Here are are two games I played recently that give me hope for the future. In both of these I felt like I could see every possible line and variation with zero effort. Every once in a while I'll have games like this.
I especially like the checkmate here. It's nothing real special, but I saw it the very instant he moved his queen to g5 on move 17.
Code:
[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.04.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ShawnAvery"]
[Black "xyzbernhard"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "1043"]
[BlackElo "963"]
[ECO "C65"]
[TimeControl "180+12"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O a6 5. Ba4 b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. d3 d6 8. Be3
Bxe3 9. fxe3 Bg4 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Qd2 Bxf3 12. Rxf3 Ng4 13. Raf1 Qh4 14. Rh3
Qg5 15. Rf5 Qe7 16. Qe2 g6 17. Rf1 Qg5 18. Nd5 f6 19. Qxg4 Qxg4 20. Nxf6+ Kg7
21. Rxh7# *
This one I saw the potential mate at move 16 when for whatever ridiculous reason he played h6. It took me a bit to figure out the move order but I could "see" how it was going to happen almost 10 moves in advance.
Code:
[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.04.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ShawnAvery"]
[Black "spacedoc"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "1064"]
[BlackElo "1076"]
[ECO "C60"]
[TimeControl "600+1"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nge7 4. O-O a6 5. Ba4 f6 6. d3 d6 7. Nc3 Bd7 8.
Be3 Ng6 9. Qd2 Be7 10. Rad1 Nb4 11. Bxd7+ Qxd7 12. a3 Nc6 13. d4 exd4 14.
Nxd4 Nxd4 15. Bxd4 O-O 16. Rfe1 h6 17. Qd3 Nf4 18. Qg3 Ne6 19. Be3 Kh7 20.
Ne2 Rad8 21. Nf4 Rg8 22. Qg6+ Kh8 23. Nxe6 Qxe6 24. Bxh6 gxh6 25. Qxh6# *
These tactic problems I have been doing at chesstempo.com have been really, really paying off. I've worked up to 1700 there but seem to be stuck there for the last week or so. If only could bring my fics game up to 1700 =\