For some reason the European Individual Chess Championship in Jerusalem has been one of the most boring chess tournaments I have watched in quite a while. In fact, I have avoided some of the rounds completely because there is just something about the tournament that causes me to drift into dreamland. Perhaps it is good that this tournament came about when it did because so much came to a head in the last few weeks that has keep me relentlessly tied down to commitments away from the chessboard and this blog. Fortunately over the past few days I have found time and energy to restart my chess work and to begin working on new content, but I was shocked to see the devastation I faced on the board.
The first example comes from a [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com) live chess game in which I played with a blitz rating of 851, but looked more like someone who had just discovered his dad’s chessboard hidden in a dusty closet. The moves in this game are atrocious and show that there is still much work to do.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.03.04”]
[Round “?”]
[White “870”]
[Black “Wesley Surber”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B01”]
[WhiteElo “870”]
[BlackElo “851”]
[PlyCount “51”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. b3 e5 4. Bc4 Qd4 5. c3 Qe4+ 6. Kf1 Bg4 7. f3 Bxf3 8.
Qxf3 Qc2 9. Qxf7+ Kd8 10. Qxf8+ Kd7 11. Qf7+ Kd8 12. Qd5+ Nd7 13. Qxb7 Qxc1+
14. Kf2 Nh6 15. Qxa8+ Nb8 16. Qxb8+ Kd7 17. Qxh8 Nf5 18. Bb5+ Kd6 19. Qd8+ Kc5
20. Ba4 Qc2 21. Qf8+ Kd5 22. Qf7+ Ke4 23. g4 Nh4 24. Nf3 Ng6 25. Qf5+ Kd5 26.
Qxc2 {870 won by resignation} 1-0
[/pgn]
This one hurt badly:
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.03.02”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “863”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C40”]
[WhiteElo “854”]
[BlackElo “863”]
[PlyCount “22”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Bc4 Nh6 5. O-O Ng4 6. Nd5 Qh6 7. d3 Bxf2+ 8.
Kh1 Qh5 9. Nxc7+ Kd8 10. Nxa8 Bg3 11. Ng5 Qxh2# {863 won by checkmate
} 0-1
[/pgn]
Things have not been all doom and gloom, however. The chess gods eventually took pity on me these last few weeks and delivered some gems like this one:
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.03.02”]
[Round “?”]
[White “AmishHacker”]
[Black “812”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C50”]
[WhiteElo “861”]
[BlackElo “812”]
[PlyCount “11”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “5”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nge7 4. Nc3 a6 5. Ng5 b5 6. Bxf7# {AmishHacker won
by checkmate} 1-0
[/pgn]
I was shocked to see what a short amount of time away from the board could do to my concentration and psychological chess development. In addition, this personal stumbling block and the lack of engaging international tournaments during this time probably contributed to the reduced posting here on *Campfire Chess*. The only thing I can say is that it looks like there is still an incredibly long way to go.