The first game looked like a competition on who could top the opponents next move instead of winning the game. Visually very impressive but at the cost of both sides ignoring king safety.

Ty for posting

Sick Resource 24...Nb4!

[Event "GameKnot Blitz"]
[Site "http://gameknot.com/"]
[Date "2012.05.31"]
[Round "-"]
[White "5nowman"]
[Black "adamr123"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nb6 10. Bd3 c6 11. O-O Nfd5 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Ne4 f5 14. Nc5 Nf6 15. e4 e5 16. dxe5 Nxe4 17. Nxe4 fxe4 18. Bxe4 Be6 19. Re1 Rad8 20. Qc2 Qf7 21. b3 Bd5 22. Rad1 Qf4 23. Bxd5+ Nxd5 24. Nd4 Nb4 25. Qc4+ Kh8 26. Qxb4 Qxf2+ 27. Kh1 Rf4 28. Re2 0-1

I think 28. Qd2 is the only move after which it looks drawish but I'm not sure

Always fun to mouseslip into an opening you're not familiar with (in my case, played 1...d6 to e4 and meant to play the caro) and still win, even in 5-min.

Boo, yet another dream of a perfect T4545 season has died.

http://www.team4545league.org/pgnpla...r.php?id=54996

Now that I'm pretty happy with the Slav against d4, the only malleable place left in my openings is the French. I finally got so sick of being messed with in it that I just started playing the exchange for awhile, and promised myself I'd go back later and relearn to play against it with a fresh start.

Well, it's later, and I booked up a little on the Tarrasch in advance of this game.

Of course, the second I go out of book, I get into trouble.

11. Bg5 is fine as it induces h3, but I think a straight Bf4 looks better in retrospect.

13. a3 is the beginning of the real problems. I love my bishop too much to allow Nb4. That's a two-fold problem. First, the bishop isn't so key to the main theme, which is controlling the e5 square and refusing to allow the pawn on e6 to go forward and free black's pieces. Second, even if I wanted to do keep that bishop against Nb4, Rc1 (planning Bb1 in response to Nb4) is a way better way to do it. I swear, if I removed all a3/h3/a6/h6 moves from my games entirely, it'd do more good than harm.

14. Bh4 just gives black everything he wants. He gets the e5 freeing move in, which I was convinced he didn't want because of the structural problems it creates for him and solves for me. But that's silly, because the piece activity is plenty of compensation, and that's the same sort of plan I was playing for.

15. probably could have been Qb3, there's some interesting stuff there and play remains double-edged.

17. f4 would have been a big improvement. I looked at it and decided Bxb2/Rb1 Bxa3/Rxb7 wasn't enough compensation for the pawn, but I missed that Ra2 instead of b1 traps the bishop so Bxb2 isn't playable.

About a minute after I played Rb1 I realized what was incoming, but it was too late to stop it. I probably would have been better off just playing Kh1 in response and letting him have the pawn, but it was all bad anyway.

It's funny that I've taken some pride lately in how accurate I can play in positions I know, but the moment I get into an opening where my opponent is familiar with themes and I wasn't, I just got crushed. But next time I will be familiar.

Kyle, what was the last book move and which side played it?

*Disclaimer* I know virtually no French theory so this might be a completely stupid setup and idea */Disclaimer*

After 11...O-O, what do you/y'all/everyone think about a setup for white involving Re1 and Nf4? Seems pretty natural to me to pressure that e6 pawn with those pieces. Plus, that way we keep the g5 square open for the knight for more pressure on e6 and some on h7 as well. Just thinking out loud here, that might not make any sense at all.

0-0 was the last move I remembered from the line I had prepped. Bf4 or Bg5 are considered playable from there.

You can't play 12. Re1 or Nf4 right away because e5 just gets in right away. You really have to do everything you can to clamp down on the e5 square in this line.

Brag: Achieved my highest rating on CT today (1936).
Beat: It's 300 points higher than my USCF OTB rating
Variance: Playing in my first slow time control tournament since re-starting competitive chess this weekend.

All three in one. Very nice.

Sigh.....such a promising start gone spoiled. I can, and probably rightfully so, complain about a few factors...but it was just overlooking one simple thing.

Started off 2-0 with wins vs a 1440 and 1640. Here's where it goes downhill. The third round was scheduled for 6pm. After the round, I would have to drive ~1 hour home because it saves $80 instead of getting a hotel room. Fourth round, for some ungodly reason, was scheduled at 9am. My third round didn't end until 11pm! And I lost to a 1700.

First off, what TD schedules a round that early in a big boy tournament (ie not a scholastic)? Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I get there for the fourth round. Some big, fat, old guy who smelled terrible. He was listening to his ipod the whole time. Last time I checked, you're not allowed to do that anymore. I had a better position and just overlooked something. Got pissed and withdrew, wasn't worth staying 4 hours for a game that essentially doesn't count in the tournament standings. That ****ing fat ass bastard. So it'll be probably a loss of ~10 rating points. Sigh.

1. Get the hotel room next time. It saves you an hour each way, plus gas and miles on your car. Isn't two hours of your life worth it? Plus you get more sleep, and this will help your performance.

2. I probably wouldn't have played if I saw a 9AM round. It is pretty absurd. But if I did I'd be staying in the hotel.

3. If your opponent is doing something you think shouldn't be allowed, ask the TD. Especially if it is going to bother you thinking about it during the game. Or decide that you don't care and don't let it bother you. Either way.

The one hour drive was not particularly bad at all, and I found it helped me focus more than if I had woken up and just gone to the tournament. The 9am round was a killer though, literally half of the players showed up at least 10 minutes late (my opponent included).

Looking over my games, my real weakness was once again the opening. I was actually ok with black, because I got to play the Schvennigan in round 1 and Najdorf in round 3, and I know those pretty well. I was just lost and confused when I had the white pieces. I don't have an opening repretoire with white and I really need to work on that.

It was overall very fun though. Every game except round 2 had very complex, sharp positions with tactics galore. And I noticed my calculation skills, normally not good, were exceptionally sharp (thanks CT!). I'm going to post my round 3 game and see what you guys think.

Brag: I played a flashy queen sacrifice today in a chess.com game:




Beat: Not in order to win though, just to secure a draw by perpetual.

Variance: It was the last move of a five move combination (that I had seen in advance obv):



Basically, at this point I was just waiting for him to resign when he suddenly uncorked 36. Qh4-h5 on me, a move that I had totally overlooked. The extremely nasty threat is 37. Rxg6+ with a forced mate. After the first shock was over, I found 36... Kf8 37. Rxg6 Rd1+ 38. Kh2 (38. Qxd1 Qxg6 39. Qd6+ Kf7 40. Qe7+ Kg8 41. Qxe6+ is a perpetual too, a White one this time) 38... Qc7+ 39. g3 Rd2+ 40. Kg1 Qh7.

mm why can't I time out on boring games?

Got to an "interesting" endgame after a game full of horrible mistakes on boht sides and now can't play it out

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=51700025

Sucks . Looks like a fairly easy win for white though. Even if you just trade your knight for the pawn, should still be a fairly easy win once you get your king in front of one of the three pawns.

Nope, it'd be an easy win for Black as his king is in front of the pawns. White would need to get all three pawns to 5th rank and his king on 6th (which Black's king will prevent) just to draw.

I think the final position is probably a draw. Black's pawn requires the attention of one or both of White's pieces so it doesn't promote; White needs both pieces to advance his pawns and any attempt to capture the Black pawn would leave his own pawns unprotected.

Hmmm at first I was in love with chess.com, but now I'm starting to dislike it for a few reasons.

1. Their anti-cheat measures are insufficient. In something like 50,000 games of chess I've suspected less than 5 people of cheating and the majority of them ended up with (C)s by their names. On chess.com I've played about 500 games and already am almost certain more than a dozen players I've faced were cheating. They weren't exactly trying or at least not doing a good job of hiding it.

2. 16 point max rating change systems blow for online. They take forever to adjust to rating changes. I like playing online after a tilting poker session, after a night out, etc. Needless to say my rating tends to plummet during those times. But on other sites that's no big deal. In a few hours I'll usually be back to my normal rating and getting good games. On chess.com, especially given the lack of many high rated players, it can take many days to recover from one bad session. It's not about the rating, but about being able to get proper games. I don't want to play players much weaker than I am when I'm on my game and clear headed - I want a challenge.

3. Probably related to number 1 the huge majority of games played by very strong players on chess.com are bullet. It's not interesting to watch and I'm not a fan of playing it. So it's a double whammy on both accounts.

It's too bad. The site has by far the best web-based chess software there is. Back to ICC I guess.

Funnily enough one seems to get cheated more in their online games than in turn-based games at the moment. Their actions with turn based games have been good, while in online games I also quit after a couple of sessions after getting crushed multiple times by some seriously computer-like play.

Epic beat: So close to an epic brag, and yet so far away.

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/...r.php?id=55012

As soon as he played 26. ... Re8, my tactical subconscious started screaming at me that there was a win here. I had 31 minutes left on my clock, and I used almost all of it to try to find the winning combination. And I almost had it. It was a forced mate in six, with the finish being a queen-sac smothered mate.

I calculated as far as the next to last move, though "Okay, his king is trapped there, I've got to be able to finish it off" and just never saw the sac.

Variance: Let me note that everyone who plays the French Defense is incestuous with their mothers, who are also horses. That just has to be said.

Oh, that is nice.

If you want real advice that you won't like, I'd suggest you start playing the French Defense as black. If you are having trouble facing it as white, then you should be able to benefit from seeing it from the other side of the board. You'll start to get an idea of what you do and don't like to see as black, so you'll know what you should and shouldn't play as white.

Also, you'll likely quickly discover that the French is the greatest defense ever and you'll fall in love and never want to play anything else. Until you get too many people playing the exchange variation.

Btw, I just found this from a year ago. Did you ever go further with it?

Man Kyle, that would have been pretty slick. GG regardless though.

Nope, never did. It's too unsound.

I might try the French someday for fun, but right now I'm thoroughly happy with e5 and don't expect that to change.

I just have a rule of thumb: all openings I know better than my opponent are sound. Anything my opponent knows better is a cheap trick that he uses to dodge having to play real chess against me.

I didn't agree to a draw, but I sort of broke my rule that we talked about by settling for the repetition.

I thought I might have some advantage breaking off the attack and taking the d5 pawn, but then the back rank threats started to scare me and I talked myself out of it because I was running a bit low on time. But if I'd pursued that, I might well have won anyway.

Agreed, in retrospect I like that plan. Of course that's easy for us to say now without a couple of minutes on the clock.

Beat 1: Getting home after losing a game and having Houdini show you an easy drawing line.

Beat 2: Seeing that very move during the game, except miscalculating the variation slightly and thinking it was no good.

Gross feeling.