Friday, March 30, 2007

A Beautiful Win by GM Plaskett

As mentioned below I recently added GM James Plaskett's Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary to my links. While his blog is primarily about coincidence and synchronicity, it does have a good deal of chess content, including a beautiful miniature contained within this post:

Hastings Challengers, 1988
White: Lopez
Black: Plaskett

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Qc7 7. Be2 b5 8. f4 Bb7 9. Bf3 Na5 10. Qe2 Nc4 11. 0-0-0



Nxb2! 12. Kxb2 Ba3+! 13. Kxa3 Qxc3+ 14. Nb3 Bc6 15. Bc5 a5 0-1

Every Sicilian player's dream game!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Pearson-Kesti, Game 6

Finally got the time together to post last week's game; Michael Goeller of the excellent Kenilworthian, author of the Mad Dog post that inspired the opening, was interested in how that part went. See his article for more on this interesting variation.

It's nice to win, but GOLLY there are a lot of mistakes!

[Event "Match, Reno CC Class B. Ch."]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2007.03.22"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Pearson, Robert"]
[Black "Kesti, Steve"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1600"]
[BlackElo "1764"]
[ECO "B07"]
[Annotator "R. Pearson"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. Qe2 O-O 6. e5 dxe5 7. dxe5 Nfd7 8. Nf3 { More consistent is 8. e6, but the move played also leads to advantage for White. } e6?! { Nb6 seems to keep his disadvantage to a minimum, though it's nice to be White in any case. } 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. O-O-O? { Nb5 leaves Black under serious pressure. While O-O-O doesn't throw away everything, it's even giving him a target, instead of preventing counterplay. } Nc6?? 11. Nb5 f6 { Taking on e5 was better, but depressing. } 12. Nxc7 Qe7 13. exf6 Nxf6 14. Nxa8 Qb4!? { Black goes for a counterattack instead of meekly succumbing...and it almost works! } 15. Bd2?! { Why not simply 15. c3? } Qd6 16. Kb1 Nd5 17. c3 { Ng5! } Bd7 18. Rhe1?! { Qe4 keeps a larger advantage--White is frittering away a good portion of his once crushing position. } Rxa8 19. g3 { Qe4 } Na5 { Black has been playing the best moves to give himself a chance. White is still winning, but the margin's getting smaller... } 20. Bxd5 exd5 21. Qe7? Bf5+ { 21. ... Qxe7 22. Rxe7 Bg4! and Black is right back in it! } 22. Ka1? { Kc1 } Qa6? { Qxe7 } 23. Qa3 Bf8 { Bg4 } 24. b4! { Should lead to a big advantage } b6 25. Nd4 Qc8 26. Qa4 Nc4 27. Qc6?! { Not as good as I thought at the time. } Qxc6 28. Nxc6 Bg7 29. Ne7+ { In time trouble I play a brief combination to get rid of his dangerous bishop, not seeing his 31st move. The funny thing is, it still may be best! } Kf8 30. Nxf5 gxf5 31. Kb1?! { Now I realize I lose back the Exchange, but I think I get a good Rook ending. 31. Re3 would have saved a pawn, however. } Nxd2+ 32. Rxd2 Bxc3 33. Rde2 Bxe1 34. Rxe1 { Now either the c- or f-pawn will fall--unless Black goes Re8, which he can't afford because the pawn ending is lost because of White's outside majority. Right? } Re8? 35. Rxe8+ Kxe8 36. Kc2 Ke7 37. Kd3 Kd6 38. Kd4 { And though the rest of the score is mislaid at the moment, suffice it to say that White made a passed pawn on the g-file and Black resigned on move 50. } 1-0

Cool Links

The Chess Drum--I mentioned it in an earlier post.

GM James Plaskett's Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary--not strictly chess, but very interesting!

Rocky Rook--Thoughtful Knight Errant.

Blue Devil Knight--Now Knights Commander.

All recommended reading!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Pearson-Kesti, Game 6: A Win for Your Host

Although Steve Kesti had clinched the Reno CC Class B Ch. with his victory last week he was kind enough to play Game 6 (the usual practice at our club) last night, and the result was a win for me, in rather strange fashion.

I opened with 1. e4 this time; I'm back to playing it occasionally and since this game was just for fun, glory and rating points I pulled it out. And with what a result! He chose the Pirc Defense and I unveiled the Mad Dog variation, and by move 10 he was in desperate trouble, down material...and then of course I had to castle O-O-O, in the spirit of things, and it got more interesting as he threw everything he had at my King. I think I had it under control until move 30, when on the last move before the first time control I took an attacking Bishop off, which I figured would quell the attack. Unfortunately, this wasn't really calculated, it was, as I say, figured (heh) and I soon realized he would win back the Exchange and a pawn he was down.

But okay, not getting down on myself, not panicking, I saw that I could go into a better Rook ending where he had weak pawns, and indeed win one of his pawns within a few moves. Fine--I feel good that I was still trying to find the best move instead of worrying about the way things might have been. And lo and behold, he immediately offered to trade Rooks into a lost Pawn ending, which I played accurately enough.

I'm sure it was difficult for my opponent to play his best when the match wasn't on the line, but I had the motivation of estimating before the game that a win would gain me around 9 rating points, to 1609, inching a little closer to my goal of 1700 by the end of the year. Plus I'm having a lot of fun playing again.

As is customary here, I'm putting down my day-after impressions while still fresh, and will do my best to post the game and annotations late tonight, or if not then, in the next couple of days.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Slugfest at Melody Amber

In case you hadn't heard, Anand (White) and Kramnik played a marvelous draw the other day during their rapid game at Melody Amber. Dennis Monokroussos has annotations at the link.

I'm inspired for my game tonight!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Counteracting Age in Chess

Eric Shoemaker over at Pale Rider has some thoughts:

Chess players have an advantage in a way others do not, and by that I mean that we can often tell when our game is affected by our age. How? The National Rating itself is an indicator. Older players often reach their floor several times and although they sometimes creep above it, they usually return to that floor in a short time.

I myself have not reached this stage as of yet, but nevertheless, I believe I have the solution for it.

I see many of these "older players" or even players showing the same characteristics play openings and defenses that are usually cautious and sometimes dull in order not to be defeated at the outset. Their usual excuse is "I can't keep up with the theory." Yet the so-called quiet moves they play often allow for even more possibilities and greater variations to consider! This is exactly what is bringing them down, for they lack the mental abilities to consider the larger number of variations.

What they should be doing is returning to openings and defenses that have a large body of theory that is already well-known and "unlikely" to change, because it is either unpopular at the present time, or the theory is already well established without much room for surprises in theory.

Read the rest if you're interested in some specific recommendations.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Kesti-Pearson, Game 5

Impressions of the game below in a previous post.

(March 20--replay viewer finally posted below. Enjoy!)

Event "Match, Reno CC Class B Ch."]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2007.03.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Kesti, Steve"]
[Black "Pearson, Robert"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1764"]
[BlackElo "1600"]
[ECO "B06"]
[Annotator "R. Pearson"]

1. e4 g6 2. Nf3 d6 3. g3 Nf6 4. d3 Bg7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O c5 7. Nbd2 Nc6 8. c3 b5 9. e5 { Forcing complications early. After the game my opponent thought that retreating the Knight was an option, but I think that Black gets fine play for the Exchange. } dxe5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Bxa8 Qxd3?! { Bh3! 12. Bg2 Bxg2 13. Kxg2 Nxd3 is better } 12. Nb3 Qxd1 13. Rxd1 Bg4 14. f3 Nxf3+?! { Rxa8 } 15. Bxf3 Bxf3 16. Rf1 Bd5 17. Nxc5 Rc8 18. Nb3 b4? { Black throws another pawn on the fire to keep White from developing his pieces, but there was no need to go overboard. Ng4 seems to hold the balance. } 19. cxb4 Ng4 20. Rd1 e6 21. Nc5?! { Bf4 develops; as the game goes, White is tied up for a long time. } Bf3?! { a5 } 22. Rd3 Be2 23. Rd2 Bf3 24. h3 { After the game we thought this might be a mistake, but now I think it gives White some advantage. } Ne5 25. Rf2 Bd5 26. Kf1?! { Bf4 } Bc4+ 27. Ke1 { Funny--at the time we both thought this was a blunder, but after the following 'combination' it's still unclear to me who had the advantage! } Rxc5 28. bxc5 Nd3+ 29. Kf1 Nxc1+ 30. Kg2 Nd3 31. Rc2 Bd5+ 32. Kf1 Nb4 33. Rd2 Nc6 { Bh6! } 34. Rad1 Bh6?! { Two days after the game Steve Kesti suggested Ne7! which is probably good enough to hold the position. This material imbalance is very hard for masters to figure out, much less me! } 35. Rxd5! { Of course. I didn't see this coming, and now the trend changes quickly. } exd5 36. Rxd5 Bf8 37. a3?! { Invading with Rd7 seems better. } a5 38. Ke2 { Rd7! } f5 39. Kd3 Kf7 40. Kc4 Ke6 41. Rd1 Bg7?? { Too bad--once again in this match I blunder, and fatigue is no excuse for a move this bad! Ne5+ or a4 both look to me like they offer some chances. The rest isn't too interesting, but it's certainly the kind of position I'd want in a championship clinching game! } 42. Rd6+ Ke7 43. Rxc6 Bxb2 44. a4 Be5 45. g4 f4 46. Kd5 Kd7 47. Re6 Bc3 48. c6+ Kc7 49. Re7+ Kb6 50. Rxh7 f3 51. Rf7 1-0

Friday, March 16, 2007

Kesti-Pearson Match Game 5, 1-0, Kesti Wins Match 4-1 and is Reno CC Class B Champion

Well, it's all in the title above. By winning our game last night, Steve Kesti (1764) defeated me (Robert Pearson (1600)) 4-1 in a match for the 2007 Reno Chess Club Class B Championship. Congratulations and thanks to Steve for a fun and interesting match!

IMPRESSIONS: As usual, I'll post the game within a day or so, but I felt during and after the game last night that at least it was a better contest than Game 4. Against my attempt to get into a Pirc/Modern defense Kesti chose the placid e4, d3 g3, Bg2 setup as White, not getting into anything critical, but on move 8 I gave him the opportunity to push forward with e5, and when I preferred to sacrifice the exchange rather than retreat, things got really interesting. I did get some play for the exchange, but whether it was enough I can't say objectively without a lot more study. For a long time his Queen Bishop and Rook were stuck at home while I made threats--finally, he made what we both thought at the time was a mistake, but when I won back some material with a 'combination' it may have just led to a lost ending with his two Rooks and passed pawn taking on my two Bishops and Knight, according to some quick analysis with A-player Grant Fleming.

Finally, as so often in this match, I blundered during the later play and the agony was shortened. One thing I must improve to make any progress up the ranks is my play in the later stages--I get tired and start to miss simple stuff. I don't know if it's my chess I need to improve so much as my mental and physical endurance, right now.

Anyway, a pretty good battle. Congratulations to Steve Kesti on his 2nd straight Class B crown!

(GAME SCORECOMMENTS AND REPLAY VIEWER WILL FOLLOW)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

"Black Chess," Misconceptions and Sterotypes

While visiting family in northern California this week I noticed this article in their local Sunday paper (by Avis Thomas-Lester, originally published in the Washington Post) about the Washington, D.C.-area chess scene. Mostly, the players described are like chess players everywhere in the world--they love chess, and are in some sense addicted to it.

This part was rather jarring, though:

"Black chess is not like European chess, where everybody sits there all quiet and doesn't say anything," said player Nathan Saunders, 42, general vice president of the Washington Teachers Union.

"Black folks talk trash. You gotta have that sass to go along with the game. As a matter of fact, a lot of guys will ask each other as they sit down, 'Are we going to play European chess or chess from the 'hood?'"

"Black chess?" Sounds to me like speed chess, cafe chess and park chess all over the world. When we occasionally have a night off from serious chess at the Reno Chess Club there's plenty of this kind of banter, though perhaps not as sharp-witted. These guys have apparently had a lot of practice! There's a long tradition of "the dozens" in the black community, whether during games of chance and skill, or just sitting around drinking beer.

Notably, all the black guys I've ever played in tournaments were just as silent as the other people of all races, creeds, colors and sexes. What Mr. Saunders is talking about is tournament chess versus casual or speed chess, not "European" versus "'hood."

If the article causes more people to come out and enjoy chess in any form, it's a good thing. I just hope the member of the general public not familiar with the chess scene doesn't think there's a special "black chess."

By the way, here's a link to the website mentioned in the article, The Chess Drum. There's lots of interesting and original material there.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Match Game 4, Pearson-Kesti 0-1...A Game of Extraordinary Lameosity (On My Part)

Don't tell me that lameosity is not a word; do you know Shakespeare used hundreds of new words in his works? It very well describes my play in this game last night, which leaves me down 3-1 in a six-game match for the Reno CC Class B Ch.

IMPRESSIONS: After a nearly symmetrical position arose out of a Queen's Indian, I had a slight edge, but in a tense middlegame I threw away a pawn for nebulous compensation. Now that could have been overcome, but in very mild time pressure (around 10 minutes for six moves) I forgot that his Bishop move was CHECK, picked up a Rook to make a capture and thus had to move the Rook to block the check, losing the exchange and completely wrecking my position, which he mopped up within a few more moves.

That's Lameosity.

Not good, not good at all.

I'm supposed to be a competent chess player, but in four games of the match I've made exactly one truly awful blunder per game (including the game I won), and that's simply not going to get it done against a good player. It's pretty maddening, since I've made a big effort to work on my game lately. Perhaps four games just isn't enough time to get back in the swing of things after a six-month layoff, but I'd better get going immediately or the match will be lost.

I'm finding it tough to stay focused in the third hour of play, and my vigilance and 'blundercheck' seems to slip around that time, so I guess I must devise some sort of cue to stay in the routine each and every move, or else I'll be stuck right where I am for the foreseeable future.

I'll post the game ASAP, which may not be for a couple of days if I'm on the road this weekend.

Excelsior!

UPDATE: Game 4 of the match:

[Event "Match, Reno CC Class B Ch"]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2007.03.08"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Pearson, Robert"]
[Black "Kesti, Steve"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1600"]
[BlackElo "1764"]
[ECO "E14"]
[Annotator "R. Pearson"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. e3 Bb7 5. Bd3 d5 6. O-O Nbd7 7. b3 c5 8. Bb2 Bd6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. Ne5 Qc7 11. f4 Ne4 12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Bc2 { White's manuvers have created some imbalances, but the game seems equal here. } Rad8 14. Qg4 f5 15. Qe2 { Qh5!? } cxd4 16. exd4 Rf6 17. Rac1 Rh6 18. b4? { a3 then b4, of course--this pawn 'sacrifice' doesn't lead to anything. } Bxb4 19. Bb3 Nxe5 20. fxe5 Qe7 21. c5 { Maybe Qe3 is better, but White has gone into desperate tactics mode already. } bxc5 22. a3 Ba5 23. Rxc5 Bb6 24. Rc2 Bxd4+ 25. Rf2?? { White forgot it was CHECK and tried to go Rxf5--what can one say except that it is the kind of embarrassing moment we all went through...when we were beginners. Not in the Class B Ch.! } Bxf2+ 26. Qxf2 Rd1+ { The rest is silence...White plays on hoping for a miracle back-ranker, but the odds are a million to one. } 27. Qf1 Rxf1+ 28. Kxf1 Rxh2 29. Bc3 Rh1+ 30. Ke2 Ba6+ 31. Kf2 Qh4+ 32. Ke3 Qg3+ 33. Kd4 Qd3+ 34. Kc5 Qb5+ 35. Kd6 Qxb3 0-1




Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Ron Thacker, Where Are You?

In my rather extensive chess book collection I have a nice hardback on the Botvinnik-Smyslov World Championship Match of 1954, by Harry Golombek. On the flyleaf is this inscription:

To Ronald Thacker, winner of the Oakland YMCA Chess Club Championship 1959

[s] George Koltanowski


How a random encounter opened a hidden part of the world to me, and added to my chess library:


In 1983 I was a 'cable guy' and aspiring tournament chess player in Reno, Nevada. I'd joined the Reno club a couple of years earlier, and after a lot of hard lessons from the experienced players there I'd progressed from an initial rating of 1198 to the 1500 range.

One crisp fall afternoon I had a cable installation at a townhouse in one of the nicer parts of the city, and I noticed a lot of chess books and related items around. I asked the man, a short and slightly rotund fellow in a pair of expensive slacks and a silk shirt whose name on the order was Ron Thacker, about the books. He brightened and said something like "Yes, not only am I a chess player, but I played Bobby Fischer in the last round of the 1957 U.S. Junior!"

He proceeded to run through the moves of that game for me on a board, stating that he'd had a good position from the unusual (to me, anyway) variation of the Sicilian he'd used as White. (The game is here at chessgames.com, the only game of Thacker's that appears there).

He also said he'd beaten Fischer, albeit in a simul during Fischer's 1964 tour--he had the score sheet to prove it. He showed me that one too, a Wilkes-Barre variation of the Two Knight's Defense where Fischer played the Bxf7+ line.

(See also this thread at CalChess.org: I'm looking for 1950's players on the Oakland City Chess Team such as Steve Joplin, Art Wang, etc. Also Ron Thacker if he's finally stopped talking about his "winnable" Game against Fischer in the 1957 Juniors.)

Overdue for my next job I finally had to leave, but I asked him if he'd like to play at the Reno Chess Club and if I could perhaps play him a few practice games for improvement. He said "sure," and after a couple of "lessons" from him and and a few calls he told me that he and his roommate were looking to rent out the third bedroom of the townhouse--perhaps I'd be interested?

Thus began a most educational period of my life. Ron was a professional gambler, mostly specializing in poker at that time, but with an interest in the horses and sports betting as well. He believed himself to be very 'scientific' in his approach to these (successful poker, of course, has an additional psychological component). Researching on the Web, I've found a few references to his work, like this board at a horse racing site:

Enter, Ron Thacker. Ron worked at the old Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas back in the '70s. He would fall today into the realm of "egghead nerd." (I am a nerd, but not an "egghead," as I do not have the math background for it. Ron had serious math skills - M.I.T. serious.)

Ron did an Oscar-craps simulation of some magnitude back in the early '80s. I believe he published it as a paper. I know I actually had a copy of it about 25 years ago.

Ron got me occasional night and weekend work with a video poker 'group' that took advantage of progressive jackpots--when they reached a certain amount on a bank of machines, the odds were actually in the player's favor, when playing a specific strategy tilted toward trying for the Royal Flush and the big jackpot. The group would move players like me into empty seats and work for hours until someone hit. We all got paid $10 cash per hour, plus a bonus for hitting the Royal Flush.

Living with a couple of professional gamblers was a trip, as sometimes they came back from the poker table with a lot of money, sometimes with nothing. I learned what really goes on in the legal poker world; there were a handful of pros working the casinos in Reno at that time, and they mainly concentrated on trimming the out-of-towners for their living. Of course they tried to win any and all money they could, but the local full-timers had an informal system of lending each other money when a string of 'bad luck' hit, and paying it back during the good times. I think Ron and the other room mate liked me for my regular paychecks, since on one or two occasions I helped them out when rent was due and they were 'short.' They paid me back promptly, as soon as they had a winning night.

I did get Ron to play a couple of games at the Reno Chess Club eventually, but curiously he was a USCF member under the nom de guerre "King Bishop Pawn." I don't know how he'd got that by the Federation, but apparently there was no rule that said you had to register under your real name. He was rated around 2100, but after playing a game or two he didn't go back; he didn't seem to have a taste for long, tough tournament fights. He still enjoyed chess, but only short, sharp swashbuckling chess. He was always gracious in looking at my games and helping me try to improve, however, and I enjoyed access to his extensive chess library.

After eight or nine months Ron decided to move back to Las Vegas, where he'd lived for many years and where his girl friend resided. We began to make preparations to go our separate ways, and one day he asked me to lend him $300. He offered to let me keep at least $400 worth of chess books as security, so I went through his library with him. He put just a handful of the books aside as especially meaningful or valuable and encouraged me to take as many of the rest as I thought fair--then urged me to take a few more when I thought I was done. I took around 60 books, some classic hardbacks like the Golombek book I spoke of above, the 1960 Peter Clarke book of Tal's best games (first edition of this one), Fine's The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings and an number of other volumes that are probably pretty hard to find, these days.

I only spoke to Ron once more after I moved out--he told me he'd get in touch soon with the $300. I presume that he moved on to Vegas.

I was looking in the library recently and was reminded of where so many of my chess books came from. So I tried a little internet research, white pages, googling and so on, but came up with no real clues about where Ron might be today. If any reader has information, or would post an inquiry on their chess blog or website that would be nice. I'd like to know what he's up to, these days.

(3/18/07) CORRECTION: My memory had it that Thacker said he played Fischer in the "last round" of the 1957 U.S. Juniors, but Edward Winter has pointed out that the game actually took place in Round 3.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Link Previews Removed

After experimenting with the 'Snap' link previews for a while, and reviewing the comments I received in response to my request, I removed them. I don't think they added much to the experience, and were rather distracting. Thanks for the comments!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Kesti-Pearson Match Game 3, 1-0

I lost a tough fight last night in my match for the Reno CC Class B Championship, as Steve Kesti took a 2-1 lead in our six-game match (Game 1, Game 2).

IMPRESSONS: In a type of Queen Pawn Game (I offered to play the black side of a Fianchetto Gruenfeld, but he wouldn't take on d5), I laid a little trap and he went in for it, ending up two pawns down, but with some attack on the open e- and f-files. I think I could have ended up in almost the same position but without queens, which would have severely limited his counterplay, but I'll have to check it out when I have the time and the game score in front of me.

I did my best to defend, but missed something (I'll figure that out later, too), and after plenty of excitement we ended up in a position where he had queen and passed g- and h-pawns versus my rook, bishop and knight, with symmetrical queenside pawns. But when I blundered a knight around move 40, it was all over.

Now I'm not going to cry over the result, because he probably "shoudda" won last week, and I probably "shoudda" won this one, and the score would still be 2-1. There's justice and fairness in chess results, if only in the long term. In individual games, there's a certain wackiness factor...

I'll post the game ASAP, probably tomorrow, for my readers' viewing pleasure.

UPDATE: Here's the game--complicated, interesting and..full of mistakes, especially mine!



[Event "Reno CC Class B Ch. (Match)"]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2007.03.01"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Kesti, Steve"]
[Black "Pearson, Robert"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1764"]
[BlackElo "1600"]
[ECO "D74"]
[Annotator "R. Pearson"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. Nf3 O-O 6. b3 c6 7. O-O Na6 8. Nc3
Bf5 9. Nh4 e6 10. f3 h5 11. e4 dxe4 12. fxe4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Bxd4+ 14. Kh1 Bxe4
15. Bxe4 Bxa1 16. Ba3 Bg7 17. Bxf8 Bxf8 18. Qf3 Qe7 19. Nxg6 fxg6 20. Bxg6 Bh6
21. Bf7+ Kh8 22. Qxh5 Qg5 23. Qe2 Rf8 24. Qxe6 Qg7 25. Rf6 Kh7 26. Bg8+ Rxg8
27. Rf7 Qxf7 28. Qxf7+ Rg7 29. Qf5+ Kg8 30. g4 Rf7 31. Qe6 Kg7 32. h4 Bf4 33.
g5 Nc5 34. Qh6+ Kg8 35. Qg6+ Kf8 36. b4 Nd7 37. Qe4 Ne5 38. g6 Ng4 39. Qd4 Rf6
40. h5 Be3 41. Qxg4 Rf1+ 42. Kh2 Bf4+ 43. Kg2 Rg1+ 44. Kxg1 1-0

Another Good Chess Blog!

SquirrelChess.com

"[T]his website is about learning to play chess, random things I discover on the long way to chess mastery, and the game of chess itself."

A player who's having fun with chess, and has a fun site about it. Recommended.