" ramblings. This is the sort of thing that happens when I start spending too much time looking at the pairings, requested bye lists and results. I had noticed that 1 player had taken a 1/2 point bye for round 2 so there had been an even number for the round. I knew he was going to play round three which meant there would be an odd number. I then looked to see how many players were taking byes in round 3. Four players were taking byes. I did the math. 1 player is returning making it odd, and 4 are taking byes, keeping it odd.

I'm sitting at the board staring at this miserable position while my opponent is thinking. I know he's going to play 34...Qh8. I will have to trade rooks and then move my knight away. I'm down a pawn, and I'll probably lose the isolated a pawn or backward d pawn. A normal chess player would probably be trying to come up with plans on how to hold on in such a position. What am I thinking about here? "Damn, the two players lower rated then me scored points this round. I'm going to end out getting the freaking bye. There probabbly won't be anyone around to be a house player since so many people are taking requested byes. Also the kids aren't playing in the evening so there won't be any parents or coaches hanging around who might want to play. What am I going to do this evening? My host is at a party, and my friends are away." Yada, yada.

While my mind is off on this rant I happen to notice that my opponent's body language is changing. He's squirming in his seat, and shaking his head as if to say, "I'm toast." I'm thinking to myself, "Am I missing something here? Can't he simply play Qh8?" I start looking closer at the position. Nope, there's nothing there. There is no skewer on the e8 rook. Qh8 holds everything. Is there some combination I'm missing after Qh8? He suddenly stops the clock, shakes hands and leaves the board. I'm totally stunned. I continue to stare at the position to see what I missed. After 35. Rxe8 Qxe8, 36. Nd5 I'm threatening a fork, but it's easy enough to stop.

That certainly resolved the bye issue. When I saw Ron on Sunday I asked him if he had not seen that he had Rh8. He thought his king was on h8. I showed him the position on my Mon Roi with the king on h7. He asked me if that position was right. I assured him it was. I think he was kind of shocked that he had missed that. I probably didn't make his morning with that bit of news. To make matters worse for him, his opponent was a no show.

Psycho Psunday Part 1: Draw Pschology Revisited

This day went beyond the realm of Wacky Wednesday. I've been playing in rated tournaments since 1972. I have over 3300 rated games, not counting quick chess. I thought I had seen everything until my last round in the UMBC Open on Sunday. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't play so hot on Saturday. The only reason I had a point was the massive brain fart that my opponent had in round two. I think part of my problem is when I play a slower time limit it takes me a couple of rounds to actually pace myself correctly. I tend to rush my moves early on, and then end out with a crummy position that I have trouble recovering from.

My 4th round opponent was about 15 minutes late. I always get a bit anxious in a morning round where I have a crummy score and my opponent is late. It's even worse when day light savings time has just begun. I start thinking "He got the bye last night. He's disgusted with his score, and is not going to show up. He forgot to set his clock forward so he's not going to show up until noon because he thinks it's 11." So on, and so forth. I hate forfeit wins. They're worse then byes.

This game was a struggle. I got a marginal position out of the opening, and couldn't get my pieces coordinated. I did use a lot of time. The 15 minute time edge I had evaporated and for a change I was the one behind on the clock. I felt my opponent had a few different opportunities to either trash my pawn structure or win a pawn, but he just slowly built up pressure and did not rush into anything that would give me play. We eventually traded queens, and I thought I was okay. I offered a draw after playing 29. Kf3 to reach the following position.



I usually don't offer draws when there are so many pieces on the board, but I was tired of struggling with the position. I didn't see that he had so much now that the queens were gone. He didn't say anything. He simply played 29...g5. I spent a couple of minutes debating between Rb3 or h3. I played 30. Rb3. I didn't think that 30...g4+ was that big a deal. Maybe I need to re-read posts like this one regarding draw offers, because I certainly had the "post rejected draw offer" let down. I'm not sure where my head at this point, but I played 31. Ke4.

Now talk about being totally oblivious to danger. After I make the move I'm thinking to myself "Oh damn, he's going to play the rook to d1 and get behind my h pawn, and I can't get back to defend." That was the least of my problems. He plays 31...f5. He doesn't say anything and he doesn't press the clock. I'm thinking to myself "What's this? How come he didn't press the clock?" Then it hits me. DUH! It's mate. Unfreaking believeable. I get mated by a pawn.

What else could possibly go wrong at this point? Remember Murphy's Law. "If anything can go wrong it will." O"Tool's commentary on Murphy's Law is "Murphy was an optimist." I think ole Murphy is a guy with a twisted sense of humor, who decided I needed something totally crazy and different to blog about. See Part II of Psycho Psunday for the details.