drunknknite
He was winning,
but he didn't see it
and I escaped - as usual.

-Levon Aronian

Defense Wins Championships

By drunknknite
I was scheduled to play the Club Champion, Bill Case, last Thursday. We had never played before so I was excited to see what would come of this game. The game really only lasted about 9 moves from the end of the theory to the forced endgame but it was a tense 9 moves. I put the hood of my sweatshirt on after I missed 16...Bxd5 until I played 27...Rc2. This is something I normally do when I am defending and am wearing a hooded sweatshirt. It helps me block everything out. I ended up finding a nice continuation that muted his threats. This is a sign of my maturity at the board. I accepted the fact that I had missed my chance and the best thing to do was simply end the game and try again next time. I only used half an hour, this was a pretty easy game. I played well.



As I mentioned in my last post, I was a little frustrated with how my opening turned out. I expected to have more fighting chances in this variation. In reality as long as I can consistently draw this position my opponent should be the one looking for a new variation, so I'm not worried about it.

I have one more game left this year, as I will miss the final round of this weekly tournament due to a family trip to London (I'm not sad about it). It is against Terry Alsasua, who lost to Bill Case in the Club Championship last year after winning in 2006. I am going to have to be able to beat both these players if I want to make a run for the title this year, but I think I have a pretty good chance.
 

7 comments so far.

  1. SamuraiPawn December 18, 2007 at 3:40 AM
    Hi Kevin! I'm planning on getting a coach after the holidays and was wondering if you still might be interested. I've got an account an ICC under the handle Samuraipawn. I guess I'm mostly looking for someone who can help me analyze my standard games and answer a gazillion patzer questions like: Are you sure the Halloween Gambit is unsound?

    In terms of time it would be around an hour a week. So would you be interested - and if so - what is your fee?

    Take care and have a great time in London!

    -Samurai
  2. Chessaholic December 18, 2007 at 9:29 AM
    Nice and precise. It's the kind of precise play I aim for but often miss...

    Have fun in London, it's one of my favorite cities in the world. But watch your wallet, it's ridiculously expensive :)
  3. drunknknite December 18, 2007 at 11:51 AM
    Samurai - Absolutely, I'm going to work on setting up paypal or some other arrangement in the next week. I'm going to start taking on students at $10/hr (I will probably discount this for regulars).

    Chessaholic - As you said in your last post, it's a long and rocky road. Keep at it.

    I hope London will be fun, I need to find some seedy youth culture to get into while I'm there.
  4. SamuraiPawn December 19, 2007 at 5:36 AM
    Kewl! 10 dollars/hour sounds great. BTW, when will you be in London?
  5. Polly December 19, 2007 at 1:46 PM
    I thought I was the only one that did things like pull my hood up over my head or pull the bill of my baseball cap down to block out distractions.

    There's a certain player that I encounter on Thursday nights who has this really annoying habit of rocking back and forth. It's almost like he's chanting as he's thinking. The problem is he does it mostly on the opponent's move. I end out pulling my cap down to block him from my view. Unfortunately last week it was too cold for a baseball cap, so I had to use my hands as a visor.
  6. drunknknite December 19, 2007 at 2:27 PM
    Yeah polly a lot of the time I just want to forget my opponent is even there. Every once and a while I 'peek' out and check em out but for the most part I just play the board.

    That opponent sounds a little frustrating to play.

    A side note: I was looking at your blog and I realized you play at the Marshall CC and you seemed vaguely familiar, I only played one tournament there but we actually played a G/30 in March of 2006 when I was visiting the city. Crazy small chess world...
  7. drunknknite December 19, 2007 at 2:28 PM
    samurai - 25 Dec to 1 Jan

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