Pirc Improvement

I've been playing the Pirc Defense for some time now, and have played it in two of my last four rated games in the past three days.  When I played it on Saturday (3/19/2011), it was clear that my Pirc was rusty, as sloppy play left me fighting to scrap out a draw just to get in a three-way tie for first place in my quad:

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^ ^

Then on Tuesday, I went up to the Kenosha Chess Club and had the opportunity  to try the Pirc again, this time against an opponent with a rating almost 200 points higher than in the above game.  My play was much cleaner, and the end result showed:

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^ ^

The Pirc remains my favorite hypermodern defense of 1. e4.  I'll leave you with my favorite game from the third round of the Wisconsin High School State tournament.  I was playing first board, and our team was playing University School.  We ended up taking second to them despite beating them head to head (there was a 4-way tie for first at 4W-1L, and total points was the tie-breaker), however, I hang my hat on this game, especially with the way the game ended.  Enjoy:

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