Good to hear that Unhinged.

Inky will certainly want to know if she stays in the cellar all by her own. :p

haha it turns out that the problem was, right after Unhinged got back from the beach, I split to go camping at an amusement park.

It looks like we are definitely on for tonight though, finally Too much stuff to do in August!

It looks like we are definitely on for tonight though, finally [/QB][/QUOTE]

What time are you playing?

JSweet vs. Unhinged at 6:30 PM EDT == 2230 GMT

Good luck to both of you in your game. Hope you both play well.

Boo... I lost. The game's on my computer at home otherwise I'd post it. It was a very plain game really though the one I enjoyed most so far I think. And as is correct, at this time of year 6:30 PM EDT == 23:30 BST so I've not had time to look at it yet. Mr. Sweet might post it later.

Indeed, as Unhinged said a relatively uneventful game but very clean. No major blunders on either side, I don't think.

For a chuckle, plug the game into a PGN viewer and look at the last five moves or so. Black has been slowly but surely marching the a-pawn down to clinch the game. At the last minute, the king suddenly has to run away from the queening square to the other side of the board! I believe this is the only way to win. heh, kind of ironic.

7.Nd5 seems way to soon to me, and I felt like there should have been a really nasty refutation that would have won both a pawn and the initiative. I couldn't find it though. In fact, after the discovered attack with 10.d4, I was lucky to find a refutation! So I think my response to 7.Nd5 must be wrong.

13.b3? was the only serious mistake that I saw. 13.Qxd6 would have equalized the pawns. As it was, the extra pawn carried all the way to the endgame and ended up tipping the scales.


[Event "Friendly Game, 30m + 0s"]
[Site "Play And Watch"]
[Date "2003.08.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "unhinged"]
[Black "jsweet"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "1490"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[PlyCount "82"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Ng5 O-O 7. Nd5 Nxd5 8.
exd5 Qxg5 9. dxc6 bxc6 10. d4 Qh4 11. dxc5 Qxc4 12. cxd6 cxd6 13. b3 Qd5 14.
Ba3 Rd8 15. c4 Qxd1 16. Raxd1 c5 17. b4 Be6 18. Rd2 Bxc4 19. Rfd1 d5 20. bxc5
d4 21. Bb2 Bxa2 22. Bxd4 exd4 23. Rxa2 Rdc8 24. Rad2 Rxc5 25. Rxd4 f5 26. Rd8+
Rxd8 27. Rxd8+ Kf7 28. Rd7+ Ke6 29. Rd1 a5 30. g3 a4 31. Re1+ Kd5 32. f4 g6 33.
Kf2 Kc4 34. Ke3 Ra5 35. Rc1+ Kb3 36. Kd4 a3 37. Rc3+ Kb2 38. Kc4 a2 39. Rb3+
Kc2 40. Rc3+ Kd2 41. Rd3+ Ke2 0-1

Unhinged, I looked a little more at the opening of the game, and I think what I said last night about how you should play sharper openings is definitely true. The opening we played is a very quiet opening that requires a lot of patience and positional play.

When you played 6.Ng5 and 7.Nd5, these were both aggressive attacking moves that were way too early in this particular position. I remember you saying that's the point where you often don't know what to do... and I know what you mean. I would recommend trying to play some gambits or some more attacking openings -- that might be more in keeping with your style.

Eeps! I was going back over the game with Fritz, and there were a couple of major mutual blunders!

16....c5?? 17. b4?? (17. Bxc5! [17...dxc5?? 18. Rxd8#])

22. Bxd4?? exd4?? (22...Rxd4 23. Rxd4 [23. Rxa2?? Rxd1#] 23...exd4 24. Rxd4 and I would have been up a bishop)

Both of them centered on a discovered backrow mate threat that one of us missed. Ah well...

The opening looks a lot like the round 1 game jsweet and I played. I'm not sure what it's called -- is it the Giuoco Piano? Whatever it is, I didn't know what to do afterwards. That's why I almost never play Bc4 or Bc5. If someone plays that against me, I try to take their e-pawn with my f6 knight and (after the recapture) fork their bishop and knight with the d pawn to unbalance things.

Yeah, this opening I think is slightly different and is called the Giuoco Pianissimo or something. The difference is that in this game, knights came out to c3 and f6 right away -- I think in the game you and I played, they didn't come out till later. At least if I remember right...

It is usually my favorite opening to play, but there is a difficult phase around move 6 to 10 or so where it demands patient strategic play and is kinda difficult for a white belt.

In my non-TONC and non-GK-team games, I've been playing a lot more gambits and varied openings lately. But for the games that count, I always revert to the good ol' GP