Finally, Winning Again!
June was a really bad month for me, chesswise. I lost to two players rated in the 1400s; at the quads, I offered a draw in an elementarily won position and, in a winning position, I hallucinated an undefended piece, which I proceeded to start to capture with my queen before realizing my mistake and resigning; I went 1/2-2 1/2 at the quads and was 0-3 in the club’s Morphy Swiss before, finally, winning last week. And this week—another win.
Oddly, both wins have come out of the opening. Last week’s game, Johnson-Jin, began 1 e4 c6 2 Nc3 d5 3 Nf3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Bg4 (4…Bf5, as in the Classical Variation, gives White a big advantage after 5 Ng3 Bg6 6 h4 h6 7 Ne5 Bh7 8 Qh5 g6 9 Bc4 e6 10 Qe2) 5 Bc4 Nf6? (5…e6 was necessary) 6 Ne5! My opponent then thought for half an hour before the game continued 6…Qd4 7 Bxf7+ Kd8 8 Nxg4 Qxe4+ 9 Ne3 (Black has limited her losses to a pawn and the loss of her castling privilege) Nbd7 10 d3 Qd4 11 Bd2 (I don’t have Fritz; one might want to analyze the variations following 11…Qxb2 12 Rb1 and 13 Rxb7 Nb6, with the threat of …Kc8, trapping the White rook; at the time, I trusted that she wouldn’t take on b2) Ne5 12 Bc3 Qf4 13 Be6 Kc7 14 Qe2 (threatening Nd5+ and Bxe5+, winning the Black queen) Ng6 (now both king bishop and king rook are locked out of play) 15 g3 Qd6 16 Nc4 Qc5 17 O-O-O Nd7 (I expected 17…Nd5, allowing 18 Be5+ Kd8 [18…Nxe5 19 Qxe5+ Kd8 20 Ne3 wins a pawn for White]) 18 f4 Rd8 19 f5 Black resigns.
This week’s game, Park-Johnson, also featured an early win of material: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 g6 4 Nc3 Bg7 5 e4 cxd4 6 Nxd4 Nc6 7 Bf4 d6 8 h3? Nxd4 9 Qxd4 e5, forking bishop and queen. Play continued 10 Bxe5 dxe5 11 Qxd8+ (I expected 11 Qxe5+) Kxd8 12 Rd1+ Ke7 13 c5 Be6 14 b3 Rhd8 15 Ra1 Rac8 16 b4 Rd4 17 a3 a6 18 f3 Bh6 19 Kf2 Rd2+ 20 Be2 Rc2 21 Na4 Rd8 22 Rad1 Rxd1 23 Rxd1 Bc4 24 Nb6? Rxe2+ 25 Kg1 Be3+ 26 Kh1 Bb5 27 Nc8+ Kf8 28 Na7 Ba4 29 Rb1 Bc2 30 Ra1 Nxe4 31 fxe4 Bxe4 32 Rg1 Bxg1 33 Kxg1 Rxg2+ 34 Kf1 Ra2 White resigns
I can’t help being pleased with my opening play in these two games—in particular, with my noticing the wins of material. We’ll see how I do at the quads next weekend—not this weekend, as the club doesn’t want to compete with the World Open and therefore delays its July quads to the second Saturday of the month. I managed to drop seventy-one rating points, from 1838 to 1767, in the course of seven games (including the first of the two wins). We’ll see how quickly I can get back to 1800—and we’ll also see if I’m ever able to reach 1900!