Friday Funnies

This is not a new weekly feature to supplement Wacky Wednesday. When one feels like crap, is bored silly, whose brain is mush and has nothing better to do, a little low brow blogging does the trick. If you want deep thought and high brow blogging go read Transformation's latest post. If your brain is ready for the weekend, then pull up a chair. You've come to the right spot.

We're into round three of Tournament of LEPers. No huge surprises at the top so far. Donnie decided we needed to spice things up with some trash talk on the comments portion. We are a pretty mild mannered bunch of bloggers if you ask me. No great smack downs or flame wars. I guess since we're not a forum with trolls lurking about, things are pretty tame. However in honor of Donnie's trash talk efforts, I have posted a few comics from my collection of chess related stuff. I apologize for the marginal quality of the scans.

Being the only female in this tournament, I thought this second comic was appropriate. However last night all this hen delivered was a rotten egg.

At the USATE they give out an upset prize each round. One year I had the misfortune of being on the losing end, not only for the round, but for the entire tournament. In the Chess Life article that year they listed the prizes. When they mentioned the biggest upset, they printed my opponent's name and mentioned that he beat an unnamed 1800 player to protect the guilty. Fortunately since both our scoresheets were total gibberish it did not get published. Through the years I've actually had three games of mine published in Chess Life. All losses. Before I retire from chess, I'd like to get a win published there. I guess I shouldn't complain. Many patzers like me have never had a game published in Chess Life.

This year the biggest upset occurred in the first round. A 1232 lost to a 233 for a 999 point upset. They post the scoresheets on a board behind the results table. I copied down the moves because I was curious as to what a game between a 1200 and 200 was like. Today I finally got around to sticking it into Chess Base. Some of the notation was a little sketchy, but I think I got all the moves in correctly. I have no idea what the ages were of the two players, but I was actually impressed that the 200 didn't hang anything. Some of her moves were very passive, but white didn't take advantage of them.




White's 28. Nxe5 was interesting. Was it a valid sacrifice try with his follow up of 29. d6? I was impressed that black found 29...Qe8 to hold against Bxf7+. Black should have played 31...Be6 instead of Qe6. When white played 32. Rxf7 I was thinking "Isn't the queen hanging on a2?" Then I realized that if black takes the queen she gets mated with Rxf8. After the queens were traded I liked how she brought her king back towards the middle to counter any slight play he might have with e and d pawns.

I don't know whether white had resigned or might have lost on time after black's 37th move. It's pretty hopeless for white with the queens and a pair of rooks off the board, however if I outrated my opponent by 1000 points I might be inclined to make her prove to me that she could mate with the two bishop advantage. He may not have realized that she was only rated 233. Obviously she was aware of the rating difference since she submitted the game for biggest upset. Actually I probably shouldn't say obviously. The year I was on the losing end of the biggest upset, I was the one who told my opponent that the game would probably win the upset prize for the round.

Tournament of LEP'ers Rd. 2 Ugly Loss!

Maybe I should should follow the rule of thumb concerning time zone changes. One day per hour of time difference to get yourself back on own time. Let's see, that means I should have waited until Monday to play this game. Having a miserable cold probably didn't help matters either, but enough with the excuses. I got totally outplayed and payed dearly for some passive moves. It's games like this that make me want to chuck the English and play something else. I'm just too damn lazy to learn something else.


Htas off to l3rucewayne for a well played game. Pay back will come next time!!

I have my work cut out for me in round three as I'm facing Wahrheit, one of the 2-0 scores. It didn't take long l3rucewayne to report the result. It was up before I finished my analysis. This isn't really deep. Perhaps he'll add more comments to his blog if he posts the game.

Wacky Wednesday! - The Jet Lag Edition

I got back from Spain last night. Our flight from Madrid to New York was almost three hours late. This was a combination of mechanical issues and crappy weather in New York. I did not get to play any chess over there. Unlike a number of European countries I've visited most of the locals don't speak much English. As for myself "No hablo Espanol". Despite the lack of chess we had a very nice time, and with the xception of Saturday afternoon and evening it was rain free.

Today's WW comes from a game that I played last summer the day after getting back from Budapest. The lesson I learned that night was don't play G/30 the day after returning from six time zones away. In the first round I was up a piece, overlooked my opponent's hanging rook, and I think I flagged. I didn't have a complete scoresheet. In the second round I flagged up a pawn. In the third round I had this nice position that I manged to mangle big time.

I'm black in this position. What's not to like about black's position? Up a pawn, protected passer on d4, excellent pawn structure and active pieces. White's pawn structure is fractured, his pieces aren't very active, and his king is in the middle.

White plays 31. e5? Black to move and lose.

31...Re8??? (31...Qxe5+ "seems" like a strong response) 32. Bd5+ Kh8 33. Qxg3 1-0

The moral of the story: Don't play chess when severely jet lagged. I will not be playing tonight.

Wacky Wednesday from Seville - Edited

When I first wrote this post I was at a internet place where I couldn't get at the diagram posted below.  However I'm married to an internet junkie who decided even once we got back to our hotel he needed to get back on the internet even at the rip off price of 6 euro for an hour.  So now I've been able to get at the picture and give this week's WW position.

I stumbled across this position from an old score book while looking for last week's WW entry. This is an oldie but goodie.  This is from back before sudden death.  I'm white and it's my 40th move in a 40/90 time control.  I managed to flag before finding the killer move of 40. Qxf8+.  The funny thing was at the time of the game I didn't even see it.  I played 40. Qxa6? as my flag dropped.

Who sees the rest of white's forced mate after 40. Qxf8.

I´m wacked out as I´m totally jet lagged and still have USATE hangover.

Murphy must have been a frequent flier.  These are his laws of travel.

1.  The more time you leave to get to the airport, the less traffic there will be.

2.  The earlier you arrive, the later your flight will be delayed.

3.  If the weather is nice where you're departing from, it will suck wherever the plane is coming from.

4.  You will miss your connection.

I´m here for the Seville Marathon. I won this trip in a raffle. I´m staying at this sports training center where all these rowers from all the world over train. It´s kind of cool. I feel like I´m at Olympic fantasy camp. Maybe I can get a game of chess with one of the Russian rowers.

I´m hoping to visit a chess club when I´m here. If I do I will take pictures and post about it.

USATE Photos

Team Rook Around The Clock Tonight.
Bd. 3 Alan & Bd. 4 Silvio in front
Bd.1 Mike & Bd. 2 Polly

Chess Chix

I'm hanging out with Laura Ross, Shirley Ben-Dak and Alanna Katz. Shirley surprised us all by dropping in for a visit to the event.

An outstanding opening move at Ruth Cris Steak House.

Food was excellent as was the service, but way too expensive!!! I can't afford too many meals like that. The company was excellent.

Our team is joined by another Mike. Our teams were competing in the same category. We both ended out at 3-3.

This is Carol Jarecki's assistant TD Cricket. She plays a mean game of chess. I did a post on the Signs You're Having a Bad Tournament. Number 4 was about Cricket.

Giancarlo and Dario Dell'Orto in the bughouse tournament.

Killer bughouse team. Average rating 2300.
Hikaru Nakamura and Danny Rohde.

USATE Rd. 6: Ballroom Dancing With the Stars

The last round started a little late since a couple of matches went down to the bitter end. Trying to get at the pairings was insane. It looked like a sale at Filene's Basement. Except instead of hordes of crazed bargain hunters it was hordes of crazed chess players. I think some teams sent all four members up to find their pairings. I pushed my way through, and found our pairing. It was another one of those pairings where my team "Rook Around the Clock Tonight" was paired next to "Rook Around the Clock". We got paired way up against a team with 2038 average. We were on board 27 which seems to be in the cold section of the ballroom. I actually had my sweater on the entire time. Thanks to Deren Getz for taking this picture.



On the board next to us was Joel Benjamin's team "3:10 to Yermo". Abby Marshall was also on this team. They played the IS 318 Queens. An all girls team. I've gotten my butt kicked by a couple of those young ladies, bt they weren't able to match wins with GM Benjamin and company.

The 3 Grandmaster team of Zviad Izoria, Eugene Perelshteyn and Roman Dzindzichashvili with a 100 on board four faced off against Marc Arnold's team. Marc drew on top board, and Danny Rohde won in 7 moves on board four. Their teammates did not fair so well against the other grandmasters. So GGGg won the tournament. Personally I think it's totally unfair to allow a team like that. It takes the fun out of trying to come up with a well balanced team with the right blend of titled players and other ratings. Second of all, for the player on the opponent's fourth board it's like they didn't even get a game. It's like getting a forfeit win, except that one doesn't have to sit at the table for an hour.

The little kid on 4th board had a forfeit win and 5 losses. He'll get a clock for his trouble. I hope the Grandmasters gave him a few lessons in return for being their sacrificial lamb. They also should give him the team plaque.

Our match started out with great hopes for a good round. Our board one won his game, and our board four was actually up the exchange and pawn. I was holding my own against the 2060 I was playing. I got a crappy position out of the opening but somehow I defended pretty well and for a long time. Note to self: Next time take with the b pawn. Third board lost so it was coming down to what would happen on two and four. Unfortunately fourth board hung his rook so was now down a piece for a pawn. He played tough but eventually he lost. So now it's just me left. Unfortunately I lost a pawn, and was in a rook and pawn ending. The only thing in my favor was the clock, but even that wasn't helping.

Here is the game with no analysis. I'm too tired to go crazy with it.




Though a couple things to note. On move 28 I gave him double isolated pawns on the kingside, but they were keeping my kingside majority from doing anything unless I wanted to trash my pawn structure.

The interesting position was at move 43 when he played Ra8. I could not see any reasonable defense to Rh6. Then my move 45 of h5 was a big mistake. Somebody came by and asked me something. I don't think he realized I was still playing. The discussion was not well timed, and threw me off. I was hallucinating about possibly giving check with f5 followed by check with g5. I'm forgetting that g5 is no longer protected by the h pawn.

The game lasted almost five and half hours. I could have played all the way down to the bitter end, but I lost a second pawn and he now had 3 connected passed pawns on the queenside and I had one lonely pawn on the kingside that was going nowhere. I had a pounding headache and since only my winning would have salvaged the match I finally called it a night. It was weird being one the few games left in the ballroom. The crowds were all down in skittles room where they were giving out the awards as results came in. One thing about playing so long is there's not much noise and nobody's bumping into my chair.

Our team ended out 3 and 3. That was certainly better then last year when we kept losing to random lower averaged teams with weird board configurations. My record was slightly worse this year. 1 win, 3 losses and 2 draws. Last year was 1 win, 2 losses and 3 draws. Somehow this year was more satisfying because my losses were hard fought, and we didn't lose to any low rated players. We only got kicked out the ballroom for two rounds. And we did not end out in outer Mongolia, or worse the skittles roo. The lowest scoring teams played in there. That's as bad as the year my team got sent to another hotel to play.

Tomorrow I'm off to Seville, Spain. I missed this but Joe Ippolito said that during the speeches on Sunday night that he made mention of my delaying my trip bya few days to make the tournament. I wasn't even in the room since we took our sweet time leaving Ruth Cris.

Tomorrow I'll post some more pictures. I keep switching back and forth between my PC and my Mac to do these posts. The Chess Base stuff is easier on the PC. The pictures are mostly on the Mac.

Thanks for following along.

USATE Rd. 5: Still Ballroom Dancing

We're still in the ballroom. It wasn't a bad spot to be. At least I wasn't straddling two tables and the traffic behind my chair wasn't so bad. I think part of it was there weren't a bunch of NYC kids playing near us. When you're paired near a school team all their friends come to watch so there is always lots of people walking by.

We were paired down against a team with an average rating of 1425. It was a funny make up. Two adults rated 1800 to 2000, and two kids included one rated about 700. I played an 1890. I was up and down like crazy. Note to self: Don't drink two large cups of tea before the round. Around move 11 I had left the table. When I walked back into the ballroom my opponent is walking out the door. He's says "I've made my move. Do you want a draw?" I said "No, I'm here to play chess." The round had only been going for a 1/2 hour or so. What was that all about?

I'm doing this at a public computer because I don't have any more access on my laptop. I'm not paying another $9.95 to blog for an hour. I can't put my game in at the moment. It was an interesting game. I ended out drawing when I chucked my pawn advantage. Stupid ass move where he just takes the pawn and if I take his bishop, he takes mine. Grrrr. I really wanted the win. Our new fourth board won against the 700. Silvio was in a dead draw. Mike had an easy win at that point. My opponent offers me a draw after I dropped the pawn. At that point I took it since now my position was slightly worse even though the material was even.




Note: I put this game in after I got home. I'm glad I did not analyze it at the tournament. I would have been even more annoyed for missing 32. Na6 which wins the b pawn.

One round to go. I have no idea if we're in contention for the Under 1800 prize or not. We're going to get paired way up again. We'll see what happens. It would be nice to win the match, but easier said then done.

Don't ask me who's winning the tournament. There were 6 teams that were 4-0, including the 3 grandmaster team. Now there are two teams 5-0 because one match was a draw. I've been kind of oblivious to the rest of the tournament. Maybe this round I'll get in the room early enough to use my own set. Maybe I can get some pictures from the top boards.

There's still one match going and it's almost 3:30. It's a sea of humanity out there!

Later! People want the computer.