The everything CHESS thread

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by ah123

I didn’t see that rook being in trouble. As, I think it it was butterfly, said in my other game: “it is like Kadri passing the puck to the opponent’s stick”

Yeah, that was a tricky moment. I think I understand your idea—adding a defender to the b7 pawn so your bishop on c8 can finally develop. Long range attacks from there are hard to spot—especially from a “London Bishop” that basically moved to f4 on move 2, and then just hung out there.

[Superfraggle]

Yeah, that was a fun game. I was definitely down until the rook blunder. It pretty much came down to me blundering an early pawn vs. ah123 blundering a rook. I'm just hoping to stay on the right side of those scales as the tournament continues.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

Yeah, that was a fun game. I was definitely down until the rook blunder. It pretty much came down to me blundering an early pawn vs. ah123 blundering a rook. I'm just hoping to stay on the right side of those scales as the tournament continues.

You know what they say: in chess it’s not about who blunders most so much as who blunders last.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by ah123

I didn’t see that rook being in trouble. As, I think it it was butterfly, said in my other game: “it is like Kadri passing the puck to the opponent’s stick”

Haha that was me. I was just hanging around looking for something to do, and I never even once thought about your knight attacking that square. Ugh!!! I felt like Kadri banging my stick on the boards!

[mrkajz44]

Welp - just got rolled in my first game. Not sure who I was playing, but it was a humbling experience!

[butterfly]

Do you have to win the division to get to the second round? Or do two people get in from each group?

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by butterfly

Do you have to win the division to get to the second round? Or do two people get in from each group?

I think it’s 2 from each group.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Welp - just got rolled in my first game. Not sure who I was playing, but it was a humbling experience!

Tough game—you were doing OK until 72UCI found the skewer, winning your queen.

Not sure which CP user that is, but they played at 95% accuracy—that’s no joke.

[butterfly]

This was my blunder game. The other two I played so far were super close. Actually this one was super close too, until I was behind my own goal line and threw a pass up the middle to nobody.

I played Qa2

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

I’ve done that before. In fairness, it’s silly that knights are allowed to move backwards!

[TheIronMaiden]

damn why can't people blunder like that against me! I am getting slaughtered.

[Scornfire]

I'm definitely going to try to slow down my play going forward, averaging like 2-3m per move in a daily game is just dumb

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

damn why can't people blunder like that against me! I am getting slaughtered.

No kidding. I just drew my first game against butterfly and count myself lucky to have survived with how far back she had me on my heels most of the time. Where was the Botez gambit in that one?

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Scornfire

I'm definitely going to try to slow down my play going forward, averaging like 2-3m per move in a daily game is just dumb

That is psychologically way harder than it sounds though. Especially with multiple games on the go.

I remember when chess.com rolled out its “insights” feature, and it blew my mind that my accuracy in correspondence chess was slightly LOWER than in rapid. I still can’t explain that.

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

That is psychologically way harder than it sounds though. Especially with multiple games on the go.

I remember when chess.com rolled out its “insights” feature, and it blew my mind that my accuracy in correspondence chess was slightly LOWER than in rapid. I still can’t explain that.

Maybe because your opponents are playing better with the slower time control making your moves harder to find? I know my accuracy goes through the roof after the opponent blunders because the follow-ups get much easier when you're ahead.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

Maybe because your opponents are playing better with the slower time control making your moves harder to find? I know my accuracy goes through the roof after the opponent blunders because the follow-ups get much easier when you're ahead.

That could be, for sure. I just assumed it’s because I’m too impatient to spend the time that I should calculating, but I kind of like your theory better.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

A quick round 1 update:

Group 1 has completed its games and it looks like Scornfire and I will advance.

Group 2 (the group of death) has just one game remaining, between butterfly and Superfraggle, and given that their first game ended in a draw there may be some drama there.

But the real drama is in Group 3, which is very much still up for grabs, with 72UCI (CalgaryPuck username unknown… anyone want to fess up that this is you?) and mrkajz44 each on one win, and TheIronMaiden still looking for one but with three games to play. All three are in it.

My featured game is from that group, between mrkajz44 and TheIronMaiden:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/...1?tab=analysis

Very fun game to look at. We have a Center attack variation of the Italian game with c3 and d4 from white and then a relatively even game until black won an exchange on move 15 with 15. … Nxf1. (Funnily enough, stockfish thinks that taking the rook there is an inaccuracy; apparently the engine prefers Nxf3, exchanging knights and forcing white to double its king pawns. But let’s be honest: every last one of us takes the rook in that position. What does stockfish know about chess anyway?)

White put up a valiant fight, but black ended the game in style finding the tactical shot 24 … Nxd5. Even though white has a rook on d1, it turns out the black knight cannot be taken, because after 25. Rxd5, Re8, most variations lead to mate. (white needs to play the depressing 26. g4, which is not that easy to find). After 26. Nd6, we had 26. …. Rc1+, and white resigned as there was no way to stop mate on the next move.

[Slava]

Group 1 was the group of death…for me!

[Scornfire]

I think it might literally only be 2 people advancing to a final. It shows 4 of us have been eleminited already

[TheIronMaiden]

I am not sure how it works, so forgive me if it is whacky.