Washington International Rd 3 - Asking too Much

In the third round of the Washington International I was paired with a 12 year old, if he weren't better than me at chess he could have been one of my students. He was actually the reigning Wold Champion for that age group, Samuel Sevian. Here's a picture of us playing the game (actually mostly him looking board).

Unlike most games this tournament, I got a promising position out of the opening. Then, when he threatened to create a dark squared blockade to shut down my initiative, I sacrificed a pawn. By move 21 all of my pieces were well placed and I had the option of regaining my pawn whenever I needed to. However, only a few moves later I started going a bit crazy. I felt that I had an advantage, but none of the variations I calculate led to anything better than some trades and maybe a slightly better endgame. Normally, this would be a great result against an opponent 150 points higher rated than me, but after having drawn the previous two games, I wanted a way to play for more. Instead of going into the endgame, I kept pieces on the board and played a complicated middle game, without ever taking the time to regain my pawn. As we fell into time pressure, my initiative slowly dwindled and my material disadvantage grew, until I found myself in a lost position. This endgame was worse than the games I had held in the previous two rounds, and despite attempts to complicate, I eventually took my first loss.

Summary: I over-pressed after a promising pawn sacrifice in the opening.

Lessons I should have learned: Don't attack just because you want to. Follow the needs of the position.

Washington International Round 2 - Stopping Darwin

I wasn't competing against the theory of evolution, at least not directly. Instead, my second game was against Darwin Yang, probably the strongest scholastic player in the country and rated well over 200 points above me. I've actually known of Darwin since he was little, as he competed each  month with a Madison chess prodigy Brian Luo for the top spot on the nationwide rating list of some single digit age group. While Brian took a break from chess at some point, Darwin kept going and is now an IM very close to the Grandmaster title.

Here's a picture of me playing the game, sitting next to the youngest player in the tournament (also higher rated than me!).

I played the black side of a fairly classical Queen's Gambit and had a fine position for the first 14 moves, before playing a very normal looking and quite bad 15th. I hadn't paid enough attention to my pinned d-pawn, and Darwin continued to slowly crank up the pressure, playing an excellent first 32 moves. By that time he had won a pawn for free and continued to attack with the hopes of winning more. Fortunately, at that point my prestigious opponent failed to switch gears from calm positional pressure to knockout tactics. He had at least three excellence opportunities to shift from pressing an advantageous to winning a decisive amount of material. I think that he was concerned that I would get counterplay in each instance and didn't want to have to risk miscalculating a sharp line. 

Eventually, I was able to trade knights, queens and finally rooks. Still down four pawns to three, the only remaining pieces were bishops on opposite colors. This balance made it impossible for him to make progress. First he declined my draw offer, but returned it a few moves later. In the final position, I can allow white's king to escort the passed pawn forwards. In the meantime my bishop could capture white's f and g pawns. My plan was to sacrifice this bishop for his passed pawn and then bring my king to h8, where it could never be pushed away from blocking white's last pawn. 

Summary: One bad move got me into trouble early on, but my opponent missed some winning chances and I was miraculously able to reach an opposite colored bishop endgame to secure the draw and a great 1/2 score at the end of the first day.

Lesson I should have learned: It's important to calculate vigilantly in the opening, even in seemingly calm positions.

Washington International: Round 1

I took the last week off of work to play the Washington International tournament, a great opportunity to play many of the strongest opponents I have ever faced. There were too many good and bad moments for me to fully analyze so far, so I'm breaking the recap into pieces.

When I arrived for the first round, I found out that I was seeded 49th out of a 60 player field, a sign that this would be an uphill battle. The impression was further confirmed by my first round pairing against Grandmaster Gildrado Garcia, the 11 time champion of his native country, Columbia! Entering this game my lifetime score against Grandmasters in rated games was 0-5, with none of the games being particularly close.

In order to take advantage of his additional experience and rating, my opponent played an unusual, method of development in the opening, sacrificing king safety for an opportunity to grab the bishop pair. After 11 moves we reached the position below where I had three options for how to recapture on g3. I was intrigued by his weakened kingside and chose the overly aggressive (not for the last time this week) fxg3. This severely damaged my pawn structure and king safety, but made it easier for my rook to attack f7. The Grandmaster defended well, and almost by force we reached an endgame where I had a queen against two rooks and a pawn. This was a severe material disadvantage, but the open position of black's king gave me some counterplay and I'm not sure if my position was ever lost with best play. Once the queenside pawns were traded, my opponent allowed a repetition of moves because his king would never find shelter.

Summary: Overly aggressive play got me into trouble, but solid defense held the draw against a strong player.

Lesson I should have learned: Don't enter unclear complications where there are normal moves to improve a good position.

Out of the Ordinary

This is my first post in about a month. I lost a frustrating game in June by blundering multiple times in a good endgame. Since then I've been pretty unhappy with my chess form, writing a lot of chess material for work and uninterested in blogging here. I'm in the process of preparing for the intensive Washington International which should be quite an experience considering the number of title players on this pre-entry list: http://www.mdchess.com/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detail&evid=67256&Itemid=185&year=2013&month=08&day=06&title=2nd-annual-washington-international

I just wanted to post today because I just played an unusual and entertaining 5 - minute game against an IM and well known ICC personality, Christof Sielecki.  He has a youtube channel annotating his games and and others, under his handle chessexplained. We played a very locked up opening, leading to creative play and, unfortunately, my king reaching f4 by move 20. Somehow though, I was never getting completely blown out and managed to even win with a nice attack. I'm not sure if there will be another post until after my tournament in August, so I hope you enjoy this game.

A Bit of History

One of our local chess celebrities, National Master Walter Harris likes to tell stories of his time in New York, playing games with a young Bobby Fischer and an older Arnold Denker. One of his favorites is the story of the time he defeated Grandmaster Denker, who then complained bitterly about his defeat, claiming that he had missed a win. It's an incredibly complicated game, but it looks like Denker may have been right.

Special thanks to Tom Saunders for finding the article in a magazine from 1961!

Random Fun Blitz Game.

This blitz game shows a nice way of dealing with a minority attack and has a fun finish. I got to sacrifice two rooks for mate (in part by missing a mate in one). Enjoy:

The Trouble with Long Games Online

The vast majority of my internet blitz games are played on the Internet Chess Club's 3 minute or 5 minute pools. Occasionally, if I want practice with a longer game or if I don't have a mouse around for blitz, I will play in the 15 minute pool. Unfortunately, 15 minute games online have a couple of unfortunate factors.

1. Fewer people want to play.

2. The games take longer.

These factors both result in it taking longer to find an opponent and that opponent being unlikely to match your level. This results in an cyclical problem because people like me play less as a result, leading to more of factor 1.

When I do play, the games are often easy. Here's a fun one from a couple of days ago -