UPDATE: 31/3/2015 (lost update should have been 27/3/2015-30/3/2015*)
Day 46
Today, trying to get back into the groove of studying but ended up spending the whole day playing blitz. Played some online, then went out and played for a few hours in a chess club. Then came back home and play some more.
I noticed a trend in my blitz playing. I tend to win all the time in the first few games I play in any session, and gradually my playing quality deteriorates. I go from seeing semi-deep variations to leaving free pieces hanging in just a few games. And my nerves/psychology crumbles very quickly, especially if there’s spectators watching or start losing a few games. Hopefully this won’t happen when I play real tournaments, but it’s something I have to work on.
Sometimes playing quick games is very discouraging, because I lose like a ******.
So here are some of my games. I would like you guys to be able to see an annotated version of a long tournament game I played at some point. But at this point I time, I don’t yet have the attention span to play anything long yet. Maybe I’ll play one next week which will have better quality chess. But I don’t want to keep you guys waiting. These two are my most recent games (played just minutes ago) against some decent 1900 guy who definitely played more blitz then me.
The quality of my play is kind of suspect, and I mostly just play by intuition here and my play is devoid of calculation or anything concrete.
The first game was pretty decent by me. Actually outplayed him positionally and got a dream position + pawn up in the endgame. Then I dropped a piece and lost straight away (lol!)
Game 1: I play as black
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 c5 6. Bb2 O-O 7. e3 b6 8. Nf3 Re8 9. Be2 d6 10. O-O Qc7 11. h3 Ba6
This is some line in the Nimzo Indian (I don’t know which), I don’t play this opening usually, but whatever. White has the two bishops, but his pawn double pawns kind of block everything up. My game plan is pretty simple: render their bishops useless, keep the position locked and put pressure on c4 via Ba6 and Nc6-a5
12. Rc1 Nc6 13. Bd3 Na5 14. e4 e5 15. d5
White locks the position up (which is good for me). I win the c4 pawn also.
Bxc4 16. Qe2 Bb3 17. Nd2 Ba4 18. Bb5 Bxb5 19. Qxb5 c4!
White’s bishop and knight is useless, black has a winning position
20. a4 Qc5 21. Qxc5 bxc5 22. Ba3 Rab8 23. f3 Rb7 24. Rb1 Reb8 25. Rxb7 Rxb7 26. Rb1 Rxb1+ 27. Nxb1 Nb3 28. Kf2 Kf8 29. Bb2
I managed to transition to a winning endgame and white is lost. Both of white’s minor pieces are ugly and I prevented Ne2 or Bc1 freeing moves. Soon I’ll take the a- pawn too and win. I played possibly the one losing move that drops the game immediately. Oops.
29. ... a5? 30. Na3 1-0
Now I dropped c4 and my knight is trapped, king will come across and win it later. My opponent has 2 minutes left, which is plenty of time to convert.
My second game is also tactically suspect. I play white here against the same guy. The game was very messy and a lot of complications. I missed a lot of tactical ideas that I otherwise may not have missed in a standard game. I am still of right now, not capable to calculate deeply in a blitz game without running out of time. I played pretty aggressive in this game and had a few winning chances which I missed. I ended up swindling a lost position for a win in time scramble.
1. c4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. g3 Nf6 5. Bg2 e6 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. O-O a6 8. a3 Bd7 9. d3 Rc8 10. Bf4 Bc5 11. d4 Be7 12. Re1 O-O 13. e4
I gave myself an isolated queen pawn and made the position asymmetrical. I have some attacking chances on black’s kingside
dxe4 14. Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Rxe4 Na5 16. Rc1 Qb6 17. b4 Nc4 18. d5 Nxa3 19. Ne5 Bb5
Missed a nice idea here. 20. Rxc8 Rxc8 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. Rxe6 Qd8 23. Qh5+ Kf8 24. Qxh7 saccing a piece and leading to a very dangerous position for black’s king and according to the engine it’s +9.93 = win
20. Be3 Qd8 21. Qh5 exd5 22. Rg4 g6
I missed a pretty obvious mating variation:
23. Rxc8 Qxc8 24. Nxg6 fxg6 25. Rxg6+ hxg6 26. Bxd5+ Rf7 27. Qxg6+ Kh8 28. Qh5+ Kg8 29. Qxf7+ Kh8 30. Bd4+, now it’s lost for me after...
23. Qh6 Rxc1+ 24. Bxc1 Bf6 25. Nxg6 Bg7 26. Ne7+ 1-0
He blundered and forgot about this move and I swindle for the win, discovered attack and now i can mate next move.
This game is interesting because I didn't really calculated, but general intuition would tell you that if they don't have many defending pieces around their king and you have alot of attackers in the vicinity - usually the combination is somewhere or you are at least getting a petpetual check. But the amount of defensive resources they can have can often surprise someone who overestimates his attack.