Just to be clear: IV stands for 4, not that I need a transfusion.
Having finally vanquished Isla (1700) in 2 games, I moved up to Lorenzo (1800). I actually found Lorenzo easier than I did Isla. I have an idea why. I lost my first two games to Lorenzo, responding to his same opening in a certain way. I changed up my defense to an Indian (thank you Moheschunder Bannerjee) and was able to draw the next two games (both of which I had been winning but threw it all away). Then I won my first game. After blundering through several more games, I finally won another game. Why I found Lorenzo easier, I think, is because he was very inflexible and kept playing mostly the same opening or transposed into that same opening. The first game here shows how I trapped his Queen. I think I trapped his queen in one of the drawn games and in a couple of the games I lost (I'm not stranger to blunders). He was pretty predicable and boring. In the second game, I changed things up a bit (but not in any better way) and probably should have lost. I just got lucky.... but luck's a part of chess, or to paraphrase Billy Joel, "I took the bad times, I'll take the good times."
Just to be clear: IV stands for 4, not that I need a transfusion.
Having finally vanquished Isla (1700) in 2 games, I moved up to Lorenzo (1800). I actually found Lorenzo easier than I did Isla. I have an idea why. I lost my first two games to Lorenzo, responding to his same opening in a certain way. I changed up my defense to an Indian (thank you Moheschunder Bannerjee) and was able to draw the next two games (both of which I had been winning but threw it all away). Then I won my first game. After blundering through several more games, I finally won another game. Why I found Lorenzo easier, I think, is because he was very inflexible and kept playing mostly the same opening or transposed into that same opening. The first game here shows how I trapped his Queen. I think I trapped his queen in one of the drawn games and in a couple of the games I lost (I'm not stranger to blunders). He was pretty predicable and boring. In the second game, I changed things up a bit (but not in any better way) and probably should have lost. I just got lucky.... but luck's a part of chess, or to paraphrase Billy Joel, "I took the bad times, I'll take the good times."