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 :)
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