At this point I was up 2-0 in the match so Fischer needed to win 2 consecutive games to stay alive. Needless to say, Fischer should have been reluctant to draw as this would eliminate him from the club championship, but I offered him a repetition and he chose to end the match this way. I was happy with the game, normally I would have played for a win but given the circumstances surrounding this game I felt that it was well worth just taking the half point.

Here is the game.

This is the second game of the Gafni-Fischer match that was the quarterfinal round of the club championship. This was right before my trip to Las Vegas and it is not a very impressive game. I play horribly. It's interesting to note that Fischer deviates from the Najdorf he played against me in the past (here and here).

This was my first game analysis in a couple months. Bear with me, I'm just warming up. I think part of the reason I've been slow to resume posting is because after I got out of the habit of analyzing games I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Hopefully more games to follow..

Hi.

I've been away from chess for a while. It probably requires some explanation. I went to Vegas for a chess tournament and left Vegas imfatuated with No Limit Holdem...

I used to only play Limit Holdem, which is ok, but then my friend started turning me on to no limit a couple months before I went to Vegas. After I lost the first round of the National Open, I decided to jump in a No Limit game to pass the time til the next round. I ended up playing all weekend and then when I came back to Reno I kept playing constantly. Hours and hours. Then I went to Israel for 2 weeks. I read poker books instead of chess books and started devoting more and more time to poker. And less and less time to chess. So for the past couple months I haven't really spent any time on chess.

Also contributing to my disinterest in chess was the fact that a good friend of mine would not give me an opportunity to make up our game from when I was in Israel and I was forced to take a forfeit in the Club Championship. Although I probably could have still won the match, I lost interest and didn't devote adequate time to chess during this match. My opponent played well and I lost 2 out of the three games. He wanted it more than me.

I also think that after gaining 200 points in under a year I needed some time to consolidate my growth. This has happened to me before. Sometimes it lasts a couple months, sometimes it lasts a couple years. But I always come back hungrier and stronger.

I am deciding whether to play tonight at the Reno Chess Club, the only reason I'm leaning towards not playing is because I know I won't get a strong game. On the other hand maybe I need a game against a weaker player just to get back in the mood. I'm definitely planning to play the Western States Open. Either way, I have over 10 games that are sitting there waiting to be analyzed. I should start working on them while I watch High Stakes Poker. :)

This bluff is so sick, they both just sat down this was the first hand of their session: