TNM #5: How NOT to Use the Threefold Repetition Rule
It's been a while since I posted about my TNM series.
Although there have been plenty of games to choose from since the last entry (no.4), I'd like to continue along chronologically and share my 5th game of the Shipman Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon and the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. Mind you, this was from all the way back in 9.18.2018, still among my earliest games of my still-young career.
I was up against 1700-rated Jerry Mays. Barely any prep done on my end, as he had zero to few games as white against the Caro-Kann (my then newly adopted opening for black against 1. e4).
Couple key mistakes and critical moments I took away from this game:
- 13... Rh7 was just flat out wrong to play in that juncture. In fact, the whole idea of doubling the rooks was bad, as h3 from white at any point nullifies and I'm just left with very poorly placed rooks. My e-pawn must have been very upset at me.
- My f-pawn was a sore problem throughout the game, essentially pinning my own knight after 28. Rf2. I couldn't find the right way to safeguard it; however, 31... g5!? seems like an interesting try.
Let's move on, and discuss that potential threefold repetition... my thoughts on it looking back, summed in a picture:
Some ridiculous things about that situation:
- I had no clue that 33... Rcd8 would seal the draw. I thought 34. Bc7 would have to follow once again, so I was actually unsure at the moment of whether he was really trying to get a draw here, or just messing with my time.
- As demonstrated by 33... Rhd8, I was clearly against getting a draw here (not sure why now that I look back - perhaps I took his repetitions as a sign of weakness from him?). Computer gives white +0.3 or so, but this position is looks very tough to play for black, as white has all the pressure and initiative.
- My opponent totally botched his own understanding of the threefold repetition rule, as he told me post mortem that he was just planning to just repeat twice and waste my clock, aware that his position was much better (to be fair, I was using a significant amount of time on these moves).
TL;DR - I was unintentionally, indirectly offered a draw via threefold repetition by my opponent in a position where I was worse. I declined.
Who screwed up more here?
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I'm a long-time former closet chess player, living in San Francisco, CA. I'm on the road to the elusive 2000 USCF rating. Follow my chess journey and life!
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