SACC Rapid League

Damiendash191 and I started out in a French and by move 8 our queens were off the board. After some mid game maneuvering and trading, I thought I was in much better position due to his doubled pawns on the B file, a small three pawn island alone in the middle and I had 6 pawns still connected. Damiendash191 then outplayed me in a great endgame where I was lucky enough to draw with him. Really fun game.

Tarkil42 and I just completed an exciting game. I think we were even coming out of the opening. He won with a great middle game featuring 2 great moves. I resigned before he checkmated me on move 51. Great game by Tarkhill42! 

So the standings are yalnifj, Tvalidivia7, and Tarkil42 with 2 points, digiassn with 1 point, Damiendash191 and Blockdog2087 with 0.5 points, and rrccll33 and imwinning60 with 0 points. The pairings for next week are Tvalidivia7 (white) vs. Yalnifj (black), Tarkil42 (white) vs. digiassn (black), rrccll33 (white) vs. calbitt5750 (black), imwinning60 (white) vs. Damiendash191 (black), and Blockdog2087 (white) vs. Slav55 (black). Since I added people I'm switching this edition of the league to a 7 round Swiss style because I couldn't figure out how to make the round robin work out and add people when interested, and I'd rather be inclusive. I'll post the next set of pairings on the 26th or 27th. Enjoy the games!

Question for everybody, or at least Slav55. I hadn’t done this before, and signed up on impulse. I enjoyed my match this evening. I checked out profiles and see that I’m by far the lowest ranked in the tournament (928). This could be good experience but crash my rating by the time I play all you guys. Is withdrawal an honorable option?

You can withdraw if you wish but I suggest playing the games unrated if this is an issue. I believe there is an option under the custom tab for unrated games when creating a challenge.

calbitt5750 and I played our game last night. It was a wild game and could have gone either way. He was up +4, but made a bad decision at move 19 and luckily I had a blunder free game (unusual for me) and was able to pull out a win. Good game calbitt5750.

Tvalidivia7 and I just played our game.  It was a hard fought Slav Modern with a very sharp middle game.  I ended up down a pawn and was struggling to get my pieces coordinated and then blundered into a knight fork on move 34 losing my rook for the knight.  Fortunately, I found my own knight fork to win back the rook and even out the material on move 38.  There is a nasty tactic I missed on move 38.  Here is the position if you want to try and find the winning move after the white king moves out of check:

Queens were traded, and we went into a king and 4 pawn end game. We both missed winning opportunities, and the game ended in a draw by repetition.

I'm still waiting on 2 games from last week to update the standings, but I am going to go ahead and post pairings for next week. Damiendash191 (white) vs. Rrccll33 (black), calbit5750 (white) vs. Imwinning60 (black), yalnifj (white) vs. Tarkil42 (black), slav55 (white) vs. Tvalidivia7 (black), and digiassn (white) vs. blockdog2087 (black). Enjoy the games!

Just played my game for this week as well vs yalnifj, also my win. Pretty normal opening, but some blunders by both of us in the midgame which resulted in an unusual queen vs two rooks endgame, which was really interesting to play out.

Last night damiendash191 and I played our game. He checkmated me on move 46 playing the French Defense: Advance Variation. He played really well with a game that included 2 great moves and no blunders.  Good game damiendash191.

Did we skip a week?

Yeah, I've been busy with life stuff. Try to get any outstanding games in and I'll post new pairings when I get a chance in the next few days.

So with 3 games left from week 4 here are the standings. Tarkil42 on 4 points, Tvalidivia7 and yalnifj on 2.5 points, Damiendash191 on 1.5 points, slav55, digiassn, and Rrccll33 on 1 point, Blockdog2087 on 0.5 points, and Imwinning60 and calbit5750 on 0 points. The pairings for next week are Rrccll33 (white) vs. Imwinning60 (black), Blockdog2087 (white) vs. Calbitt5750 (black), digiassn (white) vs. Damiendash191 (black), Tvalidivia7 (white) vs. Tarkil42 (black), and yalnifj (white)  vs. Slav55 (black). Enjoy the games!

Just finished a game between me and digiassn. Played a variation of the Scandinavian defense involving the Leonhardt Gambit. I won on time on move 24. No blunders by me, and one blunder by digiassn on move 14. Very well played game digiassn. digiassn vs damiendash191

Just won a close endgame against Tarkil that came out of the London. We both had a couple mistakes but in the end the passed pawn was the difference 

Yesterday I outlasted imwinning60 to win our game. We played the Italian Game. It was a wild and crazy slugfest. We played 82 moves in a 15-minute game. Most of them with our pieces flying around the board in the last few minutes. We both had blunders, but we each had great moves too; giving us both encouragement and things to work to improve. Good game imwinning60!  

Calbitt5750 and I just played a tough battle. I was able to pull out a win in the late middle game after some great defensive play by Calbitt5750.