"What is this -- Blitz?"
- me after losing a 3.5 hour game on time.

Rough go of it tonight. Opening problems with the white pieces from the Scandinavian. I was too averse to moving the Queen so early in the game (see: 7. Bg5?!) but in hindsight it seems like what should have been done. CPU is running an analysis now.

game here:


Sam is a super enthusiastic chess player, and if I had to lose to someone tonight, I'm glad it was to him.

That said, the focus here will be on coping with the loss.

First, I'm fine with losing the opening this time, but never again. The last time I played a Scandinavian over the board was with a guy named Bob in Jacksonville, FL (R.I.P.) who took with the Queen. I've never seen this line and honestly, it wasn't until 11. ...Qa5 that it caught up to me. My objective takeaway here is that  after black's sixth move, Qd3 is called for (edit: CPU informs me later, Bd3 also works), but only because 10 moves later, doubling pawns on the c file will be required. I'm okay with not catching that earlier, but clearly it had some impact on my game.

Looking at the game now, I think I was too much an optimist about the ebb and flow of the position and initiative.  After 18. ...Rac8 for example, 19. Bb3 does deal w/ the threat, but perhaps something like 19. Qd4 is more advantageous. As I scroll through this game it does seem like more aggression could've been called for, although now that I look at 19. Na5 I do remember enjoying seeing it on that square, for obvs reasons, including my next move. That was part of my plan, but my plan was positional and I wonder if it should have been more... I dunno... Sith-like.


Originally, I felt that 20. Rac1 was the mistake that I should have avoided, as it allowed BxNf3 on the following move. In retrospect, I see that the Queen side pawns were not doubled as yet however. I suspect doubling pawns for the B/N trade is okay on one side of the board however, and I was alright with it at the time I assume as well. I was disappointed however, when my Queen trade calculations (one move deep?) came up short and placed my Queen side in the same state.


I feel like after move 25 my play was adequate for the next twenty or so moves. I worked the position and did the needful. It took a lot of effort - by move 40 I was at 23:17 and Sam was probably around 1:15:00. (I didn't actually write his time down at 40 as -- oof! no time!)


Evidence is starting to accumulate that I generally overestimate my chances in any position that I find myself in. Take a look: which side do you want to play?

(Nimzowitch's well-studied Klingon Pird-of-Prey formation was reached at move 39.*)

After 47.  Rc5 Sam talked me in to thinking we had a three-fold repetition, but I felt it was just a smidge too soon - and despite my position being weaker, I still didn't think he had any real chances aside from a sketchy King move that looked like it could get dicey for him. We talked about it, but neither of us were looking to draw. I felt with the clock as it was, and my pawns as they were, I would have to leave it to him to try and find an active move. If he tried to force it, with something like 47. ...Kf5 I thought it might give me chances. If he repeated again though, obviously, we'd have to shake hands.

As it turns out, I could not prove that 47. ...Kf5 was losing. At the time, I thought it was a courageous move on his part. I suspect that 48. Rbxb5 was the proper continuation afterward, however I didn't want to remove the threat of of Rxc7#. This was probably a mistake on my part..

For the first time in a tournament game I found myself with less than 5 minutes on the clock and stopped writing down my moves after move 60. Under time pressure, I remember making some questionable King moves in a K-P-R vs K-P-R endgame, that ultimately could have cost me the draw barring a mistake by my opponent even if I had not flagged before that happened - literally forgetting about the clock while pondering the position - the last time I looked at it was on the previous move and I had 26 seconds left. The beeping of the clock brought me back and all I could do was chuckle.

It was a fun game - I'm glad Sam didn't take the draw. My play needed to be sharper, particular in the following areas.

Key takeaways:

• Wrecking pawn structures is a tactic. If one side of the board has doubled pawns, be careful that the other side does not end up with them too. 
• When three or four pieces are touching (see opponents b7 complex after 18. ..Rac8) spend more time considering potential discoveries. (I calculated the discovered battery but not the BxNf3 move)
• A potential Queen exchange is no place for lazy calculations.