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!

Hot Streak

I am on a bit of a tear on RHP these days. The guy at work told me that he can’t seem to climb to the 1700 mark. Every time he gets close, he loses a game. Last time he neared the mark, he dropped two in a row to me, which caused his rated to plummet.

As of Monday, he was at 1696, so I challenged him to a game, telling him that I would be a spoiler again. And indeed, I was. Check out my mad skills with the King’s Indian:

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2008.02.28"]
[EndDate "2008.03.06"]
[White "PeteyD"]
[Black "GuyFromWork"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. Ng1f3 d5 2. g3 c6 3. Bf1g2 Bc8f5 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Ng8f6 6. Nb1d2 Bf8d6
7. b3 Nb8d7 8. Bc1b2 O-O 9. e4 dxe4 10. dxe4 Nf6xe4 11. Nd2xe4 Bf5xe4
12. Qd1xd6 Nd7f6 13. Qd6xd8 Rf8xd8 14. c4 Rd8d3 15. Nf3e5 Rd3d2 16. Bb2c3 Be4xg2
17. Bc3xd2 Bg2xf1 18. Kg1xf1 Nf6e4 19. Bd2e3 f6 20. f3 1-0

He really wanted to prevent me from pushing my pawn to e4, so he loaded up his pieces around that square. I was able to maneuver equal forces into the area, so when I pushed e4 I knew I would come out of the resulting melee no worse off than even.

However, he played 10. .. Nxe4 instead of Bxe4, which set him up to trade a piece for a pawn. I clung to my two pawn advantage for dear life, and when he saw I wasn’t going to give up the advantage, he resigned.

I am just playing out of my mind lately. I’m sure I’ll be going on a massive losing streak sometime soon, but I’m obviously really enjoying the winning streak for now.

BTW – my RHP rating jumped to 1440 after this game.

Cheerio! Another win!

I had to play my T4545 round 3 game early today, because my opponent was 8 hours ahead of me in the UK. Here’s the game:

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[White "PeteyDaddy"]
[Black "OldBoy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1133"]
[BlackElo "1498"]
[Opening "Réti: King's Indian attack (Barcza system)"]
[ECO "A07"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Bd6 5. d3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. e4 dxe4 8.
dxe4 e5 9. b3 Qe7 10. Bb2 Bg4 11. Qe1 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Rad8 13. Nc4 b5 14. Nxd6
cxd6 15. Ba3 Nd4 16. Bd1 Qb7 17. f3 Qb6 18. Rf2 Nxf3+ 19. Bxf3 Rc8 20. Rc1
Rc3 21. Qxc3 {Black resigns} 1-0

I was happy to see him let me develop my King’s Indian fully. We were playing fairly evenly through the middlegame. After my move 14. Nxd6, I was hoping that he would retake with his Rook and thus allow me to pin his Rook to his Queen with Ba3, but he saw through that and retook with his c pawn. At that point, I thought that I was in for a long battle to the bitter end.

Then he started pushing his Knight up the board, and in his eagerness to check my King, he ended up trading his Knight for a Pawn. This took me by surprise. I thought that surely I was missing some tactic that would allow him to take control, so I looked at the position for a bit but could find nothing.

Two moves later, he leaves his Rook completely unprotected. I thought for sure that there was some counterattack that he would mount to destroy me, but I couldn’t find one. So I took the Rook, and he promptly resigned. I guess his move was just a blunder. I’m not really sure what he was trying to do.

Usually I’m the one doing the blundering, so it’s kinda refreshing to see someone else do it.

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.

My first T4545 game: a WIN!

This afternoon I played my first Team4545 league game. It was a well-fought game. My opponent and I were well-matched, but I managed to pull out the win. Here’s the PGN:

[Event "ICC 45 45"]
[Date "2008.01.27"]
[White "fuzzface"]
[Black "PeteyDaddy"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Opening "Queen's pawn game"]
[ECO "A45"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Bg5 O-O 5. c3 d6 6. Qd2 c5 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8.
e3 e5 9. Ne2 cxd4 10. cxd4 Nc6 11. O-O exd4 12. exd4 d5 13. Nbc3 Be6 14. a3
a5 15. Rad1 Bg5 16. f4 Bf6 17. Qc2 Rb8 18. Qb3 b5 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. Bxd5 Qb6
21. Bxc6 Qxc6 22. Qc3 Qxc3 23. Nxc3 b4 24. Nd5 Kg7 25. Nxf6 Kxf6 26. a4 b3
27. Rd3 Rb4 28. Rfd1 Rd8 29. d5 Rd6 30. Rd4 Rb8 31. R1d3 h5 32. Rc3 Ke7 33.
Rc5 Rb4 34. Rxb4 axb4 35. a5 Ra6 36. Rb5 Kd7 37. Rxb4 Rxa5 38. Rb7+ Kd6 39.
Rxb3 Rxd5 40. Rb7 Ke6 41. b4 Rd1+ 42. Kg2 Rd2+ 43. Kh3 f6 44. b5 g5 45. Rb6+
Kf5 46. Rxf6+ Kxf6 47. fxg5+ Kxg5 48. b6 Rb2 49. b7 Rxb7 50. Kg2 Rb2+ 51.
Kh3 Rb3 52. Kg2 Kg4 53. h3+ Kg5 54. Kf2 Kf6 55. Kg2 Ke5 56. h4 Rb4 57. Kf3
Rg4 58. Kf2 Ke4 59. Kg2 Ke3 60. Kh3 Kf2 61. Kh2 Rxg3 62. Kh1 Rg4 63. Kh2
Rxh4# {White checkmated} 0-1

It looked like he would be able to push his pawn on the queenside, but I pushed my pawns on the kingside and managed to get him into a mating pattern at move 44. Well, he did have one out. He could choose to lose his rook instead. I figured that he would resign, since being down a rook so late in the game is a nearly insurmountable disadvantage. However, he chose to battle it out until the very end. It took me a bit, but I was able to get the mate.

This was a huge win for me, and for my team. As a result, the Patzer Boyz pulled out a draw against a team with much stronger ratings. Go Boyz!

I really enjoyed the 45 45 time controls – I didn’t feel rushed (most of the time) and as a result was able to think more deeply about each move. The game took about 2 1/2 hours to play. Finding time for such games is really tough, which makes them a luxury for me. It’s something that I can look forward to each week.

I’ll take a little while to savor this win, and then I’ll start preparing for next week.

Marathon of Crap

OK, I just played a zillion games of chess, in order to obtain a non-provisional rating on ICC. I did this so that I could compete as one of the Patzer Boyz in the next Team 45 45 League tournament.

I played a lot of chess. More specifically, I played a lot of bad chess. My rating currently stands at 1090. Ugh. After plunging to 912 right outta the gates, I managed to win/draw a few to bring it up to 1181, before a slew of losses that brought me back down to my current state.

My last two games were the worst. In one of the games, I was dragging my Queen across the board to take the opposing Queen. However, my finger left the mouse button one square short. I tried to take back the obvious slip, but my opponent chomped down on my free Queen. I resigned, and immediately re-challenged, because I was pissed. For such an obvious error, I would have granted a takeback in such a situation, since it wasn’t a tourney game or anything. Oh well.

So I was out for blood in my next game, and I would have had it too, if I wasn’t such an idiot. Here’s the game:

[Event "ICC 15 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2008.01.14"]
[White "PeteyDaddy"]
[Black "LuckyGuyThatEarnsRatingPointsFromMyStupidity"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1090"]
[BlackElo "1212"]
[Opening "Réti: King's Indian attack (Barcza system)"]
[ECO "A07"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c5 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Bd6 6. Nbd2 Nc6 7. e4 dxe4 8.
dxe4 O-O 9. b3 b6 10. Bb2 e5 11. Nc4 Nxe4 12. Nfxe5 Bxe5 13. Nxe5 Qf6 14.
Bxe4 Bb7 15. Bxc6 Bxc6 16. Rb1 Rad8 17. Nxc6 Rxd1 18. Rfxd1 Qxc6 {White
resigns} 0-1

At move 17, I had calculated the combination. I would take the Bishop at c6, then he would take my Queen, then I would take his Queen with my Bishop, and we would probably then trade Rooks. This would leave me up a Knight, a formidable advantage so late in the game.

So I had it calculated out, but what do I do on move 18? I take his Rook instead of his Queen. What. the. hell.

I think this clearly illustrates why I shouldn’t play quickly.

But I have my non-provisional rating. woo. hoo.

Clawing my way outta the basement

After my brilliant 0-5 start on ICC, I’ve managed to dig my fingernails in and gain a bit of a hold for the time being. After sliding to a rating of 912 (912?!?!) I managed to win my last two games. My last game was against a 1305, and I totally pulled a checkmate outta my ass to win. My rating is now back in the 4-digit range – at 1099.

Here’s the game that I pulled outta my butt.

[Event "ICC 10 12"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2008.01.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "PeteyDaddy"]
[Black "catamaran1"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "993"]
[BlackElo "1305"]
[Opening "Réti opening"]
[ECO "A04"]
[NIC "QP.11"]
[Time "21:06:56"]
[TimeControl "600+12"]

1. Nf3 Nc6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bf5 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Bc5 6. Nbd2 Nf6 7. b3 O-O 8.
Bb2 h6 9. e4 dxe4 10. dxe4 Nxe4 11. Nxe4 Bxe4 12. Qxd8 Raxd8 13. c4 a6 14.
Rad1 Rxd1 15. Rxd1 Rd8 16. Rxd8+ Nxd8 17. Ne5 Bb1 18. a3 a5 19. Nd7 Bd6 20.
c5 Be7 21. b4 axb4 22. axb4 c6 23. Bd4 f6 24. Bf1 Kf7 25. h4 Be4 26. Nb6 e5
27. Be3 Ke6 28. Nc4 Kd5 29. Nd2 Ne6 30. Bc4# {Black checkmated} 1-0

I think I came out of the opening down a pawn, and so my opponent was quite happy to trade pieces with me for a bit. Yes, let’s get those pesky Rooks and Queens out of the way. He managed to lock his Bishop in, while mine were still fairly mobile, but he started jockeying for position. I cast about desperately for a plan. Since this game was 10 12 time controls, I felt rushed, so I started just trying not to do anything stupid.

Then he brought his King into play. I’m still not quite sure why – I guess he wanted to have an extra attacker to help push his pawns up the board, but with my knight and both bishops still on the board, he was asking for trouble.

After I made my 29th move, I saw it. Checkmate. It didn’t look like your standard mate, but nonetheless it was there, illuminated by a beam of warm sunshine.

He didn’t notice it… Checkmate. Whew!

I’ve still got 13 rated standard games to play so I can register for the Team 45 45 tourney as one of the Patzer Boyz. Gotta get busy!

ICC play = I suck

I improved to 0-5 for Standard rated games on ICC. This time, I lost against an 11-year-old, which is doing wonders for my ego.

I really don’t know what the hell my problem is. Actually, that’s not true – I know exactly what my problem is. When a game timer is involved, I tend to rush through things. This leads to blunders, which leads to five losses in a row.

I need to work on playing under time constraints. Even under longer time limits, I rush through my moves. When I know that someone is sitting there waiting, and the clock is sitting there ticking away, I feel pressured to move.

I’m going to try to play another game this afternoon or evening, and I will take as much time as necessary to make the right move. I may end up getting into time trouble, but I may not.

This losing has got to stop, that’s all I know.

Journal Fetishes and Other Stuff

I took the advice of one of you commenters out there, and decided to start a journal for my chess games. The idea is that after each game, I will write down all the moves, along with a brief summary of what I was feeling during the game, or what I was trying to accomplish. Then, at some later point, I will come back and analyze the game, sans computer – just my meager wits. I’ll write down my thoughts – what I think I did right, what I could have done better, etc. After this is done, I’ll run the game through a computer for analysis. I’ll look at what the computer came up with, and look at how that was similar or different to my own analysis. I’ll capture all this information in the journal.

There are two goals here: to learn how to analyze a chess game, and to become a better chess player through analyzing my past games, and my lines of thought during those games.

Sounds reasonable, yes? So what’s with the title, you ask?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enthralled with journals and journaling. So when it comes to the choice of what to use for my chess analysis journal, you must understand that any old spiral-bound notebook just won’t do. Oh no. I want something that is enjoyable to write in, and something that will be enjoyable to look at. It must be archival quality as well, so that in 20 years, when I’m Expert level, I can look back at all these games and say “what a blundering idiot I was!”

I purchased a brand-new Moleskine lined notebook. I love Moleskines! I love that they come with a ribbon bookmark, I love the accordion pocket in the back, and I love the elastic band that holds the notebook closed snugly. The paper within is archival quality, and I enjoy the way my Pilot G2 gel pen glides across the page. Ok, I’d better stop here. You get the idea though.

I’ve also decided that I’m not going to analyze my Blitz games at first. I’m going to focus only on Standard games. I’ll analyze my Blitz games eventually, but until I am comfortable with the analysis process, I feel there is more value in diving deeply into my regular games.

Ok, enough for now. I’m going to go fondle my journal.

Basking in the afterglow of a fine fine victory

Let’s step away from the woes of Blitz tourneys for a moment. Put my 0-fer-everything record out of your mind. Right now, I would like to share with you the highlight of my chess comeback thus far.

Several posts ago, I mentioned that one of the things that got me back into chess was a guy at work that I would play on RedHotPawn. He’s rated in the high 1600s (currently 1686), and he would pretty much slap me around while I stumbled through my moves.

To help me learn my newfound opening, I started a new game against him about two weeks ago. I opened with the King’s Indian, and was able to adapt to the moves that he threw against me. I got into the middlegame about even, and held my own for awhile. We exchanged queens, which left me with two rooks and a bishop, and him with two rooks and a knight. The middle of the board was locked up, but I had better mobility along the queenside flank. I was able to work this to my advantage, and he ended up losing his knight to my discovered attack. He resigned immediately.

Victory! At long last! After losing eight straight games to him, I finally WON! Woot woot!

You can’t see this, but I am dancing around the room right now. Yes, it’s a par-tay!

Here’s the PGN of the game for all to enjoy. I’m sure it’s one for the history books (well, my history books anyways).

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.17"]
[EndDate "2007.11.08"]
[White "PeteyD"]
[Black "GuyFromWork"]
[WhiteRating "1279"]
[BlackRating "1686"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. Ng1f3 d5 2. g3 c6 3. Bf1g2 Bc8g4 4. O-O Nb8d7 5. d3 Ng8f6 6. b3 e5
7. Nb1d2 Bf8c5 8. e4 Bc5d4 9. Ra1b1 Bd4c3 10. Bc1b2 Bc3xd2 11. Qd1xd2 Bg4xf3
12. Bg2xf3 d4 13. c3 c5 14. c4 O-O 15. Bb2a3 Rf8e8 16. b4 b6 17. Bf3d1 cxb4
18. Ba3xb4 Nd7c5 19. Bb4xc5 bxc5 20. Rb1b5 Ra8c8 21. Qd2a5 Qd8xa5
22. Rb5xa5 Rc8c7 23. Ra5b5 Nf6d7 24. Bd1a4 Nd7b6 25. Rb5xb6 1-0

Anyone know of a good way to embed a little PGN viewer in a blog?

I’m off to lose more Blitz, but I’ll be doing it with a big ole grin on my face.