This tournament is really difficult to play. I remember RB#1, where we had 4 players with a rating of 12xx or below and you could just play normal moves and wait until your opponent would hang a piece.
This time there is no way this works, Zak, novice, darrell and Rowain could play in any chess club while Rego and Jkaen have improved a lot over the last year as well. If you consider that you might easily lose points against cyneheard and add the veterans MJW and pindicator to the equation, it becomes clear that there is no easy win anymore.
On the other hand I predict that this will be the closest tournament in terms of the final result, which is a good thing IMHO.
Man, I thought I had found the best combination ever:
26. Re2+ Kd7 (Kd8 runs into Nc6+ and I win the exchange)
27. Re7+ Kxe7
28. Nc6+ Kd7
29. Nxb8+ Kc7
30. Nxa6 and I have won a pawn, but after Kb7! my knight is trapped.
So MJW played 14.g4 which prevented my exchange manouvre on f5, but weakened the dark squares around his king. I decided to exchange dark squared bishops and use the newly available squares to get close to his king., but he brought his Queen over. I exchanged but now I am lacking a plan. I think I will play for a c5 break to activate my rooks.
Very confused by 26... Qd7. I guess he didn't really have anywhere else to put it so I will go with the obvious 27. NxR and hope it doesn't burn me too badly
Interesting tactical puzzle as I prepare a response to 25.. Qe8
He responded to my pinning his knight to his queen (with my rook) by moving his queen out of the way, simultaneously threatening my knight. So if I take his knight, he'll take mine.
It seems that the only safe square for his knight is back to Ne7, so I think the right move is b3 and not exchange knights. We're even in material but I feel my positioning is better
(January 19th, 2014, 05:57)Gustaran Wrote: ... Rowain could play in any chess club
Thanks but that only works if
a) opening books are allowed
b) I have 2 or 3 hours time per move and
c) I have an additional board to analyse moves as my visualizing skills are extremely poor.
I had a really tough time deciding between Rc8 and Be4 for move 32. Actually, I think I missed playing Be4 on move 31, which would have kept the queen away from the kingside defense.
Either way, I don't see any knockout blows, so I just need to play to keep the pressure on and improve my position. Try to wrap up that a-pawn if I can, or at least don't let it run.
What is going on here? This starts to become very annoying. Frankly, I expected Pindicator to lose quickly after I was up a pawn and an exchange. Unfortunately for me, instead of killing his position, this time Pindicator has stepped it up a notch and is suddenly playing really good chess with less material. I can't move my rook, my bishop and my Queen is poorly placed as well. Hopyfully I can push my a-pawn or sacrifice the exchange back in an advantageous way.
This is one of the strangest positions I have ever seen in one of my own games. At least my last move (33. Ra1)was not hard to find, because it was the only one. To sum it up:
- Rook on a1 can't move because otherwise the bishop on c1 hangs
- Bishop on c1 has no square and can't move at all. It's like a big pawn.
- Rook on d2 can't move or will be captured (I am contemplating a sacrifice on e2).
- Queen needs to stay on the back rank to defend the c1 bishop and has only the g1 square left. If he would play Bd4 then the queen can't move either.
So to sum it up, it looks like shortly I will be restricted to pawn moves.
but that only works if
