I haven't posted in awhile since posting my first slow games from my new chess club.

Well I've managed to drag myself out to two different swiss events in the past couple weeks. I have two more 4rd events left before my wife returns to work from maternity leave. (that's going to crush my sat tournament opportunities).

I figured I'd post an update and share some games.

At the chess club we do one game per week and my results of our current RR are:

Me losing to 1207p (i'm the only one who he's played rated games with) in 8 moves which I posted about in BBV.

Me winning vs a 1084. This reminds me of a weird conflict I have vs this particular opponent. He is a really nice guy, but he simply just plays chess so badly I really feel guilty at beating him. In one game that we played in a four rd one day swiss I was up material and had an attack going and he simply hung his queen en-prise and I ignored it cause like... I felt guilty??? I don't have much of a killer instinct.

A win vs a 1467. Definitely some inaccuracies in my play but happy with the win.

1.
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=53520

We have one round left in this RR and then it will be rated so I'll gain a few rating points once this goes in.

We had a swiss in the chessclub on a saturday two weeks ago. It was g75. I scored 2.0/4.0 and gained 10 rating points.

I did play a decent game I thought in the first round vs an opponent rated 1912.

2.
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=53523

I know I lost but I don't feel like I'm completely outplayed when we play together. The other games in the swiss were fairly uneventful and I won't spare you the boring details.

I played another swiss yesterday and also scored 2.0/4.0. It was worth the two hour drive and according to the uscf calculator I should gain about 95 points.

My first game was vs a 1896 player and again I didn't feel like I was completely outplayed. He got in time trouble late and I was trying to avoid trading pieces off and such since he had :07 on his clock (w/ delay) towards the end of the game. But I think just trading into a rook and pawn endgame down a pawn and he has :07 would of got the win. Really dumb by me.

3.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=53526

28...Qh5 grimace, sigh. He had :07 left on his clock I gotta use my brain a bit better.

The last game I'll show you was a fun kings gambit game vs a 1400.

4. http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=53530

He took the knight at the end because he forgot his knight was pinned and thought he had the fork. But it's still winning for me even if he does have it so meh.

The next game I lost in a smith-morra decline to a 1700 provisional and we had an early queen trade and I ended up blundering the game away.

The last game was vs a 1452 and he basically just sacrificed all his pieces and failed an attack.

So I'm guessing I have about 120 points coming to my current rating of 1235. No idea where my rating will level off but it will be nice to eventually get a feeling of where I am at. It seems to be higher than 1300 anyways.

I played 3 45 minute games this weekend - in all of them I was down a pawn by the middle game - (vs. equally rated opponents for the most part) -

one win, one draw, and one tie - my chess playing is becoming like my poker playing and I'm turning into a short stacked expert -

hopefully I broke 1650 but I think I'm more like 1630 - keep it up -

RB

That's awesome WT. USCF has a ratings estimator on the homepage if you want to see what you will get.

Haha @ short stacked expert.

I was 1623 (before the rating gets published) and 1625 published

I dead drew against my equal (1625) - lost to the 1629, and beat the 1666 so it'll probably only be like 5 points -

RB

Played this game in a swiss vs. my cousin (1550 or so). I normally play e4 but I know he's just going to play pirc and I wanted to play w/ 4 pawns b/c I knew he wouldn't be all booked up in and it, and neither would I so we could just play some chess.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=53906

1.dxe6 Qxb7 2.Qg5+ Kh8 3.Qf6+ Kh8 4.Bb2 crushes. 1.fxe6 Qxe6 2.f5, 1.-fxe6 2.Bb2 and 1.-Qg6 2.exf7+ (or Qf3) Rxf7 3.Qd5 as well

Funny game. I might be missing something but I'm pretty sure your 20.Bb2 was supposed to lose after ...fxe6. I don't see a mate.

In the diagrammed position f5 looks like a tough move to meet. Ya gotta get all your pieces in the game and Bb2...Qg6 doesn't seem to help. After f5 The black queen is blocked from g6 and we're threatening Bh6 and Qg+. If Black tries to take on d5 and b7 White has time to mate, and I don't see how ...Qd4+ or capturing either pawn helps much.

Oops, just missed SB's posted idea which is more forcing, concrete, and surely better.

I spent about 5-6 minutes on this position and looking at 24. Rg7+ Ke8 25. Qb7 but was nervous about Rxf4 and now he has some open files to work with and can just come back and block my rook check on g8.

Umm, why not Qxa8+ then

Allen: f5 seems even better than dxe6, well spotted

facepalm

I don't understand giving up the exchange on move 27. Was it an accident, or did you think it would help achieve the draw?

after fxe6 Qh8 --> Qg7 and Qb7 is not mate but good enough I think Qb2 is the only move I think.

Just simply a blunder =\