Welcome to the first edition of OMC Weekly written in the great state of Texas! This was an exciting week for me as my family and I wrapped up our move to San Antonio and began the long process of integrating ourselves into the community, finding our way to work, and setting up our new home. As for chess, thanks to the internet I have been fortunate enough to continue my studies and my games. My blitz ELO took a nose dive earlier this week and approached the 700 range again, but I managed to recover and get it closer to 900. That equals a 500 point increase in the last six months, which is wonderful!
The first game I want to show is an incredible draw that I managed against a player that had me in a completely losing position. Many of the moves at the end were purely impulsive as time trouble became an increasing problem for both of us.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.09.06”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Wesley Surber”]
[Black “851”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “B20”]
[WhiteElo “863”]
[BlackElo “851”]
[PlyCount “133”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qd5 Be6 6. Qg5 Bxc4 7. Bf4 Nf6 8.
Nc3 e6 9. O-O-O Be7 10. Nb5 {An impulsive move that was flat-out wrong. It did nothing but sacrifice my Knight and place me in a tougher position.} Bxb5 11. Qxg7 {Aiming for the h8 Rook, but I doubted he would allow his King to stand by and let the piece be taken so easily.} Kd7 {A simple move that prevents Qxh8.} 12. Qxf7 Nxe4 13. Bxd6 Be2 14.
Qxe6+ Ke8 15. Qxe4 {A choice between capturing the Knight and losing a Bishop and Rook.} Bxd1 16. Kxd1 Rc8 17. Nf3 Kd7 18. Re1 Bxd6 19. Qe6+ Kc7 20.
Qf7+ Kb8 21. Ng5 Bxh2+ 22. Ke2 Bd6 23. Qd5 Qe7+ 24. Ne4 Ne5 25. Nxd6 Qc7 26.
Qxe5 Rhe8 {Binds my Queen to protecting the King. White’s Queen is lost.} 27. Qe4 {Ensures I am able to recapture his Rook after losing my Queen.} Rxe4+ 28. Nxe4 Qxc2+ 29. Kf1 Qxb2 30. Nd6 Rc2 31. Re8+ Kc7
32. Nf5 Rc1+ 33. Re1 Rxe1+ 34. Kxe1 Qc1+ 35. Ke2 Qc2+ 36. Kf3 Qxf5+ {At this point I seriously considered resigning, but decided to make him work for a win. Time was getting low for both of us and I wanted to see if I could stretch out the game to get a win on time or at least lead us to a draw.} 37. Ke3 b5
38. Kd2 a5 39. Kc3 Qc5+ 40. Kb3 a4+ 41. Kb2 Qc4 42. a3 b4 43. g4 bxa3+ 44. Kxa3
Qc5+ 45. Kxa4 {And Black’s missteps allowed me to capture all of his Queenside pawns with my King.} Qc4+ 46. Ka5 Qxg4 47. Kb5 h5 48. Kc5 h4 49. Kd5 h3 50. Ke5 h2 51.
f3 Qa4 52. Kf5 h1=Q {Certain doom for White…or is it?} 53. Kg5 Qf1 54. f4 Qaa6 55. f5 Qc1+ 56. Kg4 Qa4+ 57. Kh5
Qh1+ 58. Kg6 Qaa8 59. f6 {Trying in desperation to promote my final pawn.} Qf8 60. f7 Kd7 61. Kf6 Kd6 62. Kg6 Ke6 63. Kg5 Ke5 {A decisive tactical error on Black’s part. He should have taken my Pawn and the game would have been over.} 64.
Kg6 Qg8+ 65. fxg8=Q Qg1+ 66. Kh7 Qxg8+ 67. Kxg8 1/2-1/2
[/pgn]
There is a lot more chess on the horizon as I am currently enrolled in two workshops to help improve my game. One of them is an online workshop presented by Chess.com as part of their [Chess.com University](http://www.chess.com/groups/home/chesscom-university). It is a two-day Youth and Novice camp featuring grandmaster lectures and game analysis for beginning players. The second workshop, which I will offer a complete review of once it is completed, is called *21 Days to Supercharge Your Chess* developed by [The Chess World.com](http://www.thechessworld.com).
To finish out this week’s edition of OMC Weekly, here is an example of the devastating losses I was suffering during my ratings bomb.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.09.12”]
[Round “?”]
[White “905”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “905”]
[BlackElo “845”]
[PlyCount “55”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bf5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bb5 Qd6 6. Bxc6+ Qxc6 7. O-O O-O-O
8. a4 Be4 9. Nb5 Bxc2 10. Qe2 Qb6 11. Ne5 Be4 12. Nxf7 g6 13. Nxh8 Bh6 14. Nf7
Rd7 15. Nxh6 c6 16. Nc3 Qb4 17. Nf7 c5 18. Ne5 Rc7 19. Nxe4 dxe4 20. a5 b6 21.
axb6 axb6 22. Qa6+ Kd8 23. Qa8+ Rc8 24. Nc6+ Kc7 25. Nxb4 cxb4 26. Ra7+ Kd8 27.
Qb7 Ke8 28. Qxe7# 1-0
[/pgn]