Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Next tournament.

Today we started with The Open Dutch Championship 2005 Dieren.
9 days with 1 restday.
40 moves in 120 minutes + 60 minutes for the rest of the game.
You can find the results/standings here under "Open kampioenschap en reservegroepen".


Tournament

Temposchlucker
1751
Margriet
1420
ACT score4.55
ACT games played
99
NK Dieren score
53.5
NK Dieren games played
99
Totals
9.5/188.5/18


Day 1:
I made a mistake in the opening and was in the greatest trouble against a 14 yo boy (1640). After I had finally equalized I had a terrible oversight, which costed me the exchange. A few minutes later I had another oversight, after which I was a full knight behind in a gruesome position. So I resigned.
In Dieren there are always lots of children. I hate it to play against them. They are always underrated, when they do a good move they get their friends, who start grinning behind your back. When you resign they give you a hand and say "well played".
It should be forbidden.
Margriet had a good game against 1589, but lost the ending with a pawn down.
The "phenomenon" played against the driver of our car. He complained to the arbiter that his opponent uses a captured piece to press the clock. The rules say that you have to press the clock with the same hand as where you have done your move with. Since a piece is not a hand, it's not according the rules. Our driver had his hearing device forgotten, so he could not quite follow the discussion. When he made the same failure again, our phenomenon started to yell. He got an official warning for that yelling. He is really creative and we would miss him if he gets disqualified:)

Day 2:
Again I was bungling terribly in the opening with black against 1617. I see so much threaths that I defend myself against things that are not happening. But he played rather passive and gave me the chance to escape from my self created problems. I need only a little hole. Immediatly I began to throw the sink at him by saccing a pawn before his king. My own king wasn't very safe but he was mesmerized. I mated him at move 31. For the first time I had an opponent who said that he didn't like the game because it was so wild and complicated. Most people like that, but it made him nervous.
Margriet had an easy win against 1155.

Day 3:
The problem with the Alapin is that if black doesn't want to play chess he can force to trade off pieces. I tried to gain the bishoppair by a pawn sac, but he managed to break it. So I had to fight for a draw. I managed to lure him in a fork, which gave us an ending with bishops of opposite color. Result: draw against 1675. My brains felt much better to day. The intensive sessions at CTS do pay off.
Margriet wanted to do things too beautyful and lost against 1417.

Day 4:
Two days ago, it felt like going thru a barrier. I was very tired then and forced myself to work on CTS. Since that moment I play easy and I am far less tired. And I don't have timetrouble anymore. BUT. . . the last two days I had white and both my opponents played the Sicilian. Untill 3 years ago I used to play the Alapin (1. e4 c5 2. c3).
Then I started to play the Smith-Morra gambit (1. e4 c5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3) for 3 years. With meagre result. So these tournaments I decided to use the Alapin again. But my opponents are now about 200+ points stronger than 3 years ago and they have far more book knowledge. So all the Sicilians these tournaments lead to a quick ending with a bad isolated queen pawn.
Today I managed to get the bishoppair in the Alapin and my opponent (1675) offered a draw in equal position. Because I was frustrated I said no and blundered immediately a pawn away the same move. . . And I lost the game by this blunder. Griet van Haarlemmerliede.
Margriet is very tired, she blundered a piece away and lost here game against 1478.
Our phenomenon was in top shape today. He started a discussion with the opponent and the arbiter, and about 100 men were standing around it. Margriet was sitting next to the guy so she had to stop the clock during the discussion. She had almost earned 10 guilders. . .
The discussion was about 2 points:
First, his opponent, who was a very old man had trouble with writing correctly.
Second, his opponent adjusted a piece when a was not to move.
This leads to an illegal time advantage for the adjuster.
According to our phenomenon his opponent had to wait untill he was to move, so the piece is adjusted "in his own time".
I think he goes for the brilliancy prize with this one. . .

Day 5:
I had to defend with black against the Blackmar-Diemergambit.
He invested two pawns in it, but two concrete-moves got rid off all the venom.
In a better position I had to accept a draw because of time-trouble. I'm feeling stronger every day due to CTS. The combination of Slowtempo for precision and Temposchlucker for tempo works fine there.
Margriet had an off-day and lost in a silly way against an unrated 11 yo girl. She is exhausted chesswise. Two tournaments in a row are clearly too much for her.
I'm glad we have a restday now.

Day 6:
During the rest day I did a lot of problems on CTS. Today I played (again with black) against the Trompowsky. It was a rather wild game (as most of my games). While annotating the game I realized how positional I actually think. Tactics are clearly a means to an end for me.
I annotated the game here.
The opponent of Margriet tried to catch her with a combination, but she had thought one move deeper and won a piece. The restday has done a lot of good. Her opponent kept playing through untill checkmate for two hours, even with a queen, rook and knight behind in the end.

Day 7:
Today I played the Alapin-Diemer gambit against the French. We both castled queenside and after 3 hours I could show little for the invested pawn. At that moment my opponent (1619) launched a combination. But he had not thought deep enough so I could ripost it with a knightfork. Since he lost a whole rook he resigned.
Margriet had a boring game against an opponent (1398) who traded off pieces in the fasted way as possible. Though she tried it heavily, she couldn't avoid the draw.

Day 8:
I drawed after a complicated Portugese gambit declined.
Margriet has recuperated from her dip and hacked her 1589 rated from the board.
I annoted her game lightly here. I am very proud of her.

Day 9:
I got a winning position with the Kings gambit against 1729. But because of timetrouble I had to accept the draw. An old problem.
Margriet blundered a knight away at move 5 and lost at move 64.

9 comments:

  1. Tien Gulden als u de ezel van phenom schopt! :)
    Vijftien als u hem in minder dan twintig bewegingen koppelt!

    P.S. Goed Geluk aan u en Mevr. in de toernooien!

    I hope I got that right. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sancho, LOL, nice try, but the second sentence is incomprehensible: we get 15 guilders if we join him in less than 20 movements?:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. LMAO!
    Replace join with (schaak)mat?
    Sorry about that, I certainly don't want you to "couple" him.

    I was attempting to say.
    "Ten guilders is you kick the Phenom's "arse"."
    "Fifteen guilders if you mate him in less than twenty moves."
    "P.S. Good Luck to you and the Mrs. in the tournament."

    I think I will stick to English. :)
    Unless you want some more funny translations. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fine to see both of you in the 50% range. Game 2: I often make the same fault of overdefending a position or defending a phantom attack. I think best to do against this is gaining confidence in defense so it may be done with minimum required power. That's one of the reasons I concentrate on defense now. The other is that I have focused on attack for a too long time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The sad part is that everyone who encounters the "idiot" is left with a bad taste in their mouth about playing chess. It just takes one jerk to spoil what should be a memorable experience for all involved.

    20 Gulden als u hem in de ballen schopt! Dat is tien gulden een bal!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, congratulations, you two!

    Go get 'em - you're upholding the honor of the Knights!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congrats on finishing what was probably a pretty grueling 18 plus days, and thanks for letting us in on your games and experiences. Give my congrats to Margriet as well.

    ReplyDelete