7/15/16 (Denker, Day -14)

Hello again, everyone!

I finally have something worth sharing. (Hint: not more excuses for why my posts are boring.)

Yesterday, (Thursday, July 14) my coach and I sat down to play a long, serious game together. The time control was G/60, d5. We chose colors the old-fashioned way (one player hides a pawn of each color in his fists, and then the other player chooses a fist and plays whatever color he chooses). I held out my hands, and my coach picked the one holding the Black pawn. So he was Black.

My coach currently holds a 2240 rating. I am a mere 1604. So you can guess that I had "psychology" problems. This comes into play later.

Anyway, the game started smoothly, I think. Neither my coach nor I obtained any significant advantage for a while. I was a bit cramped, but I wasn't having the life squeezed out of me. At one point, he made a mistake, which allowed me to solidify an afflicted region. But then, on the other side of the board, he started cooking up a plan. I did my best to stop it, but he managed to win a pawn. However, he had overlooked my subsequent defense, which I'll tell about in a moment.

Keep in mind that my clock was running a lot during this time; I can't remember exactly, but the time disparity was something like 40 minutes to 15 minutes — in his favor.

But back to the game. So, yes, he had won a pawn, but in reality, I could theoretically still hold the position and wait for a draw. However, (doesn't that word pop up so often in chess?) this is where the psychological aspect comes in. Essentially, while the position was, in his analysis,drawn, I thought he had the edge. In other words, I gave his position more credit than was due! I looked at the board and thought, "Hmm... he must have something up his sleeve." But all he had were a couple of scary false "threats" that I could have sufficiently met.

So it boils down to this: I had a drawing position, but I didn't know it. I thought I had more work to do before I could obtain equality. Throw in a couple ghost threats, and you have a recipe for a loss.

In summary, though, he said it was a good game; and what meant the most to me was that he said he was lucky to get a win instead of a draw! To be 600+ points lower and nearly draw was a good sign.

This was a good learning experience for me. At the Denker, I'll be an extreme underdog. Therefore, I really need to be able to overcome the mental burden of facing a really strong player. I just need to remember that he or she is only human and that maybe he or she isn't really doing as well as I think!

 1,194,480 seconds,

—Dartmouth

 P.S. I'm planning on going to an open tournament tomorrow. Let's see how I do, with my new learning experience under my belt!