Wow, fun game to watch move by move. Chessic, at move 28, why did you move your king left instead of moving the knight-column-pawn up one?
If you don’t see the threat of my 31st move - and it’s far from obvious that the King has no squares; he’s been safe for ages and has plenty of pawns and pieces close by, while all the White pieces are huddled around the far corner - then the logical thing to do is to begin to activate the King for the ending. 29. … Nd3 looks crushing because the counter-move 30. Rd1 fails to the fork 30. …Nf2+ and White is a dead duck, and meanwhile the White Rook can’t even guard the Bishop (30. Rb1) because of the back-rank mate.
I literally almost had a heart attack when I saw Chessic had played 29. … Nd3. Also 29. … Nxa2 leads to the same finish.
Oh, and 28. …g6 (“moving the knight-column-pawn up one”) loses a piece, Auto. (It’s perfectly cromulent to talk about the “knight’s pawn”, btw.)
Yeah I can’t read notation, so I’m just gonna have to take your word for it on all that neat commentary =/
Or, y’know, learn to read notation, which would take about five minutes if you understand the idea of row/column coordinates. 
Yeah, but that would make too much sense. I have to display stubborn ignorance on some topics or else life has no meaning!
Ah, but that’s the beauty of chess - the more you learn, the more there is to be ignorant about. 
Malacandra can do the post-mortem on this game since he won. After he delivers his explanation (which I think would be more interesting than mine anyway), I’ll give you a brief treatise on the psychology of this game. Internet chess is a different beast from over-the-board (OTB) chess but they have some similarities. That is, they’re the same for different reasons
I’m up a pawn in this endgame but I thought my pawns was safe on b5. I thought that …Nd3was winning some active king position (not a piece) and that would be enough to shuffle my king over to the a file, win a pawn, and queen. It’s all about that back rank mate that white has to deal with. If Nxb5, I saw:
29…Nd3 30. Rc8+ Ke7 31. Bxc3+ Kxc3 when my back rank is no longer a threat and I’ve traded that nice looking bishop for my knight. Note that if the bishop doesn’t move, not only does the knight take it, but I had tactics such as:
1…Nf2+ 2. Kg1 Re1+ 3. Kxf2 Re2+ which picks up the bishop and threatens the a pawn.
I totally totally missed 31. Ba3+ when I made my 28th move. What a shame, what a shame.
But hey, that’s internet chess. Good game, Malacandra. I challenge you to an honor rematch. And I’ll get some predictive pairings up when I get home on Monday night. Note to self: Next time, round robin where we all play simultaneously.
Chessic correctly (other than mixing up c3 and f6) analyses the responses to 28. … Nd3 in a situation where Ba3+ isn’t on; as I said, 29. Rb1 and 29. Rd1 both fail badly, and as he points out, 29. Rc8+ still leaves me with plenty of worries. But it couldn’t be worse for me than being a pawn or two down on the Queen’s wing in any case.
No computer analysis here, just my thoughts as best I can remember them.
The game as a whole got mighty complex. We started off with a quiet positional Nimzo-Indian (characterised by the third moves for both sides) in which Black has many threats to slow White’s game and compromise the integrity of his pawns, at the cost of giving up one of his most useful pieces, the KB. The line CS adopted is named for one Robert J. Fischer, no less, which is a pretty impeccable pedigree. My response is attributed to Reshevsky, who had a ding-dong match with Fischer in the latter’s youth with not much love lost on either side. It meant a big workload for my Knight (check out how many moves it made this game!) as I used it to recapture on f1 after the exchange of Bishops so I could still castle - an idea I saw years ago in a line in the Benko Gambit where the same tactic comes in. Black had a lead in development after that, and I wasn’t altogether happy about having to play 10. f3, but reasoned that my centre control would compensate and Black’s roving Queen would cost him a tempo or two in future and allow me to catch up.
Subsequent play puts my centre under pressure, but I have rational squares for all my pieces, including that busy Knight, and am constantly threatening a breakthrough in the centre. 18. Rc2 may well be inaccurate - on the other hand, 18. Rd2 is not perfect either since I still can’t afford for the d-pawn to leave the file as the Rook would then be twice attacked on d2. (Meanwhile, of course, Black can’t play …Qxa2 as I play Bxf6 amid much mirth - which, of course, Chessic knew very well.) But is 18. …Qg5 sound? I reasoned that I have a strong pawn centre and five pieces active in the vicinity, while Black’s QR is out of play, his QN undefended, his KN has nowhere to go, and he has no pawn centre. Strategically, I didn’t fear it, even though my position’s not bug-free.
But positional play still has to be supported by sound tactics. After the further 19. …b5 and 20. …Qe3+, Black’s Queen is out on a limb and he has a pawn hanging as well - but there’s a lot happening in the centre! I spent a lot of time in the run-up to this position, also figuring out that …Nb4 gave me nothing to fear, and then I made a damnfool mistake - I forgot the analysis. 22. Rd2 loses a vital tempo and I’m struggling to regain the pawn; I think I was at least level, and still with a strong position, after 22. Rc3 (driving the Queen away) and only then 23. Rd3. The important difference is that after the Knight moves, I no longer have to take at once and be menaced by a Black Rook on d8. The position is still immensely complicated after, say, 23. …Nc6; 24. Nxb5, Rab8; but as far as I’d managed to work out I was doing OK. I may have been wrong.
My next few were pretty much forced. I saw a slight hope after 28. Rc1 if Black played 28. …Kf8 rather than 28. …h6, but I fully expected Chessic to see it. However, alternatives were few. If my Rook was going to the c-file at all it had to get there before Black’s Knight reached a2; and 28. Nxb5 loses out of hand to 28. …Nd3. I had to play it on move 29 though - it was about my last chance.
And then, what can you say about that finish? Look at White’s position on move 27 and try to imagine any credible threat to Black’s King. And yet suddenly everything meshes together with geometric precision. Astonishingly, White wins in every variation after 30. Rc8+. There is no defence whatever. Black can’t block the check with his Rook. 30. … Ne8 runs into the same 31. Ba3+ and after the only semi-sensible move 31. … Re7; 32. Nc7, Black is pinned to death and I’m winning at least a whole Rook. In the final position Black’s own units on f7, f6 and e6 are killing him - if any of them weren’t there, his King would have a square and I’d be still having to hope I could draw the ending. As it is, all of my pieces are in exactly the positions they need to be in to win me a whole Rook again. It almost feels like a composed position, a study.
I’d seen the position ahead of time, with little hope of playing it - but I’m no more proud of having won than I am of having had the opportunity to play a move like that. I’d sweated for hours over 29. Nxb5 fully expecting to see it refuted, and then up pops the conditional move 29. … Nxd3 and I tell you truly, my heart rate must have hit 200, easy. I checked the position over several times even though I knew what had to happen. And after I’d carefully checked that two and two made four - all the time haunted by a lingering apprehension that they might just make five after all - I needed a stiff drink or two to steady my nerves before bed.
Which goes some way towards telling you why I don’t play competitive chess these days.
This, right here, is the biggest factor in this game, I think. I remember setting that conditional move. I had a sandwich in my mouth and I was just getting ready to go somewhere (work?). Playing against someone in the UK, I got tired of only making one move a day, so I started setting a bunch of conditional moves. After the move …Qe2 to offer a trade of queens, I set about 10 different lines that I saw.
And setting the move Nd3 is pure laziness. I saw that he had to get out of my fork so I looked at the rook check and figured the bishop of screwed, and I went ahead and set the move.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is chess laziness. It happens OTB too. When you play OTB, you get fatigued. You’re two hours in, you’re winning and starting to get angry that your opponent isn’t throwing in the towel. So you start looking for ways to crush him right then and there. That eats time on the clock, which just adds to your psychological woes. So you stop checking variations as closely as you can. You start saying “If I go here, he could go here and I’d win right away. Or if he goes here, I’ll do this and win right away.” and you’ll play the move, totally missing that he can make a response that only gives you a slight edge. Your best idea having been refuted, you go through the cycle again.
In internet chess, it’s much the same thing. You get game fatigue. You check lines over and over again, and yet you fail to punch through. You feel like you’ve analysed the same game 100 times over by now, so how could you possibly be missing something? So you start hurrying up. You start putting in lines that you haven’t checked fully. And this is what happens as a result.
The same thing happened to me in a tournament in Maryland last weekend (which I won, btw!). The opening was the Maroczy Bind. In the previous round, I had defeated an 1800 rated player, and I’m only 1600. I know I’m underrated because I study more than I play rated games, but I don’t know how much underrated I am. My opponent in this game was about 1850 so I was ready and willing to chop his head off to prove that I deserved to be among their rating class. I’m playing Black.
But he didn’t show up to the board! It was a Game-90 time control and finally, when his clock showed 55, my opponent appears. We quickly punch out the following moves (which we’ve both memorized extensively):
- e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be3?! Ng4!
At this point, we’re supposed to trade minors, trade queens, then trade minors again. Black has to recapture on d8 with his king while White can use the rook, so that should look like an advantage for White, right? Well it’s not and Black can draw from that position (which is good enough for me).
So does he go for this line with 8. Nxc6 Nxe3? No, he plays 8. Be2 Nxe3 9. fxe3 which has got to be worse for him. So now I’m up a half hour in time and he’s in a worse position than he could be.
But for the rest of the game, his pieces just seem to be in the perfect positions to thwart my attacks. Sure, they’re all tangled, blocked in, and developed poorly, but I just can’t break through.
So I sac a pawn, thinking I can get it back later with a rook. But again, he defends just in time. Now I’m down a pawn! I get more frustrated, which just allows him to catch up in time. Eventually, I lash out in the center, thinking I can push him back, but his piece just jumps forward (which I missed) and he’s better now. Now it’s my pieces that are hanging and badly developed. And he eventually went on to win.
It just goes to show you that 1) It’s really hard to stay focused over difficult games, and 2) You have to stay focused over difficult games.
The time factor thing cuts both ways, though - with my working patterns, I was often playing either last thing at night or first thing in the morning, and I think I played 22. Rd2? at about five to seven in the morning thinking I was following some analysis from a few days previously.
And I was not best pleased at my opponent in this game playing on when he was more than a Queen down, either (or more than two Queens at the finish). C’est la vie. I was tempted to snarl something about how sitzfleisch wasn’t going to save him, but as things turned out I mated him on my birthday for an added bonus.
Talking of staying focussed, this friendly against Hamlet is proving quite a tussle. Playing the Blackmar Gambit (an opening I don’t normally go near), I found myself an exchange down as well as the gambit pawn rather early and with no compensation in sight, but the pendulum has swung back since move 28 and I’m starting to feel more confident. But the temptation to lash out in pursuit of a quick forced win has had to be resisted several times already! (Since Hamlet lost on time to me in round 2, I kinda feel that honour demands I should win.)
OK, we’re waiting on the Gary-fubbleskag results, but if you figure that Auto wins his game, then the possible results are:
If Fubbleskag wins
Maserschmidt 2.5 Malacandra 3
Chessic Sense 2 Autolycus 2
fubbleskag 2 GIGOBuster 2
Edward the Head 1.5 Ivan Astikov 1
Hamlet 1 Garygnu 1
peekercpa 0 Oredigger77 1
If Gary wins
Maserschmidt 2.5 Malacandra 3
Chessic Sense 2 Autolycus 2
GIGOBuster 2 Garygnu 2
Hamlet 1 Edward the Head 1.5
fubbleskag 1 Ivan Astikov 1
peekercpa 0 Oredigger77 1
The colors were really hard to match up this time around because White outscored Black 4-2 in Round 3 (so far). I’m hoping it all works out for round 5.
The games that are must-plays are the top two and the bottom one. Those can get started right away. Everyone else can start two games and toss out the irrelevant one.
Oh yeah, definitely. Every chess player has to deal with time pressure, both online and OTB.
I have to play Chessic? Gulp Hey, did I ever tell you about my uncle in Nigeria? If you pay him a a visit, you can receive his inheritance! It would only take a few days…
Seriously though, I’m using Gameknot. ID is Autolycus84
Challenge sent on gameknot, Maserschmidt.
I should have resigned a while ago but I finnaly did. I’m ready whenever you are Peeker.
gary won:
ETA: I’m going on vacation in a few days and Ivan has already beaten me several times in our rematches - consider him victorious for Round 4 as well.
Hold everything! I screwed up the pairings. If you already played Ivan, you can’t be paired against him again. So I’ll have to rearrange some things. Give me a moment…
OK, Instead of:
fubbleskag v Ivan
Peeker v Ore
Make it
Ore v Ivan
Peeker v Fubbleskag.
In other words, switch Fubs and Oredigger.
So, it’s me and thee, Oredigger77. Gameknot or chess.com?
I really thought it was heading into a long game until that mistake on move 15. I might have been in trouble with the too-clever-for-my-own-good ‘9. Nxe5’.