Smashed

Well, I got the expected face smashing in round one of the October TNIS at the BCC this week. When you get 12 people and the ratings range from 871 to 2200+, well, something’s got to give. My first round opponent was Joshua Haunstrup, who is a very nice guy and spent quite a while talking to me about various things after he demolished me. One of the things he mentioned is that the monthly tournaments at the MetroWest club out in Natick get a much higher turnout, allowing for sections rather than a single open section. I think, when November rolls around, that I’m going to give MetroWest a shot. I think Blunderprone and SteveLearnsChess play out there, so maybe I’ll meet some of these other chess bloggers in person.

In other news, I’m stagnating at CTS. I’m up to almost 700 tries, but my success rate has dropped from 80+ to just over 79. I feel like I can’t get any problems right anymore, and the ones I do get right take me forever. I think I crossed some threshold where the problems I’m getting are suddenly much harder. A few weeks ago I did a lot of problems and very quickly shot up to 1350, but ever since I’ve been getting hammered and have drifted back down to 1319. I know that solving the problems is good for me, even if I’m not that fast, but it really irks me to get a problem right and lose points since it took me 30 seconds.

Finally, I got to play my first Legal sacrifice in a game today on FICS, only to find out later I’d screwed it up, and if the guy didn’t take the queen bait I’d have been fish bait. It worked out, and I am still somewhat happy about recalling the themes and how it works, but next time I’ll remember that it doesn’t actually work with a knight on c6….