. , so I watch the game between Russian GM and . Saw him playing French, so supposedly he knows this shit, even from other side.I played in the big tournament last Friday-Sunday, in U1800 category, with time control 30/90, SD/60. Here is the story, red titles are the links to the chessflash games.
Did some preparation before, got from the online DB the games played in the country in 2008/2009 - most of the players in my category were present there.
Friday evening, Game 1 – I play with the guy from the local club, rated ~1525, I am White. I played with his brother, won twice in Sicilian. Surely enough, the boy plays Sicilian, same 2. Nc6. I play same Bb5, we get the same line as with the brother. The guy starts to think heavily. Move by move it looks like on FICS when your opponent is behind by time more and more and you know he will be in trouble. I have the initiative, he is behind by an hour at some point. On 18th move he loses a pawn, and then has to blitz. He exchanges queens, then loses another pawn, and while thinking on 30th move his time expires. The endgame is lost anyway.
Saturday – I wake up at 6am, think about my possible future opponents, can’t sleep anymore. Not that I am not accustomed to sleep 5 hours, but to play 2 possibly 5-hour games?
Game 2 - 10am, I play with the boy whom I know – though didn’t play before, rated ~1500. He was the country champion U8 in 2008. I saw his games, he played once against French – chose Advanced variation, Milner-Barry gambit. I know his coach too, he is an expert in French . We start, of course he plays the same gambit. I suddenly decide that I am not in the mood to defend, maybe just don’t feel very fresh or feel not ready - I played it before only couple of times blitz online. Ok, I decline and chose the line that actually has stats – +2 (White), =1. But I don’t know that, so I get rid of my “bad” bishop and slowly develop. Suddenly he makes a mistake – I see a combination and funnily enough win that pawn that he offered for free in the opening. But the situation is completely different. I get strong pawns in the center, but he gets a pawn on f6 (h7,g6,f7), which I don’t like. Each of us has a queen and 2 rooks. So, I move my central pawns and he tries to create some counterplay on the kingside. Suddenly he makes a move Rh3 and I just shake my head. This move creates the threat of queen moving to h6 with Qxh7 or Qg7 mate. I look and look, and in order to defend give up one of my central pawns. The queens get exchanged, then 2R vs. 2R endgame looks even worse for me, but I make a good counter-attacking move by rook. One couple of rooks will be exchanged, equal rook endgame – he offers a draw, I agree.
I am a bit upset, though find some consolation in the fact that drawing with the boy champion is not that bad. These kids can be really good, quite a few of them beat the crap out of some 1700+ in our category.
After I came home I found out that I didn’t have to give up the pawn, after his queen was moving on h6 my queen was taking pawn f6 and liquidating the threat Qg7#. I saw it in one of the lines, but since I wanted to put one of the rooks on 4th-5th line, I thought that I will lose another rook after Qh8+ …. The thing is I didn’t have to take the rook from 8th. That threat of double mate again hypnotized me and I forgot about all this.
There is a lot of time remaining until 3rd round, I look at the games that others play and see how one master tries to mate another with knight and bishop. It’s not easy, the king escapes and I lose patience. Later I check the result, it’s a win.
Game 3 - 4pm, I slept 15 minutes in the chair and feel better than in the morning, this time I am in the fighting mood. Again, the man from the local club, rated a bit higher than 1500, I won twice against him. I am White, he plays the same Sicilian 2. …d6 he played before, I play the same Moscow variation, Bb5. He develops, then suddenly plays d5. Yes, that’s what Black is supposed to do, but not now ! I had one similar correspondence game, where after d5 the play opened up, but it was to my advantage since I was better developed. Here happens the same thing. ”c”, d”, “e” verticals open and I create a pressure along them. He defends, pressure gets stronger, he blunders a piece and resigns. 2.5/3 after first 2 days, I am starting to get some high hopes.
Sunday – I sleep better, get pairings from the Web, my opponent is rated same as me, he plays White. He played 1.e4 in the past , then the last game was 1. c4, 2. Nc3. I quickly learn if I can play here my much rehearsed (never played OTB) Grunfeld. I can, it’s called Anglo-Grunfeld defense.
Game 4 – 10am, we start and I get that Anglo-Grunfeld. I play the trappy line (which is the best too), he doesn’t bite, but still plays the line with worse stats for White. I try to play positionally and get some advantage. Move by move, he manages to equalize. I have less than 40 minutes for 13-14 moves and don’t quite like it.He offers a bishop exchange, it’s unavoidable, but I don’t want to follow with possible queen exchange, so after Qc4+ I don’t move Qf7, but quickly go Kh8 and suddenly to my horror he skewers me with Bc5 and I lose exchange. I had this square under control before, but his queen gets to c4 with the check and then controls it too… I am devastated, needlessly lose another 2 pawns and after forced queen exchange resign.
Again lots of time, even more than yesterday , so I watch the game between Russian GM and IM, 2008 Canadian champion (speaks Russian too). GM’s attack looks very strong, he sacked the knight on g6 and IM doesn’t take it. Another few attacking/defending moves, suddenly I see that GM can sac the queen for the rook on g7 and then fork queen and king with the knight, winning exchange. It doesn’t look very obvious since the “fork” square is controlled by Black’s knight, but the knight is pinned. The fact of finding combination consoles me, I share this idea with another guy, he confirms that I am right. I say: “Why don’t I see this stuff in my own games?” He laughs.
GM thinks and makes another move, I am surprised. A few more moves, suddenly IM starts giving checks. GM is in time trouble, he has less than 2 minutes, though they have 30 seconds increment. Another check and it’s a mate! GM shakes his head, he can’t believe it, he had him on the ropes. They start to look at the game, it’s still after that possible sac. I tell them in Russian about that sac, they don’t pay attention. When they finally reach that point, I tell it to GM again, he says something like he knows (knew) that. I think maybe he thought the mate was there, that’s why he didn’t do it.
OK, I realize that I got too excited about it and leave. 3pm – 5th round is in an hour, I am still mad at myself. Looking at the table I decide that my opponent will be that 1400+ rated boy who already beat one 1700+ and drew with another. I don’t care, I want to tear him apart and since I should be White I even think about playing Smith-Morra (most of the kids play Sicilian).
Game 5 – pairings come and I see that I play against the leader, 20-something guy, rated a bit higher than me, with Black. Change of plans . Saw him playing French, so supposedly he knows this shit, even from the other side. Also, I feel that intermittency is better for me, so I decide if 1. e4 then 1. … e5.
1. e4, Scotch. I never had it OTB before and don’t like it when get it online. Anyway, first book moves, then he suddenly offers a queen exchange. He is ahead by 0.5 of a point, and looks like wants to play safely (not necessarily wanting a draw). I exchange the queens. At home I find out, that Qf3 is a novelty and a bad one. Crafty says, that White should give up a pawn or go into a crazy line, where Black gets 3 pieces for a queen and White King goes to d3! Crafty evaluates it as -3.00. I try to attack on the queenside after his O-O-O, but without queens it doesn’t look very dangerous. We exchange both rooks and the position becomes drawish. I make a move and offer a draw. He looks somewhat confused and refuses after some thinking. I am surprized a bit, but say OK and continue, after a few moves offering/forcing another knight exchange. After that the position looks even more drawish. He looks at me with another type of confusion, says something confirming my position estimation and we agree to a draw.
I quickly learn that my shared 3rd place with 3 points out of 5 doesn’t equal to 3rd by people (there are at least 4 people that will have/have 3.5/4 points ) and I won’t get any 1st-3rd place prize money. OK, it’s not that I make a living doing this.
Well, I kind of hoped for more, still 3/5 and performance rating ~1700 is not that bad. I clearly see that in order to progress I should play more with the people of my rating (and higher). Also I see that dynamic evaluation (which is done at the end of each analysis line, after you have tried to determine a potential sequence of moves) still remains my Achilles tendon. And always think before making an obvious move, sometimes it’s the worst one, like mine in the 4th game or GMs before he got mated ( at least he was in the time trouble). I will try to post my games today/tomorrow, too many pictures for 5 games, looks like will have to use the chessflash that linuxguyonfics uses.
July 6, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Interesting post, RollingPawns!
It seems you’ll have to use Chessflash like I do, and not as how Polly does. It appears that WordPress strips out the tags, whereas Blogspot does not.
I tried to play a few games on FICS today and dropped them quickly after doing things like making a move I hadn’t even realized I accidentally made while clearing off my desk. The nerves have not calmed down to the point where I can even think of taking any online chess seriously, lots of disruptions. It’s weird how everyone at a tournament demands silence, doesn’t bother me, but then I get used to it to where I suddenly can’t concentrate while playing from the house with noises/interruptions going on.
That GM sounds like he was being rude. It’s sort of a barrier felt that some of them can put up between their world and the rest of us (human-things) at times; but I can also imagine the shock for a grandmaster to have lost a game.
I tossed and turned like not before (although perhaps it was partly alcohol induced) the two nights before my games. Both times dreaming that I was getting slaughtered at the board like I didn’t even belong there, and I was afraid to go until I woke up.
Best part of playing Open is that I realize now it’s no big deal. Even my measly 1.5/4 is better than the 1/6 the last time I played in an open section as a 1300 level player.
The big discovery I made is it’s about what WE do, not what the other guy/opponent does. A bad day could be a loss to anyone, and a good day can take on the form of wins in the open section.
I still need to post my 3rd and 4th round on chessflash. Eager to see your games, too!
I prepared like crazy using Chess Assistant as well. I think it paid off in the form of feeling confident and knowing how to start off successfully, but perhaps skimming through some combo puzzles is still more practical for the middlegame.
July 6, 2009 at 11:43 pm
This GM was nice a year ago, (when he won
) and I asked him about the endgame. He was definitely in shock, don’t forget it’s his job, and I myself don’t like when after the game somebody (not my opponent) tells me this or that, it actually happened just a few times. Your discovery is right, if we just use all our chances and don’t make mistakes, though sometimes we are forced to make them, like my opponent in the 3rd game, blundering under pressure. I still don’t understand, why he and the first guy, knowing that I am playing in their category and having own/brother’s lost game, didn’t look how to play better. Though I didn’t prepare Milner-Barry too, just was too confident before realized I don’t know it well enough.
July 6, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Sounds like you had a fun weekend! Rule of thumb for prize money at a tournament with sections like this is a +2 score. And my own advice for rating improvement is to play people at your own level but analyze the games with players who are stronger than you.
July 7, 2009 at 1:29 am
I asked a stronger player to analyze my last game, but he was acting as part of the staff and said he would later.
When I was at the tournament, I realized that this is perhaps the best reason, make friends with other players at that higher level. When I was 1300’s rated, I made a lot of friends, some of them are now experts, some are A or B level, some are C level. But now I am at that age where I want the instant friends rather than wait around to see who I grow with. A lot of people have left tournament chess since the playing it online option began to happen.
I think a lot of A level tournament players go for the grand-strategy and endgames approach. I doubt that many of them below expert take the openings as seriously as we do, and when you do find someone that does, that is like their one big bazooka weapon, openings knowledge.
July 7, 2009 at 1:33 am
SB: The best reason to play _up_ as in the open section or next higher section than your own.
Also, I notice that the A level players are tactically strong, and don’t really notice it until I hook the game up to Crafty, that’s when I realize it.
July 7, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Rolling pawns a mixed weekend but chess is chess,just when you think you are getting it,it comes back and bites you.
I have started to use chessflash it is great,you can have 2 boards,1 for main line and the other for variations.
3/5 and a rating performance of 1700 not bad for a weekends work.
July 7, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Aziridine – I just described that tourney to my chess friend at work and realized – yes, it was fun. Your rule sounds right, and I could have that 0.5 point …
(it’s a gift). I will run my games through it and will post them.
I think yesterday I got consulting player that’s stronger than me – it’s Fritz 11
linuxguy – you can get friends online that will analyze your games better than your neighbor
.
chessx – as our friend chesstiger says: “strength is more important than rating”. I think I got valuable experience at that tournament.
July 7, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Thats so right.
I am thinking of buying fritz 11 please let me know how you get on with it.
July 7, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I added links to Game 1 and Game 2. The annotations are by Fritz 11, running in “Blundercheck” mode, i.e. comment/line is generated if a move is worse by 3/4 of pawn than the one Fritz 11 would make.
July 8, 2009 at 5:50 am
Just looked at game 1.
In Fritz first suggestion, I prefer 12. Nh5 to Fritz’s 0-0-0. Possible follow-up could be g6 and Nf4 at some point. Black needs to play more “modern” as the Russian emphasis goes, struggle for initiative.
His …f6 move was surprising, yet interesting. When he recaptured the pawn with his queen after that, that sort of positionally ended the game for him (his idea seemed to be to make it safe for 0-0-0, but Qxpawn ruined that pawn chain for him. I like how you cleaned up rather than Fritz’s idea.
He should have played on just for the endgame experience, even though it is completely losing position.
July 8, 2009 at 6:46 am
Game 2, where to start.
I don’t like Fritz suggestion of 20…Qd8, prefer Nd4.
Why is White not playing 10. Nc3.(?)
After Qb3, you retreat your knight to c6. I dunno, maybe …f5? Something that continues to fight for the initiative, I should think.
You pressured his pieces, and instead of reinforcing them, he blundered the game away. Classic high-rated beats low-rated, you can toss the analysis out the window game. hehe.
I guess you should be doing a rook lift, perhaps to the 5th rank, less risky than the 6th rank. Then when he plays Q to h-file and you play h5, he plays g4, then you pop the rook up to the 5th rank and his attack is stonewalled.
That endgame looks winning for White because of his pawn on the 6th rank and initiative. That was great that you got a draw out of that as one of these master types would be licking their chops right about then. hehe.
I’m glad that you didn’t lose to him as that would have been a ratings point basher for you.
You had Qf8 to guard the Qg7 mate, if needed. That is one of those positions you have to work out, yes, but it will be much easier next time, I would suspect.
July 8, 2009 at 7:20 am
Fritz had good analysis there, not doing a rook lift until Black either moves his rook off the h-file (or lets you get in h5).
You are right, trading your h-pawn for his pawn on f6 would be great for you. He ends up going Qxh7 and then Qh8+, and you exchange queens on h8 (from f6). At that point he should be glad he forced it to a rook ending, but you should still win, I think.
July 8, 2009 at 11:40 am
chessx – regarding Fritz 11 – so far I created a DB with my OTB games, for now 1/3 of them are there, will add more. Ran some of them through “Blundercheck” (see my previous comment), very useful. Found out that in the previous big tourney could win the game against 1800+ in 1 move (rook sac, he can’t accept because of the mate in 1, but anyway loses a lots of material due to the mate threat – score -22). I drew. I found the move with Crafty after the game, but did’t realize it was so good until now. %$^#! It confirmed my thought that I should work on calculation. I intend to use another Fritz function – training to calculate variations. This function helps you to learn visualization of the moves on the board without moving the pieces. You type the move(s) and then you execute it. Will try as soon as possible.
July 8, 2009 at 12:29 pm
linuxguy – in game 1, yeah, maybe Nh5. At least, I would never do O-O-O, just look at the Black’s queenside. He didn’t make the 30th move in time, otherwise would play until mate
.
.
In game 2 I should have tried to get that f6 pawn earlier, yeah, maybe attacking it with the knight. Anyway, I think I had good winning chances here unless I blew it with 28… Kh8?, at least Fritz gives me -1.34 there. I am fed up with this stuff and must start that calculation training (see comment for chessx). You said: “I think a lot of A level tournament players go for the grand-strategy and endgames approach.” I don’t know, I see that half of them (at least third) allows you to execute some simple tactics or you blow it up yourself. You reach an endgame and it’s equal (because you or him didn’t use your chances), so you agree to a draw. Funny that in the 4th round one almost 1800 guy had 2 pieces vs. 1 plus few pawns each against the guy I played in the last round. I didn’t stay, you know what happened? They drew !!! I asked another guy how it happened, he smiled and said: “I managed to exchange all the pawns”. So, I don’t know anymore should I spend a lots of time on openings/endgames (not even talking about idiotic FICS) or just train myself with that calculation until I just drop dead, win that freaking piece in the middlegame and hopefully win the following endgame
July 8, 2009 at 3:46 pm
When I said Nd4, I knew White would play Ne5, then Nc6xe5, exN, and now White’s e-pawn protects the f-pawn, but so what in a sense, Black has play with his own d-pawn at least and the c-file has been opened up. The way computers analyze is to be as materially greedy as possible, so they can ruin their position while digging for gold.
“I would never do O-O-O, just look at the Black’s queenside.”
Right, Black could benefit by remaining as flexible as possible while still grabbing some initiative.
Game 2 where you went Kh8, IMO that game was winning for Black when White made that first blunder, dropping the d-pawn. His paper-tiger feint to your king-side was to be expected, but at least it could have possibly gotten a queen trade for him.
I think the best way to get the win against A level players is to visualize a combination, even if it only nets a pawn safely. I am saying they are more dangerous than us possibly when the material is _even_ in particular, and it seems only drawish, we could become too complacent.
The guy I played in round 1 who beat me in the even endgame. I saw another one of his games and thought he was dropping a piece. Turns out he takes the White pawn on h2 to advance his own pawn on h3, and turned out to be a draw (not sure what actually happened because it dawned on me later). Anyhow, at one point they were clearly even. Black had a light-bishop, and White had a knight with pawns on light-squares, and Black could force a rook trade immediately but did not; maybe only 5 pawns, or 6, even material.
It’s shocking that White passed up a normal endgame (at least he could try to nail down the pawns to stay on light squares) to go for that which I described above. That is what I mean, these guys smell blood in the endgame where material is even.
What I started doing before the tournament was building some opening lines to master with Rybka/Chess Assistant. May seem like a waste of time, but I’ve realized that any analyzing you do with a computer can be helpful toward your analytical understanding of a position and with positional visualization, especially when you try out your own moves and then the computer tries to counter them.
Some people will just post in their notes what Crafty said, with no comment or analysis of their own. If you do that, I don’t think you will really improve, but if you battle over it with Crafty some (or Fritz, etc), then I think your game will improve. And by it will improve, I mean universally improve, not just toward that position.
At the board, you have to calculate a lot under these longer time-controls, so having matched wits with a computer engine (not playing against them whole games as that is probably pointless, but analyzing certain ideas, bits of positions, with them should be a boost to calculation skills. I think it’s mostly when I get emotional, and start hoping, that I cut-off my calculation more.
I do think every player should master the most basic endgame wins to the point where you can blitz any of them out on demand, as accurately possible.
July 8, 2009 at 3:59 pm
When I say that guy got crazy with his endgame, I think that means that he didn’t particularly like having a bishop against the other guy’s knight possibly, and so set up plan B instead.
Either way, I think the endgame is more about saving positions from becoming losses for higher-rated players. If you simply want to take some A-level player scalp, rather than worry about how to save a lost position, then the middle-game is the logical place to do that, by producing better analysis, or executing better than the opponent.
July 8, 2009 at 4:14 pm
That guy I described above, my first round opponent, lest you think he was a hangers-on, pushover, he scored 4/6 in the open section and his rating improved: 2018 ->2032
It was a strong section, couple GMs and even famous IMs such as Jack Peters and John Donaldson.
July 8, 2009 at 4:17 pm
linuxguy – I see many common points. Building some opening lines with Rybka/Chess Assistant is a good idea, not waste of time. I’ll do the same with Fritz/Chessbase (Fritz uses CB DB). My Bb5 worked like charm, in French I could just have that d4 pawn earlier
and Anglo-Grunfeld almost worked (I just didn’t look deep enough in the “book”, otherwise I would keep the opening advantage). Anyway doing only calculation will be too boring. Training with computer, right, not playing with it. I played a blitz 5+1 with Fritz 11 first thing, so it was OK for quite some time and then didn’t even notice how he started to beat me 
. Emotions are killer for calculation, you are too excited or too relaxed – bang! … And yeah, endgames. This 2200+ rated guy so confidently gave up his last pawn for the piece to stay B+N, I was just jealous (it’s rare for me).
July 8, 2009 at 5:50 pm
RollingPawns – Your Bb5 variation, I can see you scaring A players and Experts with that one; also, they may take you too lightly before they wake up and smell the coffee. hehe.
My game 2, even though I didn’t provide analysis, is a model to use for analysis and real OTB play. If anything, I would even be looking to improve that variation, and some sidelines I have won easily such as with Be3 (instead of his Qe2) Qxe5 Bc5 Qc7 BxN(f8) KxN is a structural win for Black, IMO.
Computers beat me in a boring fashion, as you say. Yes, too relaxed or too excited and bang! It was very hard to keep from getting over-excited first time playing in Open section with reasonable chances of doing okay. If nothing else, I expect to be calmer next time around. I could barely sit at the board during the other players turn, walked around and took _lots_ of breaks. Next time I will try to use their clock-time more effectively.
Those players have spent lots of time sitting through endgames and analyzing them. It’s remarkable how many times a player can sack pieces for pawns, and yet not see it at typical FICS Standard game speed.
I prepared an Open Sicilian line, even though I would also like to keep c3 in my repertoire, as that has broad possibilities. Right now, I am still trying to play the Open Sicilian.
July 8, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I added links to Game 3 and Game 5, don’t want to publish game 4, just too painful.
linuxguy – they don’t know how to play against it, it’s different from regular Sicilian and both games were examples of that. I don’t play Open just because of not wanting to go to somebody’s territory.
July 8, 2009 at 10:21 pm
A 1233 player played in the open section, (for a total of 1 point out of 4 games) and won against a 1786 player. Result?
1233 ->1294
I’m cracking up on that one, but is sort of like I said.
There is a big tournament the weekend after next, probably the last one that is convenient enough before Thanksgiving (although there is one in Fresno and one in S.D. – I’d probably go to the one in Fresno, if any, as the S.D. rounds are at like 9am, and I don’t imagine hotel rooms would come cheap).
I have gone through some of ‘Combination Challenge’ by Hays and Hall. These ones are hard, 5-8 move combos mostly. This is the part of my game where I would need to improve the most, and I think you are in the same spot.
This book is recommended for below Master level.
If you are familiar with Ken Smith’s advice, I think this is the #1 thing to get to Expert level, tactics.
http://chesspowa.blogspot.com/2009/04/ken-smiths-chess-improvement-course.html
I’ve fallen victim to a Ba3 skewer seemingly a million times, and pawn push skewer with bishop behind it too many times to count. Nothing is really embarassing as not getting a win like in my game 2. Losing is par for the course, but the win is why we go there.
July 8, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Game 3, yep, I didn’t notice you can safely take the a-pawn either.
He started to combust with the …f6 move, perhaps Qb7 instead. Possibly better yet is to bring back the rook and get queens off the board first, and then rooks.
Fifth game was a hard-fought draw. He must have known you or him wouldn’t be getting prize-money with a draw, so that may have been his confusion. In the final position, I would play on for the win as Black.
Let’s say he plays NxN, you can play axN then plan on possibly …b5 Kd7 d5 and Bd6 forcing him to exchange bishops and have the bad pawns in a same color bishop endgame, may be winning for Black.
I doubt he would have accepted the draw, had he not been considering his pawn weakness at this point. You earned the right to play on and it seemed like he dogged it a bit by letting up the pressure with the rook trade.
July 8, 2009 at 11:57 pm
“I don’t play Open just because of not wanting to go to somebody’s territory.”
Sometimes I think they don’t know what they are doing as Black, or I wouldn’t bother to play Open-Sicilian either!
I forgot to add that I like how you maneuvered your queen in game 1, really took advantage of his rook being at b3 nicely.
July 9, 2009 at 11:37 am
linuxguy – you should definitely go to one of these places. Yeah, I miss skewers online too, and it’s a second skewer in ~50 OTB games, first one was more than 1.5 year ago and was more obvious, this one – I didn’t reevaluate the position after Qc4+ and quickly played planned Kh8, also I was too concentrated on that part of the board, forgot about bishop on e3. In the 5th game, he knew a draw will secure him the 1st place, but looks like he didn’t want to share the money. I mistakenly thought that a draw will provide me a 3rd place and sharing the prize money for it. Anyway, yeah, Nxb6 is not so good, Crafty – -0.60, but Fritz (and Crafty) recommend Ne3, after which they both estimate the position as equal. I hope, you don’t expect me to win an equal endgame playing with the guy who drew being down a piece
. I missed my chance earlier, it’s that freaking automatic thinking that if Qf6 and move is Qf3, that you exchange queens or you avoid it, nothing else. Funny, that I wrongly avoided it in game 4 and wrongly did it in game 5, shit!
. I just don’t want to go into a lot of variations/lines there. You see, as with French, every time somebody plays 1. e4 you can play 1… c5, it gives you quite a big amount of games played and experience gained. Yeah, I think I played well in that game, thanks, too bad I screwed up next day.
Regarding Sicilian Open – maybe you are right, maybe if I would just play open they would make the same mistakes
July 9, 2009 at 5:41 pm
“I hope, you don’t expect me to win an equal endgame playing with the guy who drew being down a piece
”
Maybe, but this dude _needs_ a whompin’ ;-D
A plan to try (I didn’t use any engines) could be to make use of his weak f4 square. So after he plays his Ne3(if he’s even that lucky), you can see that that knight is blocking out his own king from the defense of f4.
So you play moves Nb6-d7-f6, then Kd7, then d5, then Nh5, and now you can land a piece on f4 and control the center. If he counters d5 with e5, you can play Nh5, he plays Bg3, and you play f6. He plays exf, you play Nxf and repeat the Nh5 move to once again gain control of f4. Don’t be lettin’ ‘em him get away with those doubled pawns. ;-D
On avoding the queen exchange on f3 or f6, the Nxd was hard to find, but that is the tactical chance, they won’t come easy. I probably mess those things up before as well.
I’ve won a lot of games after a skewer, particulary on f8. It feels worse in a longer game because your instinct is to blitz after making a mistake. I watched that one Indian girl save a position down the exchange and she should have drawn the endgame, but that is where we talk about the endgame. I mean, she was _completely_ pinned down in the opening like you wouldn’t believe, her whole position was, and still should have saved the ending.
Your Bb5 Sicilian is so strong that no one has given you an argument to switch.
I don’t necessarily want to play against someone booked up in the dragon. One guy at the club once had every book on the dragon that he knew of. I’ve noticed the theory changes there and after a while I need a computer for some of these moves, like an e5 sacrifice that I don’t understand yet. I could probably figure something out over the board at this point (in 40/2), but against that one guy wisdom may be to play 2. c3.
Thanks for the encouragement. I should probably play that one tournament in Agoura Hills, the weekend after this one, since it’s the last convenient one.
In my game 2, I dropped that pawn in a winning position because I forgot to do a blundercheck (actually I had looked off that move before a couple times!). Right after I played it, I noticed and offered him a draw, it’s a sad feeling because it was so needless. Yes, a quick anxious move is all it takes.
July 10, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I tried to implement your plan playing with Fritz 7, got this:
. By the way, he got a clear 1st place – thanks to draw with me.
27. Ne3 Nd7 28. Bg5 f6 29. Bh4 d5 30. Bg3 Bd6 31. Bxd6+ Kxd6 32. Ba6 Nf8 33. Bd3 Ng6 34. exd5 cxd5 35. Bxg6 hxg6 36. f4 with – -0.10
so he gets away
July 31, 2009 at 6:23 am
Always nice to play a tournament and a 3/5 result isn’t that bad.
I always go to a tournament without expectations, that way i dont get dissapointed and can focus on my play rather then the result.
August 1, 2009 at 12:55 am
chesstiger – yeah, tournament is an “EVENT”, also it gives you something to think about for the next few months.