Thursday, April 30, 2009
Future post!!!
So, good news - there will be an update to this blog soon - I am going to Morgantown this weekend for a tournament! I have been enjoying chess more and more - and this is now B Class Chess Blogging, but I see no point in updating the title. Let's go for A Class Chess Blogging!!!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The USATE (final part)
Ok. So it's time to finally square away what happened in New Jersey. I went to sleep on Sunday night feeling a little upset about the way I had played thus far, and displeased with my results for the team's sake. 1-3 was not where I wanted to be.
When I woke up the final morning I felt good. The team won the morning match pretty handily, and I won my game in a misplayed Dragon, in a King and Pawn endgame. It should have been a draw, but my opponent misplayed it slightly, and a draw became a win for me. It ended with a sweet problem-like finish where I stalemated his king, he was forced to give away two of his three remaining pawns, and I let the third one go and headed for a promotion mate.
Round six. The final round. If I was going to break even on this tourney I was going to have to win Round six. But before the round started, I won the 82nd volume of Informant, because I was wearing a Steeler shirt. But, of course I was wearing a Steeler shirt - that is all I wore - all weekend. You gotta represent!
So we were playing up this round, and I was playing an 1800+. I had the white pieces. I, of course, chose the KIA. My opponent blundered his 18th move, and dropped a knight. Sweet, right? I think not. He got incredible pressure down the d-file, and I gave him back a pawn to lighten the load. Then I gave him back another pawn to get it down to 2 knights + 5 pawns v. 1 knight + 7 pawns. This was going to be a classic 2 knights v 1 knight endgame! (of course there is nothing 'classic' about this endgame - it is rare and I am going to have to learn it as I go).
By the way - all three of my teammates are finished with their games. Adonis won, Kevin drew, and Daniel lost. So, my team needs me to pull this off. Here comes my chance to make good on my earlier promise. If I win - we win. If I draw - we draw. If I lose - we lose. Early in this endgame I think all three outcomes are possible. His knight is well placed and my knights are on b1 and f1. I try to improve my king position. I fail. I try to improve my knights and I fail. So finally I conceive a plan to temporarily sack a pawn, and invade his position with my knights - boy I really hope this works. It does, as he takes the pawn and I get knight activity for the first time, in a long time.
So we whittle the position down to one pawn a piece(a-pawn for me/h-pawn for him) and my two knights versus his knight. This is nervous. My initial idea is to sack a knight for his pawn and run my king and knight over toward my pawn, force his knight in front of my pawn and then remove all of his knight's retreat squares with my king and knight. I am still not sure if this would have worked. (Even though Fritz says it would have, I am unsure.)
But a problem finish was reached instead. One in which I forked his king and knight with a check, giving up both of my knights for his knight in order to promote two ahead of him (it had to be two because my king was on d5 (and if I promote one ahead he promotes with check and my queen is lost.)
Here is the image:
I am just happy it is over. What a game!!!
After the match we are starving! We settle on Fudruckers for the meal, but the navigation system turns a 10 minute drive into a 25-30 minute drive. We finally get to Fudruckers and here is what we look like:
Now THAT is a satisfied team!!!
Thanks everyone for all of your support early on when I struggled. I hope I made up for it.
Also - big thanks to Runan for driving us all weekend. And a big thanks to Dan's family for putting us up for the weekend. It had to be the best chess experience that I have ever had.
When I woke up the final morning I felt good. The team won the morning match pretty handily, and I won my game in a misplayed Dragon, in a King and Pawn endgame. It should have been a draw, but my opponent misplayed it slightly, and a draw became a win for me. It ended with a sweet problem-like finish where I stalemated his king, he was forced to give away two of his three remaining pawns, and I let the third one go and headed for a promotion mate.
Round six. The final round. If I was going to break even on this tourney I was going to have to win Round six. But before the round started, I won the 82nd volume of Informant, because I was wearing a Steeler shirt. But, of course I was wearing a Steeler shirt - that is all I wore - all weekend. You gotta represent!
So we were playing up this round, and I was playing an 1800+. I had the white pieces. I, of course, chose the KIA. My opponent blundered his 18th move, and dropped a knight. Sweet, right? I think not. He got incredible pressure down the d-file, and I gave him back a pawn to lighten the load. Then I gave him back another pawn to get it down to 2 knights + 5 pawns v. 1 knight + 7 pawns. This was going to be a classic 2 knights v 1 knight endgame! (of course there is nothing 'classic' about this endgame - it is rare and I am going to have to learn it as I go).
By the way - all three of my teammates are finished with their games. Adonis won, Kevin drew, and Daniel lost. So, my team needs me to pull this off. Here comes my chance to make good on my earlier promise. If I win - we win. If I draw - we draw. If I lose - we lose. Early in this endgame I think all three outcomes are possible. His knight is well placed and my knights are on b1 and f1. I try to improve my king position. I fail. I try to improve my knights and I fail. So finally I conceive a plan to temporarily sack a pawn, and invade his position with my knights - boy I really hope this works. It does, as he takes the pawn and I get knight activity for the first time, in a long time.
So we whittle the position down to one pawn a piece(a-pawn for me/h-pawn for him) and my two knights versus his knight. This is nervous. My initial idea is to sack a knight for his pawn and run my king and knight over toward my pawn, force his knight in front of my pawn and then remove all of his knight's retreat squares with my king and knight. I am still not sure if this would have worked. (Even though Fritz says it would have, I am unsure.)
But a problem finish was reached instead. One in which I forked his king and knight with a check, giving up both of my knights for his knight in order to promote two ahead of him (it had to be two because my king was on d5 (and if I promote one ahead he promotes with check and my queen is lost.)
Here is the image:
I am just happy it is over. What a game!!!
After the match we are starving! We settle on Fudruckers for the meal, but the navigation system turns a 10 minute drive into a 25-30 minute drive. We finally get to Fudruckers and here is what we look like:
Now THAT is a satisfied team!!!
Thanks everyone for all of your support early on when I struggled. I hope I made up for it.
Also - big thanks to Runan for driving us all weekend. And a big thanks to Dan's family for putting us up for the weekend. It had to be the best chess experience that I have ever had.
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