A tale of THREE perspectives
Well... let's tell the truth here. No holding back.
I was NOT looking forward to this game. This slow swiss has been especially difficult. In all the pairings, I was paired with people not only stronger but FAR stronger than I was. While I felt that I focused for my first game, my second game was a disaster where I didn't even show up (it seemed). I didn't even bother annotating as it was pointless. My third game, at least I showed up but, as usual, I blew it. Typical Cris Angel style. Fourth game, again, I never focused. The opponent threw me with an opening I wasn't used to and I lost quickly. I was getting so discouraged. And for the last round, when it looked like I might finally get someone my ranking, I got paired with "Crashie" whose standard rating doesn't look THAT far from mine but his online rating is much higher. We've played before and I just can't beat him. We started learning this game around the same time but he has picked it up faster (much faster) than I have and I think is a far better player.
****sigh****
I was dreading it.
This game was scheduled for a Thursday. Around Tuesday morning, I started getting a scratchy throat.
Oh cripes, I thought. Watch me get sick.
Yep, I caught something alright. Crashie is a very good friend of mine and even offered to postpone the game but as per the rules, this game had to be finished on Sunday. Knowing how the common cold usually behaves, I'm not going to be better by Sunday. And I didn't want to not play it. My team knew I was discouraged and if I didn't play it, I didn't want them thinking I chickened out or made an excuse. When I am on a team, I am a TEAM player. Period. ;)
If I would have had a migraine, I would have had no choice but to back out. But I won't lie about it. I just had a little cold... Big deal.
Well, here we go.
I have very basic chess skills. Lately I've been telling myself "Protect your squares". Whether there is a piece or not, protect it. I've been doing ok since thinking that. Last week, in my preparation for my Whitegs match(Slow Swiss #6 game 4), I finally didn't lose to the level 5 CPU on the Chess.com app. I had always lost, never even drew. I drew by repetion. I saw it happening, but I didn't want to lose. A draw was a win for me.
I'm taking this "Protect your squares" with me to this match. I was thinking it throughout most of the match. I think I lost focus. I don't know when to attack. Maybe I don't know how to attack. While going over my game, I noticed that when I went into offense, I abandoned my "Protect your squares". I made a huge mistake on 18. During the game, I saw danger. I wanted to show you readers the danger, and I saw that there was none. What the heck did I see? Misjudgement? Miscalculation?
Anyway, It was a great game. Dr. Cris Angel had me stressing out(at the end). This game turned out to be a match made in Heaven after all.
Gunners2004 perspective: (stronger player who has helped me quite a bit lately).
