Patzer to Grandmaster -- My recent mistakes # 2 ... and a win.
If this was the script for Dumb and Dumber or Austin Powers I could make some off color jokes about my title. Jokes about excrement never go out of style, but... no... come on Excheqquer you're not a preteen boy anymore --although I recently watched The Spy Who Shags Me and laughed my head off. But seriously...
Back to chess--and there is nothing funny about that.
We are up to game loss # 6 in which I played Antonespanol and he got a lead right from the start. He was playing the Bowdler attack. I have had good success against the Bowdler, but made an opening mistake which put me down
I am playing black and I made the pawn move g6. To which I would like to point out this is why beginning players must study opening theory. I have subsequently done some work on the Bowdler opening theory prepared by an FM, and I know now this is not the way to play it. Whenever allowed by the position you should play a6 and then b5, and in this position, it is the play.
And then here as black I played f6, and the engine prefers my queen to move Qa5, Qc7, or Qb6 in that order.
I give myself a break on this one. If any reader can explain it to me I would appreciate it. But it doesn't lose the game.
Game #7 was against CapitaineFlammes -- gotta love that name. I assume it is associated with the Oriflamme the legendary French battle flag. When the Oriflamme was raised no prisoners were to be taken. Love that. But back to chess.
Here is the position, and I'm about to blunder 15. e5 (another pawn push mistake)
But this is a complicated position. My pawns are advanced and currently all adequately protected. The knight on f4 can move to Ng2+, however the king can move. the Nf4 is also eyeing the bishop on d3, which is protected by the queen. Candidate Moves:
15. Bxf4 My dark square bishop can takes the knight, 15... Qxf4 16. Qe2 defending the pawn and knight.. So that is one candidate move. (I'm doing this without looking at the suggested moves of the engine.) [after compiling my CM's I ran it -- inaccuracy]
15. CM Qa4+?? easily defended and the bishop is taken , so no. [mistake]
15. 0-0 ? but the king is so exposed -- don't really like that. [blunder]
15. Nh4 . [mistake]
15 e5 my move was the worst of all blunders.
And the correct CM is Bb1, which even now I did not consider. They say that one of the thing that distinguishes Patzers is the failure to consider backwards moves. Damn. Guilty as charged.
The mark of a really great general is knowing when to retreat. In the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, Suvorov and Kutorov made great use of the strategic retreat and defeated the narcissistic dictator Napoleon.
At present I'm just a second lieutenant in the Vietnam war who were known to have a very short life span.
But more to the point the Armenian Petrosian is quoted in the book Russian Chess with the following maxim, and it applies here. As a rule in my games, when I have a choice between two continuations, one of which has unclear consequences (although instinc tells me that my chances will be more favorable) and the other leads to a clear and lasting advantage, I always prefer the clarity to complexity and risk.
Game # 8 was against Archangelmike1. We were rated very close. It was a Sicilian Alapin variation. I had the advantage for a long time in the game until this moment. I'm playing the black and it is black to play.
I play 18....Nxe2 and lose the game. What should I have played? And what was wrong with this move?
Now that I go back and look at it, before I look at the recommended move, it seems apparent that my move is hxg7. The only way I can see 18... Nxe2 being played is maybe the person had two seconds to play. But that was not the case. It was a 60 minute game. I had plenty of time. Or maybe black is playing blindfold. I could see that (though if I was blindfolded I couldn't... you know... see it.) but no, that does not fit. Um... okay... it must be that Vegas was paying black seven figures to throw the game. Well, if that was the case I still haven't gotten my laundry bag of money, so no. Okay only one excuse then. Black is a dolt! Bingo!!!
And then I check the engine. And the engine is saying, "Are you kidding me? What the &$%^! What an idiot!" And then Stockfish is calling up all the computer engines and laughing hysterically, "You have got to see this. These humans? Incredible," and he tosses out the PGN and then adds the punch line "Nxe2!" And then Komodo, Rubi, and Ethereal go into a loop they can't stop laughing.
Personally I don't see the humor. It's really not that funny. At least not to me.
To close off this blog, something a little more fun... A win.
My opponent was parapopulos from Argentina. He joined Chess.com as best I can tell last December in the Queen's Gambit buzz. He has been fluctuating from just under one thousand to the 1100's, which the Great Ones discount, but he is currently at the 80th percentile on chess.com. Which means that he can beat 80 out of a 100 players on chess.com. And you know chess.com is where real chess players come to play. So, don't go thinking he is not a good player. He is, and he he gave a good game. It was another Bowdler attack.
