There is just one week to go until Carlsen and Anand descend upon Sochi, Russia to compete in the FIDE World Chess Championship. All eyes in the chess world will be on these two superpowers on the board as Carlsen battles to retain his title and Anand tries to snatch it away from him. Little has been heard from Carlsen after his mediocre performance in the Sinquefield Cup. Fabiano Caruana and others have dominated headlines in recent months, but now the stage is set for the two to battle it out to determine who is the best chess player in the world.
Back on earth, where the rest of us play in seedy chess clubs on borrowed tournament boards or confined to the anonymity of [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com) and the [Internet Chess Club](http://www.chessclub.com), yours truly lost is 900 ELO blitz rating after hovering around 951 for a while. Some of the losses were a standard affair in which I made some inexplicable error or the player was simply better than me. Such was the case in this week’s first game where I played against a player rated 1001 ELO blitz on [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com).
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.10.30”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “1001”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “914”]
[BlackElo “1001”]
[PlyCount “100”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 Nc6 2. Bc4 e6 3. Nf3 Nh6 4. O-O Qe7 {I was a little nervous about
Black’s Queen coming out so soon. I remember the Bruce Pandolfini character
in Searching for Bobby Fischer scolding Josh’s parents for him bringing his
Queen out too early. I decided to defend against any traps I could remember.}
5. d3 Qd6 6. Re1 Ng4 {It is obvious that Black is threatening Qh2+, so I
decided to put pressure on his defending Knight.} 7. h3 Qh2+ {Chess can be an
interesting study in psychology. In this position, Black is actually MUCh
worse than White, but the fact that this player was over 1000 ELO caused me to
second-guess myself and miss the game-winning Kxh2!. Instead, I played the
game-losing Kf2 and it was all over.} 8. Kf1 Qh1+ 9. Ke2 Qxg2 10. hxg4 Qxg4 {
Black continues munching away at my King side following my incredible blunder.}
11. Rg1 Nd4+ 12. Ke1 Nxf3+ 13. Kf1 Qxg1+ 14. Ke2 Qg4 15. Nd2 Nd4+ 16. Ke1 {At
this point, Black has has no strategic advantage to take my Queen. This is a
purely psychological move to say, “I got you.”} Qxd1+ 17. Kxd1 Bc5 {My King
side is completely exposed and defeat is only a matter of time. I had already
resigned in my heart, but chose to play on in the hopes that he would make a
blunder I could take advantage of at some time.} 18. c3 Nc6 19. Bb5 a6 20. Bc4
b5 21. Bb3 Bb7 22. d4 Ba7 23. d5 Ne5 24. f4 Ng6 25. Nf3 exd5 26. exd5 O-O 27.
f5 Ne5 {An opportunity to even the score…} 28. Nxe5 Rfe8 29. Nxd7 Re7 {My
Knight is lost, and White’s fate is sealed.} 30. d6 Rxd7 31. Bf4 cxd6 32. Kc1
Bb8 33. a3 d5 34. Kc2 Bxf4 35. Rf1 Bh6 36. Re1 Rad8 37. a4 bxa4 38. Bxa4 Rd6
39. Re7 Ba8 40. b4 f6 41. b5 axb5 42. Bxb5 d4 43. c4 d3+ 44. Kd1 Kf8 45. Rc7 d2
46. c5 Rd5 47. c6 Bxc6 48. Rxc6 Rxf5 49. Ra6 Rf1+ {This battle was lost long
ago…I just stuck around for the finale. I resigned after 50.d1=Q+.} 50. Kc2
d1=Q+ 0-1
[/pgn]
Suffice to say that the above loss was not very difficult to swallow until I went back and did my final analysis. Missing such a *simple* move like Kxh2 was psychologically devastating. However, the loss gave me an opportunity to sit back and examine my response time in these games. Did I really need to respond so quickly to my opponent’s moves and what difference does their rating make? There are times that I wish I could turn off the ratings indicators on Chess.com to avoid having a constant reminder in the corner of my screen. Still, things got better as time went on. The next game was a win against a player rated 1020 ELO and the second-highest blitz victory in my short chess career.
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.10.31”]
[Round “?”]
[White “1020”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “1020”]
[BlackElo “905”]
[PlyCount “78”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 {I love playing this line. Among almost
every player I have gone against on Chess.com has replied to Qxd5 with Nc3.} 4.
Bc4 Bf5 5. Nf3 e6 6. h3 Nf6 7. Bb3 Nc6 8. d3 O-O-O 9. Bd2 Qc5 10. Be3 Qa5 11.
Ba4 Qb4 {My intention was to go Qxb2 just to capture the extra pawn if White
misses the intent of the move.} 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Bd2 Qxb2 {The Knight in
exchange for the pawn was not a good idea, but the resulting position was more
in my favor.} 14. Rb1 {A fairly typical reply.} Qa3 15. Ne5 Rd4 16. Nxc6 Rd6
17. Rb8+ Kd7 18. Ne5+ Ke7 19. O-O Nd5 20. Nxd5+ Rxd5 21. Nc6+ Kf6 22. Re8 Qxa2
{Capturing more material and adding additional defense to the d5 Rook.} 23. Ne7
Bxe7 {The Rook will be lost, but I needed to strip White of his ability to
keep me making forced moves.} 24. Rxh8 Bc5 25. Qf3 Qxc2 26. Ba5 Rxd3 27. Qa8 {
White’s Queen is making inroads into my territory, but there is really nothing
he can do against my assault on his King side.} Rd1 28. Rxd1 Qxf2+ {I could
have captured the Rook on this move, but decided that it would have been a
waste of material and went after the King as fast as I could.} 29. Kh2 Qf4+ 30.
Kh1 Be4 31. Qd8+ Kg6 32. Qg8 {White’s Queen continues to make some unusual
moves. Better for him would have been Qh4.} Bxg2+ 33. Kxg2 Qe4+ 34. Kh2 Qe2+
35. Kg3 Bf2+ 36. Kf4 Qe3+ {The Rook is powerless, so no need to waste time and
tempo by capturing it.} 37. Kg4 Qg5+ 38. Kf3 Qe3+ 39. Kg4 {It is all over for
White.} f5# 0-1
[/pgn]
My university studies have remained constant and so far they have not taken too much time away from my chess work. It is my intention to provide as much coverage and commentary on the championship as I can, but I am limited the availability of life’s most precious resource: time.