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Oct-19-22
 | | Fusilli: Follow up on my own previous post, which was, admittedly, too long. The question that matters is this:
click for larger viewBlack to play and draw. It's easy, but it is also easy to forget the principle that sometimes all you need to do is threat something. |
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| Oct-19-22 | | areknames: At first glance it seems that 35...Rc1+ does the job: 36.Kh2 Rc2+ 37.Kh3 Rc1!, threatening mate in perpetuity. If 38.Kh2 then Rc2+ and we start again. |
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Oct-19-22
| | Fusilli: <areknames> Exactly. White was careless to let the black king get behind enemy lines. |
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| Oct-20-22 | | areknames: <Fusilli> I only play (rarely) online these days but I always played a lot of blitz in my active years and I suppose that having an active king, especially in inferior endings becomes very much ingrained in your style. Well done on a good save! |
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Nov-17-22
| | Fusilli: Blitz game on chess.com, I am black. White just played 11.b4
click for larger viewI like the Botvinnik system against the English, and I usually play ...b6 and ...Rae8, so that b5 closes the position, and if bxc5, dxc5 and I can play on the kingside. But here white played an accelerated version. If I play 11...b6 12.b5 wins the exchange. So, what to do? One option is, well, let white get the exchange. After all, it's the LSB, he will be weak on light squares around the king, and the position is fairly closed. So, I played 11...b6 12.b5 Nd4 13.Bxa8 Rxa8
click for larger viewThe computer says +0.72. Fair enough. And good for blitz, since all the pressure is on white, and given the chance, black can generate dangerous threats. I won the game (against a player 100 rating points above me). I assume this sac has been played before. Maybe by Botvinnik himself, who was no stranger to positional exchange sacs. Can anyone point to an example? |
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Nov-17-22
 | | perfidious: <Fusilli>, none comes to mind, but this is an example of how computer evals are not always terribly helpful< especially when the play is unclear. At Stockfish v Rybka level, Fishie snatches the material on offer and brute-force grinds out a full point, and quite possibly also at super-GM level, but this ordinary mortal has, quite often, found such positions easier to play for Black--though more than once I played material-grubber and took home the bacon. |
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Nov-18-22
| | Fusilli: <At Stockfish v Rybka level, Fishie snatches the material on offer and brute-force grinds out a full point, and quite possibly also at super-GM leve> I agree. I play much more speculatively in blitz (not to say with reckless abandon) than in slow chess. For example, in this old, sharp line of the Two Knights: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 
click for larger view...lately I've been trying the absolutely lyrical (and inferior) 8...cxb5. I got my butt kicked but I also kicked some butt. I will note that 4.Ng5 is becoming rare, with 4.d3 being the solid, preferred choice of most players nowadays, in both blitz and slow. And in that case, in blitz, I play the inferior 4...d5, again with ups and downs. I even got away with it in slow chess (K Gulamali vs M Sana, 2014) but got my butt kicked by Kudrin. Too reckless! |
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Dec-07-22
| | Fusilli: I just joined the executive board of the Nashville Chess Center: https://www.facebook.com/NashvilleC.... I feel honored, and I am very excited about contributing to chess in Nashville from that post! |
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Dec-07-22
 | | moronovich: Congrats <fussilli> ! |
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| Dec-07-22 | | stone free or die: Ditto. |
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Dec-07-22
| | perfidious: Thumbs up! |
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Dec-13-22
| | Fusilli: <moro> <stone> <perf> Thank you all! |
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Dec-13-22
| | Fusilli: Five new games of mine have been uploaded. One from the Tennessee Open and the other four from the Music City Open last weekend. Thanks <stonehenge> for the quick uploads! |
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Dec-22-22
| | Fusilli: 5-min blitz on chess.com. I am white. Black to play.
click for larger viewInstructive position. The instinct is to go kill the b3, but in all variations Black needs to play Bf8, to avoid the position where white (with the h-pawn on h5) plays g6 and responds to hxg6 with h6. When I was a kid, my teacher liked to say "make first the move that you will make in all variations." So, the best move is 49...Bf8. It turns out that white wins anyway, the computer says, but it's complicated. 49...Kc2
click for larger view50. h5... and this is a mistake! The computer says 50.Bg7 is the winning move... Because White can't allow Black to play Bf8. 
click for larger view50...Kxb3. Black returns the favor. Now white wins. 
click for larger view51.g6 hxg6 52.h6 etc. 1-0 in some more moves. |
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Dec-22-22
| | perfidious: <Fusilli>, it is clear that Black can snatch the morsel on b3 at leisure, but as you say, must play ....Bf8 to prevent the simple winning idea you noted. |
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Dec-29-22
 | | OhioChessFan: It's not too hard to figure out that Black must get the Bishop to f8, and White should try to stop him. But in a 5 minute game, the players are usually thinking in terms of the next move or 3, and 50 moves in, there's not time for "idea thinking." |
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Feb-20-23
| | Fusilli: 5-min blitz on chess.com. I am black. So, white just played 10.h3:
click for larger viewSo, is sacking the piece good? His king will lose castling rights and it looks like I can open up the center. So, sure, what the heck: 10...fxe5 11.hxg4 Bh4+ 12.Kd2 d4
click for larger viewIt looks promising, especially because if the knight retreats, he dies. For example, 13.Ne2 dxe3+ 14.Kc2 Bb3+ He played 13.exd4
click for larger viewAnd now what? If 13...Qxd4+ 14.Kc2 and I got nothing. So... 13...Rxf4
click for larger view14.Nf3 and I got nothing anyway. All downhill from here and 1-0 in 27. Sometimes your bluffing is exposed... But it was fun! |
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Feb-27-23
| | Fusilli: Quick break from grading. 5-min blitz on chess.com. I am white. Black just played 20...Qf6-e7, threatening the knight. 
click for larger view21. Re1 (the knight be damned!)
21... Qxd6 22.Rxe6
click for larger viewAnd here black had to give the queen for the rook, with a lost position, but played 22...Qc7 
click for larger viewWhite to play. Easy. |
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Feb-27-23
| | perfidious: 'Pears to me that 23.Rxg6+ spells doom, however Black plays. |
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Feb-27-23
| | Fusilli: <perfidious> Indeed. Black chose Kh8, which allows the fancy Rg8+ and mate. |
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Jun-15-23
| | Fusilli: 3min 2sec increment on blitz.com.
I am black:
click for larger viewBlack is much better. The computer prefers 34...Be6, or 34...R8d7, or 34...Kg8. But it's blitz, and I have 4.7 seconds left (though we are playing with 2-second increments), and he has 21 seconds, so, lets' go: 34...Nxf3 35.Kxf3
click for larger view35...Bxg4+ Woohoo! 36.Kxg4
click for larger view36...Rd3. Ouch.
click for larger viewHe had to sac a knight now, and black is winning, but it's blitz, so maybe he only saw the h5 mate threat and played 37.h5, allowing Qd7 mate. 0-1 I've been experimenting with the 3/2 time control instead of 5/0 because I often get better positions in the middle game (at the cost of time disadvantage) and squander them in the time scramble, or simply lose on time. It's been working out well so far. The extra two seconds per move make a big difference in many cases for me. |
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Jul-27-23
| | Fusilli: Five of my games from the US Senior Open (https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMai...) are up. Thanks <CG> for the uploads! |
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Jul-27-23
 | | MissScarlett: Just noticed you put <Elmurst> not <Elmhurst>. |
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Jul-28-23
| | Fusilli: <MissScarlet> Oops, thanks for fixing it (to you or whoever did). |
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Aug-01-23
| | Fusilli: My games from Nashville's Summer Classic are up now. FIDE time control (G90, 30-sec increment.) Crosstable: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMai.... Thanks to <CG> for the uploads! |
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