OMC Weekly (Volume 1, Issue 7)

What an exciting week it has been in the world of chess! The Sinquefield Cup is over, the contracts have been signed for the World Championship in November, and the world’s strongest players are making their way around the globe competing in some incredible high-profile tournaments. In addition to all of the professional chess going on around the world, things have been pretty busy here at *Off My Chess* as well. I am pleased to announce that the first edition of [Off My Chess Quarterly](http://www.campfirechess.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/omcq-v1i1-sep14.pdf) was released this week. OMC-Q is a quarterly magazine published for free here on OffMyChess.com. The magazine’s intent is to highlight some of my most instructive games for low-ranked amateurs throughout the quarter. Additionally, it contains reprints of select articles posted on the blog throughout the last quarter. This quarter’s magazine features the *Life of a King* review as well as product reviews for *Chessmate* and *Plycounter*.

Life is still a challenge these days as the family and I continue to get settled in from our move. Much of my chess playing in the last week or so has been dozens of live blitz on Chess.com (as usual). My ELO spiked at 878 before resting again around 850-860. My goal is to break 900 this week, so I have been religiously studying my openings in Chessbase with high hopes for some improvement.

[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.09.17”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Wesley Surber”]
[Black “792”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “862”]
[BlackElo “792”]
[PlyCount “41”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Bc5 3. Bc4 Bxf2+ {A little too aggressive for my taste and definitely not worth the trade. King captures the Bishop and I am immediately up 2 pieces.} 4. Kxf2 Nf6 5. Nxe5 {Giving myself an anchor point to launch an assault on the f6 square and block the King from moving.} Nxe4+ 6. Ke3 d5 7. Qf3 O-O {Black caught on to my plan and castled immediately.}
8. Rf1 Be6 9. d3 Ng5 10. Qh5 {Plan B, set up to attack the King via h7.} g6 11. Qh6 d4+ 12. Kf4 Bxc4 13. dxc4 Qf6+ 14. Kg4
Qxe5 15. Bxg5 Qe4+ 16. Rf4 Qe2+ 17. Kh4 Re8 18. Bf6 {Black’s King is doomed. The only way he could have effectively stopped mate would have been to sacrifice his Queen to force a trade and reduce my ability to deliver checkmate. } Qe1+ 19. g3 {This was a sensible response that I had planned if he chose to go after my King with a forced move. Black’s only real move is to capture the Pawn, but it only delays the inevitable.} Qxg3+ 20. Kxg3
Re3+ 21. Kg4 {Denying me the pleasure of an elegant checkmate, Black resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

And last, but certainly not least…this game. It was a heartbreaking defeat and probably had more to do with my state of mind than my chess playing ability. I was terribly distracted when I played this game and could feel my mind drifting into other things as I moved the pieces.

[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.09.17”]
[Round “?”]
[White “863”]
[Black “Wesley Surber”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “863”]
[BlackElo “862”]
[PlyCount “31”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bg4 {I have played this position so many times in my games that I am not quite sure what went wrong with my attempt to execute an offensive.} 6. d5 Nb4 7. Bxc4 Qd6 8.
Be2 Qc5 9. a3 Na6 10. Be3 Qd6 11. O-O e6 12. e5 Qd7 13. exf6 {And the slaughter begins.} gxf6 14. Bxa6 {Now I was watching helplessly as White stripped me of all my minor pieces. It was only a matter of time before I was left with nothing but pawns and a lost game.} bxa6
15. Ne4 exd5 16. Nxf6+ {The dreaded King-Queen-Knight fork. I resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

I heard a comment this week where a chess player said that chess is the only sport in which it is considered acceptable to resign. I thank God for that in situations like the one above.