The funny thing is how broken the 15-min ratings are.

My opponent was only 2000 but played vastly stronger than any other 2000 I've played and there's not a chance he was cheating.

Its interesting that you say that Dire, I always thought that Bh3 move was a fundamental idea vs. a fianchettoed bishop. Could you talk about that a little more?

15-min pool is quite pathetic on ICC (sadly)

This explains for ratings inaccuracies/misrepresentations like your "2000" rated player above.

Getting rid of the Bg2 is by default a pretty good plan, especially once f4 has been played since it leaves white with tons of light square weaknesses and sometimes difficulty getting his share of the center. But the problem was just the specifics of the position. After 12. .. Bh3 13. f5 black is suddenly facing alot of pressure. I saw f5, but I missed 13. .. Bxg2 14. Kxg2 gxf5 15. Qh5! After 15. exf5 or pretty much any other move, black is doing very well. But 15. Qh5 leaves white with a serious initiative. 15. .. fxe4?? immediately loses to 16. Nf6+ Bxf6 17. Rxf6 with Rf1 and Nxe4 ensuring white a decisive initiative.

And I rejected the 'obvious' attempt with 15. .. Nxd5 16. cxd5 Ne7 simply because I thought white looked very good after 17. Rf2. My defensive plan with 15. .. f4/etc was fine, but both sides were left walking a very fine line, and I was the first and last to slip with 19. .. Kh8?

The point being that none of this is possible without Bh3. So thanks to that one subtle but huge inaccuracy I went from having a very good position to struggling to stabilize the game. My opponent did a great job of pouncing on that mistake.

I think I'm done with the 15-min pool. The ratings are just about as meaningful as picking a number out of a hat from 1200 to 2000. Against a 1900 player (who has played 500+ games):

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. cxd5 exd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 h6?! 7. Bh4 Bf5?? 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. Qb3 O-O?? etc

Seeking games seems to work well. Just played against a very good opponent who spanked me hard in the opening with the Zurich Nimzo Indian and made me realize I really need to not be so lazy in the opening. After getting a substantial advantage, though with material still even, he suddenly started blitzing moves and ended up blundering away the game within 5 moves. Strange, but fortunate for me.

Yeah I really thought that seeking games would work out much better.

Sklansky bucks for him!!!

Yeah you really need a weapon vs. the Nimzo man... that's the one opening you're going to see the most. Just makes sense to.

Why fight with a stale pizza crust when you can have a samurai sword as your weapon of choice?

As Ive already said in other threads....
There are a million flaws like this in the ELO-system.

I know the theory for the nimzo pretty well actually. No idea why I didn't play 'normally'. I just played a dumb idea for no good reason:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bg5?! h6 7. Bxf6?

I just notched it up to laziness.

You chose a stale pizza crust for no reason.

Nice.

and I want pizza now... at 8am.... :-x

brag: had QVC, 2400ish 5-min IM, crushed



I think this has to be one of the neatest looking mates I've ever seen. It's the sort of position that happens alot more in Thai chess where the most mobile piece is the rook and everything promotes to a sort of bishop that can move one square.

beat: I played autoplayed Kb4 in time trouble.

Got a simple draw after that, but so frustrating to miss such a pretty finish.

variance: I think we were both playing on zero sleep. that game was not pretty.

Wow um... Isn't just Rd8 checkmate?

About 20 seconds so I was just on autipilot and planning to defend my passer with my king, attack his with my rook.

oh wow. bet it's still eating you up on the inside

More fun slow games. This time against jdc. He played a super aggro opening, I turned into pacman and regretted it, from there it turned into a comedy of errors and finally ended up in a draw which is probably the most appropriate result. It's kind of ironic that 8. .. Bb4 played no small role in my problems even though I went on about the dangers of pawn hunting with that very move in my Qb6 sicilian thread.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Qb6 5. Nb3 Qc7 6. Nc3 a6 7. Be3 Nf6 8.
Be2 Bb4 9. O-O Bxc3 10. bxc3 Nxe4 11. Bd3 Nxc3 12. Qg4 O-O 13. Bd4 e5 14. Qf5
g6 15. Qxe5 Qxe5 16. Bxe5 Nb5 17. a4 Nc6 18. Bf6 Nc7 19. Be4 d5 20. Bf3 Bf5 21.
Nc5 Bxc2 22. Rfc1 Be4 23. Nxe4 dxe4 24. Bxe4 Rfe8 25. Bxc6 bxc6 26. Rxc6 Re6
27. Rxe6 Nxe6 28. Rc1 Nf4 29. Kf1 Nd5 30. Bd4 Kf8 31. Rc5 Nb6 32. a5 Nd7 33.
Rc6 Ke7 34. f4 Rb8 35. Rxa6 Rb4 36. Be3 Ra4 37. Kf2 Nb8 38. Ra7+ Ke6 39. g4 Nc6
40. Ra6 Kd5 41. Bb6 Rxf4+ 42. Kg3 Ra4 43. Ra8 Ne5 44. h3 Nc4 45. Kh4 Nxb6 46.
Rd8+ Kc6 47. axb6 Kxb6 48. Rh8 h5 49. Rf8 1/2-1/2

Bahaha, misclicked 1. e4:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Bc4 a6 6. O-O b5 7. Bb3 Bb7 8. Re1
d6 9. Nxc3 Nd7 10. Bf4 Qb6 11. Ng5 Nc5 12. Bc2 Nf6 13. Be3 Qc7 14. Rc1 Be7 15.
b4 Ncd7 16. Bb3 Qb8 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Nxe6 Ne5 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. Nc7+ Kf7 21.
exd5 Nc4 22. Nxa8 Qxa8 23. Bd4 Re8 24. Bxf6 Bxf6 25. Qh5+ g6 26. Qxh7+ Bg7 27.
Re6 Rxe6 28. dxe6+ Kf6 29. Re1 Ne5 30. f4 1-0

For Discipline!

BOOM BOOM. White to move and dazzle black with his creativity!~~



Some really really crazy variations after that. 4. .. Qc7 5. Nb6 Rb8 6. Bxa6!! for starters. My strong opponent somehow just fell apart after the sacrifice with : 4. .. Qa5? 5. Nb6 Nxb6 6. cxb6 c5? 7. Qd5/etc

Chess BBV stands for Dire's blog

and how the heck do you misclick 1. e4 on move 1?????

and

Pawns, they all look alike imo. Easy misclick.

Good misclick.
1. e4 is the strongest move in this position.

Next time you play live in a rated game, you should "misclick" 1. d4 and be like omgomgomg no no no, I'm a 1. e4 player plz let me be taking it back.

and then crush him.

my new favorite mating attack:



1....Nxg4 2. hxg4 Qxg4+ 3. Kh1 Qh3+ 4. Kg1 Bxf3

As I was typing I just realized it doesn't work if white just played kh2, but it still leads to a scary attack imo

Is there a bishop on c4 or b5 missing?

You might not get to run amok mating people after Kh2 but you are up 2 pawn after Qxf3 and should be completely winning. I would keep an eye out for that invisible white lgiht squared bishop though. Don't want that popping up somewhere uncomfortable like e2.