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I read "Pandolfini's Chess Challenges: 111 Winning Endgames" this week. It's a typical puzzle book, except it's pocket-sized, and he writes some great analysis. As a result, my CTS rating went up 26 points to 1310. :)
News Flash: I drew a 1900 FIDE player as Black!
[White "axiom"]
[Black "likesforests"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"
[ECO "B01"]
1. e4 d5 2. f3 dxe4 3. fxe4 e5 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nc3 a6 7. h3 0-0 8. g4 Nc6 9. d3 Na5 10. Bb3 Nxb3 11. axb3 c6 12. Qe2 Re8 13. Nd1 b5 14. Ne3 h6 15. g5 hxg5 16. Nxg5 Nh7 17. Nxh7 Qh4+ 18. Kd1 Qxh7 19. Qg2 Be7 20. Ng4 f6 21. Be3 Kf8 22. Kd2 Be6 23. Raf1 Bd6 24. d4 exd4 25. Bxd4 Bxg4 26. hxg4 Qg6 27.Rf5 Be5 28.Bxe5 Rad8+ 29.Kc1 Rxe5 30. Rxe5 fxe5 31.Qf2+ Ke7 32.Qc5+ Qd6 33.Qa7+ Rd7 34.Qxa6 Qd2+ 35.Kb1 Qg2 36.Re1 Qxg4 37.Qxc6 Rd1+ 38.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 39.Ka2 b4 40.Qc5+ Kf7 41.Qc4+ Kg6 42.c3 bxc3 43.bxc3 Kh5 44.Qf7+ g6 45.Qh7+ Kg5 46.Qe7+ Kf4 47.Qf7+ Kxe4 48.Qxg6+ Kf4 49.Qh6+ Kg4 50.Qe3 Kf5 51.b4 e4 52.Kb2 Qf3 1/2-1/2
This opening is an unusual line--the Scandinavian-Possum (1.e4 d5 2.f3). After 11.axb3 I have a clear advantage. I managed to control the a7-g1 diagonal, secure the bishop pair, and double White's pawns.
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about strategy to exploit these advantages. White builds up a strong attack, so I use tactics to trade down to an endgame. I lose a pawn, but pawn-down endings can often be drawn.
It's Queen vs Queen. I can't score a perpetual, but I aggressively push my remaining pawn. Fourteen moves later, he agrees to a draw!
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10 comments:
I hadn't looked at your site for a while and pleased to see some interesting post on things I am currently thinking about. White's e5 push in the scandanavian and studying the conditions for back rank mate. nicely done.
Takchess, thanks for stopping by.
this is just a fantastic accomplishment. i almost beat a 2000 elo once but, missing the one provision for winning in a rapid game, lost, so must settle for a 1860 scalp.
may you you savor this memory and feeling untill it becomes one day not too far off, alas, a 2000.
on a personal note, i am not a big radio and music person, but i am at my mothers back east (we are leaving in 0:45 for a big extended family barbeque) where i grew up, just outside new york, close enough that from one good hill you can see the skyline, and am absolutely blown away by the local most absolutely excellent alternative public radio station.
of course, every visit i listen, having been long familiar, but i literally feel by each hour energy beaming into my body and being from new york from this music.
i do not wish to glamorize new york, having lived there for many years during and after college, going so far as to get an apartment there alone at age 17 when i went to copper union on a full scholarship, tuition free PRIVATE (a rarety).
in fact, despite a professional licence in that state of many years, i prefer NEVER to go back. but i can feel the strenght come through the air waves, the unrelenting techno pulse, the punk retro songs, the off color off broadway stuff they play from the fifties and somehow make it all cool. new york cannot be beat. literally beat. beat, pulse, beat dominated. one day it will collapse, but, such a day is far off, it the depth of it shows, for me, in an uncanny way at the depth and breadth of this music.
*********
while as intelectual as anyone, that does not say that my emotional nature does not far exceed that element. i feel deeply and constantly, and is my essence or nature. to hear this music is almost to be broken inside, as i see my mother skin and bones, and recall my own mispent youth, pursuing all sorts, in design, and asian studies, and martial arts, and outside this gigantic behive, must metabolize all this like a huge alien technology homeopathy tincture, 5M. the sadness is the passing of life, but, of course, she has had her chance to live, as i have, you have, and your daughter is now having to the full.
this time chance is like going to moscow, and next monday i must be up at 4:30 est or when i would otherwise be at my desk in seattle far from bed and doing CTS! 25 hour++ swing....
warmly, dk
ps, when i am home in eight days, thereafter i will copy your game and view. mamaedarov at sofia played the scandanavian against, topy or kamsky, in round one or two, as i recall.
Congrats likeforests! This was a really unique and kooky opening initiated by white. Until now, I'd never seen this rare variation of the Scandi and it looks like he was trying to throw you out of your stride with his offbeat responses. One impression I had while going through the first moves was how white opened up the f-file much in the same way white tries to do so in the King's Gambit. It almost looks like something that might have transposed into a KG if white had castled kingside.
post is done, part IV attached below part III. if alcohol allowed, maybe in late night but not when sleepy pour a tripple malt scotch.
Very nice game. This seems to be the opening system du jour. Apparently this system is coming up from Australia.
Well done.
hisbestfriend, thanks. Yeah, the Possum's an Australian idea.
1.e4 2.f3 isn't the strongest move, but it takes opponents out of their books and refutation isn't easy. It also isn't completely unsound. It reminds me of the Scandinavian.
I think the Possum is very weak against the Scandinavian. 1.e4 d5 2.f3 exd5 3.fxe4 e5. Does anyone like this position for White? Chessbase says Black scores 83% in this line, out of 9 games. And then there's the game I just posted. If my opponent had play 2.exd5, surely he would have wiped the floor with me.
cratercat, good eye. :)
In fact, the position after 1.e4 d5 2.f3 dxe4 3.fxe4 e5 4.e5 Nf3 is the same as the position after 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.fxe5 dxe5. It's a transposition into the King's Gambit Declined, Classical Defense. That was my plan from the beginning.
Looking at Chessbase statistics now, perhaps White's error was not 2.f3?! but rather 5.Bc4? When I discussed the game with my opponent he also believed that allowing me to capture his light-squared bishop was a mistake.
That's one reason chess is interesting. There are no easy answers. :)
dk, glad you're getting a chance to see your mother. Have you every been to the Bay Area? It's also quite a change. The radio plays Skaira, Velasquez, and Juanes. Restaurants show Indian musicals. And there's Chinatown and Japantown. We have deserts to the south, beaches to the west, and mountains to the east. Where else can you find all the diversity of America in one place?
my last REAL girlfriend was in san francisco, when i was making 300k a year, and could just fly down. she did decorative painting, a very powerfull lady, but had an anger problem. did the painting for the big dot.com magnates, such as michael milken, etc. this is when the best painters in the city put a basecoat on, THEN you come in and do faux finishes on top of it, with elaborate detail. she got me into Alclad cookwear, her claim to fame.
san francisco--for me--reminds me of new york in the people, and i found it pretty hostile, and dont like it. i dont mean to say new york is hostile, far from it. but reminds me of it with more edge. it is not all haigh ashbury, but anxiety and pressure, and need to produce money. and to be seen and look good and have a nice house. and pay the mortgage. it is not for me.
sorry. i have great sadness about it all. when my stint at morgan stanley was ending, i was in and out of there often. the depth of my broken heart is there.
i dont know what it is, but something is wrong there. and when something big was wrong with me, i was there, too.
i also did many meditation retreats there, both at calistoga, and santa cruz. my heart aches to write this.
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