Standard game, Sept. 24, 2009

Still need to quit dropping points against computers in blitz play. Somehow, against human opponents, I feel forced to take it more seriously.

The opponent here did a very nice job of introducing complexities into this one and almost had me several times. It really forced me to take my time in a few key spots, and I was glad for it.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.25"]

[White "*mackey"]

[Black "*KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "0"]

[BlackElo "0"]

[TimeControl "120+12"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 d6 4. dxe5 dxe5

This is the classic Philidor defense, more or less, and I'm glad I worked my way through it because this opening was causing me all sorts of fits.

5. Bd2 Bb4

If he trades the bishops, I take the queen first and deny him castling. Not a big deal, but with a central file already open, it's a worthwhile advantage.

6. c3 Ba5 7. b4 Bb6 8. Bb5 Bd7 9. O-O Nge7 10. Bg5 f6

11. Bh4 a6 12. Bxc6 Bxc6

Now I have the bishop-pair advantage, but I've put off castling for an uncomfortable amount of time. I have three developed pieces vs. two, but he has some nice space on the queenside and has already castled. Wait, does the castled rook count as developed? Then it's 3-3.

13. Qb3 Bxe4

I couldn't see if he was trying anything tricky by hanging this pawn. I thought awhile before just taking it.

14. Nfd2 Bd5

I thought seriously here abotu Bxb1, throwing away the bishop pair but trading down. But really, that would be throwing away an advantage and a developed piece for an undeveloped one. I'm also really worried about my queen sitting on an open file with no diagonal escape routes, just begging to be attacked by a rook.

15. c4 Bf7

16. Qa4+ Qd7

I thought for sure he'd take the trade here, with the king sitting in the middle of that open file. I figured I'd actually want the king that much further out, and then I'd try to force a few trades and enter the endgame.

17. b5 O-O 18. c5 Bxc5

Again, the tricky pawn.

19. Ne4 Bd4

Ne4 threatens a tricky little knight-fork. Bxf6 gxf6; Nxf6+, forking the queen.

20. Nbc3 axb5

21. Qd1 Rfd8

Yet another attempt to set up a discovered attack on the queen, this time getting the rook on the d-file, getting my queen out of the way, and then Bxf2+. A queen and pawn for a rook and bishop is a tricky gain, though, and i might not want it if I wasn't already ahead.

22. Bxf6 Qc6

Okay, the plan is unfurled. I'm not falling for it, and I've actually got a good counter-plan. Thanks, Dan Heisman, for reminding me repeatedly (through your columns) to check my opponents' threats and be ready to meet them.

If he follows this line: Bxe7 Bxc3; Bxd8 Bxa1; Qxa1 Rxd8, the exchange ends up even and I'm still up two pawns, with the initiative as he's forced to move his knight, and my rook already on the open central file with his queen all the way in the corner, costing him a tempo. Not a !!! situation or anything, but good enough for me to maintain my advantage and now with a much simpler board.

I have a feeling Fritz is gonna rip us both a new one in this complicated position when it gets done with its analysis.

23. Qf3 Bxc3

This move surprised me. I don't feel bad for missing it, because it didn't create any new threats, per se, and that's what I'm supposed to be watching for. It just made things even more complicated.

There may be a capturing sequence here that wins him material, but I looked hard and didn't see it. Almost no matter how I could see it going down, we ended up the same as before with a much simpler board.

24. Nxc3 Qxf3

Mistake, as far as I can tell, on his part, but an understandable one. His only real sequence for him is the one described in the note on 22, he needs to ignore everythinge else and just let each bishop do the dirty work.

25. gxf3 gxf6

As is, I come out of the exchange up a bishop in addition to the two pawns from earlier.

From here, it's just patience and careful play.

26. Kg2 Kf8 27. Ne4 Nd5 28. Nc5 b6 29. Ne4 Bg6 30. Nd2 Ke7

31. Rfb1 Bxb1 32. Nxb1 Nf4+ 33. Kg3 Rg8+ 34. Kh4 Rad8 35. Nc3 Ng2+

36. Kh5 Rd4 37. Ne4 f5 38. Rc1 fxe4 39. Rxc7+ Rd7 40. Rc3 exf3

41. Rxf3 Nf4+ 42. Kh4 Rd4 43. Ra3 Ng2+ 44. Kh3 Rh4#

0-1

New rating: 1332

Standard game 4, Sept. 23, 2009

Nothing spectacular here. I went through a '10 computer losses in 15 minutes' phase because I was hungry and dropped my rating down below 1300 for the first time in awhile, almost down below 1200. Food prevailed and I got most of it back, then found a higher-rated human opponent.

I won, and I liked this win. It was nothing spectacular: he made a small counting error on a complicated exchange and went down a pawn, and I was able to nurse that pawn to victory.

Fritz is taking forever, but it's amazing. You can get it to tell you in words what it's trying to say, it'll give you simple English like "XXX must be considered" or "White gets more space" or "xxx is the best way to fight back," along with full opening analysis and references to master games with the same opening, and suggested alternative lines.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.24"]

[White "Atzur"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1541"]

[BlackElo "1337"]

[ECO "C70"]

[Opening "Ruy Lopez"]

[Variation "Classical defense deferred"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Bc5 5. c3 Nf6

6. Bc2 d6

I'm no expert or anything, but I feel like I have a decent grasp on my defense against the Ruy Lopez, mostly thanks to some ICC videos I'd watched.

7. h3 Be6

Fritz strongly recommends d5 here, and I was thinking about it, but I was wary of playing my break move before my pieces were developed.

8. d4 exd4 9. cxd4 Bb4+

I have no doubt that even a couple of weeks ago I would have missed what was happening here. Drive the bishop away, then play d5 and fork my pieces. 10. Bd2 Bxd2+

I did some real careful math on the possible ensuing exchanges, and I came up with Ne4 after e5 breaking up his bishop pair, and more importantly giving me a key tempo when he had to move his knight after dxe4, allowing me to take on d4 with either the queen or the knight, probably the queen.

11. Qxd2 d5 12. e5 Ne4 13. Bxe4 dxe4 14. Ng5 Qxd4

Which to take first, the queen or the knight? I decided to play the forcing move first and not let him wriggle away.

15. Nxe6 Qxd2+

16. Nxd2 fxe6 17. Nxe4 Nxe5

So here we are, having followed the exchange line I envisioned 19! ply ago and come out exactly where I thought we would. I'm amazed at what can happen if you think your exchanges out carefully, and quite proud of myself. If I could do this more frequently, I'd be a much better player. This needs to become a regular occurence, not a moment to cheer.

The opponent know's what he's doing and does a very good job of trying to make that pawn irrelevant, but it's a relatively simple position from here, which makes it easier on me.

18. O-O-O Ke7

I'd rather not castle and push my king too far from the center where he needs to be for the coming endgame, especially since opponent opportunistically castled queenside and grabbed the key file.

19. Rhe1 Rhd8 20. Rxd8 Rxd8

Here was a bit of serendipity. I hadn't planned on this, but I suspected he'd been planning to use the discovered attack on the knight when he moved his knight in a challenging manner. I was being careful not to put myself in a situation where he could win material from that tactic.

But without really planning it, the threat of Nd3+ kept that at bay and ended up forcing the exchanges I wanted anyway.

21. Nc5 Nd3+ 22. Nxd3 Rxd3 23. Kc2 Rd5

Now my priorities are two-fold, and it's something I've learned recently:

Second priority would be to get the rooks off the board in an exchange. That would have been first priority in the past, but now the first priority I know has to be to prevent him from getting a passed pawn that's out of reach of my pieces. Too often I've found myself exchanging off the last pieces and up a pawn or two, only to realize he's got a passed pawn that I can't catch.

24. Re2 c5 25. Kc3 b5

26. a3 Kd6

I've got the middle nice and clogged.

27. f4 Rd4 28. g3 a5 29. Re5 b4+

Very strong move gets his rook into the game.

30. axb4 axb4+

31. Kb3 Rd3+ 32. Kc4 Rxg3 33. Rxc5 Rxh3 34. Kxb4 Rh4 35. Rc4 Kd5

I thought pretty hard about this sequence, because the potential to mess it up was huge. My first inclination was to play e5, which would have lost the game immediately to fxe5+.

Moving my king closer to his rook and king felt scary, but I checked as close as I could and couldn't see any attacks generated from it, so I trusted myself.

36. Kb5 e5

37. Rc5+ Ke6 38. Rxe5+ Kf6

Temporarily giving up the pawn, but his king is too far away to support the f-pawn and it will fall.

39. Re4 Kf5 40. Re7 Rg4

41. Re5+ Kxf4

Doing some hardcore counting squares and moves in my head here. The decisive factor should be that his king is in the way of his pawn, and when he moves it out of the way, that should let me wing pawn get there first.

42. Re8 Rg5+ 43. Kc6 h5 44. Rh8 Kg4 45. b4 h4

46. b5 Rg6+ 47. Kb7 Rh6

If he plays Kc5 instead of Kb7 here, Fritz thinks he may have fought back and won with the more-advanced passed pawn.

48. Rxh6 gxh6 49. Kc7 h3 50. b6 h2

51. b7 h1=Q

Math and the extra pawn I've been nursing all game prevails. Fritz didn't give me a single question-mark all game, which is very cool.

52. b8=Q Qh2+

0-1

White resigns.

In other news, I watched a video on the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and am trying to work it into my repetoire, but so far no human has cooperated. I know it's not sound at the highest levels, but it might be fun to have something to give players at my level a hard time.

Standard game 3, Sept. 23, 2009

Nothing much to see in this game. Openings seem to be going all right, but I botched this one a little bit.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.23"]

[White "jackson1754"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1361"]

[BlackElo "1355"]

[ECO "C45"]

[Opening "Scotch game"]

[TimeControl "1380+21"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nxd4 5. Qxd4 Nf6

6. Nc3 d6 7. Bg5 c5 8. Bxf6 Qxf6

Fritz gives 8.Qxf6 a ??. Why? Because of a ... wait for it ... c-c-c-counting error! I misread another exchange. 8. ... cxd6 9. Bxd8 9.dxc3. Wait, I'm not seeing what Fritz is seeing here.

9. Qxf6 gxf6

Wins the bishop pair.

10. Nd5 Rb8

11. Nxf6+ Ke7 12. Nd5+ Kd7 13. Be2 Bg7 14. Bg4+ Ke8 15. Bh5 Bxb2

Back to even on material, still an awkward position.

16. Rb1 Bd4 17. O-O Be6 18. Nc7+ Ke7 19. Nxe6 fxe6

The tide turned very subtlely. We have opposite colored bishops now, which should make things interesting. But I've got the queenside pawn majority, while his extra pawns are on the kingside and are needed to protect his king. I've got two open files pointing right as his king and rooks able to attack them, whereas his rooks are trapped behind his pawn structure and will need more moves to get around to anywhere good.

20. Bf3 b6

21. Rb3 Rbg8 22. c3 Be5 23. g3 h5 24. a4 h4 25. g4 Rg7

26. a5 bxa5 27. Rb7+ Kf6 28. Rxg7 Kxg7 29. Ra1 Bxc3 30. Ra3 Bb4

31. Rd3 Rd8 32. e5 d5 33. Bg2 c4 34. Rf3 c3 35. Rf6 Rc8

36. Rxe6 c2 37. Bxd5 c1=Q+ 38. Kg2 Rc3 39. Bf3 Rxf3

Decided to just go ahead and "lose" the exchange in order to simplify the board and get one of his remaining threats off the board. White resigns.

It's fun to be good enough to beat guys at ratings that would have floored me earlier, but I don't think this win represents much. I was mostly lucky to see the position sort of materialize from his advantage to mine.

0-1

Standard game 2, Sept. 23, 2009

Dropped about 30 rating points last night with one of my "I'm so tired I can't see straight but I'm sure I can beat this computer 500 points ahead of me without actually thinking about my moves, oops I took 10 losses in five minutes" sessions. It's like a poker player on tilt. As long as it doesn't hurt my regular gmae, I guess it doesn't hurt anything. Rating drops are temporary, skills are forever.

Nothing extremely special about this game. It's a classic piece-activity win with a nice tactical shot to finish it.

I've got a baby asleep on my shoulder so I can't check the opening book right now.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.23"]

[White "Sandia"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1389"]

[BlackElo "1338"]

[ECO "C23"]

[Opening "Bishop's opening"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. d3 Bc5 4. Ne2 Qf6

Threatening that mate is a little silly, I think, but I really wanted to try putting on a little pressure for once as black.

5. f3 Nge7

6. Ng3 d6 7. Nh5 Qh4+ 8. Ng3 O-O 9. Nc3 Be6 10. Bxe6 fxe6

11. Qe2 Nd4

Here's where the possibilities of tactics involving his king and queen and my knight and dark-squared bishop first came into play.

12. Qd2 Ng6

Fritz suggests Rxf3 here, which would have been a good move.

13. 0-0 Nxf3+

Game over. The best thing about this move is that I patiently thought out all the permutations even though I was sure it was a winner.

14. Kh1 Nxd2

D-oh! Mate in one missed: Qxh2#. I still miss so much.

15. Bxd2 Rxf1+

16. Rxf1 Rf8 17. Rxf8+ Kxf8

White resigns

0-1

Standard game, Sept. 23, 2009

Did a fairly decent job of taking my time this game. Definitely some mistakes made, but I was actively looking for his threats all game and I think I did an okay job. The fact that I drew a 1443-rated player without luck or blunders is a great sign that I've improved, even with so very, very far to go.

I haven't been happy with Crafty's analysis, so I acquired some real analyzing power: Fritz 11. We'll see what it can do eventually, but I'm having trouble getting it to work for this game. Update: It's working, but it takes awhile and seems to be working backwards from the end to the beginning

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.23"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "dubltrubl"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[WhiteElo "1366"]

[BlackElo "1443"]

[ECO "D85"]

[Opening "Grunfeld"]

[Variation "Exchange variation"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nxd5 Qxd5

(5. e4 is the recommended move here, for the Grunfeld Exchange Variation, according to MCO.)

6. Nf3 Bg7 7. e3 O-O 8. Qc2 Bf5

Okay, I've had a lot of problems lately with taking the pawn in the opening and wishing I hadn't. Fundamental philosophical question: Should I make the move that is considered correct for this position, or the one that will make me, personally and right now, most likely to win? If I keep losing up a pawn but behind in development, should I still take the pawn because it's considered better? I'm going with yes. I'd rather not create new holes in my game by trying to cover up old ones when I could just fix the old ones.

I tried long and hard to figure out if he was threatening something here, but I didn't see anything.

Something I am getting from trying use Fritz: The first 15 ply, through 8. Qc2, were mirrored exactly in a game between two Experts (or Candidate Masters) at the 37th Chess Olmpiad in 2006. The game can be seen here:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1414257

Black's reply was 8. Qc2 c5 in that game, and black went on to win after exchanging his queen for several pieces.

9. Qxc7 Na6

Fritz recommends taking the e-pawn instead. 10. Bxa6 bxa6

The first move I wish I'd taken longer on. This was a minute-think piece push.

I'm thinking maybe Bc4 instead, or at the very least Qc4.

11. Qc5 Qxc5

I isolate the pawn and make it impossible to protect, but I also catch up a little in development. With him holding the bishop pair in powerful spots, I need to do something.

12. dxc5 Rfc8

Now I'm down a pawn, but the e-pawn looks very juicy right now and I think I can catch up.

13. O-O Rxc5

14. Bd2 Bxb2 15. Bb4 Bxa1

16. Bxc5 Bf6

I'm beginning to see the power of the bishop pair. His well-placed bishops are giving me all kinds of headaches, but my knight which is supposedly an equal piece to either of them is out of the action and several moves from doing anything useful.

17. Rd1 Rb8 18. g3 Rb1

I'm suspicious of that pawn he's offering me and really need to fix my back rank problems.

19. Rxb1 Bxb1 20. Bxa7 Bxa2

21. Nd4 Bxd4 22. exd4 e6

I think this was a big mistake on white's part. Up a pawn, you want to exchange down in general, but he lost the bishop pair, traded a dominating piece for a weak one, and found himself in the uberdrawish opposite-colored-bishops ending. The only big mistake I can see from him in this game.

23. Kf1 Kf8 24. Ke2 Ke7 25. Ke3 Kd6

26. Kd3 Kd5 27. Kc3?? Bc4

This was a blunder from me, I believe. If he had responded with 27. ... Ke4, the game is probably over as he sneaks back there and rips apart my pawns. I realized it soon after I made the move. I'm playing for the draw down a pawn, I needed to try to maintain opposition and certainly not let his king sneak toward my pawns.

28. f3 Be2 29. f4 h5 30. Kd2 Bb5

31. Ke3 Bc6 32. Bc5 Kc4 33. Kd2 a5 34. Kc2 a4 35. Kb2 Bd5

36. Ka3 Kd3 37. h3 Ke3 38. Bb4 Kxd4 39. Kxa4 Ke4

Plan now is to use the bishop to protect the back of my pawns.

40. Bd2 Kf3

41. Be1 f6 42. Kb4 g5 43. fxg5 fxg5 44. Kc5 Kg2

45. h4 gxh4

46. gxh4 Kf3

Another huge moment: this exchange needed to happen on the h-file and not the g-file, or else my bishop wouldn't have had space to move away from the king's attacks and still protect the remaining pawn on that side.

From here, I believe the blockade is set and there was no way for him to win. I could be wrong though.

Fritz confirms that 42. ... h4 wins for black, most likely, but this move equalizes the game.

47. Kd4 Kf4 48. Bd2+ Kf5 49. Be1 Ba2 50. Bg3 Kg4

51. Be1 Bb1 52. Ke5 Bf5 53. Kd4 Kf3 54. Ke5 Bg4 55. Kd4 Ke2

56. Bg3 Kf3 57. Be1 Ke2 58. Bg3 Kf3 59. Be1

1/2-1/2

Standard game, Sept. 22, 2009

Nice to find a human opponent a little above me willing to play a slower time control, that's always what I'm looking for.

I think I did an okay job here despite the 22-move loss, but there were definitely some things to work on.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.22"]

[White "barraq"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1501"]

[BlackElo "1366"]

[ECO "C41"]

[Opening "Philidor's defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+30"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6

I got my opening mixed up and was for some reason thinking that 2. ... Nc6 was wrong, when it's actually one of the most basic opening moves in the game.

3. Bc4 Nh6

My book response would have been Be7

4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bd7

6. Nc3 Nc6 7. O-O Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Qf6

And now my small opening mistakes have grown into a small problem: I'm way behind in development and he's got all kinds of well-placed, attacking pieces. His queen, knight and bishop are all in ideal squares for controlling the center, while my only two developed pieces are in more positions.

9. Qxf6 gxf6

I wanted the queen trade to get his queen off the attack and give myself time to regroup. I did know that it was dropping a pawn to Nd5, but I was okay with that.

10. Nd5 O-O-O

11. Nxf6 Bc6 12. Bxh6 Bxh6 13. Bxf7 Rhf8

Losing the second pawn really hurts. The only good news is that I've now got some better piece activity, with all four of my remaining pieces into the game and his two rooks still back on the back rank and behind pawns.

14. Be6+ Kb8 15. Ng4 Bg7

16. Bd5 Bd7

I need to avoid trades to not let him simplify.

17. Ne3 Bxb2

And here is the final mistake. I knew it'd put me into a sticky position after Rab1, but I just couldn't ignore the "loose" pawn. Better ideas were Be5, Rde8, Rf6. Maybe even something like Bb5, then try to trade the dark bishop for the knight on e3 and clearing out the f-file for an attack.

Game is completely lost from here.

18. Rab1 Bd4 19. Rxb7+ Kc8

Decided to let him play out the mate rather than resign.

20. Rfb1 Ba4

Crafty suggests Bb6 as a way to somewhat preserve the game here. I should have seen that.

21. Be6+ Bd7 22. Rb8#

1-0

New rating: 1366

Three-week reflections

It's been almost two months since I started studying chess seriously and three weeks since I started this blog. I have to admit that, despite some frustrations, I am actually very pleased with the progress I've made. In objective terms, I had a 1217 ICC standard rating for my first post, and as I type now it stands at 1364, an all-time high. I'm estimating there's about a 150-point rating difference between ICC standard and FICS standard, so we are talking about maybe 400 rating points improvement since I started studying. (Unfortunately, those are relatively easy rating points. 1000>1400 is a orders of magnitude easier than 1400>1800). The ICC survey here: http://www.chessclub.com/help/survey indicates that from ICC to USCF, the median difference is -100, with 58% of players within 200 points. I think realistically I'm closer to a 1275 player on ICC right now who happens to be at a high-point in the ebb and flow of ratings, and so I think I could reasonably place my UCSF skill level at between 1050 and 1100, or your basic social or scholastic player.

The biggest improvement, as I've written before, is knowing how far I have to go now. I used to think I lost because I didn't know openings and sometimes made mistakes. Now I know that I lose for a lot more reasons and I often make mistakes. Strategy guides will say something like "Under UCSF 1500, players frequently hang pieces and make basic counting errors." And almost everyone reading that will say "Nah, that's not me, I'm different. I lose for other reasons." But now that I'm keeping this blog and annotating and analyzing my games, sure enough, I'm hanging pieces way more often than I thought and making a counting error almost every game. I'm not a unique snowflake, I'm exactly the player my rating and experience says I am. Fortunately, that means if I do the things they say make you better, I will get better.

Immediate steps to getting better:

1) Time management and thought process!!!!! It sound so simple. "In important situations, take your time and work through all possible replies from your opponent." I read it and I nod my head. But when I'm playing that game I linked yesterday and I'm up two pawns, I think I've got his queen trapped and make a move in one-third of the minimum time I should have been taking on an important move, and even longer for an important move that could lead to multiple exchanges. The move actually hung my own piece due to a very basic counting error and I went on to lose.

I make counting errors, I hang pieces, I fail to see basic tactics against me (including the occasional mate in one!). The good news is that those mistakes means there is still so much improvement to be made! It's not easy to stop making those mistakes, but it's a lot easier than memorizing dozens of new opening lines to the 25th ply. The low-hanging fruit is still there to be picked.

2) Applying general principles. Again, it sounds easy. It's easy to nod when you read an article that advises "play conservatively when you already have a winning material edge. No need to look for speculative attempts to make further material gains." But there I am again, speculatively trying to trap his queen with a two-pawn advantage. I have made some strides here, especially in applying opening principles and getting strong piece activity, but still oh so far to go.

3) Continue to learn the basic openings. Looking up every game in MCO is helping, I've learned some good and bad replies. But I still sometimes do things like respond to 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 with Nf6, which is considered very amateurish at best. Baby steps.

4) Tactics. If I'm ever at the level where tactics are no longer deciding most of my games, then I'l be an Expert at least and a very happy player. More likely, tactics will be my bread-and-butter for the next decade or two. Tactics training has definitely improved my board vision significantly. I may not have picked all the low-hanging fruit in this department, but I've at least cleaned up on the pre-picked fruit baskets lying around to be taken for free.

Standard game, Sept. 20, 2009

I've been on quite a roll lately, had my rating up to an all-time high of 1360. I've been having trouble finding human opponents, but I'm getting better against the computers. I absolutely demolished the 1600-rated Betho computer in a game earlier that I think was just an aberration.

Then came this game, which I think was instructive even though I lost. I had an early two-pawn lead, rushed a move and fell behind a piece, then I think I still had a chance at a draw in the endgame and made a bad mistake there too. But I didn't play awful, my board vision is getting better. I just need to keep working on taking my time.

I can't find much on this opening in MCO.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.20"]

[White "Chessnut4"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1475"]

[BlackElo "1349"]

[ECO "D02"]

[Opening "Queen's pawn game, Chigorin variation"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 Bf5 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. Nbd2 e6

6. O-O Bd6 7. c3 O-O 8. Nh4 Bg4 9. h3 Bh5 10. g4 Nxg4

I thought this was a pretty nifty piece of board vision from me. This exchange wins me a pawn when the queen jumps in to take the unguarded knight, and another here in a second.

11. hxg4 Qxh4

(12. gxh5 would be responded with Qh2#.) This wins the g-pawn. I'm now up two pawns and he has a very vulnerable king. This should be a won game, but there's a reason I'm playing down here at this level:

12. Nf3 Qxg4 13. Qd3 Bg6 14. Qe3 Bf4

Now it's my turn to make a bad exchange counting error. I think I'd reach my goal of 1500 ICC in a couple days if I ever stopped making them.

The counting error happened because of two other major errors:

First, a strategy error. I tried to play a complicated trap of his queen. There's no need to try to force a greater advantage when you already have a winning material edge. I should have been looking to force trades and simplify.

Worst, Bf4 was played in 38 seconds. That's not near enough time for a move like that, which tries a complicated idea and likely leads to multiple exchanges.

15. Qxf4 Qxf4

16. Bxf4 Rac8

Okay, now I'm down a bishop for two pawns. The game is probably lost but worth playing on. Need to trade down and get some pawns off the board.

17. Rfe1 f5 18. Ne5 Nxe5 19. Bxe5 c6 20. f4 c5

21. Bd6 Rfd8

Very nice move by him, winning another pawn and I just didn't see it coming.

22. Bxc5 b6 23. Be7 Re8 24. Bh4 Bh5 25. Bf3 Bxf3

26. exf3 h6 27. Re3 Kf7

Kf7 is the key to any sort of hopes. It supports some key pawns, frees at least one rook and maybe two to find a file and attack it and adds the king's attacking power to the middle of the board where I need all the help I can get.

28. Rc1 Rg8 29. b3 g5 30. fxg5 hxg5

31. Bf2 g4 32. f4 Rg7 33. Rce1 Rg6 34. Bh4 Rh8 35. Bg5 Rh3

Bg5 is a nice find as well, he really knows how to use his bishop. It pretty much shuts down my hopes of a counterattack.

36. Rxh3 gxh3 37. Kh2 Rg8 38. Re3 Rh8 39. Rxh3 Rxh3+ 40. Kxh3 a6

41. Bd8 b5

This is a lost end-game, but tricky enough that I have a slim prayer of a draw if he misplays it.

42. Ba5 Kg6 43. Kh4 Kh6 44. Bb4 Kg6 45. Bd6 Kh6

46. Kg3 Kh5 47. Kf2 Kg4 48. Ke3 Kg3 49. Kd3 Kf3 50. c4 bxc4+

51. bxc4 a5 52. cxd5 exd5 53. Kc3 Ke3 54. Be5 a4 55. Kb4 Kd3

56. Kxa4 Kc4 57. Ka5 Kc3

He ends up playing it perfectly. Despite what I said above, now that I've gone over the game, there was no chance of saving a draw here.

58. Kb5 Kb2 59. a4 Ka3 60. a5

1-0

Current rating: 1349. Before this game: New high of 1360.

Standard game, Sept. 19, 2009

Only had time for one serious game tonight, but it was a beauty. The computer, which likes to rain on my parade, points out quite a few mistakes, but the important thing was that I did a great job of taking my time and following my thought process. Well, let's not overstate it. I did a better than previous efforts job. I still rushed some moves and missed some things I should have seen. Still so, so far to go. But I played a slow, standard game against my human opponent of a sufficiently high rating to punish my mistakes and really enjoyed myself, which is what I want to be doing. The jaws-of-defeat win was nice, too, but not really the point.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.19"]

[White "eberger"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1410"]

[BlackElo "1297"]

[ECO "C50"]

[Opening "Giuoco Pianissimo"]

[TimeControl "3000+0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5

Look at us following a classic opening: The Guioco Piano

4. d3 h6 5. c3 Nf6

Okay, we've transposed a little on the move order (well, I did, by playing h6 because I'm so paranoid about that knight-fork on f7 even though it should be easily defended).

6. b4 Bb6 7. a4 a6 8. O-O d6 9. Nbd2 O-O

Now I think things have gotten very interesting. This is a really cramped position on my queenside with his advancement of quite a few pawns. But I feel like I have solid escape squares for all my pieces set up if they become needed and I'm thinking very carefully to avoid dropping any pieces.

10. h3 Be6

Offering to clear off that pesky light-squared bishop. If he takes, I can open up the f-file for my rook and save myself a break move.If he doesn't, I can do it and at least unclog the center a little.

11. b5 Bxc4 12. Nxc4 Na5 13. Nxb6 cxb6

I'm not comfortable trading a bishop for a knight even when the situation here says it isn't bad (lots of pawns still on the board, he doesn't get the paired advantage because we already traded the partners). I also get that open file I've been looking for. I continue to believe that, as some of the training videos I've watched have said, doubled pawns are not a big deal at this level of play.

14. Be3 Rc8 15. c4 Nd7

At this point I figure I've got plenty of time in this closed position, so tempi are not an issue. I want to manuever that knight around to a more active square, going from f6 to d7 to e5 and then possibly on to b3.

16. Re1 Nc5

He took a full 7:37 on Re1. I admire his patience. I took three minutes on Nc5, so that's a good sign. I seriously considered Qe7, Qe5 and especially my break move of f5 here.

17. Rb1 f5

Okay, time for the break. I got pretty nervous at this point. Breaking is attacking his king here, and I remember one of the great players, I forget whch, saying you should only start an attack when you have a positional advantage, and I'm not sure I have one here.

18. exf5 Rxf5 19. g4 Rf8

I made this move too fast, 26 seconds, and really Rf7 was a much better option, leaving f8 for the other rook to slide in behind, or perhaps the queen. Definitely a hole in my game that needs filling.

20. Qd2 Qf6

Okay, here's where I got a little stupid. I spent a lot of time before he made Qd2 (took him 4:31 to decide on it) trying to examine all of the possible responses to my planned move of Qf6, threatening to overload on the knight. I then failed to notice that he actually hung the freaking knight I was planning to overload. I could have just taken it.

He was threatening some scary things with the bishop-queen battery, but he would have just been trading his bishop for my two pawns while his queen attacked with no support, and neither of his rooks were close to getting into the attack, so I should have been just fine.

21. Nh2 Nab3 22. Qc2 Nd4

I didn't think he'd take the trade here, but he did.

23. Bxd4 exd4

Now we've got a very interesting position. Material is dead even and symettrical. I've got some loose pawns, but I've also got better attacking chances and more pressure on his king.

I thought seriously about trying to sacrifice the knight to pull his queen away from the defense of f2, something like

24. ??? Nxa4

25. Qxa4 Qxf2+

26. Kh1 ????

But as you can see, on the sixth ply I run out of steam one square short of the mate and no way to bring support in to the attack.

24. Re2 a5

That ends those thoughts anyway. I feel like a5 locks up that little corner of the board which had the potential to give me troubles that I didn't want to have to deal with while focusing on the attack and the rest of the board.

25. Rbe1 Nd7

26. Re6 Qh4

This response took me awhile to come up with, and I'm still not thrilled with it.

27. Kg2 Rf6

Here's a move I was a little more proud of. I know that lifting the rook puts my back rank under a bit of pressure, but I thought pretty hard about the possibilities and was sure he couldn't do any real damage.

28. Nf3 Rxf3

Nf3 was a very nice move, and I must admit one I had not considered seriously.

Even now I can't see any better reply than to trade the rook, but really I feel like I get good compensation for it: a knight, two pawns, and the initiative. At this stage in the game, I felt the material I took was worth more than the rook, but without symmetry we are now probably destined for a decisive outcome when a draw would have been just fine with me against a stronger opponent with me playing black.

29. Kxf3 Qxh3+ 30. Ke2 Qxg4+

31. Kd2 Qf4+

I'm kind of vaguely thinking about if he'll accept a perpetual here.

32. Kd1 Rf8 33. Re8 Ne5

If he wants to trade, we can do it on my terms, and I think closing off that file was very worthwhile, especially as I'm about to be rookless.

34. Rxf8+ Kxf8 35. Qe2 Kg8

I felt like he wasn't close to any real attack so I had time to get my king to a slightly safer spot.

36. f3 h5 37. Qe4 Qg3

I really don't want to trade queens. I don't think my two pawns and knight can hold off his rook in that situation, it's just too powerful.

38. Qxb7 Nxd3

This was a major blunder on my part. I didn't realize how big of one until after the game. I realized in a few moves this probably would cost me material because I was looking for checks after his rook check was parried and I missed out Qe4+, forking the knight. Big mistake.

What we both failed to notice, and the computer now points out, is that this also offered him mate in 3.

39. Re8+ Kh7 40. Qe4+ Kh6

There it is, dropping the knight.

41. Re6+ g6 42. Qxd3 h4

At this point I'm sure I've lost. But endgames seem simple when in fact they are very hard, and the computer thinks both players made some questionable decisions from here on out and missed some big opportunities.

My passed pawn on the h-file is my hope now.

43. Qd2+ Kh5 44. Rxd6 h3

Hello, McFly? He hung his rook here and I completely missed it. I played this move in four seconds. There is just no excuse for that. I never noticed until the computer pointed it out. So, so far to go in my hopes of becoming a good chess player.

45. Rd5+ g5

46. Rd8 Qxf3+

Kudos to me for not getting so caught up in racing the pawn that I missed the possibility of mate here. Had to clear some space for my king, and bought some initiative. With that pawn gone, I now have connected passed pawns on the G and H files, which means that I have some chances despite the material disadvantage.

47. Kc2 Qc3+

I felt that Qc3+ was a very nice move here. Earlier, I had wanted to avoid exchanging queens. Now I wanted to clear them off, because I know that a lone rook can have problems with the connected passed pawns, especially with my king in there to support as well.

Crafty disagrees and feels this move loses more quickly than other options.

48. Qxc3 dxc3 49. Rd1 g4 50. Kd3 g3

51. Kxc3 g2

He can no longer prevent at least one of my pawns from promoting and resigns.

0-1

I finish the game with 17:47 left on my clock, meaning I averaged 38 seconds per move for 51 moves. That's nowhere near where I want to be but nonetheless an improvement.

Current rating: 1304

Standard games Sept. 18

Decided to play in a 16 0 tournament went I got home, four rounds of swiss.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.17"]

[White "Tchitcherine"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1689"]

[BlackElo "1218"]

[ECO "D02"]

[Opening "QGD"]

[Variation "Chigorin defense, Janowski variation"]

[TimeControl "960+0"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 Bf5

6. Bxc4 e6 7. O-O Bd6 8. Bb5 O-O 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. b3 Rb8

11. Re1 h6

Through here I think I've blundered my way through to an adequate opening just following basic principals.

12. Bd2 Ng4

This turned out to be a big blunder. I'm not too upset about it, I just need to file that combination away for future reference. It dooms me to losing a piece:

13. h3 Nf6 14. e4 Bh7 15. e5 Bxe5

16. dxe5 Nd5

Down a piece for a pawn against a superior opponent, this game is likely lost. Given that it's a tournament and I have nothing to lose by playing on (it would go on to be the first game over anyway), I decided to go with an all-out attack and see what happened.

17. Na4 f6 18. exf6 Qxf6 19. Qe2 Rbe8 20. Qa6 Qg6

Crafty strongly suggests Be4 here instead for me. If we follow the computer line from there, I end up with a rather credible attack, but I would have had to have been a much better play to see some of the moves it suggested.

21. Ne5 Qf5 22. Qxa7 Rf6 23. Qd4 Ref8 24. Rf1 Ne7 25. Nd7 Rd8

If it wasn't already over, this really ends it. This move didn't mean his queen was exposed to my rook if he moved his knight. It meant my rook was exposed to his queen when he moved his knight with check.

Playing out the string from here...

26. Nxf6+ Qxf6 27. Qxd8+ Kf7 28. Qxc7 Be4 29. Bb4 Qg5 30. Qxe7+ Qxe7

31. Bxe7 Kxe7 32. Nc5 Bd5 33. Rfe1 Kd6 34. Nxe6 Bxe6 35. Rxe6+ Kxe6

36. a4 Kd7 37. a5 Kc8 38. a6 Kb8 39. a7+ Ka8 40. Kf1 c5

41. Ke2 c4 42. b4 c3 43. Kd3 c2 44. Kxc2 g5 45. g4 h5

46. b5 hxg4 47. hxg4 Kb7 48. a8=Q+ Kc7 49. Qc6+ Kd8 50. Ra8+ Ke7

51. Ra7+ Kf8 52. Qa8#

1-0

I get a bye in the second round, hooray :( Not only does that mean no playing for 45 minutes or so, it means that I'll have a point and play someone so far above me that I'll get crushed. I'll try to learn something from that game anyway, but it's hard. A small loss is easier to learn from.

So much for the hope of a small loss. I had no idea how to respond to his opening and tried bringing the queen out based on some videos I'd watched recently on the Scandanavian opening. It did not go well.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.18"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "ForkingKnight"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1216"]

[BlackElo "1658"]

[ECO "A51"]

[Opening "Budapest defense declined"]

[TimeControl "960+0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. Nc3 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qh4 Be7

6. f3 O-O 7. e4 d6 8. Bd3 Ng4

Here's where it went wrong. I correctly used f3 to open up an escape square, but I waited too long to use it. It was brutal from here.

9. Qh5 g6 10. Qb5 Nge5

11. Bc2 Nd4 12. Qa4 Bd7 13. Nb5 a6 14. Bh6 Re8 15. Qa3 Nxc2+

0-1

Okay, and now I'm officially frustrated. I really shouldn't play tournaments for a few reasons: First, a sleeping baby at the beginning is never a sleeping baby at the end. For another, the time limit isn't nearly long enough for me to be practicing the thought process I'm supposed to be learning, which is the most important thing. Also, I always get a bye and get stuck sitting around because I'm always the lowest-rated player.

All of that is no excuse for missing this knight-fork and ruining a good game:

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.18"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "ForkingKnight"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1216"]

[BlackElo "1658"]

[ECO "A51"]

[Opening "Budapest defense declined"]

[TimeControl "960+0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. Nc3 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qh4 Be7

6. f3 O-O 7. e4 d6 8. Bd3 Ng4 9. Qh5 g6 10. Qb5 Nge5

11. Bc2 Nd4 12. Qa4 Bd7 13. Nb5 a6 14. Bh6 Re8 15. Qa3 Nxc2+

0-1

Standard games, Sept. 16, 2009

A good night's sleep and a day off can do wonders for your chess game.

ICC's summary tries to claim this game is the Queen's Gambit Accepted, but I don't see how

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.16"]

[White "Visin"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1339"]

[BlackElo "1238"]

[ECO "D20"]

[Opening "QGA"]

[Variation "3.e4"]

[TimeControl "1800+30"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bc5

The Three Knights' Game, but from here white goes off book.

4. a3 Nf6 5. h3 O-O

6. d3 d6 7. Bg5 Be6 8. Be2 h6 9. Bh4 g5

This move took me awhile. In fact, I did a fantastic job of taking my time in the middle game in this one, averaging well over a minute per move between the opening and the endgame.

With no clear ways to improve my development, and needing to unpin the knight for my break move of d5, the best course of action seemed to be to weaken his strongest piece by driving it back. This turned out to be the difference in the game later on.

10. Bg3 d5

11. exd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5

Thought long and hard about which piece to take with here. I finally decided that either piece would be driven back immediately by c4, more than likely, but the queen needed moving anyway to make room for the rook on the semi-open d-file

13. c4 Qd6 14. O-O Nd4 15. Nxd4 Bxd4

16. Rb1 f5 17. Bf3 c6 18. Re1 f4 19. Bh2 Qc5

His dark-squared bishop is now effectively out of the game. This is almost like being a piece ahead.

Now I have a severe light-squared weakness complex on my king side, which is a problem, and in general just too much space around my king, but it's a workable problem, I can try to fix it.

I'm threatening Bxf2+ and winning the exchange with a fork, but I've also got vague ideas of getting a rook onto the d-file and playing Bxc4 (with the response of dxc4), followed by Bxf2+, which would win the queen, but that exchange would be two bishops and a rook for a queen and two pawns, roughly equal but awfully risky.

20. Re2 Rad8

21. b4 Qd6 22. c5 Qc7 23. Re1 Bd5 24. Bxd5+ Rxd5

Needed to get his light-squared bishop off the board with my pawn structure. I feel a lot better about my king's security now. His queen can get in there easily, but no support piece can likely get behind my pawn structure with any ease.

25. Qh5 Qg7

Qh5 is very nice for him. I thought seriously about ignoring that queen, dropping the a-pawn and mounting an attack, but I wisely decided that was a bad idea and would likely cost me many more pawns with no real attacking chances.

26. Kf1 Bc3 27. Red1 Rfd8 28. Qe2 Qg6

The extra piece is again key to the day. All four of my pieces are attacking that pawn, but his fourth piece can't get into the action, pawn won.

29. d4 Rxd4

D4 puts him in an even more awkward position, still dropping the pawn but allowing the queen to attack one of the rooks. Probably won't make a difference though.

30. Rbc1 Rxd1+

31. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 32. Qxd1 Qf7

Okay, I think we can call this endgame. We each have a queen and a dark-squared bishop, and I have seven pawns to six. This should be a win, but it's not at all easy to bring home and my opponent has shown good play for this level.

In retrospect, I like Bd4 better than Qf7, blocking off the open file.

33. Qd3 Bd4 34. f3 Kg7

I liked Kg7 here, taking away some of his queen options and getting my guy closer to the action.

35. Ke2 Qa2+

36. Qd2 Qxd2+

Crafty would rather I take the hanging pawn over there, but I think I've already got a winning advantage at this point and I want to simplify.

Relatively simple end-game win at the end.

37. Kxd2 Kf6 38. a4 Kf5 39. g3 Be3+ 40. Kd3 Bc1

41. g4+ Ke6 42. b5 Kd5 43. Bg1 Ba3 44. bxc6 bxc6 45. Bf2 Bxc5

46. Bxc5 Kxc5 47. Ke4 Kd6 48. a5 Ke6 49. a6 Kf6 50. Kd3 Ke6

51. Kc4 Kd6 52. Kd3 Kd5 53. Kc3 c5 54. Kc2 Kd4 55. Kd2 e4

56. fxe4 Kxe4 57. Ke2 c4

0-1 (resignation)

He wanted a rematch, and I was pretty hungry but went ahead and gave it to him to be polite.

I went for the attack here and he almost fended it off. The fun thing about attacking at this level is that you can get away with unsound attacks because the defense will usually be unsound too. He almost had it, playing defender very well, but eventually made the fatal mistake.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.16"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "Visin"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1278"]

[BlackElo "1318"]

[ECO "D20"]

[Opening "QGA"]

[Variation "3.e4"]

[TimeControl "1800+30"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e6 4. Bxc4 c6 5. Nc3 Be7

6. Nf3 Nf6 7. h3 O-O 8. e5 Nd5 9. O-O Nd7 10. a3 N7b6

11. Ba2 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Nd5 13. Qc2 Qa5 14. Bd2 Qd8 15. Bb1 g6

16. Bh6 Re8 17. g3 b5 18. h4 f6 19. h5 f5 20. Qd2 Ba6

21. Kg2 b4 22. Rh1 bxc3 23. Qc1 Kf7 24. hxg6+ hxg6 25. Bg7 Rg8

26. Bh6 Rh8 27. Ng5+ Bxg5 28. Bxg5 Rxh1 29. Qxh1 Qg8 30. Bc2 Qh8

31. Bh6 Qh7 32. Qh4 Rh8 33. Rh1 Bb7 34. Bb3 c5 35. Bxd5 Bxd5+

36. f3 cxd4 37. Qf6+ Ke8 38. Rb1 Qc7 39. Qxg6+ Qf7 40. Rb8+ Ke7

41. Bg5+ Kd7 42. Qxf7+ Kc6

1-0

Standard games, Sept. 15/16, 2009

I've been doing a lot of work on mental discipline. Unfortunately, I don't always have it when picking my games and times to play, so I dropped down to a 1242 playing when I wasn't fully focused.

But the good news is that I'm making strides on thinking about my moves and taking my time. Not great strides, but strides nonetheless. It's a start. Unfortunately, I'm having a lot of trouble finding games regularly with human players, so I've played some computers.

Here's the first game of the night.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.15"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "HEYNOWww"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[WhiteElo "1245"]

[BlackElo "1317"]

[ECO "E32"]

[Opening "Nimzo-Indian"]

[Variation "Classical variation"]

[TimeControl "1800+30"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O

I know through Qc2 is standard book.

5. a3 Bxc3+

MCO says this is book too. That might be the furthest I've followed a book line with an opponent.

6. bxc3 h6

Shoot, Qxc3 is recommended over bxc3.

7. f4 d6 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. g3 Bd7 10. Bg2 Nb8

11. Rb1 b6

At this point, I'm happy with my position and feel like I'm doing a good job of activating my army.

12. Ne5 d5

This move took a respecatable 91 seconds and is rather nifty, at least winning the bishop pair and putting a lot of pressure with my light-squared bishop.

13. O-O Nc6 14. Nxd7 Qxd7 15. cxd5 Nxd5

16. e4 Nde7 17. Rd1 Qe8 18. d5 Nd8 19. dxe6 Nxe6

He's really on the defensive, all my pieces are active, and I control both the only open and the only semi-open file with rooks. All is in good shape here, though it looks as if his defense is stacked up and will be hard to break.

20. e5 Rc8

21. Be3 Kh8 22. Rd2 Ng8 23. Rbd1 Rb8 24. f5 Ng5 25. f6 gxf6

26. exf6 Qxe3+

And here's the blunder, a simple counting error costs me serious material.

One lapse of thought process is as bad as 20.

Fortunately, I still had some counterplay because his knight was pinned to his rather vulnerable king and my pieces were generally more active. I guess I should be happy that it took 26 moves before Crafty hated one of my moves.

27. Kh1 Nxf6 28. Re2 Qc5 29. c4 Qxa3 30. Rd3 Qc5

31. Qc3 Qf5 32. h4 Ne6 33. Rf3 Nf4 34. gxf4 Rg8 35. Bh3 Qb1+

36. Re1 Qg6 37. f5 Qg7 38. Rff1 a5 39. Rg1 Ne4

He needs his queen for defense on his king as long as mine is so threatening, and that finally costs him as he's cramped and forced to concede the knight back after already conceding the first one. I'm actually "up" in material at this point, but a rook and bishop vs. a rook with two extra pawns is no comfortable situations.

40. Qxg7+ Rxg7

41. Rxe4 Rxg1+ 42. Kxg1 b5 43. c5 Kg7 44. Kf2 Rd8 45. Bf1 b4

46. Bc4 a4 47. Bb5 Rd5 48. Bxa4 Rxc5 49. Rxb4 Rxf5+ 50. Kg3 Rf6

51. Rf4 Rxf4 52. Kxf4 Kg6

Okay, still down two pawns, but I've taken care of most of his threats. Trading rooks was a draw move, in retrospect, I could have played for the win if I'd wanted to, but it would not have been a comfortable position with him having two passed pawns with some separation between them.

From here, in retrospect, the draw is definitely inevitable. I've got his king outmaneuvered and can win his extra pawns easily, but I've still just got a rook pawn with a bishop not the same color as the promotion square. That's a textbook draw, and deep down I knew it though I tried to play it out.

53. Kg4 Kg7 54. Kf5 Kh7 55. Kf6 Kg8

56. Bc6 h5 57. Ba4 c5 58. Bb5 Kh7 59. Kxf7 Kh6 60. Kf6 Kh7

61. Bd3+ Kh6 62. Be2 Kh7 63. Kg5 Kg7 64. Kxh5 Kh7 65. Kg5 Kg7

66. h5 Kh7 67. Bd3+ Kg7 68. h6+ Kg8 69. Kg6 Kh8 70. Kh5 Kg8

71. h7+ Kg7 72. Kg4 Kh8 73. Kf4 Kg7 74. Ke5 Kh8 75. Kd5 Kg7

76. Kxc5 Kh8 77. Kd5 Kg7 78. Ke5 Kh8 79. Ke6 Kg7 80. Ke7 Kh8

81. Bg6 Kg7 82. Ke8 Kh8 83. Ke7 Kg7 84. Ke8 Kh8 85. Kf8

1/2-1/2

Standard games, Sept. 14/15, 2009

Before I went to bed last night I blew off 20 or 30 rating points trying to beat a computer rated a few hundred above me with overwhelming attacks. It almost worked the first time until I blundered, didn't even come close the rest. I wasn't even trying to play good chess, I was just tired.

So I came into the day at 1305.

Below is my first game of the day. I don't have my copy of MCO in the living room, and I don't want to go into the bedroom and risk waking up my wife who just got done with about 22 hours of baby duty, so I'll do without that for tonight.

I am as proud of this game as I have ever been. In a 45 45 time limit, I was down below 40 minutes before the game was lost and I just made quick moves to let him play out the checkmate (which he then proceeded to take a few moves more than I expected to do). I took my time, thought out my moves, and lost quite thoroughly. But that's more fun than a quick win with blunders on both sides (not that I played all that great.)

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.14"]

[White "gonia"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1416"]

[BlackElo "1294"]

[ECO "C50"]

[Opening "King's pawn game"]

[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 4. d4 Bg4 5. Be2 Bxf3

I'm able to win a pawn by force here with removal of the guard, but I give up serious development to do it, and that ends up costing me.

6. gxf3 Nxd4 7. Be3 Nxe2

In retrospect, I'm not sure how great it is to give up my only developed piece, but I break up his bishop pair and take one of his good pieces of the board as well, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

8. Qxe2 Ne7

Here's where I think things started to get bad. I was kind of thinking this knight move would help shore up some key middle white squares without my white bishop around. But really, this just cramped my already cramped bad bishop and made development impossible. This is probably where the game was lost.

9. Nc3 c6

c6 is the best move of my chess career to date. Why? Because I spent 93 seconds on it, and I used the right thought process to get there. I sifted through candidate moves and was leaning toward the break with d4. But I then checked out his responses, and Qb5+ just seemed to put me into too awful a position.

10. O-O-O d5

11. exd5 cxd5 12. Bc5 Ng6

Bc5 really caught me off guard. I had no idea how to react to it. I took a full three minutes to come up with Ng6, and even then I only played it because I had spent enough time examining that I was fairly certain I had no better options. The possibilities of Nf4 or Qg5+ at least gave me some sort of counterplay to his overwhelming attack.

Crafty feels like Nc6 kept me in the game and held my pawn advantage, but I'm not so sure white plays the moves Crafty thinks he would.

13. Bxf8 Qg5+ 14. Kb1 Nf4

I ended up using both those moves, but they bought me nothing at all really and this game is now completely out of hand.

15. Qb5+ Kd8

At this point I could have resigned but decided to just play it out to let him enjoy his well-earned win. Not sure why he dallied a bit in thrashing me from here, maybe just being careful.

16. Bxg7 Qxg7 17. Qxb7 Rc8 18. Nxd5 Nxd5 19. Rxd5+ Ke8 20. Qd7+ Kf8

21. Qxc8+ Ke7 22. Qd7+ Kf6 23. Qd6+ Kf5 24. Qd7+ Kf4 25. Rd3 Qg2

26. Qxf7+ Kg5 27. Qg7+ Kh4 28. Qxg2 Rd8 29. Rxd8 a5 30. Qg8 h5

31. Qg3#

1-0

New rating: 1294

Update: Lost another badly because the baby woke up and it's hard to focus on chess when feeding him :) He'll fall asleep again soon enough. In the meantime, looking into his eyes is more fun than any tactical combination :)

In the words of Lord Voldemort, I confess myself disappointed. After a couple of nothing games (one where the opponent made the fatal opening mistake of 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6 3. f5?? and then resigned after the inevitable rook loss), I found myself in this game with, interestingly enough, an opponent rated exactly the same as me:

I'm doing a better job of ever on the thought process, which is not saying much. I'm taking more time, I'm examing candidate moves, I'm considering my opponents' reactions and I'm considering checks, captures and threats while looking for a better move even after I find one I like. I'm just not doing any of those things very well. But you have to fall horribly and comically before you can walk, I guess?

I won this game, but it did not feel particularly good, unlike that loss earlier in which I felt good about it.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.15"]

[White "Kotov"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1270"]

[BlackElo "1286"]

[ECO "B32"]

[Opening "Sicilian defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. e4 c5

I really need to learn some e4 defenses. I'm comfortable with my d4 responses for this level, but I have no clue what to do with d4. I have nothing but the barest understandings of the sicilian, just that it involves pushing the c-pawn and trying to create asymmetry as black, so I just relied on opening principles from here.

2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 e6 4. Bd3 cxd4

What is it with opponents offering me pawns in the openings lately at the expense of development? I'm almost at the pointw here I'll just decline them.

5. O-O Bc5

6. Bd2 Nf6 7. b4 Bxb4 8. Bxb4 Nxb4 9. Nxd4 e5 10. Nf5 O-O

11. Bc4 Nxe4

I took 1:15 on Nxe4 and I still didn't realize what he was trying to threaten. Weak, weak, weak on my part. If your opponent has a piece covering one of the squares around your king, consider that a threat to be considered in your thought process.

12. Qg4 Qf6

49 seconds to reply, I could have taken longer. Should have taken longer. I accept the loss of the knight and will now be down a piece for two pawns.

13. Qxe4 g6 14. Ne3 d6 15. Bxf7+ Qxf7

16. Qxb4 Be6 17. a4 Rac8 18. c3 Bc4

The last four moves combined took me about a minute, which is atrocious.

This was supposed to be the start of a particularly clever combination. But I moved so quickly I got the move order wrong!

It was supposed to go 18. ... Rc4 19. Nxc4 Bc4!! I could have miscalculated, but it seems to me he'd be forced to move the rook or lose it, but either way Qxf2 would be coming and blowing up the game.

19. Nxc4 Rxc4 20. Qxd6 Rf4

This didn't turn out all bad. I drop the pawn and am now down a full piece (a knight, incidentally). But activity matters. His queen is attacking but not defending. One rook is defending. His knight and his rook in the corner are doing nothing. In the e-h files where all the real action is, I have a temporary material advantage and am threatening all kinds of bad things.

21. f3 e4 22. Nd2 e3 23. Ne4 Qf5 24. Rab1 Qc8 25. Rfe1 Qf5

26. Rxb7 Rxf3 27. Ng3 Qc2

I am still nowhere where I need to be in terms of thought process. I still play chess like a bad chess player. But at least now I am a clever bad chess player. I can come up with some nifty tactics that complicate the game for opponents of my own level.

Qc2 is a nice example. I've swung the queen around into attacking f2 instead of f1, making his defending knight almost worthless and making the pawn on e3 very relevant. If his reponse is Re2, we have a perpetual I think. Or maybe not, it's complicated. Ne2 seems to be his best response in playing with the board just now.

But anyway, he doesn't do any of those, and I don't blame him because it was a complicated position.

28. Qe5 Qf2+

As Crafty confirms, Qe5 loses the game by offering me mate in 3, which I take.

29. Kh1 Qxe1+ 30. Nf1 Qxf1#

A win is a win is a bad win.

0-1

New rating: 1286

Standard games, Sept. 13, 2009

Here was an interesting game by a somewhat mouthy opponent. I don't get why some people feel the need to talk trash, especially down here where we are all very bad at chess. It's funny.

The moves themselves were interesting and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I finally got that loss I've been due for.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.13"]

[White "cstucker1123"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1194"]

[BlackElo "1307"]

[ECO "B12"]

[Opening "Caro-Kann"]

[Variation "Advance variation"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. b4 e6

By this time I'm familiar with that advance variation and I know that my plan should be to ignore the annoying pawn on e6 and continue development.

5. a3 Nh6

6. h3 Be7 7. g4 Be4 8. f3 Bg6 9. g5 Bxg5 10. f4 Bxf4

11. h4 Bg3+

He is apparently intent on making nothing but pawn moves? It certainly works in making things tricky for me. A better player would easily deflect such an attack, and I don't think I did an awful job of it.

12. Ke2 Bxh4 13. Nf3 Bh5 14. Kd3 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 O-O

16. Rg1 f6

His comment indicated he felt this move was rather brilliant my him. I thought a bit and found the counterplay.

17. Bxh6 fxe5 18. Rxg7+ Kh8 19. Qg2 Rf3+ 20. Qxf3 e4+

21. Ke3 exf3

Okay, once the pawn falls, it will be a three-point material advantage for me, but an uncomfortable one because it is very assymetric and he has plenty of threats

22. Rf7 Bg5+ 23. Bxg5 Qxg5+ 24. Kf2 Na6 25. Rxf3 Qh4+

26. Ke3 Rg8 27. Nd2 Rg3 28. Be2 Qh6+ 29. Kd3 Qg6+ 30. Kc3 Rxf3+

31. Nxf3 Qg3 32. Rg1 Qd6 33. Ne5 Qb8 34. Nf7#

What are we supposed to be looking for? ALL the threats. I was so consumed by avoiding the knight-fork that loses the queen that I missed the mate threat. Amateurish, but then I am an amateur.

1-0

Still not seeing opponents' threats well enough, although the screaming baby I was trying to calm didn't help this one.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.13"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "beebeeking"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1294"]

[BlackElo "1364"]

[ECO "D35"]

[Opening "QGD"]

[Variation "Exchange variation"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nf3 c6

6. Bg5 Be7 7. e3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 h6 9. Bxf6 Nxf6 10. Qa4 O-O

11. O-O b5 12. Qc2 b4 13. Ne2 c5 14. dxc5 Qc7 15. Rac1 Bg4

16. Ned4 Rac8 17. c6 Bxf3 18. Nxf3 Qd6 19. c7 Qb6 20. Nd4 Qb7

21. Qc6 Qxc6 22. Nxc6 Bd6 23. Nxa7 Rxc7 24. Rxc7 Bxc7 25. Nc6 Ng4

26. Rc1 Bxh2+ 27. Kf1 f5 28. Ne7+ Kf7 29. Nxd5 Kg6 30. Nxb4 Kg5

31. g3 h5 32. Be2 h4 33. Bxg4 fxg4 34. gxh4+ Kxh4 35. a4 g3

36. Rc4+ Kh3 37. Rf4 g2+

0-1

Update: It's my day off, I'm giving myself permission to play a bunch of standard without annotating as a holiday. I played some very good games earlier, putting together some absolutely crumbling attacks that had several opponents in foul moods and showing poor sportsmanship. One in particular didn't seem to appreciate being pushed around the board by a player 300 points below him.

I had another opponent seriously on the ropes in the same way (actually, it was more positional than technical. After a long series of seemingly equal exchanges, I had him in a surprisingly compromised position). Then I hung my queen with a move that would have been brilliant two moves ago before he moved a key pawn and I failed to notice properly).

I'm in the middle of a game against a lower-rated but certainly capable opponent, and he missed a horrible mate in 1 opportunity I gave him. I'm getting a little carried away with my own clever attacks and need to reel it in.)

I established a new high rating of 1351 and have dropped back down to about 1325 for the moment. Going to try to play in a tourney or two if I can find a good standard tourney.

Update: Played a five-round swiss. Upset a 1780 in the first round, I'll post the game in a second. He walked his king way too far down into my side trying to get a pawn advantage, which he did, but then he walked it even further in trying to keep that advantage and walked right into a mate.

That put me at 1351, tying the new high from earlier in the day. I dropped another few points playing higher-rated players the rest of the tourney. I did come close-ish to a draw against an 1800, but I made a trade that freed his trapped bishop before securing my pawns on the opposite color, which ended up making the difference after a long and tough fight.

Here's the big upset:

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.13"]

[White "KryptoKnight"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1780"]

[BlackElo "1321"]

[TimeControl "960+6"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 Bf5 5. cxd5 cxd5

6. Qb3 Qb6 7. Bg5 Qxb3 8. axb3 e6 9. Ne5 Nbd7 10. Nxd7 Nxd7

11. Kd2 f6 12. Bh4 Bb4 13. f3 O-O 14. g4 Bg6 15. Be1 a6

16. e3 e5 17. Bd3 Bxd3 18. Kxd3 Bxc3 19. bxc3 exd4 20. Kxd4 Rac8

21. Kxd5 Nb6+ 22. Ke4 Rfe8+ 23. Kf4 g5+ 24. Kf5 Rc5+ 25. Kxf6 Nd7#

0-1

Standard games, Sept. 12 2009

Hey look, 1300! again. May not stick this time, but I do feel like I'm playing the best chess of my life, which isn't saying much:

This opponent made some mistakes hanging pieces, but he did a nice job of making me uncomfortable at every turn. Once he stops hanging pieces he'll be very formidable, because he has some nice intution for cramping his opponent and tying up their pieces.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.12"]

[White "alkim"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "999"]

[BlackElo "1286"]

[ECO "B15"]

[Opening "Caro-Kann defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6

Opponent plays the Two Knights' Variation against my Caro-Kann, of which I am still a very clumsy practioner, according to MCO.

4. Bd3 dxe4

Now we're off book.

5. Bxe4 Nxe4

6. Nxe4 Bf5

I'm just pushing pieces here. I tried to think things through, but I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

7. Nc3 g6 8. Nf3 Bg7 9. Bf4 O-O

My bishops are looking pretty powerful right here, I like this position.

10. O-O Qb6

11. Re1 Qxb2 12. Qd2 Qxc2 13. Qxc2 Bxc2 14. Rxe7 b5

Up a pawn after that carnage, but now have some forced moves to try to hold on to that advantage.

15. Bd6 Na6

16. Rb7 Rfe8

His rook, bishop and d-pawn are combining to make my life miserable deep on my side of the board. I am very cramped and can't mount an attack.

17. h3 b4 18. Na4 Bxa4

He hangs the knight.

19. Rc1 b3 20. axb3 Bb5

I decided I needed to give back a pawn to buy some space.

21. Rd1 Re6 22. Ba3 Bf8 23. Ng5 Rf6 24. d5 Bxa3

He hangs the bishop

25. Ra1 Bc5

26. Ra5 Bxf2+

resigns

0-1

I'm getting a little better at taking my time. Total time used: 833 seconds (13 minutes, 53 seconds), or 35 seconds per move, including the opening. Need to keep improving that.

New rating: 1286

I have to go to work here in a minute, I'll annotate this tonight. Suffice to say this was one of the most enjoyable games I've played in quite some time, even though I spent most of it convinced I was going to lose. My opponent played very well.

The computer found a lot to dislike in both of our games, but this was a wickedly tricky position, so I don't feel too bad.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.12"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "micej"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1303"]

[BlackElo "1314"]

[ECO "E20"]

[Opening "Nimzo-Indian defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+12"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Bd2 h6

Bd2 is apparently not one of the many varieties of valid Nimzo-Indian lines :( Qc2 is recommended here.

5. a3 Ba5

Mistake. IIRC, this is called the Noah's Ark trap.

6. b4 Bb6 7. c5 d5 8. cxb6 axb6 9. e3 O-O 10. Nf3 Nbd7

11. Bd3 c6 12. O-O b5 13. e4 Re8 14. e5 Nh7 15. Qc2 f5

16. exf6 Ndxf6 17. Rae1 Rxa3

I'm not sure this was a good idea in retrospect, giving away the pawn for an extra "attacker" that doesn't really help the attack.

18. Bxh7+ Nxh7 19. Qg6 Nf8 20. Qg3 Qf6

21. Ne2 Re7 22. Ra1 Ra6 23. Rxa6 bxa6 24. Ne5 Bb7

He has defended exceptionally well to this point and I'm just not getting anywhere with this attack.

25. Nf4 Kh7

26. Nh5 Qf5 27. Nf4 g5 28. Nh5 Ng6 29. f4 gxf4 30. Bxf4 Qxh5

I should have been more willing to exchange queens to keep my material advantage. Crafty agrees.

31. Nxg6 Rg7 32. Be5 Rxg6

Poorly played and now I'm down material, though he has a very exposed king.

33. Qd3 Kg8

Crafty says Rf7+ is much better.

34. Rf3 Qg5 35. Rg3 Qc1+

36. Kf2 Rxg3 37. hxg3 Qb2+ 38. Kg1 Qxb4 39. Qg6+ Kf8 40. Qxh6+ Ke7

Crafty says his move offers mate in 6, but I don't think I would have gotten that even with more thought.

41. Qf6+ Kd7 42. g4 Qe7 43. g5 Ke8 44. Qh8+ Qf8 45. Qh5+ Kd7

46. Qh7+ Qe7 47. g6 b4

g6 is the winner for me in this game, I think. Crafty continues to hate everything we do, but for this level I'm quite comfortable with g6 here.

48. Qxe7+ Kxe7

I was in the car on the way to a work thing today when I slapped my head and realized g7 would have been much, much, much better here. Accomplishes the same thing without sacrificing the bishop. But either way, he can't stop the pawn and that's a winner, whether pretty or not.

49. Bd6+ Kxd6

Actually, d'oh. Kf6 leaves him up two pawns with opposite-colored bishops on the board. I'm at best hoping for a draw at this point. Thanks, crafty, for pointing that out and raining on my parade.

50. g7 Bc8

51. g8=Q Bd7 52. Qg3+ Ke7 53. Qb3 a5 54. Qa4 c5 55. Qxa5 cxd4

56. Qc5+ Kf6 57. Qxd4+ Ke7 58. Qxb4+ Kf6 59. Qf8+ Ke5 60. g4 d4

61. Qd8 Kd6 62. g5 d3 63. Qa5 e5 64. g6 e4 65. g7 Be6

66. Qc3 Kd5 67. Kf2 Kd6 68. Ke3 Bd5 69. Qd4 Ke6 70. g8=Q+ Kf5

71. Qgxd5+ Kg6 72. Q4xe4+ Kf6 73. Qdf5+ Kg7 74. Qeg4+ Kh8 75. Qfh5#

1-0

New rating: 1303, and very hard earned!

This one was pure tactics, but also quite ugly and would have been slapped around quite horrifically by a player better than either of the two at the board.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.12"]

[White "DrIli"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "1279"]

[BlackElo "1318"]

[ECO "D10"]

[Opening "QGD Slav defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. d4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. Bf4 Nf6

Here's me stumbling around in that c6, d5 stuff again, trying to pretend like I know what I'm doing with openings. We are already into non-standard opening territory by move 3 (and I transposed my two pawn moves on 1 and 2).

4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6

6. Nf3 Bd6 7. Ne5 Qb6

Here is where things got interesting. I was fully aware of the fork here. But I felt like two pawns, stronger chances in the center and a queen running amok behind his defenses with a vulnerable king was worth it.

8. c5 Bxc5 9. dxc5 Qxb2 10. Ne2 Qb4+

11. Qd2 Qxc5

I was even able to gobble a third pawn and make us technically even though in a very interesting position.

That queen looks very juicy now and I want it.

12. Nd4 Ne4 13. Qc2 Qa5+ 14. Kd1 Nc3+

And I get it. Discovered attack combined with check and the queen is mine. From here, I just need to be very careful.

Thanks tactics-trainer!

15. Qxc3 Qxc3

16. Rc1 Qa5 17. Nb3 Qxa2 18. Nc5 Qxf2 19. Nxb7 f6 20. Nxc6 Bg4+

Mate forced next move anyway and he resigns.

0-1

New rating: 1318, four points off of my all-time high. If I'm reading my ICC history right, I've won my last seven standard games. I'm due for an epic bad streak any second now.

Edit to add:

I'm not supposed to play computers, according to my own rules, nor should I worry too much about ratings. But my old buddy SlowFlo was sitting there 200 points above his normal rating, meaning beating him was worth a full +12 and I only needed four to get a new high. The way to beat him is tactics, and my tactics are sharper than ever right now, so it was a trivial win.

New rating: 1329, an all-time high. Now the losing can begin.

Standard games, Sept. 11, 2009

Alright, now we can leave the evils of blitz behind.

Spent quite a bit more time in the training program tonight. It's starting to give me more opening and positional puzzles and fewer tactical motifs, so we'll see if that helps anything.

First up tonight, I don't believe my esteemed opponent was taking the game as seriously as he could have, but we've all been there. Not much point in running this through the computer. After he dropped the queen I was just focused on not throwing anything away and taking the win.

MCO does not seem to have this one either.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.11"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "eramos"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1257"]

[BlackElo "1288"]

[ECO "D06"]

[Opening "QGD"]

[Variation "Marshall defense"]

[TimeControl "1800+10"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc4

6. e4 e5 7. Bxc4 Bg4 8. dxe5 Nh5 9. O-O Nd4 10. Qxd4 Be7

11. Nd5 Bd8 12. h3 Be6 13. Rd1 O-O 14. Ng5 c6 15. Nxe6 fxe6

16. Be2 exd5 17. exd5 Nf6 18. exf6 Bxf6 19. Qc4 Kh8 20. dxc6 bxc6

21. Qxc6 Rae8 22. Bh5 Rc8 23. Qa4 g6 24. Bg4 Ra8 25. Bh6 Rfe8

26. Re1 Reb8 27. Bf3 Bxb2 28. Bxa8 Bxa1 29. Rxa1 Rxa8 30. Qd4+

1-0

And then the training program paid off heavily tonight, as it kept giving me problems involving rook and pawn endings, and look what we ended up with!

Although the computer will tell me otherwise shortly in a minute, I felt I played very well in this game. My opponent did as well and made no obvious (to me) mistakes, so that made the win more satisfying. But I followed my move process religiously, I didn't make any mistakes and I considered his threats very carefully. I'm sorry if you are out there, PlayAnotherGame, you got caught by my playing to a much higher standard than normal.

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.11"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "PlayAnotherGame"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1281"]

[BlackElo "1460"]

[ECO "D20"]

[Opening "QGA"]

[Variation "3.e4"]

[TimeControl "1500+25"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 b5

Here's the funny thing: Everybody always says the Queen's Gambit is not a true gambit because black can't hold the pawn, but I've yet to crack how to quickly win back the pawn with this response.

MCO considers 3. e4 to be a non-standard but valid alternative for white here, so I guess that's okay, but I was thinking it was standard. I guess Nf3 is more natural.

4. Nc3 c6 5. Bf4 e6

6. Nf3 Nf6 7. g3 Bb4

g3 I really like here, because it is the right move for the right reasons imo. I thought awhile, I considered candidate moves and found one that did a lot for me. It supported the dark-squared bishop which was otherwise unprotected, it gave my light-squared bishop a good place to go, and it gave me a little more control over the somewhat central f4 square. Meanwhile, it weakend my light squares on that side, but his light bishop is nowhere near a good attacking position.

8. e5 Ne4

Saw the threat created by his pinning my pawn's defender and responded appropriately.

9. Qc2 Bxc3+

I felt this was another strong positional move

10. bxc3 Qd5

11. Bg2 f5

Now he's got a serious weak dark-square complex all over the board, his only developed minor piece is horribly placed in the center, vulnerable and pinned to his queen. At the higher levels, this game would be almost over despite his being ahead a pawn. But I'm nowhere near good enough to see this through with any certainty.

12. O-O O-O 13. Rfe1 Bb7

More pressure on that square.

14. Ng5 h6 15. Nxe4 fxe4

16. Bxe4 Qd7

The exchange that had been brewing awhile regains the pawn and leaves me the undisputed king of the center of the board.

17. Bh7+ Kh8 18. Qg6?! c5

This move was very, very speculative. I'm really not sure about it at all. It was definitely a "let's get lots of pieces near and pointed at his king and see if one of those tactics situations suddenly appears like in the training program" type of move. Probably more ? than ! in my opinion, but I played it anyway.

19. Rad1 Qd5 20. Qe4 Qxe4

Qd5 presented exactly the kind of threat I could have easily missed in the past. If my rook hadn't been well-placed on e1 to provide that crucial extra defender, I wouldn't have been able to effectively meet it. And the old me could have easily missed the threat of mate (heck, the new me could have too).

Very well played by my opponent, after this exchange he will regain positional equality, and while technically a bishop is considered better than a knight in end-game, knights give me all kinds of willies.

21. Bxe4 Bxe4 22. Rxe4 Rd8 23. Rd2 Nc6 24. Be3 cxd4 25. Bxd4 Rd5

I really wanted that pesky knight off the board here with a trade.

26. Be3 Nxe5 27. Rxd5 Nf3+

More credit to me, I'm darn near gushing about this game (the computer is going to smack me down real soon. In case anyone reading hasn't noticed, even though my computer-based annotations are side-by-side with my personal ones, I add them all after I've gone through the game personally myself).

Anyway, I saw the attempt at holding on to the extra pawn with Nf3+ to buy a tempo, but I also knew I could hold him off by chasing the knight a little and that his knight would end up in a bad spot back in the corner and nearly dominated by my bishop. Yay for me!

28. Kg2 Ne1+ 29. Kf1 exd5 30. Re5 Nc2

31. Rxd5 Nxe3+ 32. fxe3 a6

Very relived that the knight is off the board. And what do we have here? A passed pawn with rooks ending! This is exactly what the computer trainer had me working on all evening, so huzzah for it and me.

33. e4 Kg8 34. Ke2 Kf7

I think Ke2 was inaccurate here, and Rf5 would have been much better, keeping his king on the sidelines of the g and h files, away from all the action.

35. Ke3 Re8

36. Rf5+ Kg6

Thankfully I get another chance to pin that king over there. The game was probably won here, as long as I played very carefully. And for once I did.

37. Kf4 Re6 38. e5 a5 39. Ke4 Kh7 40. Rf1 Kg6

Advance the pawn, protect it, get the rook some breathing room and put it behind the passed pawn where rooks belong (so says my training program).

From here, promoting it is straight out of the book.

41. Kd5 Re8 42. Kd6 Rd8+ 43. Ke7 Rd2 44. e6 Rxh2 45. Re1 Rxa2

46. Kf8 Rf2+ 47. Kg8 Rc2

I'm not sure this was such a good idea in retrospect, Ke8 may have been better than Kg8. I'm vaguely worried about a back rank mate here now with my king having no escape squares off of the eighth row, but I also know my pawn would promote before he could ever get in position to do that, so I shouldn't be such a worry wart.

He can no longer stop the pawn from promoting and that should more or less be game.

Crafty actually disagrees here. This is the first time Crafty has strongly disagreed with any move from either player to this point, which is absolutely amazing!

Crafty says to play 45. Kf8, and the line goes Rxa2 46. e7 Re2, promote, trade the promoted pawn for the rook and win from there with the extra rook gobbling the remaining pawns.

The text (45. Re1) gives him the opportunity to draw by playing Rd2, followed by Kf8, Rd8+, Ke7, Rd2, and repeat. I probably would have actually played Ke8 instead, which would have been followed I guess by Kf6 , which I think still promotes the pawn. I'm confused, I must admit, by Crafty's analysis.

48. e7 Rxc3 49. e8=Q+ Kg5 50. Qxb5+ Kg4

51. Qxa5 Rxg3 52. Re4+ Kf3 53. Qa3+ Kxe4 54. Qxg3 g5 55. Kg7

1-0

New rating: 1281 (24 points from that game). I've been this high before, but now somehow it seems more solid, like I really earned it with careful play.

Forget blitz

I don't like it, I don't take it seriously when I play it, I don't learn anything from it. Forget blitz. It is removed from the rotation :)

Blitz games, September 11, 2009

Today, I studied some of the games of Capablanca, specifically his games against Marshall in 1909. I didn't understand any of what was going on, so I'm hoping this is like when a newborn listens to lots of speech he doesn't understand but it lays the foundations in his mind.

I also spent a few hours with the training software, which I think is always helpful.

Time for the blitz :(

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.11"]

[White "philfran"]

[Black "KyleMayhugh"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "890"]

[BlackElo "978"]

[ECO "C41"]

[Opening "Philidor's defense"]

[TimeControl "120+5"]

1. e4 d6

And we have a mouseslip! Apparently I mouseslipped into Philidor's defense? Good chance to look that up. Technically, we transposed to it after move two.

2. Nf3 e5 3. d4 Nc6

Nf6 is considered better here, aparently, and is the normal standard move. Slowly but surely we're building up our opening books.

4. dxe5 Nxe5 5. Nxe5 dxe5

6. Qxd8+ Kxd8

I used to think "woohoo, no castles" if I could force an opponent into this, or "oh noes, no castles!" if, like here, I got forced into it. But without queens on the board at this level, I'm really not convinced it makes a significant difference.

7. Nc3 Be6 8. Be3 Bb4 9. O-O-O+ Ke7 10. Nb5 c6

11. Nc7 Rc8 12. Nxe6 Kxe6 13. Bc4+ Ke7 14. Rd3 Nf6 15. f3 Rhd8

Let's just trade down to a king and pawn game if we can, I feel good about those.

16. Rhd1 Nd7 17. a3 Bc5 18. Bxc5+ Nxc5 19. Rxd8 Rxd8 20. Rxd8 Kxd8

21. Kd2 f6 22. Kc3 Kc7 23. b4 Na4+ 24. Kb3 Nb6 25. a4 Nxc4

26. Kxc4 Kd6

And here we are.

27. c3 b6 28. a5 b5+ 29. Kd3 a6 30. c4 g6

31. cxb5 cxb5

One side locked down, let's switch to the other.

32. g4 Ke6 33. Ke3 h5 34. gxh5 gxh5 35. h4 f5

36. exf5+ Kxf5

Now we've got some assymetry to exploit. Maybe.

37. Kf2 Kf4 38. Kg2 Ke3 39. Kg3 Kd3

By my counting, we've each got seven moves to promotion here, but I'll have an extra pawn and he may not play perfectly.

40. f4 exf4+

41. Kxf4 Kc4 42. Kg5 Kxb4 43. Kxh5 Kxa5 44. Kg5 b4 45. h5 b3

46. h6 b2 47. h7 b1=Q 48. h8=Q Qg1+ 49. Kf6 Qa1+ 50. Kf7 Qxh8

0-1

[Event "ICC"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2009.09.11"]

[White "KyleMayhugh"]

[Black "philfran"]

[Result "0-1"]

[WhiteElo "957"]

[BlackElo "877"]

[ECO "D35"]

[Opening "QGD"]

[Variation "Exchange variation"]

[TimeControl "120+5"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nxd5 Nxd5

In the QGD exchange variation, I should have played 5. Bg5 here instead of Nxd5.

6. Nf3 Bg4 7. e4 Qe7 8. Bd3 Nb4 9. Qa4+ N4c6 10. d5 Bxf3

11. gxf3 Qb4+ 12. Qxb4 Nxb4

0-1

Stop me if you've heard this before: I botched the opening in a blitz game. If he intentionally forced me into that spot where his knight is on b4 threatening my bishop and the fork of the king and rook at the same time, good for him!

That's all I have time for right now. If I'm going to force myself to play blitz, I may start going with a slightly longer time limit, because I really really do not enjoy it.

That said, I feel confident that things are going in the right direction. I like how I'm studying chess right now, even if I don't like how I'm playing it. Annotating every single game is a good step, looking up the openings in the MCO and learning the next best move in the sequence, studying some master games, it is all adding up. I just need to keep closing holes in my game, learning tactics (and by that I mean learning them so stone cold that I see them coming against me).

1500 ICC rating, thou art put on notice that I'm comin' for ya! (I mixed a metaphor and faux accents all in the same sentence there, nice.)

I notice that I've actually had a couple of visitors here lately thanks to my mild sitewhoring in my profile at ICC. Click an ad while you are here, plz :)