OTB Chess… it’s TOUGH out here!

Hey all! As those of you who regularly check in on my forum posts (legends) know, I’m currently playing in my city’s Club Championships. It’s been a mixed event for me so far, including a really decent result in a draw against reigning champion (and inventor of Duck Chess) Tim Paulden, and a heartbreaking loss after I sacrificed a rook for the wrong pawn against the very strong Giles Body.

This round, I had the white pieces against Sean Pope (a former club champion). This game was really interesting for a number of reasons (not least the interesting nuance of why the engine prefers g3 rather than qf3, giving an extra tempo and later some breathing room for the king), but the main point for me is how tough classical chess is.

I played at 92% accuracy across ~50 moves. Sean played at 94%. 

The game ended in a draw, which is a great result for me. Sean was winning, but the endgame is a challenge with my outside passed pawn, and with low time he thought it safer to offer the draw than to risk making a mistake in low time. 

here’s the game!

As for the g3 move, it was so interesting to me when I felt for the whole game that I needed just one extra move to be in the driver’s seat, and this would’ve given it to me. Particularly there was a moment I thought I’d like to play Rc7 if he captured my b-pawn, but wouldn’t be able to because of backrank problems! Chess is fascinating with its nuance.

I love duck chess; that's awesome that you got to play Paulden!

Haha I did a forum post about it a few weeks back, thought people didn’t care about duck chess anymore!!

Nice game. I used to play the Milner-Barry Gambit ages ago when I was in high school!

Yes, OTB chess is real chess.

It’s a great line haha, and yeah… it’s been pretty brutal recently for me. Probably need to invest in an OTB coach at some stage

That game exhausted me, Adam!! It's another reminder to tough it out. Thank you!

Try playing them for hours!! Chess is brutal, isn’t it?