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    Sorry, Levin. I always feel like I cheated in those situations.

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      No, not at all. You should feel pride in turning an unpromising situation into half a point.

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        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
        The game I've just resigned against Wouter makes grim reading in the analysis. Missed wins for both of us (including when I had mate in 1), blunders, mistakes and inaccuracies all round. Oh well.
        I was well pleased with myself until the computer told me about that mate in 1 and the missed opportunities to take the bishop. I'll comfort myself with the point.

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          So far, the only thing consistent about my play is my inconsistency. Fatbear looking extremely unlucky to lose in a game where I (apparently) played my socks off with no inaccuracies up to the resignation. Could have just waited for me to inevitably blunder.

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            I really should save my analysis board notes. I'm forever having a feeling that last time I ran through this sequence I spotted something that meant it was a really bad idea but can't remember exactly what the threat was.

            Fatbear has really come in all guns blazing.

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              Originally posted by matt j View Post
              So far, the only thing consistent about my play is my inconsistency. Fatbear looking extremely unlucky to lose in a game where I (apparently) played my socks off with no inaccuracies up to the resignation. Could have just waited for me to inevitably blunder.
              Lucky for me you declined my offer of a draw in our second game !

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                Originally posted by fatbear View Post

                Lucky for me you declined my offer of a draw in our second game !
                Which I never saw apparently! (Would have jumped on that if I had.)
                Last edited by matt j; 19-01-2021, 19:02.

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                  Originally posted by matt j View Post

                  Which I never saw apparently! (Would have jumped on that if I had.)
                  Even luckier !!

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                    Originally posted by Levin View Post
                    I really should save my analysis board notes. I'm forever having a feeling that last time I ran through this sequence I spotted something that meant it was a really bad idea but can't remember exactly what the threat was.

                    Fatbear has really come in all guns blazing.
                    With 10 games on the go it is a real effort to remember what I was thinking when I made my last move if it was more than a couple of hours previously, perhaps I should start taking notes..........

                    They have been a couple of occasions when I have reset my board incorrectly when trying to analyse the positions. It cost me a pawn in one game, but fortunately there has been no major damage, and I may have actually played some better moves in ignorance !!

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                      Unless I’m losing my marbles, I’ve only played one game against Sam. Yet there is no link to start a second game.

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                        The site's doing some strange things for me at the moment, TPC. I say we give it a while for the chess.com operative to press the reset button.

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                          Yep, I am indeed losing my marbles, I have apparently played him twice.

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                            I bought some marbles over Christmas - the plan was for the family to make various marble runs out of North Wales beach sand, but we weren't able to travel in the end.

                            Carry on.....

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                              Mrs Bored got me a jigsaw which I have, despite having a childhood aversion, been glued to. It hasn't exactly taken over from Tetris or the chess but I am amazed how much I have enjoyed it. It is the cover of "Overkill" by Motorhead which is my favourite album cover ever but I don't know whether, aside from the initial hook, it has made that much difference.

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                                Ha, as a teenager I used to own a copy of that album in the good old days of vinyl. Got rid of most of my rock collection in a moment of madness in my student days sadly.

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                                  The last move I made in the match I just lost to TPC, simply giving away a rook by failing to spot that I was moving it into a line of attack, is one I don't think I'd have made if I had access to a computer to play chess on, rather than just my phone. I mean, it made absolutely no difference to the result, as I was losing very heavily and had essentially no chance of avoiding defeat anyway, but I should have made TPC work a bit longer for his win.

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                                    Ha, it is great having 10 people in the tournament but playing 10 games simultaneously is not helping my game at all. Don't be fooled, fatbear, I wasn't Kasparov before but losing over half my queens so quickly is rough going even for me. Thankfully, there's home and away legs.

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                                      Don't play after eating space cake, kids - put the laptop down.

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                                        Being a deeply, forever average player, this game was both somewhat satisfying and immensely frustrating (over on gameknot). This may be the highest ranked player (near 1800) I've ever defeated, and it didn't feel like I did anything that dramatic. So what can I take from it?

                                        Business starts happing at 11. Only thing I can think is that using (Ad Hoc's) English opening threw them off completely.

                                        FEN: rn1q3r/1p3pkB/p3bn1Q/2p1P3/2P2B2/2P5/P4PPP/R4RK1 b - -

                                        1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Be7 4. e4 Bb4 5. Be2 O-O 6. O-O a6 7. e5 Ne8 8. d4 d6 9. Bf4 Bxc3 10. bxc3 c6 11. Qd3 c5 12. Ng5 g6 13. Qh3 h5 14. Bxh5 dxe5 15. Bxg6 Nf6 16. Bh7+ Kg7 17. dxe5 Rh8 18. Nxe6+ Bxe6 19. Qh6# 1-0

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                                          Looking at the results so far, there is an incredible strength with the white pieces. The current top 7 players have a 39-3-8 record with White, or 41.5 points out of 50 ( 83% ! )

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                                            Originally posted by matt j View Post
                                            Being a deeply, forever average player, this game was both somewhat satisfying and immensely frustrating (over on gameknot). This may be the highest ranked player (near 1800) I've ever defeated, and it didn't feel like I did anything that dramatic. So what can I take from it?

                                            Business starts happing at 11. Only thing I can think is that using (Ad Hoc's) English opening threw them off completely.

                                            FEN: rn1q3r/1p3pkB/p3bn1Q/2p1P3/2P2B2/2P5/P4PPP/R4RK1 b - -

                                            1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Be7 4. e4 Bb4 5. Be2 O-O 6. O-O a6 7. e5 Ne8 8. d4 d6 9. Bf4 Bxc3 10. bxc3 c6 11. Qd3 c5 12. Ng5 g6 13. Qh3 h5 14. Bxh5 dxe5 15. Bxg6 Nf6 16. Bh7+ Kg7 17. dxe5 Rh8 18. Nxe6+ Bxe6 19. Qh6# 1-0
                                            Just had a chance to look at this, it is always nice when an attack against an under defended King comes off !

                                            I don't know what the Chess.com analysis says but Black moving his Bishop twice in the first 4 moves shows a lack of clarity on how to play the opening, and 6.....a6 hands the initiative to White. 10...c6 is also a sign of being unaware of his King side weakness, and to follow with c5 is another loss of tempo and I think mate is forced after 14....dxe5 rather than Ng7 or f6 !

                                            Well played !!
                                            Last edited by fatbear; 28-01-2021, 08:23.

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                                              Originally posted by fatbear View Post
                                              Looking at the results so far, there is an incredible strength with the white pieces. The current top 7 players have a 39-3-8 record with White, or 41.5 points out of 50 ( 83% ! )
                                              To reply to this and to the earlier discussion about playing on phone over computer, this tournament I've played almost entirely on my phone and I think that as observed before it increases the chance of bad moves. I think that is why I've performed better as white where I've been in positions I'm more comfortable with.

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                                                Looking at the results so far, there is an incredible strength with the white pieces. The current top 7 players have a 39-3-8 record with White, or 41.5 points out of 50 ( 83% ! )
                                                Interesting. But obviously the top 7 players, by definition, would be expected to score over 50% with either colour, so I looked at a different stat.

                                                Of the 55 pairings, 29 have finished (i.e. both matches played). Of those 29:

                                                7 have white taking 2 points (i.e. the two players win one each, each when playing with white)
                                                3 have white taking 1.5 points

                                                18 white and black split the points equally (as it happens those are all cases of one player doing the double over the other rather than two draws - you'd expect a lot of such results of course where there's a very broad spread of ability as there is in our tournaments)

                                                1 pairing has white taking 0.5 points
                                                0 pairings have white taking 0 points - i.e. no cases yet of anyone winning with black and losing with white against the same opponent.

                                                So yes, very unbalanced so far in favour of the white pieces. I'll revisit those stats when the tourney is complete, and maybe look at one or two of the earlier OTF tourneys for comparison.

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                                                  Originally posted by fatbear View Post


                                                  I don't know what the Chess.com analysis says but Black moving his Bishop twice in the first 4 moves shows a lack of clarity on how to play the opening, and 6.....a6 hands the initiative to White. 10...c6 is also a sign of being unaware of his King side weakness, and to follow with c5 is another loss of tempo and I think mate is forced after 14....dxe5 rather than Ng7 or f6 !
                                                  Thanks for the analysis! Definitely the two moves of the Bishop should have given me a clue I'd put him off (or rather, my copying of ad hoc put him off), but I got a sense something was possible at 7...Ne8, which feels like the game was out of his hands. Nearly everything on his back rank, and he can't protect H7 and is playing desperate from there (or at least, I would be in his stead). the c6, followed by c5 also, as you point out.

                                                  I worked through from 14 multiple ways, I couldn't 'always' find mate, but almost everything from that point I still maintain a lot of control and could usually find a win of his queen by moving a rook to d1.

                                                  17... Rh8 ends the game faster, though it originally made me scared. Mate is definitely forced by the Knight check at 18. An odd position where I think keeping h8 open for the king delays the mate for much much longer. After leaving conditional moves active for the longer mate in 6 (I think?), he gave me the easier mate after all that.

                                                  I guess my takeaway is, I did a troll's job putting him off with the English opening (that I have no idea how to play) and then was half-decent forcing the issue after that.

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                                                    Blunders. I have them.

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