Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I'm losing to cratercat.

This may turn into my first correspondence chess loss, and I'm annoyed. You see, when our game began the board resembled the diagram on the left, but after a series of fortunate moves by my opponent and unfortunate moves by myself, it has come to more closely resembles the one on the right.
(Please offer no evaluations or move suggestions as the game is in progress.)

"Fight to the Death. No game was ever won/drawn by resigning too soon. In contrast, with dogged, resourceful defence you can hope for the opponent to show signs of fatigue" -- Karsten Mueller in "How to Play Chess Endgames"

He presents N.Paglietti-C.Garcia Palermo, Italian Ch (Montebelluna) 2006:



It's Black to move. White played 61.h5? and now Black draws with 61...Ne2+! followed by 62...Nxc3 63.Kxc3= as White has the wrong bishop for his pawn.

"Art of Fighting Back - When you find yourself in a very bad position, don't set one final cheap trap and expect to resign if the opponent sees it! Instead, hold on as if your life depended on it. How to do this? Simple: play the move that you would hate to see if you were in your opponent's shoes! We all can identify with this; we all have been in wonderful positions where we know we should win but desperately hope the opponent doesn't play one particular move because it will make us work forever to score the full point. This type of grim goal-line stand unbalances the opponent psychologically. It tires him and can often lead to blunders that turn a hopeless cause into a victorious celebration." -- Jeremy Silman in "How to Reassess Your Chess"

Silman's example is Silman-Ruth Haring, San Francisco 1981.

1... Qe4+ 2. Re3 Qb4+ 3. Qd2 Qb1+ 4. Ke2 Rd4 5. Qe1 Qb5+ 6. Kf3 Qxc5 7. Kg3 Qd5 8. h6 Bxh6 9. Rxe5 Rc3+ 10. Qxc3 Qxe5+ 11. Kg2 Be4+ 12. Nf3 Bxf3+ 13. Qxf3 Rf4 14. Qe2 Qd5+ 15. Kg3 Qb3+ 16. Rf3 Rxf3+ 17. Qxf3 Qe6 18. Qf6+ 1-0

Silman gives 3 pieces of advice:

1. Avoid passivity and counter-attack. To do this you must have a favorable imbalance. Do everything possible to create one--even sacrificing material.

2. The best reaction to an attack on the wing is a counter-attack in the center.

3. If you have less space trade pieces.

Some of this advice doesn't ring true. cratercat will never get fatigued, and neither of us is exactly cramped. But, oh yes, I will put up a fight!

[Update 06/04: Cratercat-likesforests
ended as follows: 19... h6! 20. Nh5 Qg5 21. Qxg5 hxg5 22. f4?! Bb5! 23. Rfc1 gxf4 24. Nxf4 Bc4 25. Rd1 Rfe8 26. a3 e5 27. dxe5 Rxe5 28. Rd7 a6 29. Rc1 Ra5! 30. Re1 {Draw by agreement--to train for the world open.} 1/2-1/2]




7 comments:

takchess said...

I play the CatMan on playchess all the times. When I play e4, we normally enter into a Sicilian which gets wild. I hate to play either of you in a correspondance game where you have all that time to calculate............

BlunderProne said...

Well that's another fine mess you've gotten yourself into now isn't it?

Glenn Wilson said...

Maybe I'm confused but I think White is still winning in N.Paglietti-C.Garcia Palermo after 61....Ne2+. 62 Kc4 Nxc3 63. h6 wins. Yes?

If black tries to repeat with 62...Nf4 then 63. Kb5 looks strong. Am I missing something?

likesforests said...

If 61.h5? Ne2+ 62.Kd3!? Nxc3! 63.h6 Nd5 64.h7 Nf4+ draws. I omitted the '62.Kd3' in the analysis and that was a critical move--thanks for pointing it out.

"61....Ne2+. 62 Kc4 Nxc3 63. h6 wins"

Yes.

"62...Nf4 then 63. Kb5 looks strong."

Yes.

But if 62.Kc4 then 62...Ke7 holds!

If 61.h5? Ne2+ 62.Kc4!? Ke7! 63.h6 Kf8! draws. Eg, 64.Bh7 {setting up a temporary fortress} Kf7 65.Kd3 Nxc3! 66.Kxc3 Kf6 67.Bf5 Kf7! and White can't force the win because he has the wrong bishop for the ending.

likesforests said...

takchess, blunderprone - hehe. Yeah, some moves we blitz out and others we consider for 15 minutes. It makes for an interesting game.

Glenn Wilson said...

likesforests:Aha! Yes, I get that. I guess the King is faster than I thought.

BTW, are these colors more to your liking? :)

Glenn Wilson said...

likesforests:Interested in being a beta user?

See this.