I thought I could not make it, but again I am wrong. The daily posting cycle did not break today and I am quite happy about it, even if it means that I was wrong yesterday. The game below was played in the first round of the Smaller Tournament. I am currently on third place and I have gathered 4,5 points in six games. Two games left and if I win both of them, I will win my group and advance to the next round. My opponent in this game, nemoz, is currently on second place and will not advance to the second round as only the winner will advance. This is because nemoz has no more games to play. Both of my remaining games are against the current leader of the group, Jessemw915, who has won all his other six games in this tournament. The game below was quite evenly fought and I think it was my opponent, who offered the draw and I accepted because I was uncertain of how to continue and also because draw against a higher rated player is something I can be somewhat happy about. And maybe even more importantly, it decreased my game load. Not by much, but every little bit helps. I have added one mate in one, three mate in twos and one mate in six today. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!
30 Jun 2015
C95 Closed Spanish Game: Breyer Variation with 10.d4 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 O-O 7.c3 b5 8.Bb3 d6 9.h3 Nb8 10.d4 Nbd7 11.Nbd2 Bb7 12.a4 c5)
29 Jun 2015
D66 Queen's Gambit Declined: Classical: Main Line (7.Rc1 c6 8.Bd3) (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 O-O 6.e3 c6 7.Rc1 Nbd7 8.Bd3 b6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.O-O h6 11.Bh4 Bb7)
This game was played in a team match called 100+ PLAYERS FUNNY JUNGLEMATCH. The match is played between JUNGLE TEAM and Space Angels - National Almond Butter Crunch Day In Andromeda's Cluster Of Infinite Bright Stars. The latter team changes its name from time to time. This is played on 139 boards and I am playing on board 15 for Space Angels - National Almond Butter Crunch Day In Andromeda's Cluster Of Infinite Bright Stars. This game promised more for me than a draw and also it promised a loss near the end, so maybe I am okay with the result because it could have been worse. The score in the match at the moment I type this is 117 - 133 in favor of Space Angels - National Almond Butter Crunch Day In Andromeda's Cluster Of Infinite Bright Stars. We have a nice lead in the match but the win is still far from secured. I have added two mate in twos, one mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in six moves puzzle. I am today finally all caught up with my RHP games, so I might start going through my over the board games alongside my Chess.com games. And when more games end at GameKnot, Red Hot Pawn or Queen Alice Internet Chess Club, I will go through them again. Tomorrow I might be too busy to make a post, so I might take a day off, after doing this daily for several months in a row.
28 Jun 2015
D16 Slav Defence: 5.a4: Lines with 5...Bg4 and 5...Na6 (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4)
This was played in a team match called Open Challenge ✮HIGH POWER✮. It was a match played on 12 boards between ✮HIGH POWER✮ and DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS. I played on board 3 in this match for DORU-66 6 HIS BEST FRIENDS and I ended up winning both of my games on time. The match ended 6,5 - 17,5 in favor of DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS. Even if my opponent had not lost on time, I think I could have won this regardless. There were positions in this game that were quite difficult for me to play and I thought that one mistake could cost me the win. I had to be very careful not to let that happen. This was certainly more hard fought game than my other game with honnyqueen because there she lost on time during the opening phase of the game. I have added one mate in two, three mate in threes and one tactic puzzle. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!
This post was previously named D16 Slav Defense: Alapin Variation and it was changed to its current name on August 16th, 2019.
27 Jun 2015
A46 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6: Torre, London and Colle Systems (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Nbd2 O-O)
This one is a short timeout win, but it could have been a humiliating loss to a much lower rated opponent. My total lack of awareness to tactical possibilities is my major weakness when playing chess and it can often cause me to lose against a much lower rated opponent if they just can solve tactics better than me. Luckily I do not play all that many games against much lower rated players anymore. The game below was played in the first round of the 2014 October Long Haul Split I tournament at Red Hot Pawn. I am playing on group 2 and I am currently on shared sixth place. I have gathered 27 points so far and I have won all my games. It does not mean that my games would have been that good, but somehow I managed as a winner, at least that has been the case so far. The current leader of the group is beatlemania (1677), who has gathered 42 points in this tournament and has a maximum possible score of 60. Beatlemania is currently the second highest rated player in the group. Second place is taken by Blackpoolmad (1589) with 40 points and a maximum possible score of 58. On third place is Marko Krale (1489) with 38 points and a maximum possible score of 41. The numbers on the parentheses are the ratings of the players that they currently have.
26 Jun 2015
E51 Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...O-O 5.Nf3 d5 (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e3 dxc4 6.Bxc4 Bd6 7.O-O O-O 8.e4 e5)
The game below was played in the first round of a tournament called 1800+ 7 Days. There are 64 players in this tournament, divided into eight player groups and three best players of each group will advance to the next round. I am currently on sixth place and me ending up in the top three is very unlikely at this time. I have finished six games so far, with a score of 3,5 out of 6 and I have eight games left. PaulPorsche (2362) is leading group #5 at the moment, the group I am in. He has gathered 9,5 points in ten games, so he is a clear favorite to win the group at the moment. The next two players in the standings are BigGStikman (2045) and skw123 (2129) and both have gathered 5,5 points in seven games. The ratings shown in the parentheses are their Online Chess ratings at the time I type this. Even though they have not secured their places on the next round, I think those three players are the most likely ones to continue to the second round from group #5. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in five today.
This paragraph and the ones that follow it have been added November 8th, 2016, unless otherwise stated. In my opinion the first move that started the downhill for CabassoG was 5...dxc4. The move is a mistake because I could take back on c4 with my bishop that still originated at f1. If the player who controls the black pieces wants to take on c4, then that player should take there only after the light-squared has moved. Due to the move played in the game, I got one extra move to develop my pieces. Even after that move the game might be salvageable for my opponent with accurate play. The position went more down the drain for CabassoG with my opponent's 6th move, Bd6 that he played in the diagram below.
I did miss the strongest reply, 7.e4, this time and played 7.O-O instead allowing my opponent to breathe a sigh of relief. I may have missed my chance to get a clear advantage on move on move 7, but at least I remained on the better side of the board. It was with my 9th move that the advantage tipped in favor of my opponent. In the position below I played 9.Be3.
CabassoG was able to play the most accurate reply, 9...exd4. I replied with 10.Nxd4 and opponent answered by playing 10...Nxd4. Unfortunately for CabassoG, my opponent's 10th move was a mistake that enabled me to get back into the game. When we reached the position below after my 14th move Qc2, CabassoG made the biggest mistake of the game up to that point. CabassoG played 14...Bb7, which could have been already the losing move.
I played a good enough move in response, but I missed the strongest move 15.e5. In the game I played 15.Rad1. Again my opponent took a wrong path though and after 15...Qc8 I should have been in a winning position. Once more I missed my chance, this time, however, I was not able to maintain an advantage, the move 16.Nd5 brought the position to equality. The game was rather evenly fought until CabassoG played 32...Qc5 in the position below.
While for a couple of moves I was able maintain the advantage, with my 35th move Rd8 all my gathered advantage disappeared. In order to maintain the best possible chance to win the game, I should have played 35.Re7 instead. CabassoG continued with the right idea at first, but then my opponent played 37...g5 in the position below.
It was the fatal mistake as it allowed a forced mate.
25 Jun 2015
A16 English Opening: 1...Nf6 with ...d5 (1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.O-O O-O 7.e4 d6 8.a3)
The game below was played in the 2014 September Grand Seven Fourteen III tournament. I have gathered 85 points so far and I can get to 103 points if I win my last six games. I am currently on fourth place but I can end up anywhere from second place to sixth place depending on what happens on the remaining games. In three days, I have gone from 169 games in progress to 159 games in progress which is a very good sign. Games might end in a decent pace in the nearish future aswell, so maybe I could get under 100 in July. I have added one more analysed game to the following posts today: A00 Mieses Opening: Reversed Rat, C62 Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense and D45 Semi-Slav Defense: Main Lines. I have also added two mate in twos, two mate in fours and one mate in six. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!
The first sign of trouble for my opponent came when adalia bipunctata played 9.b4 in the position below. It was a better idea to play 9.h3. One of the problems with the move 9.b4 is that it loses a pawn in the game continuation 9...cxb4 10.axb4 Nxb4 11.Qb3 a5. My 9th move was not the best, 9...Nxe4 was a much stronger move and the game might have been quickly over had I played it.
Even with the move I played in the game I was clearly better for a few moves. When I played the move 12...Qc7 in the position below, my advantage decreased into a small one. 12...Rc8 and 12...Nd7 were better options.
Adalia bipunctata then made the game losing blunder 13.d5. It gave me another opportunity to play 13...Nxe4! Given enough time, even I can find a good move and I did play the move 13...Nxe4 in the game. My opponent never recovered and ended up resigning the game after my 37th move d4+.
24 Jun 2015
C68 Spanish Game: Exchange Variation, sidelines (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nc3 Bd6 6.d4)
This game is from the first round of the Ruy Lopez tournament that is in progress at Chess.com. I have finished now 12 of the 22 games that I need to play on round one and I won them all. The twelve points I have gathered put me in fifth place at the moment. I am currently the only player in the group without any point losses, so things are looking good for me. The 96 players who have taken part in this tournament were divided in 12 player groups. From each group 3 players will advance to the next round. This will be one of my longest tournaments because the thinking times are 14 days per move and also because only half of the games will start with each round. So there will be only one game against a certain opponent at a time. I played quite badly in the earlier part of the game and only got back in the game and in a winning position after my opponent blundered with 21.Rxe6?? and I managed turn the game around. I did not see the best way to win but instead something that was adequate. I have added four mate in twos and one mate in three today.
23 Jun 2015
E12 Queen's Indian: Unusual White 4th moves, 4.a3, 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.a3 and 4.Nc3 Bb7 (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.Bg5 e6 4.e3 Bb7 5.c4 Be7 6.Nc3 d6)
When I searched for an opening that was played in this game, I found three different names for it. This was also called A47 Indian Game: Pseudo-Queen's Indian and A47 Queen's Indian Defense. So the one thing that was agreed upon was the ECO code for the opening. I chose to call it this because I like it more than the other two. Besides, Capablanca is one of my favorite players of all time. The game below was played in the 2014 September Grand Seven Fourteen III tournament. The tournament is still in progress and whether or not kopsov, my opponent in this game, will be the single winner of the tournament has not been decided yet. He only needs to get one draw from his remaining two games to win on his own. After this game I was really disgusted about the way I was able to mess up a very good game. I thought about the move 41...Rf1 but I am not sure why I ended up playing what I did in the game. I guess I was already a bit annoyed how well my opponent seemed to have counterplay for the material he or she had lost. Quite simply I just misunderstood the correct time when I was truly lost. And maybe I thought I would need my rook on the defense of the sixth rank. I guess I have forgotten some of the lessons I had learned from watching Attack with LarryC videos in the past. I should start watching them again at some point, to keep my mind set on the attack and not so much in the defense. I have added three mate in twos and two mate in threes today.
The name of the post was changed from A47 Indian Game: Capablanca Variation to its current name on August 16th, 2019.
22 Jun 2015
C10 French with 3.Nc3: Unusual Black 3rd moves and 3...dxe4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Be7 5.Nf3 Nd7 6.Bd3 Ngf6 7.O-O Nxe4 8.Bxe4 Nf6 9.Bd3 O-O)
This game was played in a team match called Un-Orthodox CHESS vs Night's Watch (at Castle Black). It was played between The Un-Orthodox and The Night's Watch at Castle Black. It was played on eight boards and I played on board 1 for The Night's Watch at Castle Black. The match ended 9 - 7 in favor of The Un-Orthodox. I have been able to decrease the amount of games I play quite nicely in the past few days and I have now 169 games in progress. In slightly over five months, the amount of my simultaneous games has decreased from 300 to 169. This might mean that it would take the rest of the year to finish all my games, some might even be in progress at the start of next year. However, I will not try to get rid of all of them but instead get my game load to much more reasonable amount. Even now it does feel that I have freed up a lot of time but I do need to free up quite a bit more to feel comfortable. I have added one mate in two, one mate in three, two mate in fours and one mate in five.
20 Jun 2015
D46 Semi-Slav: 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3, Black avoids the Meran (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Nbd7 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bd3 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.a3)
This is one of the two games to which my opponent in this game, Jerzy, challenged me into. This was played at the Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. It is a site for correspondence chess only. I have been enjoying my games there quite a bit because I seem to do really well there usually as my current rating of 2199 would suggest when comparing it to my other similar ratings. However, in the last few months I have been really annoyed by one thing there and it is the fact that there are no automatic timeouts in tournament games. So if one player decides not to win a tournament game on time and that opponent is never going to be online again, then that will freeze the tournament forever. One of my tournaments has been stuck because of that for several months now. Of course the players involved do not have any chances of advancing to the next round, so they do not really care if those games are never finished... Because if they can't have the win, no one can... I do not understand people like that at all. I have even send messages to these two players who are prolonging the tournament unnecessarily and asked if they could claim their wins, one of them even replied to me and said that he would do that but nothing happened. Some time passed and I asked him why are those games still going and he replied it must be because he made the claims on his phone and for some reason they had not been registered, so he would do that again. Still nothing happened. To my latest request and suggestion that he would do that on a computer, I got no reply anymore. I guess it is useless to try and reason with some people. The other player did not even reply to my message, so that is hopeless thing at the moment. I also made a forum topic there that there should be automatic timeouts in tournaments but that had no effect either. I guess person or persons who have been taking care of the site in the past, have not done anything for it recently and have maybe disappeared all together.
On a more positive note, I got my standard rating at FICS up from 2127 to 2160 couple of days ago! It is definitely my highest rating at FICS and it starts to get close to my highest rating ever on any site, currently my highest rating resides in Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. Oh yes, almost forgot to mention that despite my loss, I did not lose any rating points due to the game below because my opponent has a provisional rating still. I have added one mate in two, three mate in threes and one mate in seven today.
19 Jun 2015
B54 Sicilian: 2...d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4, Unusual Lines (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6)
Only one game to share today and probably tomorrow as well but after that there might be more games per day again. This game was played in the first round of the 2014 October Glacial Super Casual Banded I 1650+ tournament. There are 23 players in this tournament and they were divided into two groups, one group consisting of 12 players and the other 11 players. I am playing in the larger group and I am still one of the six players who are fighting for the win of group 1. This tournament is called Super Casual because the thinking times are the longest you can get at Red Hot Pawn. At least I have not seen any longer time controls than those that are used in this tournament. It has timeout of 21 days and there are 21 days in timebank. The tournament description also says: "No need to hurry, take a 3 week break." Well, my playing speed has been really slow but as more and more of my games will end, I will be able to play faster. When I am finally going to finish this and similar long tournaments, I will only going to play shorter tournaments in order to force a faster playing speed from me. Quite recently I even got into a point where I had only one game left where it was my turn to move in the games I play at RHP. It was a thing that had not happened in several months, so I am happy about the way things are going in that regard. I have added one mate in two, two mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in six puzzle today.
The name of this post was changed from B34 Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon to its current name on August 8th, 2019. The former name also had an incorrect ECO code there, which is also now corrected. It should have been B54 in the original title as well, I am sorry about the mistake I made.
18 Jun 2015
C65 Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. Fishing Pole Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Ng4)
The game below was played in the second round of the Sarah's Mini Cooper Tournament (No 52). In every round two players will advance to the next round and I got my place on the second round by winning group 14 with a score of 7 out of 8. Now on the second round I am in group 1 and in this four player group I have gathered 3 wins in 4 games that have finished and I have two games left to complete. It is quite likely at this point that I will advance to the third round and still have a chance to get a Mini Cooper trophy. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.
17 Jun 2015
B32 Sicilian: Löwenthal and Kalashnikov Variations (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Bd3)
For a duration of 14 games I have been able to maintain a rating of 1900 or above in Online Chess at Chess.com. I am currently rated 1921 and 53 points away from the peak rating I got there January 15th 2009, so it would be about time to break that record. If all goes well, it might be broken this year at some point. I am also climbing towards my peak again at Red Hot Pawn where the game below was played. This game is taken from the 2014 September Grand Seven Fourteen III tournament and it is starting to be at a point where the winner of the tournament will be decided. At the moment there are only two players left who can win the tournament, but one of them can only get a shared win. So the current leader of the tournament, kopsov, has already secured at least the shared win but only needs one more point from his or her remaining two games to get the unshared win. From the games that I have added today, one may peak more interest than others and it is my first finished game against caissad4, who has been my main rival in a couple of tournaments. I have added three mate in threes, one mate in four and one mate in five.
Game number two. This one is from the first round of the 2014 September Glacial Super Casual I tournament and it is still ongoing at Red Hot Pawn. I am playing on group 7 and I am leading the group at the moment. I have gathered 24 points so far and my maximum possible score is 39, it could have been 42 had I not lost one game due to a huge blunder. Dooser2004 is currently second with 19 points and third place is shared with ettemarc and golfnaturl with 12 points. I got myself into a bad position with some really bad moves starting with the move 13.Nxe7+?? and continued the same path for awhile until I was able to turn the game around due to some inaccuracies done by my opponent.
16 Jun 2015
B18 Classical Caro-Kann: 4...Bf5 sidelines (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.Bf4)
Today I have added three rapid games that were played at Chess.com against the same opponent. I was challenged to these games by bfoleyfire and in the first two games the thinking times for both players was 15 minutes. The third one had the same basic time but it also had an increment of 10 seconds. I won the first two but lost the last game. My opponent played better for quite some time and even had a chance to win the game but I think the main factor that turned the tables was that he started to go into time trouble and because of that he made some mistakes that enabled me to get back into the game. I won this game on time but at the end I had already also climbed from the deep pit that I had dug myself into and had a winning position. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in five, one mate in six and one mate in seven puzzle today. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!
Game number two. This is from the third round of the WORLD OPEN RAPID tournament that was played at the FIDE Online Arena on March 30th 2015. Third round and third consecutive win, could not get a better start for the tournament than this. So far all my opponents had been lower rated than me, so winning the first three games was not that much against the odds.
15 Jun 2015
A45 Trompowsky Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e4 Be7 4.Nd2)
When I think that I must have covered all the different openings I have played, I stumble on to a new one. This has happened to me quite often while I have typed this blog and undoubtedly it will keep doing that for some time still. It may be more surprising to me that I have been able to post a new variation or a chess960 game every day since October 21st 2014. The fact that something new has come along in relatively short gaps, has made this daily posting schedule possible. It may be only a matter of time that something happens that will break the daily pace like it did in October last year and in August also. I would also like to get this blog as up to date as possible and feature all the games I have ever played that have some sort of notation. It may take me a very long time to accomplish if I am able to accomplish it at all because there are so many of them and new ones come along steadily. As I have at the moment 182 games in progress, there will be a lot more games to cover in the future aswell.
The game below was played in the first round of the 2014 October Split II tournament that is still ongoing at Red Hot Pawn. This game I won time but my position at the end of this game should also be winning for me, so the result is right this time. I have two games lef to play on round one and I am the current leader of group 1. Despite the fact I am on the lead, I may not be there after the group has been decided as three other players can also win the group.
14 Jun 2015
B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defence (1.e4 a6 2.d4 h6)
There are some players who have been able to play lines that I have not previously covered here more than once and my opponent in this game, SpottedCow, is one of those players. Or rather will be maybe tomorrow or some time later in the near future when I post the game I played with the black pieces against him. The game below was played in the 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen II tournament at Red Hot Pawn. It is the tournament in which I am the closest of winning of all the tournaments that I have played or am playing. If I win my only remaining game, I will also win the tournament. If I do not win that game, I will need some assistance from other players. My main rival, caissad4, will need to either lose or play two draws, so that I would be a guaranteed winner. Actually, in case that I would lose my game against him and in the other two games he has left, he would draw both of them, then we would share the win of the tournament in points. I have added two mate in twos, one mate in five and two mate in six puzzles today. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts! And thank you all who have spend their precious time by visiting this blog, it is much appreciated!!
Game number two. This was also played against SpottedCow, who for some reason likes to play this way based on the two games with White that I have played against him. The game below was played in the 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen III tournament at Red Hot Pawn. It is a tournament where I have secured fourth place very tightly and I have two games left to finish. I have still some influence on who wins the tournament though, as the remaining two games I have are against caissad4, who has chances of winning the tournament as long as he does not lose a game against me. The game you see below was quite one-sided as you might guess from the huge difference in rating. Rating difference, no matter how huge, is not always a guarantee for victory as I have shown by losing some games against much lower rated players in the past.
13 Jun 2015
A28 English Opening: Four Knights Variation (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e4 Bc5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Be2)
The game below was a rated game but because of the result, neither player lost or gained any rating points because of this game. This game started to go downhill for my opponent when he played 8.d4? which loses both of the important center pawns and after that there is no hope left in White's position. This game was played in rather fast pace for a correspondence game, at least in my standards because this game started April 27th 2015 and it ended May 30th 2015 and these days my average correspondence chess game lasts several months. I have added one mate in one, two mate in two, one mate in three and one mate in four puzzle today.
12 Jun 2015
D30 Queen's Gambit Declined: Systems without Nc3 (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 O-O 6.Bd3)
This time I share a game that was played almost ten years ago at Red Hot Pawn. I did not originally like to share this because it was won by timeout but now that I have shared some shorter timeout wins as well, I thought why not share this one as well. It turned out that it also featured an opening I had not covered in this blog before, so that was also a factor which contributed in sharing this game. While I got all my other pgn-files from Red Hot Pawn, I noticed something interesting, I played one of my current opponents also over ten years ago. During that ten year gap, not a single game but now I got a few games against him. There is also one other player there that I played against the very first time in 2004 and my second game ten years later in 2014. I could have been completely lost in the game below but as games can be decided on time as well, I got the win. The ratings are taken yesterday, so they are not even close to the ones that they were back in 2005. I have added one more tactics puzzle, one mate in four, one mate in five and two mate in seven puzzles today.
11 Jun 2015
C93 Closed Spanish Game: Smyslov Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d6 9.h3 h6 10.d4)
Today I will share two games from GameKnot, both of which I lost. The game below is the latest game that has finished from my games there. This was played in the tedjj's mini-tournament XLIII. The mini-tournament has 11 players and I am currently in eight place. I have finished 12 games of the 20 games that I need to play in this tournament, I have won only four games and played two draws, so this is one of the worst correspondence chess tournament performances I have ever had. My opponent in this game, blokhin2, leads the tournament currently and the more I look at the standings has already secured his win also. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in four, one mate in five and one mate in eight puzzle.
10 Jun 2015
B01 Scandinavian Defence (1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nf3 Bg4)
The more usual move order for this variation is likely 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.d4 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bg4. Today I accepted two chess960 challenges and in the first one I was pretty much lost after two moves... For some reason I do not look at the board properly when it comes to chess960. I guess I have played chess mostly recently and because of that I have forgotten that in some chess960 starting positions White will be able to threaten to take a pawn for free after his first move. Even if White were to take that pawn for free, it might not cost the game, but in the starting position I have in that game, my opponent was also able to take the exchange on his third move. So after three moves, he was up the exchange and a pawn, which is too much to give for almost no compensation. This might also mean that I need that break from chess more badly than I thought. Well, I should not make all that big decisions based on one game. I have mostly played on a decent level lately, maybe around 1900 level on average, at least on Chess.com and at Red Hot Pawn. Everywhere else the ratings that I have are farther away towards both directions, so I can't really compare them. I have been back over 1900 at Chess.com again for a few days now but around the time that happened, I dropped my rating at Red Hot Pawn below 1900, so that was a rather weird coincidence.
The game below was played in a team match called Happy New Year 2015 Romeo and Juliet vs Kasparov Chess Club !! The match is played on 62 boards and I played on board 11 for Romeo and Juliet. I won my both games on time. Neither of those games were actually winning for me in the position the game ended but instead close to equal. The score has not changed in the match during the time I posted yesterday and this post, so the score is still 89 - 33 in favor of Romeo and Juliet. I have added one mate in one, two mate in twos, one mate in five and one mate in seven puzzle.