|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 830 OF 963 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Apr-09-12
 | | OhioChessFan: <I'm furious with myself, depressed, suffering from (psychosomatic?) head- and tooth- aches and foot cramps in the night.> Too bad they didn't happen during the day or you could have blamed your losses on them. |
|
| Apr-09-12 | | frogbert: how lovely isn't regression toward the mean?
as promised, norwegian vs irish performance compared to pre-event ratings, for fide-rated players (only) in the master section: the norwegians:
14 players
avg rating: 2074
avg tpr: 2102
avg tpr relative: own rating + 28 points
the irish:
23 players (with fide rating)
avg rating: 2135
avg tpr: 2120
avg tpr relative: own rating - 15 points
*both* groups of players regressed towards their (expected) mean when comparing the stats after round 5 to the stats after the final round 9. as i said a couple of days ago:
<i'll redo the stats after the end of the event. i assume the differences will be smaller then.> :o) |
|
Apr-10-12
 | | Domdaniel: I've regressed towards mean too. Haven't felt this mean in years. Gawd, what torture. Six endgames in succession, after hours of difficult play -- with essentially random results. I lost the last one, with bishop vs rook ... but I had a win if I used my central pair of passed pawns right. The one before that was knight vs rook, which I held. And a couple of rook endings and bishop endings. I don't want to play chess again for a long time. That was my worst tournament ever, both in results and the bloody physical experience of falling apart. And the pain. No excuses, mind you. |
|
| Apr-10-12 | | dakgootje: You should study Tals games.
Kill or be killed.
None of that endgame nonsense. |
|
| Apr-10-12 | | frogbert: you still lack a couple of games for your fide norm, dom? |
|
Apr-11-12
| | Domdaniel: <frogbert> Yes. I now have seven games. I could acquire an 8th in a league match in a couple of weeks time, if I play. Then there's one other such match remaining, but that opponent is unlikely to be FIDE rated. Ironically, this past weekend cost me over 40 Irish rating points, but didn't much damage my FIDE prospects - only Lynch and Bennett, a win and a loss, were FIDE-rated. Provisionally I had been just over 2000, and have dropped to maybe 1970. I'm going to give this crap up, btw. I'll go on playing *with* chess, of course. |
|
Apr-11-12
| | Domdaniel: <dak> You know those games where Tal sacrificed material only to emerge with a better endgame. I did that, a couple of times. And then managed to lose the endings. |
|
| Apr-11-12 | | dakgootje: You'll have to sac even more :)
Or settle for a draw in a better position - but that's no fun. |
|
Apr-11-12
| | Domdaniel: What is this 'fun' of which you speak, meester? We have no 'fun' here. Funny, that, innit. |
|
Apr-11-12
| | Domdaniel: Thanks, btw, to everyone who followed my misadventures and put up with my kvetching. I'm starting to feel human again.
Give up chess? Why, I'd sooner give up talki |
|
| Apr-12-12 | | frogbert: ng...
;o) |
|
Apr-12-12
| | OhioChessFan: Per your recent experience, I am reminded of this bon mot recently immortalized on the Memorable Quotes page: <JoeWms: I studied the endgame, just like the book said – but they never let me get to the endgame in tournaments> |
|
| Apr-12-12 | | Memethecat: Commiserations on your lacklustre tournament Dom. I can see by your posts your a bit miffed, but most people here still love you regardless of your results. Except me, you've definitely gone right down in my estimations. I hate getting beat, especially by players of a lower or similar strength. I've been wondering if losing gets easier with time, but I've just been reading about Spassky & how he would literally break down in tears when he lost, so it seems like it gets worse not better. My friends on here have been pretty quiet for the past week or so & the mood feels a bit solemn, could be transference on my part though or maybe I'm not used to the booms & busts of t'internet chatting yet. |
|
| Apr-12-12 | | dakgootje: <Except me, you've definitely gone right down in my estimations.> Now now - you've got that all wrong. It was decided <days> ago that was impossible. Because Dom was standing on his head, impersonating Giants. Which is why you can't think of him when you're high. Cogito ergo I rest my case. |
|
| Apr-12-12 | | frogbert: and those who derive more joy from endings than dom (seemingly) does - even when losing - may have a look at the fascinating diagrams here: Hans Arild Runde |
|
| Apr-13-12 | | Memethecat: <dak> Cogito ergot, I am high, a giant underneath a rainbow of colours that melt in my mouth like snow flakes that are the real building blocks of the universe all of which I can comprehend & communicate with especially when Dom stands on his head....6hrs later....who am I. |
|
Apr-13-12
| | Domdaniel: Endings, endings. I used to think I was relatively good at them. The trouble is, to reach one you have to pass through a stressful middlegame -- I don't do other kinds -- and maybe fatigue sets in. Or maybe I'm not so good. Anyhoo, I won this one:
click for larger view
White has just allowed a pair of rooks to be exchanged, turning a 99% drawn position into a black win. 55...Kh6 56.Kg4 Kg6 57.Kf4 Kh5
0-1.
I lost this one:
click for larger view36.c6 wins.
I played 36.b6 and duly lost.
And this was the Bennett game that started the whole miserable run of endings: 
click for larger viewBlack, moi, can draw simply by marking time with the Rook along the rank: Rd7-e7-d7 etc. If White tries Rb7, we both Queen. But I played 54...f5??, thinking I could liquidate the kingside pawns and draw against the a-pawn. Turns out it's too far advanced, with my King too far away. So I lost. Undo so weiter. |
|
| Apr-14-12 | | cro777: At the ongoing Russian Team Champioship a solid grandmaster as Black lost the following endgame (and he did it without blunders) Position after 50...Rxa3
click for larger viewDreev vs M Brodsky, 2012
In the upcoming league match try to be more concentrated in the endgame. The errors you committed are avoidable. <I'm starting to feel human again. Give up chess? Why, I'd sooner give up talki> A wise man once said: "My pessimism is optimism." And Will added: "The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." |
|
Apr-14-12
| | Domdaniel: <cro777> As I used to say when I was younger and, uh, less old: "Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed". |
|
| Apr-14-12 | | cro777: <Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed> ...and never taken by surprise (that's also the principle of least surprise). But just because this philosophy is good does not mean it is best. |
|
| Apr-14-12 | | hms123: <cro777>
<But just because this philosophy is good does not mean it is best.> But it may be <good enough>: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princi... |
|
| Apr-14-12 | | cro777: <hms123>
As you know, the principle of good enough is not appropriate in systems where the full functionality is required from the start. <Dom> is better player than most of his opponents in the challengers. |
|
| Apr-15-12 | | cro777: <Dom> Eamon Keogh might have something to say as well. I suppose you know him well. "Such mistakes are surprisingly common. Perhaps the main reason is that after a few hours of play players are more likely to err. Of course, time trouble can be a contributing factor too." (Alex Baburin) Dublin Easter Masters 2012
FM Sowray, Peter J (2375) - Keogh, Eamon (2002)
Position after 52.Kxh6
click for larger view
Black wins easily (Mate in 10 moves)
<1... Qe3+> 2. Kh7 Qf4 3. Kg8 Qg5+ 4. Kh7 Qf6 5. Kg8 Qg6+ 6. Kh8 Qxf7 7. h4 Qg6 8. h5 Qf7 9. h6 Ke6 10. h7 Qf8# Instead, Black played <52...Qxh2+?>
and the game ended in a draw.
53.Kg7 Qg3+ 54.Kh8 Qf4 55.Kg7 Qg5+ 56.Kh7 Qf6 57.Kg8 ½–½ "It's hard to understand how an experienced player could make such an elementary mistake. The tournament was played with an increment, so time-trouble isn't the reason." (Alex) |
|
Apr-15-12
| | Domdaniel: <cro777> As Alex Lopez - who had a fine last-round win against IM Sam Collins to make it into the prizes - said to me the day I lost two endgames, "Sheet happens". I've been looking at some of the games from the Masters event. Well worth a download - if only to observe that, as well as good games between masters, there were some very strange ones from less elevated players. One player, Franco Rivera, with a FIDE rating in the 1400s, opened with moves like 1.f3 and 1.a4. He seemed to deliberately handicap himself - yet inconsistently, and often weakly. It wasn't like Basman's attempt to prove that 1...g5 was playable. Funny thing is Rivera won two games against 2100+ players with this rubbish. In one, he picked up a queen with a skewer, when he should normally have resigned about 30 moves earlier:
click for larger view64...Be4?? 65.Qd6+ Kc4 66.Qa6+
This was in the first round. Then he lost a few games to people playing solidly and carefully, until somebody tried to blow him away with a sacrificial attack, and wound up being mated themselves. Very strange stuff, though. Don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. Yet Mr Rivera ended up with the same number of points as I did, while playing dodgy openings against higher-rated players. Keogh, btw, had a really nice Polar Bear win:
click for larger view White won with 23.Nf6+ etc (Keogh vs Capitelli).
Yes, however, the Sowray game was a horrible blunder: sheet happens. Everyone knows that peculiar property of c-pawns vs queens, of course -- no doubt Keogh has encountered it many times in a 50-year career. But the brain does curious things under pressure. Maybe he moved quickly, thinking his King was close enough or that taking the pawn with check gained a tempo ... or something. |
|
| Apr-16-12 | | MarkFinan: Now then Dom, how are you doing?
Just thought id nip in and say hello, and unlucky in your recent tourney...Hope you're well, and the toothaches gone.. And be careful with that Codiene, its as addictive as heroin! |
|
 |
|
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 830 OF 963 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Kibitzing
