Friday, November 23, 2007

A Small Reprieve

I’ve a somewhat quiescent point with things at home that allowed me a chess moment at the club. I had a side game with a father who was waiting for his kid to finish. It was a serious imbalance in ratings being 500 points higher than him. I admire he was still a sport for the challenge and I must admit he had a good game.

The position below was reached after:
White: Blunderprone Black: Chess Father

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.Qd2 a6 7.Bh6 Re8 8.Bxg7 Kxg7 9.0-0-0 Bg4 10.e5 dxe5 11.dxe5 Qxd2+ 12.Rxd2 Nfd7 13.Nd5 Ra7 14.Ng5 b5 15.h3 Be6 16.Nxe6+ fxe6 17.Nf4 Nc5 18.b4 Ne4 19.Rd4 Nxf2 20.Nxe6+ Kh8 21.Rg1 Nc6 22.Rh4 Nxe5 23.Kd2 c6 24.Ke2 Rd7 25.Kxf2 Rd2+ 26.Ke3 Rxc2 27.Ng5 Rc1 28.Kd2 Ra1 29.Kc3 Rf8



The position looks threatening for me with both rooks looming on my bishop and a rook pinned. Believe it or not, I actually planned it that way as I saw a nice tactic that just doesn’t jump out in this position. Can you?


(Scroll when ready)




30.Bc4 Lose the game or lose the rook !
30...Rxg1 31.Rxh7# 1-0


I will be able to escape on Sunday to attend the Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial ( one of Massachusetts early champions).



I haven’t had much OTB experience and a little on line but I am looking forward to some good sparring. I’ll be playing in the Under 1900 section.

On a side note, in continuation of tactics training, I am in the process of converting CT-ART to PGN and playing it against Fritz using 3D mode since visualization is important for OTB and I am too lazy to set up a board. After the initial material gain, I find playing the game to the win isn’t as easy as it seems against Fritz. Despite the material gain, it’s a good exercise in not blowing a won game.