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A simul with a titled player - Cris Angel tries again

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Dr_Cris_Angel
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And AMAZINGLY enough, I focused well!!  Sure, I lost - but let's review my goals:

1.  Focus as much as possible.  Feel that I am doing my absolute best given my skills and abilities.

2.  Do NOT give the opponent an easy win.  Make him work for it.

Well.... an IM is going to have an easy win against me, no doubt.  But I didn't lose in ten moves.  I actually made it a lot further than I thought I would.   I lost one of my center pawns.  My poor center pawns.  I forget when they're not defended and opponents gobble them up.  One of these days, I'll remember to keep them safe.  In the meantime, IM Squarology, if you're not familiar with him, has done some videos.  I stumbled upon these one day when just browsing and "loitering" on the site and I found them to be quite entertaining!   I do recommend viewing them if you haven't seen them before.

After the game, IM Squarology was kind enough to make a few comments.   He said that I didn't need to lose material and I need to watch out for unforced errors.  (that's just constructive criticism with which I wholeheartedly agree).  On the positive side, I was told that I developed nicely and gave an interesting game.  I couldn't ask for more than that so this game goes down in the SUCCESS column for Cris Angel!  Wheeeee!!

Here we go.   Worth noting, this was played at a "fast" (for me) time control of 20 minutes/10 second increment.  Remember, I'm the one who loses on time in 45/45 games.  I had to try to move faster than usual - AND.... I actually got further than I do with many of my 45/45 games.  Unfortunately, I don't think very fast, not at my level, so I missed some things.  I agonized on whether to castle queenside or kingside.  I will explain in the annotation why I did what I did - and I think that turned out to be a mistake; however, this was a mistake that I don't "mind" so much.  I have to learn these things by doing and thus, sometimes I have to do things and get burned in order to see. 

I did NOT donate any pieces!!  That's a huge plus, too!

Enough from me.  Here's the game.    Comments welcome, of course, but PLEASE note my pathetic rating and bear that in mind when commenting.  Thank you.