Welcome to **My Chess Week**, where I write about my weekly exploits across the chess board! As we will see, things did not get much better for me as I concluded two more correspondence games and struggle with the psychological effects of chess disaster. However, some redemption appeared later in the week during live online play on Chess.com.
The first game was nothing short of a complete disaster. As you can tell by my liberal use of dichotomous adjectives, this is the game that forced me to rethink my play entirely and, in a sense, to return to my starting point to assess what is going on. 1272 played a great game of chess, but I was simply unable to match his play in a way that was effective for winning the game and maintaining my own self-confidence, which took a hit as I watched my ELO drop from a high of 1437 to 1269. I played White.
[pgn]
[Event “Let’s Play!”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.07.16”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “1272”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “1269”]
[BlackElo “1272”]
[TimeControl “1 in 1 day”]
[Termination “1272 won by resignation”]
1.e4 c5 2.Bb5 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.O-O Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.d3 Bd7 7.Bg5 Be7 8.Qd2 a6 9.Bc4 b5 10.Bd5 {First mistake of the game. I hesitated in this position and played the reckless 10.Bd5 without looking at the more sensible 10.Bb3.} Nxd5 11.exd5 Bxg5 12.Nxg5 Nd4 13.Rae1 Qf6 14.Qe3?? {A terrible mistake! My intent was to put pressure on his Knights, but all this did was take away the risk of 14…Nxc2, which was Black’s next move.} Nxc2 15.Qc1 Nxe1 {Thus began the true descent as I was immediately down -5.00 following the capture of my Rook.} 16.Rxe1 Qg6 17.Nce4 Bf5 18.f4 h6 19.h3 {Grasping at straws.} hxg5 20.fxg5 Bxe4 21.Rxe4 {21.dxe4 would have been more sensible.} f6 22.Rg4 Qxd3 23.gxf6 gxf6 24.Rg7 {I resigned about an hour later because there were no options left. 24…Qxd5 eliminates my last piece and leaves my Queen alone to defend the remaining Pawns against Black’s Queen and two Rooks.} 0-1
[/pgn]
In my opinion, the following game is the stuff of nightmares. In fact, I actually had nightmares *about* this game the night that it was played. I am not a member of the [Internet Chess Club](http://www.chessclub.com) (ICC) and although I have no problem with the site’s format, I find the resources of [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com) to be more suitable to my skill level and general chess interests. However, I decided to test drive the ICC one weeknight and played two games against 1051, who surprised me with incredible comebacks in both endgames. I was coming off of a shocking recovery from the first game and was watching him closely for some form of trickery or blunder on my part that would cost me the game. Post-game analysis by Fritz shows me up a full 25 points going into the final three moves of the game, but this player was quick-witted and managed an incredible, nightmarish finish. Here we go:
[pgn]
[Event “ICC 15 12”]
[Site “Internet Chess Club”]
[Date “2014.07.22”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “1051”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B30”]
[WhiteElo “1400”]
[BlackElo “1051”]
[Annotator “Wesley Surber”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “900+12”]
1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 c5 3. Bb5 Nc6 4. O-O a6 5. Bc4 d6 6. Nc3 b5 7. Bd5 Bb7 8. d3 Nf6 9. Bg5 h6 10. Qd2 b4 11. Na4 Rb8 12. a3 Nd4 13. axb4 hxg5 14. Nxg5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Bxd5 16. bxc5 f6 17. c3 fxg5 18. cxd4 Be7 19. dxe5 dxe5 {I really liked this position. I have spent the last few weeks reading and studying pawn structures, and this position was the result of pushing more pawns across the center to weaken my opponent’s defenses.} 20. Rae1 {Planning to attack the e5 pawn and chip away at Black’s position.} Qc7 21. Nc3 Qa5 22. b4 {A quick and unfortunate pawn surrender. I wish I could take this one back.} Qxb4 23. Qe3 Qg4 24. f3 Qf5 25. Nxd5 Bf6 26. d4 {This was the move that cost me the game. By playing d4, I provided black with a clear pathway to bring his Queen to c2 and begin a very quick checkmate pattern.} O-O 27. g4 Qc2 28. f4 {I played f4 simply because I did not see Black’s plans. I was not paying attention to the whole board and was more wrapped up in finding a way to push my Rooks deeper into Black’s territory.} Rb2 29. dxe5 Qg2# {White checkmated and I think I cried a little.} 0-1
[/pgn]
Things were not all *doom and gloom* this week. Live chess treated me much better than correspondence chess. This game was played on [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com) and was a joy to play (and win). I actually played this one while eating one of those stuffed grillers from Taco Bell, so I was impressed by the level of concentration I was able to devote to my burrito and to the chessboard…
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.07.23”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “949”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “856”]
[BlackElo “949”]
[PlyCount “51”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 e5 4. O-O a6 5. Ng5 Nh6 {He is defending against Qf7#, which is was one plan I had considered, but prepared for his counter play.} 6. d3 b5 7. Bd5 Bb7 8. Qf3 {Considered Qf7+ one last time, but decided against making such a bold sacrifice.} Nd4 9. Qe3 Nxc2 {At this point, my a1 Rook is history, so I had to find a way to prevent further damage to the back rank.} 10. Qf3 Bxd5 11. exd5 f6 12. Qh5+ g6 13. Qe2 Nd4 14. Qe4 Nc2 15. Qe2 {If he’s going to take my Rook, I am going to make him pay for it.} Nxa1 16. Ne4 f5 17. Ng5 d6 18. f4 Be7 19. Ne6 Qb6 20. fxe5 c4+ 21. d4 dxe5 22. Bxh6 Rg8 23. Qxe5 {Was hoping to capture a Rook, but his moves allowed a much faster mating pattern to develop.} Nc2 24. Nc7+ Kf7 25. d6 {A simple move designed only to block his Queen. His best saving move would have been 25…Bxd6} Qc6 {Does nothing to help his position.} 26. Qe6# {Victory is mine!} 1-0
[/pgn]
And finally…this little gem…
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.07.23”]
[Round “?”]
[White “755”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “755”]
[BlackElo “885”]
[PlyCount “16”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1.e4 c5 2. d3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e6 4. Bd2 Nc6 5. Be2 Qb6 6. Nc3 c4 7. Rb1 Ng4 {He needs to play 8.d4 to stop mate in one.} 8. dxc4 Qxf2# {This game reminds me of that moment in The Boondock Saints right after they shot the cat when one of the brothers points to the bloody mess and yells, “I can’t believe that just f**king happened!”} 0-1
[/pgn]