So I figured I would post some games from the summer of 2005. I thought they might take a while to dig up but today while I was waiting for my wrinkled shirt to get out of the dryer (I'm much too lazy to use an iron) and writing some notes for my first post today I picked up an old book of games and sure enough all my games from the first half of that summer were there (a happy coincidence) including the ones I can remember best. My rating that summer went from 1584 to 1787, over 200 points in a mere three months. I had always felt that I was underrated, but my performance that summer was when I started proving myself over the board (My quick rating also got a 332 point boost that summer, in only 8 games! I had only played 24 quick games until that point so that helped). This game is not a very well played game but it features a highly entertaining finish.



I still remember this game. The game before I had also lost the exchange from a won position and I had also won convincingly. I was extremely surprised to find out, much later, that 18...d4 is actually the best move. I was going over some games with GM Shulman last winter, I only saw him 5 or 6 times but it was pretty helpful, and I showed him this game and he liked 18...d4 a lot. I had thought that I had miraculously recovered from a severe blunder when in fact I had simply crushed my opponent. I was also surprised to find out when preparing this game to be published that 22...dxe2 (which in the game I thought was the turning point from being behind to regaining the advantage) actually squanders a lot of my advantage if he simply takes my queen on b6 and plays with the rook against the two bishops. The mate is unbelievable, it was very hard to sit still when my opponent picked up his king and slowly placed it on e1. I had seen the mate when I played dxe2 but considering if he takes on e2 he loses his queen by force I did not think I would actually be able to play it. Many more to come just a nice miniature to give you a taste.