Weekly G/65 on ICC...an ugly loss!!

So this week's game never felt  right!  At times the game was equal and I may have had a slight edge here or there but I just never felt like I was in the game.  I felt like my opponent was in control the entire time.

I eventually blunder away my knight for the sake of eating a pawn I didn't need and then the game ends rather unceremoniously.

Not my best effort by any means:

I hope everyone has a great week!

Return of the weekly G/65 at ICC..Finally a win in the Open Sicilian!

You read the title correctly!  I Finally won a game as White against the Sicilian!!  Mercy Me!

It was a really hard fought contest!  My opponent and I both got in some time trouble as we both took a lot of time to think in the middle game.  You will see a bit of slop from both of us.  But still, what a fun game!  He fought, I fought!  The way chess is supposed to be.  And yes, it is funner 'cause I won.  But I remember thinking that even when it looked I might lose that I was having one of my funnest internet games ever!

Anyway, here is the game:

I hope everyone has a great week!

The Najdorf Sicilian Explained..BY ME (to the best of my abilities!)

After reading Mednis' description of the Sicilian and taking to heart some of YOUR recent replies I figured I would really dive into the Open Sicilian by way of model games, a database for reference, and my own opinion!

My goal with this is to figure out how I want to play the Open Sicilian as White.  Because, Gosh Darnnit, I like 1.e4!  And I will no longer cower in the face of 1...c5.

So I am looking at each MAJOR variation (I mean MAJOR) in detail and will try to figure out how I want to answer it based on model games.  I tackled the Najdorf Sicilian first because it seems to be uber-popular.  My first overview is of the "poisoned pawn" variation.  I think I like 6.Bg5 over Be2.  I will have to do an overview of Be2 as well.  I used 2 Ivanchuk games as my models because he has played it 6.Bg5 a lot over the entire course of his career.  So here goes:

Next up we will see what happens when Black plays 7...Be7 in the "poisoned pawn". 

Be well!

What I found in my closet and other thoughts........

School is back in session so it is back to my 40 minute tactics/endgame work with my morning coffee!  I decided not to play a G/60 this weekend just to take a break from competitive chess, be it OTB or ICC!

I have been studying some master games in the Open Sicilian (my nemesis).  I have found myself drawn to the games of Judit Polgar, Vishy Anand, and Tal!  Right now I am annotating one of Polgar's games in the Open Sicilian (as White).

I also went digging in my book closet and found three books!  One I had read a few years ago, one I come back to every once in awhile and one I kind of forgot about:

1) "How To Play Good Opening Moves" by Edmar Mednis:  Great book on opening principles AND he has two entire chapters on the basic principles of the Sicilian!  Great stuff.  Nothing too deep but just enough to help look at aforementioned master games with a little more clarity!  Mednis was the man!!

2)  "Strategic Chess" by Edmar Mednis:  Basically a book about closed openings.  I decided I am going to dig into the chapters on the Queen's Indian now that I have played quite a few games in that opening.  Mednis really does explain this type of topics (openings) better than ANYONE!  If Mednis wrote a book any opening I ever wanted play I would buy it sight unseen.

3)  "The Art of The Middlegame" by Kotov, Keres and Golombek:  I forgot I had this book BUT I decided to peruse the chapter on attack by Kotov!  What a great chapter!  He outlines basic principles for attack on the castled and uncastled king as well as for kings castled on opposite sides.  And the examples are awesome and highlight the principles really well.  Obviously he can only go so deep in 50 pages or so but it is just enough for me as I have never really studied "attacking" other than reading over games and/or attacking tactical problems.  So this is perfect for me! I think it will help me analyze my games better and even analyze some master games! 

I hope everyone is doing well!  I will post the annotated Polgar game in a few days.

OTB tournament--The Games

So here are the games from yesterday's OTB tournament.

Game One:  A really good game until I crack under time pressure.  Neither one of us make any glaring mistakes.  This was one of my funnest games ever.  I gotta learn to control the clock a little better AND even if in time trouble I need to look for the best move.  In my blunder I knew it wasn't right but I played hope chess.  Here is the game:

Game Two:  Another good game.  My opponent slowly gained an edge and I made a few mistakes that compounded upon each other.  However it was tense over the board.  A fun and instructive game for me!  (and I really gotta learn when to make pawn pushes!!)

Here is the game:

Game Three:  The win!  A couple of you mentioned that I should not feel that this win was tainted because my opponent was late and was down 30 minutes on the clock.  It was his fault.  However I think the quality of chess was a little less than the first two games.  BUT I am happy with the win.  Oddly enough I am okay with my speculative piece sacrifice in this game which caused my opponent to resign!  I DID NOT see the better move (unlike in the first game where I saw the better move but did not play it)  ALSO I played this sacrifice more out of psychological factors as I could tell my opponent was not wanting to fight for the game.  So this was an unsound sacrifice of my knight but it worked!

Here is the game:

I HOPE I can get to a few more OTB tournaments this year.  This was the first OTB tourney where I felt I could actually play and hang and be a part of good games.  I want that to continue!  Have a great week.

OTB tournament results!

Today's OTB tourney (my first tourney since June and only my third since 2009!) was a 3 round Swiss system, G/90.

Full disclosure part 1:  Even though my ICC rating has crept up to 1502 my OTB rating has remained (for lack of play AND lack of skill!!) at 740!.   

For the first game I had the Black pieces against someone rated about 1660 or so.  It was a GREAT game!  One of my best until  I was running short on time and did not play the safe move but instead played a piece sacrifice that was VERY UNSOUND!  I knew it was but I also felt time pressure as my opponent still had 50 minutes and I had ten!  I should have played the safe move.  This was a REALLY fun game!

For the second game I had the White pieces against someone rated 1706.  It was again a good solid game.  He got a pawn advantage and played a great moving choosing to exchange rooks on HIS terms and went on to win as he had two pawns threatening to promote and I could in no way stop both.  Another well played and very fun game!

For the third game I WON against someone rated 1633!!  I had the Black pieces for this game.

Full disclosure part 2;  This game had  a touch of controversy (sort of).  My opponent was late for the game and we even waited a few minutes but then we started his clock.  The TD stated that by rules the person had an hour to show up.  My opponent EVENTUALLY showed up with 30 minutes already gone on his clock!
He seemed not happy about it but those are the rules.

The game was an interesting one and took awhile before there were any exchanges!  Eventually my opponent caught up to me as I was taking a long time to think (I am happy to say I sat on my hands for MOST of the day).  But my position started to slip so I played one of my favorite moves in a chess game I have ever played!  It was speculative and not all that sound BUT I could tell my opponent was not happy and feeling rattled from the lateness issue.  And I also felt he was slowly gaining and advantage and I was tired so I GAMBLED!  And it worked.  My opponent didn't feel like figuring things out and resigned.  (more on that position when I post the games)

So it was a good victory, not a great one with the late start etc.  But it was a win.  And the two losses were really fun and I feel that they will be very instructive.

I will be posting the games tomorrow after I run through them. 

So my record for the tourney was 1 win, 2 losses.


I GOTTA play more OTB!!  :)

Some fun but most likely meaningless statistics from my chess games!

SO just for the heck of it I went database diving in the great FREE software, Scid vs. PC.

Ever since I began playing at least one G/60-G/65 a week I have been keeping  a fairly tidy database of my games.  (this dates back to September 20th or so when I rejoined the ICC)

Since September 20th, 2011 I have played 66 games of chess.  All but 21 of them were of the G/60 or G/65 variety.  20 were a smattering of G/20 or G/30 at Chess.com and then there was one correspondence game at Chess.com.

Because I got nothing else to do here are my current chess statistics:


After a few games my rating at ICC was 1198.  That was in early October.  About four months later my current rating at ICC is 1502

My Stats with the White pieces:

33 Games:  17 wins and 16 losses.

23 games were G/60 or G/65.  10 were at G/20 or G/30

My opponent's average rating has been 1393 when I play with the White pieces.

My best win as White:  Black was rated 1453
My worst loss as White:  Black was rated 1198

(and I SUCK against the Sicilian with the White pieces--not ONE win
playing against a Sicilian opening as White!)

Opening statistics for the White pieces are hard to decipher as I have been playing a lot of different openings as White lately.  I DO KNOW I SUCK against the Sicilian!  :)


My Stats with the Black Pieces:

33 Games:  17 wins, 13 losses, 3 draws

23 games were G/60 or G/65.  9 were at G/20 or G/30
and 1 was a correspondence game at Chess.com (which I won)

My opponent's average rating has been  1374 when I have the Black pieces.

My Best Win as Black:  White was rated 1509
My Worst loss as Black:  White was rated 1287

Best opening as Black:  I am scoring at 75% against 1. e4 with the 2...e6 Sicilian.

Worst opening as Black: The ENGLISH!  I losing 75% of my games against the English.


So OF COURSE all of this does not mean much at all!!  But it is interesting that I seem to score a bit better with the Black pieces??  But with so few games it is still a statistical anomaly!


The OTB tournament is this weekend!  But for the first time ever going to an OTB tournament I feel that I can at least hang at the chessboard. (within a certain level player of course)  And that is a good feeling!!  I just need to think, play the position, and have fun!!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will post Saturday or Sunday with a tournament report.  (it is a one day 3 round, G90 swiss!)