Friday, August 25, 2006
Up and Down
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. O-O d6 6. Nbd2 Nbd7 7. b3 e5 8.
dxe5 Nxe5 9. Bb2 Re8 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. Nc4 Nd7 12. e4 Rb8 13. Qe2 b5 14.
Ne3 Bb7 15. Rfd1 a6 16. Rd2 Qe7 17. Nd5 Bxd5 18. exd5 Nb6 19. Rad1 Rbd8 20.
Qe3 h5 21. d6 Qd7 22. dxc7 Qxc7 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Qe2 Kh7 25. Rxd8 Qxd8 26.
Bxe5 Bxe5 27. Qxe5 Qd1+ 28. Bf1 Qxc2 29. Qf6 Qc7 30. Bg2 Qc1+ 31. Bf1 Qc7
32. Bg2 Qc1+ 33. Bf1 Qc7 34. Bg2 {Game drawn by repetition} 1/2-1/2
I certainly wasn't perfect but very solid.
I got positionally crushed as Black in my last slow game by a 1500 player. He knows his openings!
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Nc6 7. Be3
Be6 8. Qd2 Be7 9. O-O-O Qd7 10. Kb1 O-O-O 11. Nd4 Ne5 12. b3 Kb8 13. Bb5 c6
14. Nxe6 fxe6 15. Be2 h6 16. Bd4 Bf6 17. Qe3 c5 18. Bxc5 Qc6 19. Bxa7+ Kc7
20. Bd4 Ra8 21. f4 Rxa2 22. Kxa2 Ra8+ 23. Kb2 Nc4+ 24. Bxc4 e5 25. fxe5
dxe5 26. Bxe5+ {Black resigns} 1-0
All in all I am spending much less time with chess, and there probably is no big improvement this way *roll eyes*. I don't miss the circles though.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Not So Bad
After years of collecting post-mortem conundrums I looked at some of them. And you know, it wasn't so bad! Rather than feeling inundated by the amount, which is around 200 positions, I just looked at a few for the sake of looking at a few. I suppose that this collection no longer seems like an impossible encumbrance, just more chess problems that I can improve on :-).
Here's a tough position I wanted to share. I'm curious what people think about what they would play in the above position, and let's say you are playing a slow game and have plenty of time.
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..
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..
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Back when I played this I thought, "I don't see forced mate so the clearest idea is ...Qg6, threatening a back rank check and double attack on the b2 Rook. I see the pin I have is helpful, but not exactly winning."
While ...Qg6 is completely winning, I never even looked at ...Rf8. That threatens ...Rxf2+ 38. Kxf2 Qf5+ 39. Ke1 Rg1+ 40. Kd2 Qd3#. The threat is so strong it practically forces White to exchange his Queen for the f8 Rook. Pretty cool, huh?
Fritz also has ...Qe4 as a nearly equal threat to ...Rf8, so kudos if you saw that one.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Review
I have not played any long games recently but I am still having fun with 5/12. Here's a finish from one where I couldn't help but indulge my tendency to liquidate with Qxe8+ Kxe8 Nc7+ Kd7 Nxa6 :).
White to Move
