I got friggin’ SCHOOLED.

Ouch, that smarts! Ouch! That was embarrassing. Like, 18 moves to checkmate embarrassing.

Here’s my T4545 round 2 game:

[Event "ICC 45 45"]
[Date "2008.02.02"]
[White "PeteyDaddy"]
[Black "fredd"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1136"]
[BlackElo "1563"]
[Opening "Réti: King's Indian attack (Barcza system)"]
[ECO "A07"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nc6 5. d3 e6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. e4 e5 8.
h3 Bd7 9. b3 Qc8 10. a4 Bxh3 11. Bxh3 Qxh3 12. Nh2 h5 13. Ndf3 Ng4 14. Nxg4
hxg4 15. Nh4 Be7 16. f3 Qxg3+ 17. Ng2 Bc5+ 18. Rf2 Qxf2# {White checkmated}
0-1

I totally blew it on move 9. Move friggin NINE. The really crappy thing is that up until that point, I was feeling good. He let me develop my King’s Indian without a problem. So I got complacent. I was a bit surprised when he pulled 8. .. Bd7. I thought he might want to keep my N pinned with Bh5. So I turned my attention to the Queenside pawns. I was planning to use them as the front line of my flanking maneuver. So when he does 9. .. Qc8 I was like “huh, that’s an odd move.” But instead of noticing that he had formed a battery against my weak h pawn, I dismissed it and continued planning my Queenside assault.

Oops.

Even after he moved 10. .. Bxh3 and I realized his plan, I wasn’t terribly worried. I had actually seen a similar strategy executed before, and it ended up being my attacker’s undoing, because he hadn’t properly deployed his supporting forces before initiating the attack. Hmm. Not so this time. I guess that someone rated close to 1600 knows how to close the deal.

Oops.

The frustrating thing is that if I had one more move before his attack, I would have taken out the Bishop that ended up being the necessary supporting force. Oh well.

I will certainly learn from this one, and won’t let it happen again.

I put the Patzer in PatzerBoyz tonight. Sorry guys.