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

-Levon Aronian

Careless and Sloppy

By drunknknite
I didn't play last week cause I wasn't really feeling well and there were only three people that weren't participating in the other tournament. Then Thursday I got paired with George Fischer again. With the White pieces, again. The same pairing I had two weeks ago. I wanted to play a nice game, really find a rhythm and some good moves. That didn't happen. I played ok and I found some strong ideas, but I made a lot of mistakes. My execution was extremely poor. Probably due to the fact that I was not putting that much effort into the game. I spent 30 minutes on the first 30 moves (the time control is 30/90 G/1); then 20 minutes on the rest of the game, although that phase was routine. George got into his regular time trouble and made time with 6 seconds on his clock. Then used almost all of his remaining hour in a position that was absolutely hopeless.



I hardly deserved to win that game. I play better than that. Rocky's post on flow a little while ago I think best explains the phenomenon that is my chess. When my opponent is pushing me and I have to keep finding good moves to win I am able to find my zone and get it done, but when my opponent is making mistakes I get lazy and I cannot focus enough attention on the matter at hand. It's like when a sports team starts running away with the game and then gets lazy. I just assume the mistakes are going to keep coming and that this is going to be extremely easy. I have an attitude problem.

I also got really annoyed at the fact that he kept playing after I started pushing the queenside pawns. I can understand him playing until I start making progress on the queenside but once I have consolidated my position and I am starting to roll forward there's no hope for Black. And he just sat there spending so much time, I wasn't even at the board, I would come back make a move and go back to watching other games. I actually strongly considered blindfolding myself just to make it interesting, I wonder if Ernie would have allowed that.

On the topic of blindfolding myself, I was thinking maybe if I try to find a move without looking at the board and then look at the board for a stronger idea I might be able to slow down and put more effort into my moves. I think this also relates to my last post. More to come.
 

10 comments so far.

  1. Anonymous March 2, 2008 at 6:01 PM
    Hahahaha. I love how your frustration oozed out of the commentary. The richness of the analysis indicates a devotion to the game that I need to develop. Before it got ridiculous it was interesting but I had to read on to see how far it would go.

    There was one guy on FICS that I've played twice...both times I've promoted a pawn to Queen and he forced me to checkmate him to win the game. That pissed me off. When you have a "1600" or "1700" by your name, it means you know how to handle a King and Queen vs King endgame without stalemating.
  2. wang March 2, 2008 at 10:19 PM
    Well I understan, but the truth is, there is still a small chance for you to foul up the position, not great, but possible.

    I have a guy I regularly play. He always gets into time trouble. Usually on positions where a good move, not the "BEST" will do. He blows his load on a so-so position and when the fit hits the shan he's got no time.

    As far as deserving to win...Well I'm sure you've lost some that you didn't "deserve" to lose, but you still got a big fat 0 on the scoresheet. Take the win, it's not like you were stinking up the place.
  3. Phaedrus March 3, 2008 at 7:30 AM
    Hi Kevin,

    I realy enjoyed this one. It inspired me to make a post on winning "won" games.
  4. drunknknite March 3, 2008 at 9:45 AM
    lep - that commentary is only a fraction of the display i put on at the board, i was pissed. as far as the analysis, since i started this blog my appreciation for finding all of the tiny nuances of every tournament game has grown exponentially. i just really want to get as close to the 'truth' as i can.

    sounds like you know how i felt from playing this guy. although these people have the right to keep playing it gets a little ridiculous. i hope at least that this guy wasn't spending large amounts of time moving his king back and forth (which has happened to me in a tournament game, i got so mad that he kept on playing i sacrificed 2 queens to give me a K+2P vs K ending and promoted and he still made me mate him). the fact that fischer was spending sometimes over 5 minutes on one move and still just moving his rook back and forth was getting a little ridiculous. if you're clearly just relying on me to make a rather obvious mistake the best strategy is to move a little faster and maybe i'll start blitzing and blunder. if you slow down the pace i get very accurate, especially in won endgames.

    wang - i respectfully disagree, after i play c4 there is no chance for black. the fact is i can actually blow an exchange and still be winning, and there is no chance that i just spontaneously lose an exchange in this position. and again it is really the time issue that was making me mad, he's spending copious amounts of time and not even getting in the way of my progress, what's the point?

    this guy is the same kind of way, he always makes the time control, but he gets himself into trouble very early in the game. i will post another game where i waited until move 28 or 29 and then baited him by what looked like a free exchange, but i had found a tactic hidden in the position, he leapt at the chance to win the exchange and then got crushed by the tactic. and it's the same kind of thing as you say, he doesn't find extremely strong ideas or anything, i think he just can't make up his mind maybe, i don't know.

    thanks, i'm glad you think i didn't play that badly, still a little scary knowing that there were a couple times that i could have ended up with a worse position simply because i wasn't paying attention, both were fairly easy to see.

    phaedrus - thanks. i look forward to reading your post.
  5. Polly March 3, 2008 at 2:46 PM
    I hate when my opponent makes me play out ridiculous positions. I swear some people just do it to annoy you, especially when they burn tons of time to make random and pointless moves. It almost sounds like he saw your annoyance when he asked you if you calculated it, and you spit back "I'm up a rook."

    This thread on the USCF forums talks about this sort of thing.

    http://main.uschess.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6546
  6. tanch March 3, 2008 at 4:10 PM
    drunknknite: i just really want to get as close to the 'truth' as i can.

    that's an interesting statement to make. you sound almost like Korchnoi there. :)

    as for playing on hopeless positions, i find this to be a more common occurrence for lower rated players, the low rated player honestly believing that a win or even a draw is possible. and i've seen games that swung wildly from losing to winning to losing within 3 moves. against higher rated players, these players tend to resign because they know far too much and are far too careful to let a simple win slip.

    i'm not a highly rated player but i didn't think you played that badly.

    congrats on your win nonetheless. a win is still a win, however annoying the game may be to you.
  7. Chessaholic March 4, 2008 at 11:10 AM
    I can only agree with liquideggproduct - your analysis is so rich and detailed, it's a blast reading it. I want to go into that level of detail but I can never seem to find the time...
  8. drunknknite March 6, 2008 at 3:29 PM
    polly - I read that article, it's pretty interesting. Someone actually tried to claim that rule on me one time because (surprise, surprise) I was being an asshole. He had a winning position and I had a lot of time so I went to go eat (it was his turn at least) at the buffet in the hotel. I kept seeing him go outside to smoke cigarettes and you could tell he was looking for me and he finally spotted me in the restaurant and tried to forfeit me on the grounds that my 1200 rated friend (this was back when I was around 1500) was helping me cheat. This is where I learned you are not allowed to spend 15 minutes away from the board. So I went and made a move and pleaded with the TD to be allowed to finish my meal. Anyways my opponent got frustrated and lost the game, hehe.

    Sadly in this game that rule would not apply because Fischer truly appeared to be struggling with the position.

    tanc - Thanks for the kind words. And yeah I'm pretty much just glad I won the game, I think any other opponent and I probably would not have even gotten frustrated but I've had it with Fischer's antics lately. In our last game (when I trapped his queen in 15 moves), he stated that he thought he was better if he didn't give me his queen in a position where he hasn't even finished his development. The only way he could be better is if I start making mistakes. So I think it is the fact that he presumes his opponent will make mistakes and he will all of a sudden turn things around that makes me mad.

    Chessaholic - Thanks! I got some good games coming up for you guys, I'm going to start a memorable game series with some of my favorite memories from tournaments.
  9. Anonymous March 7, 2008 at 12:43 PM
    great blog and enjoy your analysis.

    I must say that it's hilarious that you got so upset over behaviour that was much more sporting than the behaviour you cited in yourself earlier in your chess career. It doesn't sound like your opponent ever left the table or stopped trying to play the best moves he could find.

    If my opponent is waiting for my blunder, I find that the most infuriating response that I can muster is to be cool under pressure and play my best moves. I would never encourage an opponent to resign and to do so is very unsportsmanlike in and of itself. If he "forces" me to actually play out the game, I feel that's what I showed up to the hall to do anyhow (play chess) so what's the harm in playing to the bitter end. To do anything less is to give your opponent no small satisfaction in that while you bested them over the board, they were successful in getting under your skin.

    Please keep up the blog. Your trials and analyses are very enjoyable to watch from the sidelines.

    CD
  10. drunknknite March 7, 2008 at 2:45 PM
    CD-

    Yeah it's hypocritical, but in that game I was frustrated and I needed a break, also I was not completely lost, just losing. Plus it was in a lower section and down there anything can happen.

    Thanks for the kind words.

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