I actually only had the energy for a few games when I got off work yesterday. I like to stay up all night watching him and playing while he sleeps, but I'm trying to avoid shedding rating points by playing while sleepy. There wasn't a lot of human activity in the low-rated standard games, so I played HewNowCC a few times, a computer that rates between 1250 and 1400 most of the time.
I did a shocking (to me) 3.5 out of 4 against it. This computer usually smacks me around pretty good, and even after last night I still only have a 29% record against him in 99 games. I finished the playing for the night by losing a quick and ugly match to a 1300-rated computer I'd never seen before, and then I finally found a human opponent who was rated just a little under 1100 and didn't seem to be paying much attention to any sort of threats I generated and won fairly easily.
So all in all, 4.5 out of 6 for the night and a rating change of 1217>1267. I'm not sure I can hold on to those rating points at my current level of play, but I'll take them! Here's the first game of the night, probably the most interesting for me:
[Event "ICC"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2009.09.02"]
[White "KyleMayhugh"]
[Black "HEYNOWww"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1217"]
[BlackElo "1327"]
[TimeControl "1800+30"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nc3 a6 4. e4 Nc6
At this point we've got our basic queen's gambit accepted, albeit with the unusual a6 move.
5. Bxc4 Nxd4
I'm not too sure about this move in retrospect. At the time, it felt like I could let him take the d-pawn because I thought he'd have a hard time defending the d4 square and I'd get compensation with either a piece or strong control of the center.
6. Nce2 e5 7. Be3 Bb4+ 8. Bd2 Bc5 9. Nxd4 Bxd4 10. Nf3 Bxb2
And here we are. He's been unable to hold on to d4 and has to move his bishop. Low-level computers are often poor at seeing tactics (one of two key weaknesses, the other will show up later). He moves his bishop to take the seemingly unguarded pawn, but has this unpleasant line waiting for him.
11. Bxf7+ Kxf7 12. Qb3+ Ke8 13. Qxb2 c5
This combo came straight from the tactics trainer (well, not this exact problem, but the reminder to sometimes take a circuitous queen's route to get a piece deep in your own territory).
Now my gambit of letting him take the d-pawn has worked itself out strongly in my favor. I'm still down a pawn, but he has literally no development, an insecure and uncastle-able king, and no clear way to defend his e-pawn. I'm sure the gambit would not have worked against a stronger player.
14. Qxe5+ Qe7 15. Qxe7+ Kxe7
Time to start clearing the board and simplifying. Maybe not the best play because I'm only tied in material, and in retrospect I'm throwing away a developed piece for an undeveloped one.
16. O-O Nf6 17. Bg5 Ke8 18. Bxf6 gxf6 19. Rac1 Be6 20. a3 c4
21. Rfe1 Rc8 22. e5 fxe5 23. Re2 e4
Re2 was actually a mouseslip. Of course I intended Rxe5. I'm actually surprised at how rarely this happens playing online.
24. Rxe4 Ke7 25. Ng5 Rc6
26. Nxe6 Rxe6
Removing one of the guards on the c-pawn.
27. Rxe6+ Kxe6 28. Rxc4 Ke5
And now we're up a decisive pawn. From here, the win is pretty trivial.
29. f3 Kd6 30. Rd4+ Kc7
31. Kf2 b5 32. a4 Rc8 33. axb5 axb5 34. h4 Rb8 35. Rg4 Rb7
36. Rg7+ Kc6 37. Rxb7 Kxb7 38. Ke1 b4 39. Kd1 Ka8
And here's the other weakness of this computer. It has absolutely no clue how to play king and pawn endings. If I get this far, it's always a win.
40. Kc2 Kb7
41. Kb3 Kb8 42. Kxb4 Kc8 43. Kc5 Kc7 44. Kd4 Kd7 45. Ke4 Kc6
46. f4 Kc7 47. Ke5 h5 48. Ke6 Kb6 49. f5 Kc7 50. f6 Kc8
51. Ke7 Kb8 52. f7 Ka8 53. f8=Q+ Ka7 54. Qh6 Kb8 55. Qxh5 Kc8
56. Ke6 Kd8 57. Qh7 Kc8 58. g4 Kb8 59. g5 Ka8 60. g6 Kb8
61. g7 Ka7 62. g8=Q+ Kb6 63. Qd8+ Kc5 64. Qd6+ Kb5 65. Qhd3+ Ka5
66. Qc7+ Ka4 67. Qa6+ Kb3 68. Qcc4+ Kb2 69. Qab5+ Ka1 70. Qca4#
1-0
I don't play two-queen endings very efficiently. I probably should learn to do so eventually, but it always gets to be a win eventually, so I don't worry about it too much.
After those online games, I played against my computer for awhile, but it was half-hearted and not really focused. Then I got to work on some training. I put in a good hour on Chess Mentor, and that was instructive.
Finally, I watched an excellent ICC video from national master and teacher Dan Heisman. http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm (The video is not on his web site, but many other wonderful things are. I need to get around to reading more of his "novice nook" columns).
The video discussed positoinal evaluation for novice and intermediate players, and some common mistakes. The biggest is overvaluing the pawn structure. Of the four positional concerns (king safety, material, activity of pieces and pawn structure), it is the least important. He especially emphasized the role of bishops in evaluating a position. A doubled, isolated rook pawn (say, from an exchange of knight for bishop on a3) isn't bad at all if you still have the right-colored bishop to protect the weakened a3 and c3 squares, and even better if you do and your opponent does not. If you do not have that bishop, however, you are in deep trouble.
Expanding on that, he showed how one side can have a nearly winning advantage early in the game just by having the right-colored bishop to attack the weak squares if his opponent has all of his pawns on one side of the board on the same color, and if his opponent does not have that bishop, and if the queens are on the board. Quite striking how a position that looks even at first glance is actually so lopsided!
I suspect these concepts may be a bit beyond my game at this point, but hopefully I'll be chasing them down very quickly. It might help explain why I sometimes feel as if I've reached a balanced position in the middle game, only to find myself losing very quickly without any clear blunders.
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