OMC Weekly (Volume 1, Issue 3)

Welcome to **OMC Weekly** (formerly *My Chess Week*), where I write about my weekly exploits across the chess board! I was relieved to see my online ELO becoming much more balanced this week and hovering around the 1000 range. Certainly I remain a beginning player, but I have now improved from an ELO of 600 to 1000 in just a few months.

This week, I would like to examine two games played against a 900 rated player on Chess.com. Have you ever played a game online where you could feel the frustration coming from the other player? The first game was filled with emotions and although I have been known (quite frequently) to lash out after losing a game, I could feel the frustration coming off of 913 during this game, especially when he requested a rematch without hesitation.

[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.07.27”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “913”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “967”]
[BlackElo “913”]
[PlyCount “49”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bg5 h6 {I have noticed that this position occurs quite frequently in my game. It is not always intentional, but seems to be a reaction to my desire to control the center of the board.} 6. Nxe5 dxe4 7. a3 Ba5 8. b4 {Forcing the Bishop further into its own territory.} Bb6 9. Bf4 Qd4 {Perhaps he was sensing the depth of my developing position. Bringing his Queen out so early and with so little center support was a bold move.} 10. Be3 Qxe5 11. d4 Qe6 12. f3 Qc6 13. Qd2 exf3 14. gxf3 Qxf3 15. Bg2 Qh5 {For the moment, Black’s Queen is disabled.} 16. Nb5 Ne4 17. Qd3 Qh4+ 18. Kd1 Nf2+ 19. Bxf2 Bf5 20. Qxf5 Qxf2 {Simply a mistake.} 21. Qxf2 {The only sensible move. At this point, I could feel Black’s frustration with the position.} O-O 22. Bd5 Nd7 23. Rg1 {Setting up for an assault on g7.} Nf6 {Black, for some reason, is intent on capturing my d5 Bishop, perhaps thinking that I was planning to bring it to f7.} 24. Qg3 {Black’s best defense is 24…g6.} Nxd5 {An unfortunate end. Mate comes next.} 25. Qxg7# 1-0
[/pgn]

A few weeks ago, [I wrote](http://chess.wesleysurber.com/my-chess-week-july-13-202014/) about how the psychological effects of losing can have consequences for other chess games. This is apparent in 913 from the previous game, whose ELO following our previous game dropped to 817.

[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.07.27”]
[Round “?”]
[White “817”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “817”]
[BlackElo “976”]
[PlyCount “26”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d6 4. e5 Bg4 5. Be2 dxe5 6. fxe5 Qd4 7. exf6 exf6 8.Nb5 {Does not really do much, except force my Queen into a position I was already preparing for.} Qe4 9. Kf1 c4 10. Nc7+ Kd7 11. Nxa8 {An acceptable sacrifice for mate in three.} Bc5 {Securing the c7 square for mate in two.} 12. d3 Qd4 {Preparing for mate in one. The best move for black here would have been Kd8 to allow him some way to escape.} 13. h3 Qf2# 0-1
[/pgn]

And finally, some news from the international scene. It was announced last week that *Pawn Sacrifice*, the upcoming biopic about the 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky will get its world premier at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival! The film stars Tobey MaGuire as Bobby and Liev Schrieber as Boris. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find much on the web about the movie, but I hope that following its premier that it receives more attention at the box office in the United States than *Life of a King* did. Unfortunately, *Searching for Bobby Fischer* did poorly at the box office although it was responsible for a temporary resurgence of chess interest in the country. Hopefully studios will see the promise in a movie like *Pawn Sacrifice* and give it a larger opening and run than more recent forays into the world of chess film.

[pgn]
[Event “World Championship 28th”]
[Site “Reykjavik”]
[Date “1972.08.31”]
[Round “21”]
[White “Spassky, Boris V”]
[Black “Fischer, Robert James”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B46”]
[WhiteElo “2660”]
[BlackElo “2785”]
[PlyCount “81”]
[EventDate “1972.07.11”]
[EventRounds “21”]
[EventCountry “ISL”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[WhiteTeam “German Democratic Republic”]
[BlackTeam “United States”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “DDR”]
[BlackTeamCountry “USA”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bd3 d5 8.
exd5 exd5 9. O-O Bd6 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Bd4 O-O 12. Qf3 Be6 13. Rfe1 c5 14. Bxf6
Qxf6 15. Qxf6 gxf6 16. Rad1 Rfd8 17. Be2 Rab8 18. b3 c4 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. Rxd5
Bxh2+ 21. Kxh2 Rxd5 22. Bxc4 Rd2 23. Bxa6 Rxc2 24. Re2 Rxe2 25. Bxe2 Rd8 26. a4
Rd2 27. Bc4 Ra2 28. Kg3 Kf8 29. Kf3 Ke7 30. g4 f5 31. gxf5 f6 32. Bg8 h6 33.
Kg3 Kd6 34. Kf3 Ra1 35. Kg2 Ke5 36. Be6 Kf4 37. Bd7 Rb1 38. Be6 Rb2 39. Bc4 Ra2
40. Be6 h5 41. Bd7 0-1
[/pgn]