45-45 League Games this week at the DHLC
At the Dan Heisman Learning Center we sponsor not one, but three 45-45 League Teams -- U1800, U1600 and U1400. It is our hope that soon Chess.com will have the kind of Live Server infrastructure that will make a real 45-45 League possible here. For now our 45-45 Teams have to play elsewhere.
Of course we update everyone at the DHLC with the latest results and post some of the more interesting games for discussion. So far this week we are on a roll. All three teams are leading in their matches -- but there is still a lot of chess to be played.
DHLC member Calsal, playing Board 3 on our U1600 used the relatively little known Reti variation of the French to score this win
This was not the first time that Calsal has baffled League opponents with the Reti French. Here is an earlier game.
If you dislike playing against the French, take a look at these games and you might get some fresh ideas! The members of the DHLC heard all about it, of course, in our Group Notes.
Meanwhile, Durable Confidence, aka Bookseller, took on an opponent rated over 100 points higher on Board 2, and turned in this nifty performance.
Check out how long Bookseller had to play on basically just the 45 second increment and this performance is even MORE impressive -- solid move after solid move under pressure! (The numbers you see in the Comments below the game are the time stamps showing the time remaining, for those who are not familiar with time stamped games.)
Time stamping, BTW, is really useful when you go back over your games and try to figure out how you can improve. We are hoping that Chess.com will add Time Stamping to the Live Chess Server in the not too distant future.
By far the worst time management of this game was the last move by Knightstormala -- In ONE second he threw the game away with ...Rd7?? -- overlooking the fact that Bookseller could 'remove the guard' on his rook, by hitting his Queen with ...a4!. Game over!
If you like playing Slow Chess -- such as 45-45 (45 minutes per game with a 45 second increment) or 90-30 (90 minutes per game with a 30 second increment) then come see us at the DHLC -- we've got plenty of Slow Chess competition waiting for you!
