Campfire Stories #1

On most Sunday mornings throughout 2014 I posted a weekly update where I annotated some games and gave a brief overview of coming chess events or recaps of past events. These weekly updates accounted for a bulk of the material posted on the site throughout 2014 and also a large portion of the content in the 2014 Yearbook. After allowing the column to be defunct for much of the year, I have decided to resurrent the weekly update in the form of Campfire Stories. These posts will contain a variety of independent content, but also link up to the other ongoing projects such as the reformatting of Campfire Chess Magazine and the continuing growth of the downloads section. And now, for Campfire Stories #1:

A lot happened this week both in the professional world of chess and in my own isolated world of amateur chess. For me, the biggest heartbreak was having my chess crush Sopiko Guramishvili tie the knot with GM Anish Giri. I am curious if her column on Chess24 with Anna Rudolf will change from Miss Strategy vs. Miss Tactics to Miss Strategy vs. Mrs. Tactics

Mr. and Mrs. Giri are now the most powerful chess couple in the world.

In other news, I discarded a plan to terminate my Chess.com premium account in favor of downgrading the account from diamond to gold. The crux of this change is the simple fact that I no longer feel comfortable paying upwards of $100 a year to play chess online when alternatives such as the Internet Chess Club and the Free Internet Chess Server growing more competitive. I intend to maintain my premium account on Chess.com and to maintain some of the aggregated blog posts on the site as well.

The following game was played last night on Chess.com against a player rated 1097 at the time. He made some unusual moves in familiar places, so I have to wonder if he was distracted or trying out new ideas on me.

[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.07.18”]
[Round “?”]
[White “1082”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D20”]
[WhiteElo “1082”]
[BlackElo “1050”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 Be6 { Black thought for quite awhile at this point,
which worried me. I have fallen into traps on multiple occasions in this
position by trying to defend the c4 pawn from White’s trickery.} 4. Nd2 b5 5.
a4 c6 $1 { If White is willing to take the pawn, then I am willing to reinforce
defense of the c4 pawn in kind.} 6. axb5 cxb5 {White trades pawns and my
position remains largely in tact.} 7. Qf3 Nd7 8. b3 c3 9. Ne4 Bd5 {Pins the
Knight to defense of the Queen.} 10. Bxb5 Qb6 11. Ba4 $2 (11. Bxd7+ Kxd7 {
Would have eliminated any chance I had of finding sanctuary for my King.} )
11… Qb4 12. Kf1 {White senses the coming 13.c2 and moves his King to safety.}
12… Nf6 13. Qh3 Bxe4 14. Ne2 e6 15. f3 Bd3 16. Ba3 Qa5 17. Bxf8 Rxf8 $4 {I
can claim nerves on this move because I was in too much of a hurry to recapture
the Bishop before it ran to safety. However, after the move I noticed the
devastating variation: } 18. Kf2 { Fortunately, White went with the blundered
Kf2??} (18. Bxd7+ Nxd7 19. Rxa5 { and White has an incredible winning
position.} ) 18… Qb4 19. Nf4 Bf5 20. g4 Nxg4+ {Sacrificing the Knight to make
room for a Bishop’s escape.} 21. fxg4 Be4 22. Rhg1 c2 23. Rac1 Qd2+ 24. Kg3 f5
25. Nxe6 Qxe3+ {A nice skewer, but I am not ready to swap Queens at this time.}
26. Kh4 Qh6+ 27. Kg3 Qxe6 28. Qxh7 Qd6+ 29. Kh3 O-O-O {Counting on Qxg7??} 30.
Qxg7 $4 { White takes the bait and his Queen is lost.} 30… Rh8+ {The decisive
blow…White resigned. The continuation would have been Qxh8 Rxh8!!+.} 0-1
[/pgn]