I've been falling behind in going over my own games, so I'm attempting to catch up. There is a lot I would like to post so this will be a lengthy blog. For some humor, I included a picture of part of a game played offhand in the wee hours of the morning. I was playing Black against a friend of mine who I normally defeat. However, the location of his pieces was amusing for me. I still won the game, but it was not with a kingside attack!
I will start off with my 3 games from January 10th and then my 3 games from January 17th. The time control for these 6 were G/20 with no delay or increment. There were a couple instances where my time was low and could not keep the notation (which is not required at the club - only 2 of us actually try to keep up with it). After these games, I have an interesting endgame I wanted to look at that occurred in an offhand game.
Turns out in game #1 of 1/10/12, I was lucky to win. However, this would be my only win that I can post here! My next game, I will leave few notes - as I make a horrible blunder that costs me a piece outright. (Perhaps this is good enough reason for me joining The Blunderers some time ago...)
It's difficult to recover after a game like that. I learn of my next opponent: D.S.. This time, I allow him to play his favorite Caro-Kann defense. (I allowed it because I play 1.e4 in much superior fashion than I do any other legal first move).
This ends my games from 1/10/2012. I was lucky to receive 1.5 points out of 3 due to my subpar performance. The following week would be even worse, as I only achieved 0.5 out of 3 points, with game #1 not being too appealing to look at (however, I post it due to opening concepts and learning experiences).
The main theme I would like to draw from this next game is the idea of an "in-between move". A zwischenzug (might need a spell check on that).
The next game is highly interesting. Both sides had chances to win and I believe both of us missed our opportunities. I hope you enjoy a swashbuckling Grunfeld.
My final round is against M.M. He varies his openings constantly so preparing for him is difficult. Both of us have our pet lines. As I stated earlier, mine is the Alekhine-Chatard attack in the French defense. His is playing the Alekhine's defense. My performance in this game is subpar for sure. I stuck to dubious plans hoping for a lucky break in the position. This is not the way to play successful chess. M.M. does an excellent job transforming the game into something the position was calling for: a treatment similar to a K.I.D.! M.M.'s rating is 1609
To explain the unusual way in which the game is presented, Black's 28th move should be Be5. In posting the game at a speedy rate, I was not aware of my posting of the Bishop to d4 until the end of the game as given: when White's next move is Kxe3. So the "sub" variation should be noted as if the Black bishop is on e5, not d4.
The final position is still winning for Black, as he can happily sacrifice material to prevent white from queening, while his queenside pawns are very strong.
To conclude this blog, I leave the reader with an interesting endgame position played during the late hours of the night between myself and a good friend. I am black in the position and I will give the sequence below. However, the question is: Can either side WIN from the starting position of the diagram??
I hope you have enjoyed my posts thus far about the chess-playing skills of a USCF "B" player! Feel free to leave any comments. Thanks for reading! (Spoiler Alert: the next edition of my blog will showcase a 3-0-0 day at my local club!)
