August was a month of anticipation. Several major projects at work were due at the end of August and they created a great deal of stress and anxiety for me and for my family. Additionally, the Sinquefield Cup began at the end of the month and was a source of anticipation throughout the month. I went into following the tournament with the intention of publishing daily tournament recaps but life’s demands eventually took priority and I was unable to publish the final recaps leading up to Levon Aronian’s victory.
Now that September is here and August is a distant memory, reflecting on it has really shown me what an incredible roller coaster ride it was. The life challenges, victories, and losses were physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausting. Unfortunately, this is reflected prevalently in the quality of my chess games and the results of my online play throughout the month. Throughout the month of August I played 27 games on Chess.com and only won 9 of them. The other 18 losses were incredibly frustrating because they were not hard fought victories like some of my previous games. Instead, these were games that suffered from basic tactical blunders and obviously reflect the fact that something was distracting me during gameplay.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.08.07”]
[Round “?”]
[White “1039”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D20”]
[WhiteElo “1039”]
[BlackElo “1024”]
[PlyCount “15”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nc6 4. Bxc4 Nxd4 5. Nf3 Nxf3+ 6. Qxf3 e5 7. Nc3 Bc5
8. Qxf7# {1039 won by checkmate} 1-0
[/pgn]
The game above is a perfect example of the struggles I have experienced on the board this month. I knew that 5…Nxf3+?? was a terrible move and after the Knight was captured by 6.Qxf3!, my reactionary move 6…e5?? was made almost immediately. If I had taken a moment to consider the position and identify the absurdly simple defense 6…e6!, there is no promise that I would have won the game, but could have definitely given myself a better chance than losing in an 8-move checkmate.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.08.28”]
[Round “?”]
[White “1076”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “1076”]
[BlackElo “972”]
[PlyCount “23”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1. e4 d5 2. Nc3 d4 3. Nd5 e5 4. Qh5 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ Qxf6 6. Bc4 g6 7. Qf3 Qc6 8.
Qxf7+ Kd8 9. Bd5 Qxc2 10. Qf6+ Be7 11. Qxh8+ Kd7 12. Qxe5 {1076 won by
resignation} 1-0
[/pgn]
In this game, 8.Qxf7+! is the move that caused me the most pain. As with the previous example, I once again find myself guilty of ignoring basic tactical principles and reacting to my opponent’s moves before developing and executing a clear plan of my own. The response is a forced move, but 12.Qxe5 is not. Yet, I became so frustrated with the quick loss of material and decided to give up. As August entered into its 3rd week especially, right before the Sinquefield Cup, I struggled the most. Games like this became the norm and it became increasingly difficult to play games or to focus on my regular studies. But alas, not all was lost…
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.08.31”]
[Round “?”]
[White “980”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “980”]
[BlackElo “975”]
[PlyCount “66”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 Nf6 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Nh4 Bg4 5. O-O e6 6. d4 Nc6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. h3
Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. Nxg6 hxg6 11. c3 Qd6 12. Qc1 O-O-O 13. Bf4 e5 14. dxe5 Nxe5
15. g5 Ne4 16. Bxe4 dxe4 17. Rd1 Qe6 18. Rxd8+ Bxd8 19. Bxe5 Qxh3 20. f3 Qh1+
21. Kf2 Qxc1 22. Bxg7 Rh2+ 23. Kg3 Rxe2 24. fxe4 Qxg5+ 25. Kf3 Qe3+ 26. Kg4
Qxe4+ 27. Kg3 Bh4+ 28. Kh3 Re3+ 29. Kh2 Qf4+ 30. Kg2 Qf3+ 31. Kh2 Qg3+ 32. Kh1
Re2 33. Na3 Qg2# {AmishHacker won by checkmate} 0-1
[/pgn]
After working through the month’s many challenges I started to see results like the one above. This particular game was a lot of fun to play and I will probably annotate it at length in Campfire Magazine or in a separate post in the future. Those basic tactical principles that were seemingly lost on me in the previous examples seemed to come roaring back as the pressures of the month subsided.
Time to Change Focus?
One thing I have been considering is my recent focus on tournaments and tournament results. It is always nice to follow tournaments because the expertise of the great players is inspirational for me and countless other chess players. However, Campfire Chess is primarily concerned with learning about chess and experiencing the chess culture through more of an educational lens. So I am going to try to focus more in the coming months on my studies and sharing some of the harder lessons learned as I work to improve my skill set.
[pgn]
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2015.08.30”]
[Round “?”]
[White “995”]
[Black “AmishHacker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “995”]
[BlackElo “966”]
[PlyCount “26”]
[EventDate “2015.??.??”]
[TimeControl “15”]
1. h3 d5 2. d4 Nc6 3. c4 dxc4 4. d5 Ne5 5. e4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Qd6 7. a3 Qc5 8. Be3
Nd3+ 9. Bxd3 cxd3 10. Qxd3 Qd6 11. Nf3 e6 12. e5 Qd7 13. exf6 gxf6 {
AmishHacker won by resignation} 0-1
[/pgn]
As a final example, this was a fun one that ended suddenly for reasons I still don’t know. It could have been that his dinner was ready and he needed to go set the table, but I might never know. In any case, it was a welcome victory that helped me to springboard back to a balanced win-loss ratio heading into the Fall and Winter months.