My First Stalemate
In order to get some games under my belt as a Chess.com newbie, I decided to enter a 15|10 tournament even though I am a notoriously slow player. I thought I could handle that pace of play but it turns out I was wrong.
I have played around with chess on and off for many years. I cannot remember having a game end in stalemate, however. This game started out with White developing a sizable advantage until making a major blunder in time trouble. After that the pendulum swung between black, white, and even for the rest of the game.
I decided to annotate this game because of the uniqueness of the stalemate in my chess-playing "career." It was played in the final round of the tournament.
Lessons learned: I must better allocate my time according to the time control of the game. One of the two games I lost in this tournament plus this draw followed the same pattern: get ahead early, do something dumb in time pressure (moderate or severe), then go down in flames.
I also need to recognize opportunities to push my h-pawn when my opponent has a king-side fianchetto or extended fianchetto formation. I must understand that I can't break through using pieces alone.
