Thanks...
I've gotten back to 1930 ish but still my rating is rather low.

a brag. This is a FIVE MINUTE blitz game against a weak opponent. But it was so much FUN to play. There is only one clever move in this game-- Ng4-- but it is a clever one!

I play in my first USCF rated tournament Saturday April 5th. A 2 section Quad. Of course being unrated, I played in the bottom section and managed to score 3.0/3. Not that impressive considering all my opponents were under 1200, but it's a start.

Heh This is what happens when I go to tournaments... they feel so bad losing to a player that hardly goes to tournaments (losing a lot of rating points)

Hey guys,

Well, the game wasn't so convincing, but the final position was pretty neat.


Yeah. Um, the game moves themselves were pretty embarrassing, but I'm putting this here anyway. Whatever!
20. e5-e6+ Kd7-e8 21. Qc4-a4+

Nice finish!

Hey guys!

I just had an awesome game, but I don't have the time to convert this to PGN, so bear with me.



(Actually, I missed the prosaic Qxc8#, but mated him in short order anyway.)

It's hard to classify this one... I won, so I guess it's a Brag... But I played the first half of the game so badly it should have been a Beat. I know I grouse a lot about how my opening play sucks, but I took it to new lows in this one. I dropped a pawn and got in a horrible bind that my opponent should have cashed in for a decisive material advantage. Instead he tried to maintain the bind at all costs, let me win three pawns for a net of plus two, kept trying to win, and ultimately lost when things opened up. The ending is rather cute with me sacking a rook to force a passed pawn through.



Some notes:

5. d4. Seems like this should be OK, but every time I play an early d4 in the English I get into trouble. I guess that's because it usually becomes a Catalan shortly thereafter and I don't really know what I'm doing...

6... d5. Now it's definitely a Catalan.

8. O-O was a mistake. I thought I could recover the pawn easily with 9. Ne5 but missed 8... Nc6. I also missed 9... Na5 getting to b3 and causing me all sorts of headaches. Just terrible. White has no piece coordination here at all.

12. Qxb5. There goes pawn #1.

13. Qxc4. There goes pawn #2. Of course, 13. Ne5 was a lot better and I completely missed it -- in a CC game.

14. Nb5 Qd4. I completely missed 14... Qd4. Didn't even consider it, just like I missed 13. Ne5. Random (and extended since this was a CC game) chess blindness again.

16. Nxa7. There goes Pawn #3. So I'm two pawns up, but should lose an exchange after 17. Nc6 Re8 18. Nxe7+ Rxe7 19. Rd1 Be2 19. Re1 Bd2 20. Bd2 Bxb1 21. Rxb1. I just now noticed that 19. Rd2 is an interesting idea I completely missed during the game... After 19... Nxd2 20. Bxd2 the knight on b3 that's been driving me crazy for the last dozen moves is gone... How embarassing... I guess this really is a Beat...

17... Bd6?? was just a terrible move. Now we're just swapping rooks and I stay two pawns up. Yes, I'm still in a bind, but he doesn't have enough pieces left to maintain the bind and attack anything, so the bind isn't really so painful any more.

22. a4 I don't know if this was a good idea or not. I was pretty sure he'd be able to win the a-pawn if it stayed on a3, so I figured if I was going to lose it, I'd either make him exchange some thing or have to rearrange his forces to actually win it perhaps letting me wiggle out of the bind. If the pawn makes it to a6, it beocmes very strong because the bishop on f1 protects it making it hard to win.

23... c5?? Is the game loser. I'm in a bad way if I let him play 24... c4, but after 24. dxc5 his pawn on d5 is now weak and I have a target to attack.

26... Ke6 is forced. If he tries 26... Rd8 27. Rxd4 Rxd4 28. Bc4 wins back the rook: If 26... Ke6 27. Bxb3. Now I get to swap some pieces with 27. Nd4+.

If 29... Rxb2 30. Rxe4+ wins a piece because 30... dxe4 31. a7 Rb2 32. Bc4+ winning the rook.

32... Nd6 is an attempt to get the knight to b6 forming a blockade.

After 33. Bg2, it's interesting that Black can't take the pawn on b5 with any of his pieces: If 33... Kxb5 34. Rb1+ wins the Black rook. If 33... Nxb5 34. Rxd5+ Kc4 (if 34... Kc6 35. Rxb5+ Kxb5 36. a7 followed by 38. a8Q wins) 35. Rxb5 Rxb5 (if 35... Kxb5 36. a7 wins) 36. Bf1+ Kc5 37. Bxb5 Kxb5 38. a7 and wins. If 33... Rxb5 34. Rxd5+ Kc4 (if 34... Kc6 35. Rxb5+ Kxb5 36. a7 wins) 35. Rxb5 Nxb5 (if 35... Kxb5 36. a7 wins) 36. Bf1+ Kc5 37. Bxb5 Kxb5 38. a7 wins.

33... Ne4 is best, but it's too late to block the long diagonal and the White bishop becomes a monster.

35. Rxd5+ clears the long diagonal leaving the Black knight, Black king, and the queening square a8 all lined up for the bishop on g2.

1901 at Chess Tempo.

Now I'm down in the low 1800s. Not seeing anything, so I quit for the night.

Had a really sweet CC win that finished today. There was a really cool combination at the end that makes for a nice little puzzle.

Position after 14... d6-d5:


It seems a little silly to caption the picture "White to play and win" since White is already a piece up. "Find White's most efficient win" is probably more to the point.

Hidden Text Below - [Show it] - [Hide it Again]

Here's the game if anyone is interested:

I suck at chess.

I really really REALLY suck at the ICC five minute pool. My rating fluctuates between the 900s and low 1100s. It's embarrassing.

beat: I hadn't played 5-minute in a couple months so I decided to give it a go. Lost three in a row. I had bad positions and severe time trouble in all of them

Worst of all, in the last one I managed to swindle a draw (or so it looked), but my opponent chose to avoid the draw and go into a losing position hoping to flag me...which he did

Brag #1:



Brag #2: Because of ratings issues and the fact that this guy had only played 2 rated game before (beating 2 opponents both under 1250) he had a rating of 1743 going into this 11 move mate which gave me 11 rating points. (Ratings aren't the most important things, but I would like to get back to the 1560 I had a couple months ago. ) If nothing else it's cool that the 11 move mate gave me 11 points.