They say every loss is an opportunity to learn something…

and boy were the opportunities flying around yesterday!  I played pretty terrible chess.   This is very depressing because I had been playing very well with a performance rating of 1600+ over my last two tournaments.  So I went into this weekend tournament feeling pretty good.

Well first off I get lost going to the tournament.  There is a lot of road construction where I live so my initial directions didn’t quite work.  Needless to say I showed up too late to make the first round.  The nice folks at the tournament let me join late and gave me a half point bye for round one.  So I join up with everyone in round two.  No biggie, I’m ready, I’ve done a boatload of problems in the last few months and I’ve played very well online lately.  Still feeling good.

My first opponent is rated 1662.  This is a good thing, this is where I believe my playing strength to be, and I want to go to Ye Olde Pueblo tourney in the Reserve (1400 -1799) section.  So I should be able to play well against this guy.

I’m playing black which is also good.  I’ve started playing the Sicilian, because a lot of the kids out here start their games with 1.Nf3.  I don’t like being railroaded into a closed game if I can help it, so I decided that 1…c5 was a good response to know.  The worst that they could do is get me into an English with 2) c4,  which isn’t too dangerous anyway.  So I get to try out my Sicilian skills…

1) e4, c5   2) d4, cxd4   3) c3, d5   4) Qa4, Nc6  5) exd5, Qxd5  6) cxd4, Qxd4  7) Nc3, Qxa4  8.) Nxa4, e5 with the following position.

I’m feeling comfortable here, I’m up a pawn and I have a pawn in the center, my Knight is developed to the square where God intended knights to be developed to and my opponents Knight is on the edge.  Overall, I’d say I’m ahead, while I’m not blowing him out of the water, I’d give myself a minus over equals sign. So we go on…

9) Bb5, Bd7  10) Be3, Bb4+  11) Nc3,  Nd4?

This was a mistake because now I lose the pawn and pin my knight.  I saw this but went against my better judgement.  I should have completed my development on the kingside first.

12)  Bxd7, Kxd7  13) Rd1, Re8  If I had gotten my K-side Knight out I could have used the other Rook instead.

14) Nge2, Kc7 I have a fantasy that my king will be safe here.

15) Nxd4, cxd4  16) Rxd4, Bxc3  17) bxc3,  Ne7  18) 0-0, Nf5?

This is a recurring theme in this game and for the tournament.  I keep wanting to jump my knight to good squares.  While there is nothing wrong with that, this is premature and I should have safeguarded my king first.  He’s sitting on black and my opponent has a black bishop.  I think Kb8 would have been a bit more reasonable here.

19) Bf4, Kc6  20) Rc4, Kb5  21) Rc7, Re7  22)Rb1, Ka6  23) Rc5, g6  24)  g4, Re4

 Perhaps, 23) …b6  I haven’t fully analyzed my games yet.  In my initial notes to the game I didn’t even consider this move.

 25) gxf5, Rxf4  26) Rc7, Rxf5  27) Rbxb7, Rd8  28) Rxa7+, Kb6  29) Rxb7+, Kc6  30) a4,  Rd1 (it’s my turn now)  31) Kg2, Rg5+  32)  Kf3, Rd3+ 33) Ke2…

Come on now kids, what’s the best move for black in this position?  Fritz thinks its Rxc3, which I actually played!

33) …Rxc3  34) Rc7+… I had actually seen this and played 34)…Kb6 immediately.  Now if he takes the rook on c3, I capture his rook on a4 and the a pawn should fall shortly.  No sweat, I’ve got it.  Then he played 35) a5+?! 

And for some inexplicable reason I don’t see 35)…Rxa5 with the same idea as the move before.  I instead move my king, he captures my Rook and I resign.  Bummer.

As sad as this was, I do have some positives to take away from it.

1. I played evenly with a class B player.  I don’t think I was outclassed or thumped on at all.

2.  I played my new opening pretty well.  I’ll do in depth evaluation later in the week, but for right now I’ll call it a win for me.

3. I really did learn something from this game.  When you are ahead in development or up a pawn (or both in this case) keep your edge!  I should have developed my knight and connected my rooks on move 11.  instead of playing a simplifying move.

I’ll post my other games later.  Please any feedback you might have please let me know.