A little backgound on my opponent: Steve Rand was a great guy, a wealthy retired fellow who had probably been around 2000 USCF for many years. I will always remember a tournament he graciously hosted over a weekend in his home, which featured a living room large enough for five or six games to go on at the same time. He was a friend of the late Grandmaster Larry Evans, who dropped in on the tournament and even chatted with me a bit.
By the time of this game Steve Rand was in his 70s, I suppose, but still sported an 1838 rating. He overlooks one tactical shot and I find all the right moves, which after 16. .Nxf4! admittedly aren't all that hard, but still, since I haven't played many games where I only make one single mistake, nor knocked off that many players rated over 500 points above me, here is Memorable Game 11:
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Path to Chess Mastery, A Promising New Blog
ChessAdmin has begun The Path to Chess Mastery with several excellent posts yesterday. Technically, he has been on the path to chess mastery for some time, but that's the name of the blog, which is fitting.
Reflections on Training is dead-solid-perfect.
I am flattered that he mentions my annotated games as a partial inspiration. I need to do another, so I'll get cracking.
Reflections on Training is dead-solid-perfect.
I am flattered that he mentions my annotated games as a partial inspiration. I need to do another, so I'll get cracking.
Monday, July 04, 2011
4th of July Chess Carnival is UP!
Our Prodigal Pawn, Tommyg, does a great job and delivers on time and on the 4th of July with the latest Chess Improvement Blog Carnival. I liked his addition of "first posts" by some of the pioneers.
Go check it out, I'll be here all week. And don't forget to tip your servers!
Go check it out, I'll be here all week. And don't forget to tip your servers!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Memorable Game 10: Last Round, 2010 Alaska State Ch. R. Pearson-James Perrin 0-1
It's the last round of the 2010 Alaska State Championship. Having scored 3-1 in the first four rounds, a win in the final round would assure a share of second place, some cash and a ratings gain. I felt like I was tuned up after only five rated games in the previous 18 months.
I had watched my opponent get through the previous rounds and while he was playing pretty well for a 1400 player, there had been a certain amount of luck involved. I had seen him play the King's Indian as black and thought out an approach for this critical last round game: Keep it as tense and complicated as possible, stay ahead on the clock and wait for the mistake that must come, sooner or later...
Only one problem--he didn't "cooperate" and after a tense struggle I finally became too focused on "my attack" and in a couple of moves he was winning. This game is a good example of the psychology of "must win" situations, where a player's objectivity about the position goes lost.
I'll admit it took the rest of the day to get over this game. After spending hundreds of dollars on travel and three days in the sub-zero cold of Anchorage, Alaska, I felt like I'd come away with nothing. Nothing but humiliation, anyway. I felt seriously like retiring from tournament chess, and said so after the game to my friends.
Looking back with some objectivity, justice was done. He played well (especially for his rating) and deserved to win. I need to learn from this defeat and get better, not whine. Still, I have had few losses in my career that stung quite this much, so this is Memorable Game 10:
I had watched my opponent get through the previous rounds and while he was playing pretty well for a 1400 player, there had been a certain amount of luck involved. I had seen him play the King's Indian as black and thought out an approach for this critical last round game: Keep it as tense and complicated as possible, stay ahead on the clock and wait for the mistake that must come, sooner or later...
Only one problem--he didn't "cooperate" and after a tense struggle I finally became too focused on "my attack" and in a couple of moves he was winning. This game is a good example of the psychology of "must win" situations, where a player's objectivity about the position goes lost.
I'll admit it took the rest of the day to get over this game. After spending hundreds of dollars on travel and three days in the sub-zero cold of Anchorage, Alaska, I felt like I'd come away with nothing. Nothing but humiliation, anyway. I felt seriously like retiring from tournament chess, and said so after the game to my friends.
Looking back with some objectivity, justice was done. He played well (especially for his rating) and deserved to win. I need to learn from this defeat and get better, not whine. Still, I have had few losses in my career that stung quite this much, so this is Memorable Game 10:
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Apologies to HeinzK!
I realized that I neglected HeinzK's offer to contribute to the 6th Chess Improvement Blog Carnivàle!
There is some very interesting stuff here, at the post he calls Chocolate. It is really quite awesome, especially if the Chocolate was laced with a hint of belladonna, hashish and LSD:
But what I currently have to say sidechess-wise about chess being a fantasy trip still has to be worked out more carefully and thoughtfully. Right now, chess is quite a stressful endeavour. When performing on a higher level there is even more "frustration" instead of less - secretly I had hoped that when you reach a higher level, you will reach a happier state of mind too; but, unsurprisingly, that is not the case - for an outsider it does not matter if you have 1200 or 2500, you're the most amazing chess player of the street. And for yourself, it's just the same old crap with the same dreaded pieces. There's not any more insight involved than when you were rated a thousand points lower, you don't have more power, you don't have more money, you don't have more friends, you aren't more eloquent, you aren't more socially accepted, you are still restless... - you still will have to figure out a way to progress in all of those fields outside the board. For some reason, at the start of the journey, years ago, I subconsciously expected inner peace, salvation and seventy-two virgins as the final reward. ;-) Right now I'm not so sure. But despite the periodically returning frustrated feelings, I have been having a blast in the meantime anyway.
There's some philosophy right there! Make sure and check out his older posts, as well.
There is some very interesting stuff here, at the post he calls Chocolate. It is really quite awesome, especially if the Chocolate was laced with a hint of belladonna, hashish and LSD:
But what I currently have to say sidechess-wise about chess being a fantasy trip still has to be worked out more carefully and thoughtfully. Right now, chess is quite a stressful endeavour. When performing on a higher level there is even more "frustration" instead of less - secretly I had hoped that when you reach a higher level, you will reach a happier state of mind too; but, unsurprisingly, that is not the case - for an outsider it does not matter if you have 1200 or 2500, you're the most amazing chess player of the street. And for yourself, it's just the same old crap with the same dreaded pieces. There's not any more insight involved than when you were rated a thousand points lower, you don't have more power, you don't have more money, you don't have more friends, you aren't more eloquent, you aren't more socially accepted, you are still restless... - you still will have to figure out a way to progress in all of those fields outside the board. For some reason, at the start of the journey, years ago, I subconsciously expected inner peace, salvation and seventy-two virgins as the final reward. ;-) Right now I'm not so sure. But despite the periodically returning frustrated feelings, I have been having a blast in the meantime anyway.
There's some philosophy right there! Make sure and check out his older posts, as well.
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