In. Already regret it, .

and here we go

Would have liked them to find a few stronger players, they have 1100 members yet we outrate then on almost every board

My opponent is already theoretically lost. He allowed me to play 1. d4! in my game as White and in his game as White he started with the dubious 1. e4? Judging from my 4 games in the last two tournaments, both approaches are unsound but I guess we still should play 'em out.

I'm already in the end game in one game. Villain and I were on at the same time for about an hour. He claims to be FIDE 1890 and is playing 105 games. My games with him are my only two and he has my full attention.

Sounds like he may already be lost too, . Last matches my opponents were both playing some ungodly # of games. This guy is only playing 23. I'm playing 3. This always seems like a bit advantage since at some point I have to imagine he will just end up making a move quickly and not give it enough attention.

I simply followed the moves of a game villain lost against s_a_kumar, threw in a variation and he hiccuped.

Yugo: "After 1.e4 White's game is in its last throes" -Breyer
rockfsh: very smooth prep work

Geez, one of my games I'm already a queen vs. piece up. Other game he decided to spot me the exchange and a pawn randomly for no reason I can see.

His rating is 1709 but, honestly, I'm having a much easier time than the 3rd game I have against a 2p2 friend who is rated 1138.

I actually kind of am embarrassed. Guys like rockfsh are getting great results from hard work and good play. I'm just getting handed Ws for no apparent reason. I really should post/annotate my games from the last matches. A couple I'm sure would be good for a laff.

Sample size. I saw your game though where you got the Queen a couple days ago. That was a cool tactic.

At this rate these guys will be busto way before the next emergency loan package arrives

My opponents rating seems to be plummeting. Coincidence?

My opponent time defaulted a handful of games today and he is in Algeria.

The moocher's (baxxon) on a heater. His rating has climbed to 1783 since the start of the match on a huge winning streak.

F word. I blundered badly.

these 2 games for the 2+2 team were my first 3-day games ever, it seemed like the only sensible thing to do was to sign up for 98 more at the same time

Won one. Fighting for a draw on the one i really screwed the pooch

overwhelmed my opponent in both games. They should be over soon, if my opponent has the decency to resign. I'm not going to fail to convert either one.



http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=114089228

http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=114089230

Promoting to a rook, eh? Does seem like you were a bit miffed, . Nice use of the d6 outpost in that game. My initial thought was to drop the knight in there, do you think that's significantly worse than posting up your rook as you did? Perhaps it doesn't make too big of a difference. Kind of cool how just an outpost like that is completely winning.

Also, from looking at the other game, dude just doesn't seem to be great with pawn structures and you seem to be quite good at handling them, . I also am not sure why he went into such a lost king vs. king endgame rather than trying to do everything he could to avoid it.

I'm not really miffed, I just always underpromte where it doesn't hurt the position. Typically with that sort of outpost knights are the first thing that come to mind when deciding on a piece to occupy it,. though in this instance I used the rooks so I could apply pressure to the c6 pawn. trying to get the knight in would also be crushing, since he'd be so bottled up. but there wouldn't be an immediately obvious follow up plan like pressuring the c6 pawn. The position is so good there are probably plenty of ways to win it.


It's kind of weird how some people go out of there way to enter lost endgames. I remember a blitz game where a player had a bad bishop vs my good bishop and he was going out of his way to make sure we ended up in a good vs bad bishop ending which was fine by me. I've also come across players who keep seeking minor piece exchanges when they are playing with an IQP

And finally there is a young player at my chess club, decent kid about 1500 strength. He likes to attack and handles himself okay in most endgames, especially if he is the stronger side. But for some bizarre reason when he is down a pawn or two in a rook endgame even if his opponents had outside passed pawns or outside majorities. He seeks rook exchanges a couple of times he has been in rook engames that are a draw or very drawable but then seeks a rook exchange into lost pawn endings. very strange especially since he seems like an ok player otherwise.

Hmm, that is very true about the c6 pawn. I played the game back pretty quickly but it is a much clearer weak point to attack and the rook on d6 does that much better.

Wow, yeah, looking to exchange rooks in any sort of endgame where you're down a pawn or two seems really bad. Maybe with 4 rooks on the board getting down to 2 makes sense but after that it's pretty clear to keep them on even if you don't know how to defend well with the rook.

My opponent is still playing out a game where he was down the exchange and a pawn (fine) and now is down a whole rook and I think I'm going to relatively easily trap his remaining piece. So it will be rook + bishop + two extra pawns vs. king and pawns. We will see if he resigns or plays that out, .

Btw, what is your strength OTB?

I dont actually have a FIDE rating and if it did it'd be scewed from when I hadn't been playing very long. But I'd say about 1800 sounds about right. I'm still getting better all the time though. I didnt start playing chess until I was 15 I'm 20 now but I had a hiatus from early 2013-the start of this year

Still a lot younger than I am but sounds like we are similar strength. Have you thought about starting a log and/or working with someone around similar strength? I asked Tex once but dude apparently has to be a parent or something really dumb like that instead. Plus I am pretty sure he is on a different level than I am.

I'd ask Rei but may be at a different level plus he doesn't even play chess and his cat/my dog probably wouldn't get along.

Also, bonus points if you want to play any of the openings I play and work on them together. Although I have a feeling from your games that you do not play any of them (Dutch, Accelerated Dragon, white 1. d4 2. Nf3 system featuring Zukertort), .

Won both of my games. I failed to do any sort of write-up last time even though I think I said I would. So here is some comments on the games for this match:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=114089236

8. ...Ne4?! - This seems like a clear mistake to me on black's part. Up until now we are certainly in book but I'm not sure this is a viable move. First, it violates not moving pieces twice in the opening. Second, the black knight simply seems misplaced since he doesn't have his dark squared bishop at this point and nothing else to back up its aggressive position.

9. Qb4 - Threatening Qxb7 with a double attack on the R and N.

9. ...b6?! This does not seem like a logical way to deal with this threat as now his queenside structure has weaknesses, he doesn't have the initiative, and his developed pieces are both loose to boot. 9...Nbd7 10.Qxb7 Nd6 looks a lot better to me where the white's queen is vulnerable to getting bounced around, black is fully developed, and can potentially drum up some counterplay for the pawn.

10. Nce5 threatening Bb5+ and allowing my rook into the action immediately with Rc1. I didn't think black could take on f3 here and even if he could taking back with the pawn seems fine since I can leave my king in the middle as long as I keep the inititiave.

10...Bxf3 This loses on the spot I'm pretty sure. I remember thinking black had some other defense but I don't remember it now.

12. ...Nxc6?? This loses immediately. Perhaps he just forgot that his king couldn't move to f8 or something?

I think ...Qh4 is a much better try. If I remember correctly, Ne5+ doesn't quie work in terms of a mating net. 13. Ne5+ Kd8 14. Nxf7+ Kc7 15 Rc1+ Kb7 and the king is tucked away with the knight on b8 covering a6 and c6 while the N on e4 covers d6. I think I was planning 16. Nd6+ Nxd6 17. Qxd6 threatening mate on c7 and I think black needs to respond with Rc8 or Qd8, either way I exchange and then play gxf3 with a clearly winning position that doesn't seem very difficult.

I really should write this up after the game as I only hazily remember most of what I was looking at and thinking back when I was playing it.

Game 2:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=114089238#

6. c3?! This deviates and I have no idea why white's playing it. It doesn't even seem like any sort of move order mistake or anything of the sort but just plain bad. The knight pretty much always goes to c3 in this kind of line and for good reason since it's needed to help batle for d5. If this is a legit move hopefully someone can explain why to me.

9. ...d5 The signature move of the accelerated dragon which white did absolutely nothing to dissuade. It seems to me black has an advantage at this point, not just equal, b/c of white's knight on b8.

10. ...Nxd5 Tbh I'm not actually sure what's best here. I think most of the time black takes with the pawn to consolidate the pawn structure, but with white's weak knight on b8 and gummed up queenside it seemed just activating my knight to build more pressure on c3 made sense. Otherwise, black has a very solid, but quite passive position and gives white a lot of time to organize some sort of plan.

12. b3?! This seems quite bad to me. I fully expected white to play Qc1 or Qc2, both of which seem fine. I still have to find somewhere to put my light squared bishop and find a way to exert more pressure while white is tied down. This move just creates too big of a weakness along the a1-h8 diagonal imo.

13 c5?? Well, I guess this was white's plan for some reason? Maybe he had looked at some exchange sac games recently? Seems totally misguided here since he's not even getting rid of my powerful dark squared bishop and seems to have absolutely no compensation for the exchange. I mean, I guess he relieved the immediate pressure on the diagonal by simply removing every piece from it, :/.

15. ...Bg7. My plan was to just tuck my bishop back to safety and then look to play a6 or Bd7 to help limit white's knight and keep it pinned in the corner not doing much.

16. Qf3 This move actually was annoying to deal with since I didn't want to let white gain a tempo with Nb4 and figured either ...Qd7 or e6 blocked in my bishop so decided to get my queen off of the c-file so white couldn't also play Rc1 with tempo.

17. ...a6 I really wanted to prevent Nb4 since it activates white's knight finally and seems quite annoying. Taking on a6 doesn't seem very helpful/good for white as can be seen in the game.

19. Bxa6 I guess I'm not sure what white should do here instead but this just makes black's game/plan much simpler since this forced variation takes things into a very easy endgame.

25. Nc6 White can't go for this. I think he has to move his knight somewhere else and just give up the b pawn. yeah that sucks but at least he can keep his pieces fairly safe and compact. This leads to his knight being a huge target for the rest of the game.

27... f6! This helps force his bishop over to the queenside eventually where it becomes a second target along with the knight, allowing me to win not 1 but both pieces. I trust white could have made more precise moves, but it seemed like there were just so many normal looking ways for white to lose pieces when I was looking at variations.

38. Nc7+ So right after losing his bishop he decides to forge ahead with the knight and loses it too. I think white has to bring his king in or something to have escape squares (c4, e4) for the knight. I mean, resigns is also a very good move here. In fact, it probably has been quite reasonable for a while.

I realize neither of these write-ups is super thorough and am welcome to any helpful feedback! It's tough though since I really do think my opponents have played some really weak moves, barely allowing me time to make many mistakes, which is nice of them, but makes for not super helpful games to learn from.

This move and Black's next are too bad for the ?! imo. Nice games.