Mysterious Rook Moves

I had white last night in round 2 of the April MCC tournament against Mark Fins. I’ve seen Mark around for a while but haven’t met him before. He did win the under 2000 section last month though, so I knew he was a solid player.

Once again I continued my pattern of getting good to winning middlegame positions on the white side of the closed Sicilian, but I just can’t seem to find a way to finish. At least in the past few games I’ve been drawing these positions, were about 6 weeks ago I would find ways to lose them.

Continue reading Wollkind – Fins, 1/2 – 1/2

Last night in the first round of the April tournament in Natick I had one of my best chess games so far. I didn’t have that many opportunities to go wrong though, as the game lasted only 19 moves before my opponent blundered a piece in a tough position.

This was my first time playing against the English. I’ve spent a little bit of time thinking about how I’d meet it, but this was the first time I had to do so. I think I need to sit down and figure that out a little more. My plan morphed from trying to tempt my opponent into d4 territory familiar to me into playing a reversed closed Sicilian, which worked out ok, but looking at the database I was in positions where white scores 65% or better.

After the game, my opponent told me that this was the first time he had encountered the plan that I put into action. A bit of luck, and more points from “the attack that plays itself” for me….

Continue reading Thompson – Wollkind, 0-1

After going 4-0 and winning the Under 1700 section in January, I decided to move up into the Under 2000 section for February. This isn’t so absurd, as my rating after the January tournament went up to 1601, but due to the way the USCF ratings system works the ratings lag by about 2 weeks, so my official printed rating for February was 1491. The only real affect that this has is that if you are at the bottom of the group you are more likely to be forced to take a bye if there are an odd number of players, and indeed, in round 2 I was paired out of my section (receiving a full point bye) and had a side game (still rated but doesn’t contribute to tournament standings) against George Callahan. I’ll post that game later.

Continue reading Adventures in U2000

I went into this last round game for the January Metrowest Chess Club tournament with 3/3 points and a chance to win the section if I won this game. I’d been playing pretty good chess all month so I was hopeful. I was outrated, but not by so much that I was intimidated.
Continue reading Schnair – Wollkind 0-1

Having won the first two games of the January tournament, I was paired against a strong player in round 3. Larry Kleine, 1651. I’ve only played a few games in my chess career against players over 1600, but with white I’ve now scored 4.5/7 against them, which is respectable. (Interestingly, I’ve never beaten a player rated over 1550 as black…) As is often the case against the stronger players this was a pretty clean and well played game. Sadly, the ending is somewhat marred by the fact that on my last move I turned a winning position into a draw, and that my opponent didn’t recognize this and resigned anyway.

Continue reading Wollkind – Kleine, 1-0

This was my fourth encounter with Mr. Hong. In our previous 3 games I had managed a measly half a point, but last night I got the better of him. I don’t think we were playing on even footing though: he had an unexpectedly complicated evening and arrived late and a bit frazzled. In the past he’s shown himself to be an extremely solid player.

Continue reading Hong – Wollkind, 0-1

Round 2 of the MCC Holiday Swiss tournament happened last night and I was paired with Alex Fauman, the youngest member of a chess playing family that are regulars at the tournaments in Natick. I’m not a good judge of ages, but I’d put him in the 6-8 year old range. Don’t laugh: Danny Angermeier, who is rapidly becoming one of the best players at the club, and I suspect will eventually be one of the best in the state, turned 10 last night….

This was sort of a strange little game, and I’m starting to think that a lot of these games that I’m going to be playing on the black side of the Modern Defense are going to look, well, not like your usual chess game. At least I got a win and broke my 3 game losing streak.

Continue reading Fauman – Wollkind, 0-1

Chess requires a few different abilities which all fall under the heading of “mental toughness.” Sometimes, the best move in a position undoes one of your prior moves (like moving a piece back to the square it was just on). It’s psychologically tough to do that, but the best move is the best move. Another is the ability to assess your opponents threats with a clear head and stick to your plan when his scary looking move isn’t really so scary.

Neither of these came up this week, but another one did: the need to play the position and not force things that aren’t there. I have a bad habit of wanting to just blow things up when the position is boring. Sometimes there’s nothing much to do, you just have to play simple, quiet moves and maybe end up with a draw. I’m bad at this. When I can’t find a plan I tend to want to just fling pieces at the enemy king. My 21st move in this game is an example of a move like that, and it lost me the game (as these sorts of moves tend to).

Continue reading MCC Thanksgiving Swiss 2009 Round 4: Loss

Sometimes you lose ugly. I’m still working out some of the typical things that you have to watch out for in the opening I’ve started using as black. Apparently, one of those things is the bishop sacrifice on f7. I ended up on the ropes back in round 4 of the October tournament after such a sacrifice. I was able to draw that game after a long struggle.

This time around I was busted on move 11 and resigned on move 15.

Continue reading MCC November Swiss Round 3: Loss