« Questionnaire Tag—Part 2 | Home | A good start to the September club tournament »
No such thing as “drawish lines” for us club players!
By Steve | August 1, 2007
When I was paired last night against a player rated about 200 points down, I decided to take Simon Webb’s advice and play a solid, positional opening. I entered the Queen’s Gambit Declined as Black intending to play the Orthodox variation. MCO-14 says “[The Orthodox variation is] used today by very few players because of its lack of active counterplay and the small likelihood of Black getting any winning chances.” (I get the feeling the author was just itching to use the word boring here.)
Well, White varied first by playing an early e3, blocking his queen bishop. On move 13, White decided to castle queenside:
So much for boring! I responded with 13…c5 and we were off to the races! My pawns arrived first, and White felt compelled to give up a piece to stop their advance. That was enough to win the game. (See below for a replayable game board.)
I ended the month with 3 wins (all against lower-rated players) and 2 half-point byes. That earned me part of a four-way tie for 2nd in the Under 1700 section, which was worth $20. Maybe I’ll retire early now!
Congratulations to fellow blogger Steven Wollkind (Strong Among the Weak), who picked up 70 rating points with his strong performance. He lost only to the first place finisher in the U1700 section.
9 Responses to “No such thing as “drawish lines” for us club players!”
Comments
I'm a club player on the border between Class C and B. I play regularly at the
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
I like your 39… g6 to avoid any crap with the breakthrough he was obviously playing for. Of course it was moot with the extra bishop (in fact, you could have picked it up and thrown it across the room and still won at that point), but it’s nice to see their faces when the only, slim, faint hope they have is squashed.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:12 am
Matt—Yes, I figured at around move 35 that he was playing for a breakthrough as his last desperate chance.
August 5th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Is it me, or don’t the VCR (replay) buttons work? How did you get to implement this chessviewer into WP anyway?
August 6th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Edwin—It’s not just you. I just realized that the VCR buttons don’t work when you view this page with IE 6. (I use Firefox.) The VCR buttons work better if you go directly to the game replay page, which is here. I’ll try to figure out how to the VCR buttons to work when embedded.
To answer your “how” question—I use Palview.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I was wondering why on move 17 you didn’t play 17… bxc3. May be your attack wouldn’t have been as strong?
Was 20.Bxb4 forced? I would rather have played Nc3 which still loses but I think it is a lot slower
Nice game! Quite a relentless attack from you.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Chessiq—I never really thought about 17…bxc3. It looks playable: 18 Bxe8 cxd2+ 19 Qxd2 Rxe8. No, I don’t think 20 Bxb4 was forced, and I was surprised that White played it.
August 12th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I tried to send you a message but this system didn’t take it. Would you please contact me?
Jack Le Moine
jacklemoine.blogspot.com
August 13th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Jack—I sent you e-mail.
August 31st, 2007 at 7:18 am
And I thought I was the only old Steve (52 acutally) starting over again. My 10 year old daughter beats me oftern, my oldest son gave up chess because I wasn’t a challenge. What ingrates!! Anyway, my question is - Who has improved the most, or gained the most in ELO, after 50?