Breaking a perfectly good losing streak

First, I want to thank all for the words of encouragement. I needed to get that last rant off my "chess". Steve, saw me this morning at the pairings and was worried about me jumping off a bridge after last night. I assured him that the rant was more of a carthetic process that I had to get out of my system.

Now: Blunderprone: 2.5 World: 4.5

( the 0 and 4 tally on the 3 day mistep is discounted in this tally)

I lost round 6 because I didn't know how to handle the Pirc with 1.e4. A 14 year old kid ( who looks like he's 18) who is taking lessons form Ivanov and I knwo rather well, helped me understand what to play when faced with the Pirc. He use to play it regularly and was rather helpful.

Recall in my tenacious response to the bemoaning rant... that I likened this journey being at sea in a leaky ship where I am trying to plug these holes. Aside from the tactical, and over agressive play that hampered my rough start ( easier holes to plug ... just play "real" chess), the harder ones to control for me were the positional and opening related ones. Despite, the loss in the 6th round, I was happy that it wasn't because I was trying to force somethign that wasn't there. Rather, I simply didn't know what hit me. Next thing I knew, I was losing pawns left and right and couldn't stop an attack.

I bounced back for round seven with this game:

[Event "35th World Open"][Site "?"][Date "????.??.??"][Round "?"][White "Washington, Willie"][Black "Duval, George"][Result "0-1"][ECO "D12"][PlyCount "64"][SourceDate "2007.06.30"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nf3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg4 7. f3 Bh5 8. g4Nxg4 9. fxg4 Qxh4+ 10. Kd2 Bxg4 11. Qe1 Qxe1+ 12. Kxe1 Bf5 13. c5 b6 14. b4 Nd715. Ne2 bxc5 16. bxc5 e5 17. Ba3 Be7 18. Ng3 Bg6 19. h4 h5 20. Kd2 exd4 21.exd4 O-O 22. Be2 Bf6 23. Bxh5 Bxd4 24. Rae1 Bf2 25. Re7 Ne5 26. Rh3 Nc4+ 27.Ke2 Bxg3 28. Bxg6 Bxh4 29. Bh7+ Kxh7 30. Rxh4+ Kg8 31. Bb4 Rae8 32. Rxe8 Rxe8+0-1

The position after move 8 was a familiar one I had seen before so I knew the tactic was solid.

I had black to move here:



Last two rounds tomorrow and then I plan on playing in the Blitz tourney after.

I also took Joshua's advice and enjoyed myself while watching some of the "big" games live in person. I watched Perelshteyn beat Isoria. I also watched Nakamura draw Stripunsky in ROund 7. WOW... what a dynamic battle. I thought for sure Nakamura was going to win.

Later

BP