That was always the nice thing about starting out playing the dragon (as Black) -- lots of tactics, but not as many motifs, so Bf8 is very thematic here; the threat is Rxh8+. But I actually am not sure what the right followup is here:
1.Bf8 Nh5 2.Rxh5 gxh5 and with the threats of Rxc3 an just Kxf8...what's the finish?
-2.gxh5 looks winning, though, I'm curious whether there's something better I'm missing.
Don't think you're mising anything; to be honest, I didn't see Nh5. My opponent was accomodating though and played Rxf8. Not a super deep combo or anything, but I thought it was pretty cool to find in blitz.
brag: won our 5th consecutive league match by the closest possible margin of 4,5:3,5.
variance: in the first round i saved an endgame 2 pawns down in the last game to finish, otherwise we would have won ALL matches this season so far by 4,5:3,5.
brag: won our 5th consecutive league match by the closest possible margin of 4,5:3,5.
variance: in the first round i saved an endgame 2 pawns down in the last game to finish, otherwise we would have won ALL matches this season so far by 4,5:3,5.
Brag: Managed to pull off a win in this game: http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=246949562 where I daringly exposed my king early on in the hope of catching blacks king in the center myself. 22.b3 was the turning point as he was forced to sacrifice his queen to avoid mate. I realised that my h pawn was going to force him to give up a piece and that with his pieces still immobile I could probably pick up another couple of pawns. He blundered at the end but I think he was losing anyway by this point.
Brag: Our little club is gathering some momentum. We're up to 6 active USCF members, and two more who are seriously interested.
Brag: I'll be TDing my first tournament starting next Tuesday, a "one game per week" 3SS among those players.
I think we're close to being able to host some somewhat regular weekend quads.
Starting next month, I'm organizing some trips down to the St. Louis club for their tournaments. Once we get some people down there, I know they'll be hooked on tournament play.
If black wants to continue his attack, it has to be 20. ... Qa5. Nc4+ just leaves things super equal and drawish. But after 20. ... Qa5 21. Ra1, I was convinced black didn't have anything to continue the attack with.
But 21. ... c6 and 21. ... Na4+ both lead to a continuation of the pressure.
As self-punishment, I'm going to go watch the American Gambit video on youtube a few times and pretend it's me that Kasparov is yelling at.
It's a very thin brag, because Voja hands out draws like Halloween candy in those things. If you are 20 moves in and it seems like he might have to do some work to beat you, out comes the draw offer. But I've never gotten that far before, so I'm still at least a smidge happy.
Two Plus Two
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