Time for an update.
I have moved my blog to backtochess.wordpress.com
Thank you so much for reading my blog in the past - I hope you will read it in the future.

:)

May Day in Morgantown

I decided somewhat last minute to take a trip to Morgantown on May 2nd for the May Day Tournament. Adonis was going, Kevin was going and Dave was going. I was planning on playing in the reserve section of the tournament (U1800) as I was now officially 1710 (and unofficially 1744). It was going to cost me only $35 (although if I would have decided to play earlier - it would only cost me $25), but for the experience of playing new people, I thought it would be worth it.

Well, of course - I could not sleep the night before - something about gearing up to play tournament strength chess does not sit well with my psyche - and ended up getting up at 6:30 on approximately 3 hours of sleep. Kevin was picking me up at 7:20 and we were meeting with Mike from the club who was going to drive us down. We headed out around 8:05 from Parkway Centre Mall with Kevin, Adonis, Mike and I in one car. I kept reminding everyone just how tired I was.

One funny thing happened as we got close to the site - Mike made a wrong turn, Kevin knew Mike made a wrong turn, but said nothing for about 5 minutes, until Mike pulled over and they both realized that we were heading the wrong way. It reminded me of the time we went to the Liberty Bell and the GPS dropped us off in the woods telling us "[We] had arrived at our destination," when it was clear that we had not.

So we got to the site eventually, and I was ready to enter the Reserve section. But, there were only 6 people registered in the reserve section. And nobody even close to the 1800 limit. And the tournament director was talking about disbanding the Reserve section. So this changed things a little bit. I entered the open section. By the time the tournament started - there were, I believe, 8 people who made the trek from pittsburgh, and exactly 28 people enetered in the tournament (which was the mark to meet for the $500 prize pool). Perfect!

Round one was a quick game of successive blunders, one of mine being the second to last, and I won. Surprisingly, Kevin and Adonis had poor results in round 1, and would be playing down for the next few rounds. (Which will come back to haunt me, of course)

Round 2. Moving round (sort of like Moving Day in golf, but something I just made up). I am playing the #2 ranked player (officially ranked, because Adonis is the #2 unofficially). Man do I misplay the opening. Its a dragon, without Bc4 for White - so, as Kevin instructed me on the carride up, when I play a dragon without Bc4, I should play d5. So, having no clue why I should play d5, I play d5, and instantly lose a pawn. And trade off everything but 2 bishops and a rook. So now I am in an endgame, a pawn down. Against a 2000+ player. But I play on. And on. And he gets into some time pressure. And misses some major ideas. And now I am drawn. I mean drawn. There is no way for him to win.

Round 3. I have 1 1/2 points after 2 rounds. And as a reward? I play Adonis. Well, whatever. I did not come to lose without a fight!!! So I fight. I like my position, but I misplay it, and as a result, I lose a pawn. Not the end of the world, but not where I wanted to be. Plus, I am the one in time trouble. Something to note: prior to the game, Adonis claimed that he would mate me on move 32. He was wrong. The game went much longer and along a much different path than he anticipated. But in the end I lost. With 22 seconds on my clock, I failed to see what was going on and I lost.

Round 4. Now with 1 1/2 points after 3 rounds, I am lost as far as the prize money goes. For some reason, I feel losing round 2 would have given me better chances than drawing, but I wouldn't trade that draw for the world. So I am paired against an 18 year old 1600 who has played every game against a player from Pittsburgh. Another Dragon, but with a totally different piece placement, due to a move order finesse I have been working on. Namely, 3 ... Nf6. Really, this move is of little practical value, but I play it with a smile, because everyone always stops and thinks after I play it. In any event, I play a tactic and double his pawns in front of his castled king, and then I play another tactic, win a pawn, and head for an endgame. My opponent then gives up another pawn to get it to Queen and 6 versus Queen and 4. I then give one back to make it King and 3 versus King and 2. Then I promptly make moves to give him a draw if he wants it, which he fails to find and I win. I finish with 2 1/2.

Quite the tournament on the whole. I am very glad I decided to make the trip and I look forward to playing more tournaments in the sister state. Thanks to Mike for driving our crew, and thanks to everyone who convinced me to go. I hope that some of the players that I met take me up on the offer to come to the Burgh and play a few tourneys here. We shall see. Until next time - keep it real.

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!!!!

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.

The USATE (part 3)

So I know it has been a while since I last updated this blog, but I was waiting for some photographs. I have them now.

Before round four, I believe we all went back to the house to relax. I took a nap and some people played some basketball. When we arrived back at the hotel we had little time before our next game. We looked at the pairings and we were up against another tough team consisting of four pretty young kids. Daniel was paired against a 2150 rated 15 year old, and I was paired against a 2012 rated player.

My game was over the quickest. I played the KIA, played very tough, but he played better, and was able to quell my attack (I tried to swindle him, and after the match he confessed that he almost fell for it), and once he did that he got the initiative. I fought on, eventually accepting a piece sacrifice, and refusing to give the material back to avoid a mate (because, I did not see the mate), and resigned facing imminent mate. A very interesting thing happened after the game. Not only did my opponent know the KIA, but he had prepared against it because it had defeated him so many times. First time I had run into that situation. In spite of his preparation, I had chances and I felt that I played one of my better games of the tournament up to this point. (Which wasn't that hard to do)

My game was the least interesting of the four.

Adonis came up with a crazy sacrifice in his game that didn't work, although it was close, and was left with a queen and some extra pawns versus 2 rooks and a bishop. He fought long and hard, but eventually when his 2 central passers fell, he resigned.

Kevin was two pawns down in a rook and pawn ending and drew his game. What an instructive endgame he played, because at some point he could have regained a pawn, reducing the scope of his rook, but he left the material out there, and used his rook's activity to maintain threats which eventually ensured the draw. For those of you who know Clyde, it is my opinion that Clyde would be proud of this endgame.

And the final game in our group had to be the most interesting. Dan got into mutual time trouble with his opponent, and it looked like his opponent had all of the attacking chances. But Dan's dragon bishop held back defensively the entire game, and even though his opponent had 3 majors bearing down on Dan's king, nothing ever came of the attack. And with seconds to spare they both made time control and Dan prevailed!



Wow! What a match. We lost, but we were supposed to lose. And two of our teammates had played heroically. I was the only one who was truly lost before move 30. We probably were not going to win the U1800 section with 2 losses, unless we won on tiebreaks, but we still had some serious fighting to do. Stay tuned for my chance to make good on an earlier promise, and stay tuned to hear what I won!

The USATE (part 2)

Round 2 was rather uneventful. Our team played down, and went 3-1. Of course I was the only loss. I didn't play very well on day 1, and I promised the team that if they needed me, in a later round - with the match on the line - that I would be there for them. I was just hoping that I could live up to that promise.

We went back to Daniel's house, I was rather dejected. I was the only player without a win on the team, and I was feeling like I let them down. Daniel wanted me to put the day behind me, and if there is one thing that I learned in Philadelphia, it is that I have to put bad losses (or draws) behind me. So, I tried to get a good night's sleep.

Up early in the morning on day 2. Not as early as Daniel, Kevin and Adonis, who went out to play basketball (only after they woke me up to tell me that I was snoring), but early enough. I wandered downstairs to check out the family's chess library, and it is amazing, let me tell you. For a private collection to be this thorough just stuns me. Daniel's mom is up and cooking the team breakfast - have I told you how awesome these people are? The guys are back from the basketball game, and apparently Kevin won some 2 bounce with some pretty acrobatic shots (but Adonis dunked on Kevin, so I am assured that it's all good).

After breakfast I start blitzing with Adonis to work on my technique, but we get run off the board, because it is time to head out.

Day 2. Round 3. This had to be the round that generated the most conversation and laughter for the rest of the tournament. We played a team that consisted of young kids (I mean tiny kids). Well, most of us did. Daniel played someone in their teens. Adonis and sat next to each other on boards 3 and 4. Adonis' opponent asked him what his rating was, so he told the kid - 1950. And his opponent's face dropped 3 feet, which meant it fell to his feet, and when Adonis asked him his rating, he said that he didn't know.

I think my opponent was even younger, and he had that blond hair that only super young children have, and his mother was standing off to the side looking so proud (and sorry). Oh, I almost forgot- the first 2 moves of the game - 1.e4 c5 2.Qh5. He was white. I promptly excused myself for about ten minutes, and returned to the board, composed and ready to play.

So about half way into our game, my opponent leans across the table and whispers - "My rating is 561." I slapped my forehead. Adonis is taking a lot of time on one of his moves, and his opponent leans across the table and whispers "You know your rating is 1100 points higher than mine?" I couldn't help but laugh. I also kept saying these two things for the rest of the day.

At some point my opponent randomly picked up one of his rooks, and I lean over the table to advise him not to do that, and he whispers "adjust." I don't make him move it, but I do tell him that he should never touch his pieces like that. Eventually I mate my opponent in the middle of the board. Adonis gets into a drawn endgame. But he wins. Kevin wins. Daniel draws.

Stay tuned for the fireworks of round 4. I must say that round three brought me the most smiles looking back on the tournament. It is great to see very young children playing in real events. It means that the future of chess is secure. Sometimes when I look at the population of the Pittsburgh Chess Club, I worry about the future of chess. We just don't have the super young kids to replace us older folk. I am glad to see children out in numbers at the USATE.

The USATE (part 1)

Where do I even begin this? How about at the time when I realized I was going to play in the event - that seems as good a place as any.

I first heard about the USATE (that's United States Amateur Team East) through several members of our chess club. Actually, that's not exactly true - I read about it in Chess Life, but I first thought about actually playing in the event when some members of the Pittsburgh Chess Club approached me with tentative plans to formulate teams and road trip to New Jersey. I would say it was 10% that I would play at that time, because we were about to head to Philly and play in the Liberty Bell Open. What I was thinking was - if I win substantial money in Philly, I can afford to play in the USATE, if not - I probably cannot. Well - we know I didn't win in Philly, so I assumed that the USATE was off.

Then I was approached again, this time by Daniel, and he gave us a new proposition - we stay at his parent's house - about a half hour from the site, for free. Now that's what I am talking about! So now it was on - I would be going to NJ for the tourney and the team would be Kevin, Daniel, Adonis and myself. With those three players on the team - I would be on board 4! I agreed in a heartbeat. Actually, I randomly saw Daniel walking on the road on the following day, and agreed at that time, but for our purposes - I agreed in a heartbeat.

In the van on the way out (we left at around 7pm) after the team watched Dark Knight, we tried our hands at some blindfold chess. I am not very good at blindfold chess, but I was able to make it about 20 moves before I was completely lost against Daniel. Then Daniel played Adonis. And they made it to an endgame - Rook and pawns - when Daniel finally pulled off a spectacular tactic to brush off Adonis' King and win his rook. I was actually able to follow most of the game without a board! (I just had to keep on verifying the piece locations.)

We arrived late and headed off to bed. A special thank you to both Daniel's Parents for hosting our team, and Kevin's dad for driving our team.

Game 1. We arrive about an hour early at the hotel - I am so excited because there are literally about a thousand people playing in this tournament. First round pits us against a team consisting of an IM (that's international master!!) and 3 experts. Daniel is playing the IM on board 1. The expert playing me disposes of me rather quickly. I get a bad position and have to drop some material, but I don't get any better and I am lost. I resign, feeling bad about letting the team down, but I don't think I was ever in that game. Meanwhile - Kevin's game is over - he lost, Adonis looks like he is winning his game and Daniel is in a fantastic Knight and pawn endgame, down one pawn. But then the IM sacks his Knight for Daniel's pawn, and tries to take advantage of how close his King is to Dan's other pawns, but the whole thing backfires, and Dan gets a draw against an IM in the opening round! Kevin, Daniel and I go to lunch, and come back to discover that Adonis is still playing his first round match, and he is in a drawn endgame. He tries to win for a while, before he accepts the truth, and we lose our first round 3-1.

Not a great beginning, but we were supposed to lose that round, and our board 1 is now Highly Confident! Man is this thing fun!