Thursday, June 12, 2008

BlunderProne vs Polly

I know I'm supposed to be studying, but I took a break last night to watch an entertaining battle between BlunderProne and Polly. The game and my commentary follow.

15 comments:

Glenn Wilson said...

Cool. Your opinion may differ but I think you might like the look of the viewer better on your blog if you pick the "Midnight" color theme....

likesforests said...

Thanks, I switched it.

BlunderProne said...

Wow, you are too kind! My play was abyssmal in the opening. I tend to wake up mid game sometimes too late.

I thought Polly would have been best to play Ke3 instead of the R-check. It would have forced me to go the the g-pawn while she cleaned up the q-side.

Blue Devil Knight said...

A fun game with entertaining and illuminating annotations (I like the point about BP's King move into the corner--little things like that are very helpful to see written out, as I rarely think about endgame type issues that early in the middlegame).

Chessaholic said...

Very instructive annotations! You put in a lot of effort, thanks for that. Maybe we should pay you to become the official tournament annotator ;-)

likesforests said...

chessaholic, I couldn't. If you guys gave me the $5 gift card, there would be nothing left for the winner. ;)

likesforests said...

"I tend to wake up mid game sometimes too late." That's one up on me. I tend to wake up after the game!

likesforests said...

bdk, glad you liked. :)

Polly said...

Thanks for the excellant annotations. You included a lot more detail then I did.

Banatt said...

Nice annotations, I liked going through that game.

tanch said...

Very good annotations! I luv it.

There was one interesting position arising from this game.

Being the crazy player that I am, I am always looking for active counterplay and not afraid of razor-sharp positions. So I thought of:

Instead of 23.. Qe6, liquidating, I'll be more inclined to play 23. ... d4!

I feel Black must fight back for the initiative esp. with a queenside pawn majority. Given that White's king is slightly more vulnerable, it makes sense to keep the Queens on the board. Black must press now or risk being overrun by White.

Possible continuation:
23..... d4!
24. cxd4 Qxd4
25. Qxb5 Rab8!
26. Qa6 Rxb2! Black has a commanding position and a dream outpost for the rook on the 2nd rank, stopping any counterplay for the White King should more pieces get traded off. I would eval this as -/+.

Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

This is excellent commentary. It can be really handy to have a third party give their views on a game.

There are multiple $5 gift cards if that's all it would take to get you as an official annotator. ;) (j/k, quite aware it would be a significant time investment)

likesforests said...

"There are multiple $5 gift cards"

Woah. That is sooo tempting but I am on a diet right now and not allowed to eat at McDonald's. ;)

likesforests said...

tanc, nice idea, I like it. I thought about d4 on subsequent moves but on move 23 it's also very strong.

Our Sword said...

That was a really fun game to be able to play through. I like watching two bloggers go at it instead of some random person. Gives the game personality! Thanks for posting it and your analysis.