bits and pieces
back home, getting all settled back in. i’m busy, i have about a week to tie up loose ends and pack stuff up, and then i move to fruita, colorado.
while in st louis i tried to stay strong, i tried to walk the straight and narrow path, but the temptation was too strong, i was weak, i bought more chess books. i got a book of petrosian’s games, which i like a lot. i also got a book on the grob opening. it’s so wierd, i think i will try it. opening with g4 seems to make no sense, but leads to a decent middlegame, at least from the examples in the book.
i think i will start playing on ICC. it seems everyone plays on ICC, and world chess, while i like it, doens’t seem to have as many people playing. it’s sometimes hard to get a game.
i did have a decent game, some guy openeind with a gedult opening, whatever that is. i figure he was giving me the center, so i took it. his first 4 moves were pawn moves, which i remeber reading somewhere is not the best thing. he had pawns out, i had the center and both knights out. he moves his bishop out to trade with my knight, which i didn’t see a reason for, and by move 7 i think i have a pretty nice position. by move 11, i’m all castled and developed, his king is in the center, his pawns are scattered like they were in cancun during the hurricane, and his entire queenside hasn’t moved. move 15 he tries to attack my knight, which is all up in his shit, but i exploit the pin on the e pawn and defend the knight and remove his f pawn all with one move of my bishop. i have my pieces out, ready, and the attack has begun. he moves his king out to threaten my pieces, but my knight and bishop are like han and chewy fucking up the deathstar, creating havoc and mayhem and confusion for a few moves, then i sac han (the bishop) taking out his knight and opening the dark diagonal. i send in my queen to the final kabosh on him, she moves around like a ninja, threatening, attacking, i love her. by move 26 its pretty much over, just the formalities of finishing the game. i am loving the pins i have on the pieces. the pin on the queen is awesome, and there is a sweet little ballet of checks that end in his mate in three more moves. the game seemed so easy, it flowed. i need to be able to do that all the time…i wish i could understand why that worked…
here is the game, i’m black
1. f3 d5 2. c3 e5 3. d4 Nc6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Bb5 Bd6
6. Bxc6+ bxc6 7. dxe5 Bxe5 8. f4 Bd6 9. h3 O-O 10. g4 Re8
11. Nf3 Ba6 12. Nd4 Ne4 13. Nxc6 Qd7 14. Nd4 Ng3 15. Rg1 Bxf4
16. Kf2 Ne4+ 17. Kf3 Bh2 18. Rg2 Ng5+ 19. Kf2 Be5 20. h4 Nh3+
21. Ke1 Bxd4 22. cxd4 Qb5 23. Qf3 Qb4+ 24. Bd2 Qxb2 25. Bc3 Qc1+
26. Qd1 Rxe3+ 27. Re2 Rxe2+ 28. Kf1 Qxd1+ 29. Be1 Rf2#
0-1
Sciurus said,
August 21, 2007 at 9:53 am
That’s exactly the reason why I signed up at ICC – simply following the masses, kinda sad but time is too precious to spend staring on the screen while waiting for opponents.
dutchdefence said,
August 21, 2007 at 11:06 am
Too bad you missed a mate in one at move 13. Other then that, you played really well! Following general principles can land you a win anytime. If you don’t… Well, you only have to look at your opponent’s game.
dutchdefence said,
August 21, 2007 at 11:07 am
Oh, and a great story once again! I laughed my ass off.
His Best Friend said,
August 21, 2007 at 11:27 am
I am going to have to repackage all of the opening tactics stuff into one spot.
f3 is probably considered one of the weakest opening moves in chess, ultimately because of Qh4. This is kind of the reverse of scholars mate, the extra tempo of moving first is not even close to being enough to make the move OK.
There are two themes to this opening that I would have picked on earlier. One was the knight outpost on e4. You just want to be there, and if anything it will keep white from advancing the e3 pawn. But it also attacks the g3 square which makes Qh4 even more dangerous.
And since we knew in advance, from move one, we would have put in the kill, the coup de grace, with Qh4 on move 13.
All of that said, which is about playing better next time, that time, it is great to win, and yes, you had the right egotistic/gamesmanship attitude. Put the opponent under your control, strangle him, and then eventually finish them off. When you get in this mode, it seems like, yeah I could have finished them off in any given way, but it doesn’t matter, you knew with clarity and determination that you were going to finish them, it was inevitable, and this is the way you are going to do it, and you do. Chess never really feels better than that. Too bad it doesn’t happen all the time. Ahh… The zone!
chessloser said,
August 21, 2007 at 12:01 pm
sciurus – hahaa, i laugh thinking how i sit and stare, waiting and hoping for a game…yeah, time to migrate with everyone else…
dutch defense – damn you are awesome, only after you mentioned it do i see the (now) obvious mate with Qh4…
his best friend – i just can’t see any reason for f3. i need to study opening tactics…
dutchdefence said,
August 21, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Well i only did about 300+ mate in one problems a close to a 100 times over by now. Despite, i still miss them myself. Only a litlle less often the before.
Opening tactics? There’s this great ChessBase CD called 1000 Opening Traps. You should look into it. Btw, if you like the Grob i could send you this if you’ld like. You can use it with a ChessBase program. It has annotated games and everything. If you want it, just let me know.
dan said,
August 21, 2007 at 10:42 pm
i too, love that feeling when everything flows… I wonder if Kasparov plays his game thinking to himself, “elementary move there newbie, Been there done that!, Oh thats so 30 years ago… blah blah blah, show me something new fruitcake!” Oh, to play chess like I drink beer… quick, fast, decisive, with experience and authority!
if only I…
***I’m off in search of how beer can improve the Grob***
Cheers mate!
chessloser said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:52 am
dutch defense – yeah, if you want to email the grob e-book to me, i’d gladly accept it….
dan – hahahaha, the thought of kasparov calling someone “Fruitcake” makes me laugh my ass off….i’d gladly buy you a beer someday…