Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Good news

I did manage to win my last round at the club against a 1780 player trying to make a comeback after a 20 year exile from the game. This gave me a chance to end with a plus score to my rating.

I used an old friend ( The London) as I began the game doing some social engineering. " So, ( looking at my scoresheet) Bob, You are new to the club?"



Bob: " Yes, I'm coming back after 20 years of not playing in serious events." Me: " Ha Ha. SO the wife now lets you out of the house." Nervous chuckle on both our parts.



Then, in my head, the thought process began. 20 years since serious play must mean he stopped playing after Fisher left the scene and Kasparov was dominating the World. Further meaning, he probably started playing during the Fisher-mania... which meant he was probably a Sicilian player if I snapped 1.e4. I was tempted to go down a Smith-morra but then I said to myself, Hmmm, I'll be he never saw the London. Here's a chance to go "old school" on his rusty behind.



I won't shame him with the post of the game here ( If you really want to see it...ask me and I may post it in the comments). For starters, I deployed my pieces faster than my opponent. Then bob was busier than a super model at a Viagra conference. I was tactically removing the guard like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claiming he got rid of homosexuals in Iran.



But enough of that. I am taking things slow as family life takes a priority. Back in August I signed up to participate in a correspondence chess league team from our club. It's a pretty manageable pace with time limits like 30 days to make 10 moves. I get a notice on email along with a link to the game. I can view it... ponder it, then move and submit... followed by commit. Yes, a three step process.



Once a week at the club, a correspondence game and watching the Boston Blitz is about all I am signing up to do. I will blitz on ICC for some R&R. I am not doing too much in the studying realm as my time really is to my first priorities.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

George,

I'm glad to hear your social engineering bagged you a solid point!

I was also glad you mentioned the correspondence game... it should be good to help you with solid forthright chess :-)

For people that are curious, the correspondence game is a match between MetroWest CC and Greater Worcester CC and is organized by New Met League. Their blog is at: http://newmetleague.blogspot.com/ with all pertinent info.

The second newsletter will be out this weekend (with link from blog), and people tell me there's about 10 more Clubs interested including out West from Idaho and Wyoming...

Not bad for cobbling together the first two matches this month...

Amici Sumus!

Anonymous said...

Hey George - this kind of game provides a little balance to the problem noted in your previous post - in the middle section at MCC you have a relatively huge number of games against kids whose playing strength is way over their rating.
ds
reassembler.com

transformation said...

George, you are SUCH a smart dude. Nice post. if i had your brains, id have a life by now.

As you know, I dont send you spam any more, but did sent you one tidbit last week. :)

Warmly, dk

Anonymous said...

Geo,

Maybe LarryC can use that tactic against Patrick wolff Wednesday night in our Blitz vs. SF match! :)

-Matt

wang said...

Well I'm happy you've found some balance. This obsession of ours can leave us a little strapped for time. It seems that life and work always get in the way of my chess plans. I'm looking forward to hearing of your adventures with correspondence chess.