There’s something wrong with me

I woke up at 5:30am on a SATURDAY for a 6am chess match with someone in England. I’ve found that I’m definitely at a disadvantage in the T4545 tournament, scheduling-wise. I prefer to play in the evenings, after the kids are asleep, and being in the PST timezone means that nearly the entire world is ahead of me, and by the time evening rolls around for me, everyone else is nestled snugly in their beds.

Despite the ungodly hour, I’m pretty satisfied with the way I played. I think I even had a slight advantage at one point in the middlegame. However, I got greedy, and on move 30 I played Bxa7. I immediately regretted this blunder, and never recovered from it.

[Event "ICC 45 45"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2008.05.10"]
[White "PeteyDaddy"]
[Black "john-beebs"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1168"]
[BlackElo "1543"]
[Opening "Réti opening"]
[ECO "A05"]
[Time "08:58:01"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 e5 4. d3 d5 5. O-O Be7 6. Nbd2 Be6 7. e4 d4 8.
b3 Qd7 9. Nc4 Bg4 10. Qd2 Qe6 11. Qg5 Nh5 12. Qd2 h6 13. h3 Bxh3 14. Bxh3
Qxh3 15. Ncxe5 Nxe5 16. Nxe5 Nxg3 17. fxg3 Qxg3+ 18. Qg2 Qxe5 19. Rf5 Qe6
20. Qxg7 O-O-O 21. Qxf7 Rhg8+ 22. Kf1 Qg6 23. Qxg6 Rxg6 24. Bb2 Rdg8 25.
Bxd4 Rg2 26. c4 Rh2 27. Rf2 Rh3 28. Ke2 Rgg3 29. Rd1 h5 30. Bxa7 b6 31. d4
Re3+ 32. Kd2 Rc3 33. e5 Bb4 34. d5 Rxc4+ 35. Ke2 Re4+ 36. Kf1 Rxe5 37. Rc1
Rh1+ {White resigns} 0-1

My opponent commented that my play was far above my rating. This is not the first time that such comments have been made. The problem is that Standard time controls include any games that have time controls of 15 0 or longer. When I had to establish my rating for the T4545 tournament, I had to play many games over the course of a few weeks. This meant that I was playing a lot of 15 0 games. And I suck at shorter time controls. I’m absolutely horrible. My brain does not like to be rushed. So my rating for faster games is low. When I have time to think thing through, I’m not half-bad

ICC really needs a separate rating for longer games. Something for games 30 0 and longer, I think. My rating for such games is probably in the high 1300s, or possibly even in the 1400s. I don’t know. I wish I did.

I’d like to play some longer games over the course of the next few months, outside of the T4545 tournament, and get my rating up. I don’t like feeling like a sandbagger.

Luckily for the PatzerBoyz, Wang won his game, as did our first board. It’s all up to you, Chessaholic. No pressure!