Someone left the cake out in the rain

What is the ultimate dream of any class level chess player? I think quite a few of us would agree that it would be to sac a queen to defeat a grandmaster. Of course we don't get many opportunities to play GMs and when we do, we usually get crushed pretty handily.

But first I should mention this past weekend I attended the North Carolina K-12 championships in Charlotte where I was spent most of the weekend coaching in the Triangle Chess room. It was a satisfying experience for me as my first ever private student Alfred Ye won the K-1 section,

Several of my students (both private and from the Cary Chinese School) were part of the Davis Drive Elementary Team that won the K-5 Division. One of my newer students Nicole Rafferty scored the star upset of the first round with a 440+ point upset in the K-8 division. She ended up with a performance rating about 300 points higher than her current rating. Finally the youngsters at Morehead Montessori, many of whom had little tournament experience, turned in a strong second day performance leaving behind their struggles from the early rounds and leaving with big smiles on their faces after a 5+1=0- final round. I'm a very proud of them, and quite frankly, I owe them a debt of gratitude because... at least emotionally.... they "saved Coach Pig's bacon."

I played in the Open blitz on Friday night where I got an opportunity to play against one of my favorite chess commentators GM Ben Finegold. The first game, in which I played the white pieces went about as well as one would expect for the first part of the game. Eventually Ben picked apart my weeknesses and went up a couple of pawns. Ben didn't play very crisply after that and I somehow managed to get into a bishop vs two unconnected pawns endgame. I don't know that I would have been able to get my king in position in time to stop one of the pawns, but there is a chance I could have.... had I not flagged. :(

Thus setting the stage for my second game... this time playing black. I played my butt off and managed to get an attack going. Then suddenly, on my 28th move... I had it.... I had it right in my hands... Not the flashiest queen sac ever, but it was there. 

So I leave you with a final thought of this game from the somewhat immortal words of Jimmy Webb...

"Macartur Park is melting in the dark. All that sweet green icing flowing down. Someone left the cake out in the rain... Oh and I think I just can't take it.. cause it took so long to bake it... and I'll never have that recipe... again.... OH NO!!!"