Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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Ah. no wonder everyone's impatient to finish their games off against me. I'm going to be like the League Two side that's gone on a decent Cup run but is therefore having to play all its games post-season to catch up, some of which have a potential bearing on the title.

[Levin]

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Oh god, I feel like I've dodged a number of bullets today. Etienne resigned when I was running out of ideas and Sam has just failed to punish a couple of terrible moves (is that bad form?)

I really need to work on my end game. I feel I should have done better against EEG, which isn't to say that he didn't play very well but my pawns were all over the place.

My game against Smallcaps is, I think, very much in the balance but I've no idea what to do against our current overlord.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

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I feel I should have done better against EEG, which isn't to say that he didn't play very well but my pawns were all over the place.

Yes, if you mean our 2nd game, I think you let me off the hook on move 29. From the moment I went a rook-for-knight up on moves 21-22, I was smugly thinking "I'm ahead on material, so probably going to win", which is why I ignored your draw offer a few moves later. I hadn't allowed for how strongly your pieces were positioned. Then when I complacently sent my rook away from the core action on move 28, your 28 a4 suddenly brought home to me with a shock what a massive problem your a and b pawns were to me. After my defensive 29 Bb1, I was expecting you to go 29... Be4, which I think would have led to victory for you: I could see no way to stop you queening one of your a or b pawns within a few moves without my sacrificing a piece. When you went 29... Ne4 instead I breathed a huge sigh of relief, as that allowed me to take the threat out of your pawn promotion campaign.

[Wouter D]

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Bordeaux Education wrote: Glad to see the trash talk has started up again

Truly! Get that bishop out of my half of the board!

[Wouter D]

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I am soooo happy with what just happened in my game with Etienne. Now watch me screw it up.

[Sam]

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Levin wrote: Oh god, I feel like I've dodged a number of bullets today. Etienne resigned when I was running out of ideas and Sam has just failed to punish a couple of terrible moves (is that bad form?)

No I don't think so; I'm certainly going to be analysing that match shortly. I won't pretend right now that anything jumped out at me as especially bad, but I did get a sense that I should have managed to keep it going rather better than I had. You live and learn, though...

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

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I think when Hollywood makes the biopic of all-conquering chess legend ad hoc, the pivotal scene will be where ad hoc, played by Bruce Willis, is half way through the first OTF tournament and sees the post from irony towers, omitting his name from the list of "competitive" opponents. Kicking over a table in a passionate rage, ad hoc thunders a message of defiance and new-found determination to win. The rest is history.

[Etienne]

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Ha!

I wonder if we could make this tournament fit in with the traditional chess World Champonship structure (not sure what they do now) - where this tournament is an eliminator, and the victor gets to play off against the champion - irony towers.

[ad hoc]

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Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: I think when Hollywood makes the biopic of all-conquering chess legend ad hoc, the pivotal scene will be where ad hoc, played by Bruce Willis, is half way through the first OTF tournament and sees the post from irony towers, omitting his name from the list of "competitive" opponents. Kicking over a table in a passionate rage, ad hoc thunders a message of defiance and new-found determination to win. The rest is history.

Actually, in my second game with IT (after the massive diss) I did much better and he told me that in fact I'd given him his hardest match (though he could just have been being nice), but more importantly he told me where I had the advantage and where I'd let it slip, so I went back over the game with his insights and resolved to try a new strategy. Which seems to be paying off. (That's slightly false modesty there, I'm massively and ridiculously chuffed at how well I seem to be playing)

[matt j]

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If I remember correctly both you and Etienne abandoned games against me when I was barely at an advantage. This tournament is a better reflection of how I saw our matchups.

and if your new strategy is "don't make a mistake", it's working.

[ad hoc]

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The evolution of my strategy has been:
1. Blunder about in hope, make loads of mistakes
2. Play ultra conservatively, so as to lessen the chance of making all those mistakes. Eventually get beaten, because you need to balance defence and attack.
3. Play much more aggressively, but not before trying to think through about 3 or 4 moves (that's usually the most I can manage). In essence my strategy is no longer about trying to spot my opponent's strategy, but to actually have one of my own (and make that the core of my game, while not ignoring the fact that my opponent is probably doing something similar)

[irony towers]

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ad hoc wrote: after the massive diss

Would anyone else like me to give them a performance-enhancing insult?

[ad hoc]

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Karmically, around the time I wrote that, in my game against Kev, I didn't have the patience to plan out a long term thing, and so just opted for the "safe" defensive non move - and fell into a trap.

[Kevin S]

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It wasn't a deliberate trap I'm afraid; I didn't even spot the pawn could fork until one move after it became possible.

[Levin]

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I'm dreading notifications from ad hoc. It's just a case of what horrible position has he got me in now?

[Levin]

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FUCK! Played the wrong move. Or rather I saw the right move after I clicked submit.

[Wouter D]

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Son of a sea urchin! How did I not clear out that wing with my rook a few moves ago?

[Wouter D]

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Smallcaps wrote: Son of a sea urchin! How did I not clear out that wing with my rook a few moves ago?

Arse arse arse okay draw it is then...

[Levin]

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That really was a lot of fun. Thank you. I thought I had it when I got my rook between my pawns and your king.

My swearing above was due to playing 46. g5 instead of 46. Rf6 I forgot to look at the board properly after your move instead of just playing what I'd planned.

But yes, if you'd cleared a few more pawns before going for the 1st rank it might have been very different.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

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How did I not clear out that wing

It's probably just me, from watching too much Downton Abbey with the missus, but that sounded a bit as if you regard the chess board as your own private stately home!

[Sam]

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Well done, Smallcaps and Etienne. Both of those were coming a while ago.

[Wouter D]

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Thanks, cheers. Even though I had some material on you relatively early in our match, I have been pretty impressed by the power of pressure you seem to have discovered. After my 22nd move in our latest game, I only have one pawn on the sixth row. The rest of all my pieces is on the seventh and eighth row (and I'm black, so those two rows are my home base). That is not by choice. Normally I fly into the opposing half like a mad man. This is because of your playing.

[Kevin S]

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Yep, I think Sam has strong counter-attacking intuition which made me very wary in a similar way. However it's probably fair to say that early errors which cost material end up causing problems later on. My advice Sam (and I'm hardly a great player myself so don't take this as gospel) would be for you to learn and work on some named openings, particularly conservative ones which lend themselves to counters.

[Bored Of Education]

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I think Sam should be tested for Melodium

[Sam]

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Haha, thank you all. Regarding losing material early, I really need to get better at forcing exchanges. in several games I've thought an exchange would go one way and failed to see an alternative for my opponent, and the result has been giving up, say, one of my bishops for a pawn. On at least one occasion in this tournament I thought a Queen exchange was on and ended up losing my Queen but leaving my opponent's on the board. Need to get better at seeing all possible threats to a given square...