It's All In The Timing

In my last post I discussed my little debate with King Kong regarding my resignation in our game. Either nobody is paying attention or everyone thinks I was right, and that there is no need to discuss it. :-) I was expecting at least one person to say "You give up too easily" or "Damn kids wanting to drag it out." That post started out being an introduction to my Thursday night follies, but I decided it was long enough.

I was at the Marshall on Thursday for my weekly cracktion fix. I lost to one the usual suspects in the first round. In the second round I would have one of those mind meltdowns where one overlooks the obvious, and sees things that aren't really there. This game was a classic example of that.


After Black played 13...Nxe5, I went into this long debate over whether I should play 14. Nxe5, followed by Bf4 after he recaptures with the queen, or play 14. Bf4, pinning the knight. I decided to play 14. Bf4. What I was totally oblivious to was that the knight was attacking my queen. When he played 14...Nxd3 I was in total shock, and acted accordingly. I let out one of those "Damn I can't believe I just hung my queen" groans, slumped in my seat, and knocked my king over. My opponent is looking at me funny as if to say, "What's your problem? You're only losing a pawn." At that point I realize "Well duh! You played Bf4 because you were pinning the knight to his queen, and you can now play Bxc7." He puts my king and pawns back on their proper squares. In the meantime I had stopped the clock. He starts my clock back up and points at the board. Okay that's a new one. Not only has my opponent refused my resignation, but doesn't invoke the touch move rule. After all I did "touch" the king. I guess he was treating it as an "accidental touch, with no intent to move it."

After losing my composure it was a little difficult to pull myself back together. I was only down a pawn but my next few moves were insipid at best, and pretty crappy if truth be told. I'm not sure if I was having "survivor guilt" and just playing aimlessly in order not to give myself drawing chances, or just was too distracted to focus on the game. It also didn't help that my husband called twice during the first two rounds. He never calls unless it's urgent. The phone did not ring, and I did not answer it on my move. Not that my husband could tell me anything that would be at all helpful. This is a guy who forgets that pawns capture diagonally. My opponent did not refuse my "second resignation" when I was down to 1 second, and he was up the exchange and two pawns.

There had been an odd number every round, so it looked like my turn with the bye was coming up in round 3. Fortunately someone had dropped out so there was an even number. This set up the match up Steve Chernick having White against me. Oh joy! Just what I needed after the second round meltdown. I had already decided that regardless of what happened in round 3, I was not playing the last round so I could get home and hour and half earlier. Steve and I always have totally bizarre games, and for awhile he really had my number. Before King Kong there was a gorrilla named Steve. Though this fall I was actually winning more then I was losing against him.

It started out pretty quietly and I actually like my position, but then I started playing chicken. I had attacked his b pawn with 18...Rb8. He ignored it and made one of his crazy pawn pushes. Instead of ignoring it, and grabbing the free b pawn I played h6, to stop him from pushing h6. Despite playing defensively for a few moves, I still have an excellent game with some good attacking possibilities. Fritz had me ahead by 1.4 through move 31. Unfortunately the clock was getting to be a factor. No I had not left myself with 10 minutes, and it caught up with me.

When he played 34. b4, played cxb4 almost immediately. I figured we were simply trading pawns, and that he'd capture with the queen on d4. I had not even considered the knight capture, and when he did make it I almost moved my rook away until I realized my queen would be hanging. Ouch! At this point I'm just making moves, and proceed to drop two pawns along with the exchange. After dropping the second pawn I almost gave up. However he went from having about 8 minutes to my 10 seconds to having less then 2 minutes. Knowing his history of blowing big time advantages, and some of the crazy things that have happened, I decided to suck it up and keep playing. One premature resignation for the evening was enough.

Sure enough on move 43 the implosion came. I had played 42...Rb7. He took the rook with his queen thinking that after Qxb7 he plays Rc7+, winning back the queen and trading down to a easliy won ending. In fact I was on the verge of just knocking the king over when I realized he was in check, and that I would have time to move my king and avoid the fork. The score stops a couple of moves later because we're both blitzing.

This is the final position. He flags, but I ignore the clock, and deliver the mate. I had 2 seconds left. Though as a footnote, payback is a bitch. Today we played again. He was black, and mated me with 5 seconds on his clock, and 2 on mine. That was after he gave back a 9 minute time advantage. One might make the observation that the two of us have clock issues that we have not resolved yet.

When Is It Time To Resign?

My post from the other day certainly evoked a lot responses regarding what appeared to be a resignation that got turned into a stealth draw offer. I've been thinking about chess etiquette a lot lately. I was surprised by how people reacted when I mentioned the noisy food incident. Often there are debates about whether one should play out a game to mate, or resign when it is a hopeless case. I had an interesting discussion with King Kong the last time I played him.




This was the final position. He just played 29...Rc2. He's threatening to mop up my queenside pawns, and run his two pawns down the queenside. He's also threatening d3. I can break the pin by playing 30. Kf3, but that's easily answered by Re3+ My rook is tied down to the e2 pawn. My knight is horribly out of play. There are no forking possibilities the way the position is set up. Time was not a big factor here though he did have a 4 minute advantage of 10:30 vs 6:30. Given the time difference if anyone was bound to implode in later time pressure, it would have been me. It was the last round. All Kevin needed was a win or a draw to wrap up the section. I saw no reason to play the position out so I resigned.


Afterwards Kevin said, "I don't know why you resigned there. You should have played on." I told him that I felt it was an easy win for him, and that I don't like to drag out positions like that. He said he knew was an easy win, but he would have played on. There were no extenuating circumstances such as his having 10 seconds left. I told him I know kids would play it out, but I told him that as one gets older and more experienced one tends to concede the hopeless position out of respect for a player who totally out played them. It had nothing to do my track record against him. There was no feeling of intimidation. I felt pretty good about how things had gone that evening. It was actually one of my better games against him until I got sloppy with my attack, and dropped the exchange. Things just fell apart after that.


Would I resign that same position every time? I would be more likely to play on if I out rated my opponent by 700+ points, or if the clock was a major factor. Then I'd want the opponent to prove that they have the skill to it finish off. In this situation I didn't need King Kong to prove to me that he could win the game. I knew he could. It was my way of making a quiet statement about playing out hopelessly lost positions. Maybe my resigning took away the pleasure of totally crushing me, by promoting the queenside pawns. I wasn't going to hang around to find out.


In my next post I'm going show two games from my weekly Thursday night "cracktion" tournament. One game I lost despite my opponent making me retract my ill timed resignation, and the other I won because I didn't resign a pretty much lost position based on Steve's and my history of time pressure implosions. As they say those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

What is A Draw Offer?: Learning The Hard Way

At the National Chess Congress they have a few sections for lower rated players that have no cash prizes, just trophies. Many kids play in these sections, but because they're not scholastic tournaments there will also be low rated adults in the sections. (Note: I may gripe about losing to 10 year olds, but at least their ratings are 4 digits. I'm not sure if I could cope with having a rating under 1000 and playing and losing to children with such ratings.) The other thing about these sections not being scholastic, is the neurotic chess parent can hover near by, thus making the tournament director's job much harder. I think my favorite scene in "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is when the tournament director locks all the crazed parents in the cage. My tournament director fantasy is to be able to do that to crazed mothers and fathers when they get in my face.

As I was walking out of the tournament room after my fifth round loss there was a big argument going on between the father of a little girl in the Under 1000 section, the opponent of the girl, players sitting at adjoining boards, other spectators and the poor tournament director. And people wonder why spectators are not allowed near the players at the national scholastic championships. As much as I did not like losing another game, I much preferred being able to leave the room to mark up another zero, then have to make a ruling on what was happening in the Under 1000 section.

The last thing I heard the father say was something to the affect of, "You're grown men taking advantage of a little girl." I asked the director later what that was all about. The girl was crushing her opponent and had mate in a few moves. The opponent was shaking his head and muttering. The girl thought he was resigning and reached out to shake his hand. He interpreted the extended hand as a draw offer, and promptly accepted. That was not her intention, but that's how it came across. I guess the other players seated at the adjoining boards felt that was what happened. The father felt the opponent was taking advantage of her youth and inexperience by claiming a draw in a hopeless position. However the director did rule that it was a draw offer. Not having heard what the witnesses had to say or what the player herself said, I can't really say whether or not the ruling was right or not.

Fortunately her tie breaks we better so she did come in first any way. It would have sucked to have not won the section because of that error. It also would have sucked if there had been money and she ended out with less because she was in a tie for first instead of clear first. (BTW the under 1600 section was won by a 7 year old who got $3,000.) Hopefully she learned not to offer or accept a handshake without hearing "I resign" from the opponent.

I've had more then one kid ask me what my intent was if I stopped the clock, said "Good game", and extended my hand. My adult opponents accept my resignation in that manner. The kids want to see a tipped king, or hear "I resign." Though recently a tipped king was not enough for one of my young opponents. He still asked me what I meant. I know he knew what a tipped king meant, but I think he just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a big j'adoube that was disguising a stealth draw offer. That's not my style, but I'm sure the kid must have been burned once with what he thought was a resignation, but actually was a stealth draw offer. It's better to be safe then sorry.

Going Out With a Bang!

My last round game was interesting, but another loss. I was totally caught off guard by White's 23rd move of f5. Afterwards I thought maybe I had gone terribly wrong by playing 23...gxf5, but I'm actually okay if after 24. Rd4 I play 24... Kh8. Fritz came up with 25. Rh4 f6 26. exf6 Rxf6 27. Qg5 Rg8 28.Qh5 Qc7+ 29. Rff4 with it being minus over plus. The other line Fritz found was 24... Rg8 25. Rh4 Kh8 26. Qh6 also minus over plus for black. I'm not sure of the ratings of the guys who were going over the game with my opponent and me afterwards, but nobody found these lines. Everybody thought I should have played 23...f6 or exf5 instead. Fritz gives equality to f6, and a slight edge for black after exf5.

The losing move was 24...Qc7?? There is no defense to 25. Rg3+, Kh8, 26. Qh6! He has the simple mate threat of 27. Qg7#. That's simple to stop with 26...Rg8 or 26...Qxe5. Unfortunately there is no defense to the queen sacrifice of 27. Qxh7+!!

Normally I'd simply resign under those circumstances, but it's funny how I start thinking when I know that my game is being shown in real time on the Mon Roi website. I don't know if anyone was watching my game at the time. I think the games on the top boards in the Premier Section had a larger audience. However just in case I did have an audience, I figured I make it entertaining. I played 26...Qxe5, 27. Qxh7+, Kxh7, 28. Rh4#. Another game that will make interesting instructional material. "Okay boys and girls, white to move and mate in two."

I once had a button that said "Losing is an educational experience. Let me be a teacher." I don't think the person who came up with that meant it quite the way it comes out in my case. Oh well!

Live From Philadelphia Part 2

If you tried to find my round 4 game yesterday on the Mon Roi site, it wasn't there. The TD's system crashed during the round. It should be up later as will my round 3 win. I would not let him take the Round 1 & 2 games. I figure my little blog readership was enough. I don't need the entire universe seeing me suck so bad yesterday.

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because I got really annoyed with the little kid sitting next to me during this round. Usually I don't get bothered by people I'm not playing, but this kid was driving me nuts. First he was coughing and sniffling like crazy. Like I want kiddie cooties! I get exposed to enough of them during the week. He wasn't covering his mouth. I moved my tea and water to the other side of me so he would cough all over what I was drinking. I also put my iPod on so I didn't have to listen to all his cold sound effects.

My game was interesting, and both of us were using a lot of time. My opponent was using more. One of the problems I have after playing "cracktion chess" is trying to stay focused when my opponent is taking a lot of time on a move. The position was kind of cramped, and so I made some pawn pushes that opened up my pieces, but unfortunately gave his pieces even more space. I probably should have sat back longer. I think in hindsight 18. e4 was too risky.

The kid had stopped coughing, but then he has a bag of potato chips, and his crinkling the bag, and chomping on the chips really loud. I kind of let him have it, as nicely as I could. I told him it was rude to eat noisy foods at the table, and that he should leave the board if he wants to eat that stuff. He put the bag aside, and later on I noticed that he had switched to eating a piece if pound cake. I get hungry when playing a long game, but I try to stick to quiet foods, and when I have a sandwich I walk away from the board. The kid's opponent earlier on had come in with a hot dog with sauerkraut on it. Can't stand that smell! I almost said something to him, but he was sitting across from me so I didn't want to lean over. The hot dog incident was before the potato chips. The chips were the last straw.

One round left. Hopefully I don't get paired against that kid since he's been beating and drawing with 1900s. He's rated 1673 which means he's really 1873. Besides after my little "etiquette lecture" he might be extra motivated to put me in my place.

Whoever I play it would be nice to score another point. There is still the hope of gaining rating points since my bye loss in the Premier Section will be rated first, then they'll rate the under 2000 afterwards.

Live From Philadelphia.....

It's the Rocky Polly Horror Show! Let's do the time warp again! It's in between rounds 3 and 4, so I will give you a brief synopsis of how my day has gone. I'm playing the two day schedule, and opted to play up in the Under 2000 section. First round I get the dreaded "Please Wait". (Bye) Nothing like getting it over with early. Before I even get a chance to look at the pairings David Mahler from DC asks me if I would be available to play his student who got the bye in the Premier section. Not having seen the pairings yet, I said "I'm playing." pause "Or did I get the bye in my section?" My next question was "What's his rating?" When I found out it was 1800, I was willing to play. I'll on pass 1100 rated cross-pairs.

Second time this week I've gotten a bye, elected to play, and played like a moron. This was ugly. Ranks right up there with the 11 move loss to Eric Hecht. This took 12 moves, and about 20 minutes. 1. c4 e5, 2. Nc3 Nf6, 3. g3 c6, 4. Nf3 (I'm not sure why I played this move. I hate c3 Sicilian as black. Why should it be any better as White in reverse? I should have played d3.) ...e4, 5. Ng5 d5, 6. cxd5 cxd5, 7.d3? (7. a3 prevents all the crap on b4.) h6, 8. Nh3, Nc6, 9. dxe4 d4!, 10. Nd5. (I'm so proud of myself because I saw that Nb5 loses to Qa5+. That feeling didn't last long, after what follows.) ...Nxe4, 11. Ndf4. Bb4+!
I'm looking at this move, and just shaking my head. It's the freaking 11th move of the game, and I'm dead meat. Goodbye queen or king. It continues 12. Bd2 Bxd2+. I resigned on the spot. Damn! Should have just taken the freaking bye without playing.

The result was recorded in my opponent's section. The bye point was posted in my section, so I have 1 point, and was paired accordingly. That game wasn't much better. 18 moves. It was a "pick your poison" position. Move to one square it's forced mate in two. Move to the other square, king and queen fork. Another quick resignation. That game lasted about 45 minutes. The time limit is G/45 with 5 second delay. So I had lots of time to hang out.

It's funny, but I can cope much better with games where I just get crushed early. I guess maybe because it's over quickly so the pain doesn't last long. I guess if I'm going to lose, might as well make it quick, and not have my hopes up. I decided I couldn't think about the first two rounds, so I went back to the room and relaxed a bit to settle down my wild thoughts. Round 3 I'm paired against another player with one point. It was a wild one. I dropped a pawn, and then just started hurling stuff at his kingside. At this point I have nothing to lose. It can't get any worse. I end out up a piece with rooks still on the board. I was in time trouble for most of the time, but when all was said and done, he flagged, and I had 5 seconds. I'll add that game later too. It's a humdinger.

If you want to see my live, you should be able to pick up my round 4 game on Monroi. Hopefully you don't have to give up your first born. Gotta scoot, round starts in a few minutes.

Later. Somehow my game didn't end out on the broadcast even though my Mon Roi had my pairing. It was actually a very instructive position that demonstrated the superiority of the bishop versus knight. There were too many mates and promoting pawn threats that could not be stopped. Tomorrow is another day. More tough pairings ahead with my fake 2-2 score.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

There will be no wining about chess today!
Cheers!

Next stop on Polly's Chess Tour: Philadelphia for the National Chess Congress.