Thanks for that correction Octal. When I get a minute to go over our game (well, I'll spend more than a minute) I want to understand you correctly.

I realize if I would study more and take less pictures, I might play better :rolleyes:

The pictures are slowly coming out, and I will post more when I get the Mig-beautified version back. I hope you saw your newsletters - White and Black belt. Those were my pictures. I love the one of Joel Benjamin. I think it's one of the best I've seen of him.

Woo hoo! I just managed to notch up my fourth consecutive loss!

This was a fun game, actually. Prior to move 34, SG was up a pawn but it turns out that both of us were thinking the same thing at that point: Yes, Black has the better position and a material advantage, but how is he going to convert it to a win in the eight or so minutes left on the clock? At this point I had very high hopes that I could drag the game out and get an agreed draw once the clock started to tick tick tick.

Then SG saw the wonderful move 33...Qc4! This is a really terrific move. White has a few options, but they are all very unappealing. Sacrifice a pawn to stop the advance, but leave Black with not one but two passed pawns waiting on the flank? Allow Black to get only a single passed pawn, but on the third rank?? Turns out I blundered and went with the least appealing option, which was "hang a minor piece". hehehehe :rolleyes:

One more comment if anybody happens to read through the game... ignore the anomoly on moves 25 and 26. I meant to play 25. Rxc8 (which was a bad move anyway) but my mouse slipped. SG was nice enough to give me a takeback. So just ignore moves 25 and 26, that is just a technical difficulty

[Event "Friendly Game, 30m + 0s"]
[Site "Play And Watch"]
[Date "2003.07.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "jsweet"]
[Black "supergrobi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C02"]
[WhiteElo "1637"]
[BlackElo "1850"]
[PlyCount "74"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Bd3 Bb5 7. O-O Bxd3 8. Qxd3
Nc6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. cxd4 Rc8 11. b3 Nb4 12. Qd2 Ne7 13. Nc3 Nf5 14. a3 Nc6 15.
Rab1 Bxa3 16. Na4 Qa5 17. Qc2 Bb4 18. Rfc1 O-O 19. Qd3 a6 20. Nc5 Bxc5 21. Rxc5
Qd8 22. Qc3 Na7 23. b4 Nb5 24. Qd3 Qd7 25. Rc6 Rb8 26. Rc5 Rbc8 27. Rxc8 Rxc8
28. Rc1 Rxc1+ 29. Bxc1 Qc6 30. Bb2 h6 31. Nd2 Ne7 32. Nb3 b6 33. f4 Qc4! 34.
Qxc4 dxc4 35. Nd2 c3 36. Bxc3 Nxc3 37. Nc4 Ned5 0-1

Hi, pals!!


GGs along the weekend, I've going over a couple of them and my hat off to the ones who wrote the analysises, they were superb.

I was to San Fermines (Pamplona) and played some chess games (chess is becoming an obsession for me ) not in my best state of mind (too much booze and just 9 hours sleep along the weekend. I only won 1 out 4 and I even was matted in 7 moves with the Scottish opening !!!! Right now I feel I don't deserve to be a ninja any longer. Will somebody discharge myself from the group for not being up the standard?

Hey now, there is no standard you have to live up to here. We're all seeking to learn and grow in our chess experience, which means plenty of bad losses.

For me lately even worse than losing is winning when I should have lost. I'll make a move on the board and realize it was a blunder, but when my opponent doesn't see it, I start to feel cheap inside for getting away with it.

aabear.....I've lost all my TONC games....and I'm still here. I'm learning, you're learning...That's what this site is about.

You will always be a Ninja as long as you keep learning and loving to play chess. Stay aboard....you're one of us.

PS. Read my signature.

Hey you and I are scheduled to play in TONC this round. That should bring your confidence back quickly. We've all had such moments, don't let them demoralize you.

cheer up aabear. Just to let you know I've played 14 games (outside of TONC) and I am a perfect 14 and 0. Yes you are reading that correctly 14 losses and 0 wins. So based on that, your 1 out of 4 is not bad.

Not to top ya' Dart... but I'll lay claim to a worse record. In the 1.5 years I have been playing chess at my local chess club, I have participated in a tournament that has 1 game per week for 8 weeks with quite dismal results. (sound of caculator tape running....)

The glorious results: 1 win, 3 draws and somewhere around 32 losses (excluding bye rounds). I never really added them up until now... holy snikes!!

See aabear, things could be worse.

We won't even talk about my blitz rating, no one needs that much encouragement. :p

Well, guys, I didn't expect this, I'm gonna cry . I was just joking but thanks anyway.

I'm not too worried about the score. What angers me is that I am better than the other guy (he knew a few tricks, I admit it, but positionally speaking, I was much better) and I couldn't finish him off. I was all the return way analysing the games on my pda and I should have won them. Have you ever had that feeling? That you should have won because you were better but that nothing went as expected?

Anyway, I have a squash rematch today with him, hope I win this one, .

There's nothing as difficult as winning a won position. Take it from someone who has seen hundreds of won games go down the drain.