Snatching a draw from the Jaws of victory ..... PART 2..

As usual I have this pesky habit of getting my excuses in before making myself look a fool...

This game's build up involved the team captain scaring the living daylights out of me with encouraging stuff which went something like this
Captain: Francis the team needs the points badly for our league.
Me: As am playing white, should I just go for the jugular
Captain: No cos that way You risk a loss
Me (very confused now ) : Surely the laws of probability are such that 33% games won, 33% lost and 33%drawn. Give me 50% chance to win and am taking it.
Captain: ordinarily thats a smart presumption but this guy was the region champion like 7 years back and he is a very solid player.
Me: &%*!! (hands on head and seeing hells gates open to swallow me whole!!!

After ages in the gents room I entered the playing hall shook my opponents hands and wished him good luck through clenched teeth before playing 1.e4
after a few moments hesitation ( like 2 microseconds) he played c5 and my head even sank further.
Not cos of the fear but rather of the confusion.
ordinarily me meeting the sicilian defencce involves going for the smith morra gambit.
However I decided not to cos

• captain says he is a very solid and prepared player. obviously someone like him with obscene ratings as he did have would be ready to crush the dangerous but unsound Smith morra gambit.
• I have been looking at Ideas of playing against the sicilian revolving around Qxd4 as expertly handled on this site !! seeing I did not look likely to outsmart this wise man I decided to put into practice my 2 hour study of the ideas.
  

OK Now for the game.



As the game progressed, I hit my opponent with the sacrifice 13 Nd5 !! upon which he went into deep thought mode and I went into panic mode since I was sure he would find a 16 move forcing variation which I have no hope of ever seeing until its too late.

As my confidence was sky high , I delivered the earth shattering 20. Bxf7 check and predicted my going into the endgame two pawns up despite having both queens on board.

Typical sods law. I offered my opponent a draw since I figured that going into an end game am totally unfarmiliar with and the words of my captain ringing in my ears half a point wasn't too bad for the day. Just not good enough for me!!!!

well next time am not letting a win escape.

Torture in the hands of my friend......

As many a budding chess player will confess......
You cannot afford to lose tempo with no good reasons..
I followed the mantra in the opening and middlegame then forgot all about it in a knife edge middle- endgame transition.
seems I missed that lesson and was truly punished for wasting a move with 28....... Nf3-d2 only to return my noble knight on f3 on the next move..
I honourably resigned immediately cos my opponent had decisive control of the a- file

ok this is another lesson learnt...
Do not waste tempo ---check!!

SMITH MORRA TRAP!!

I was playing white in this game and most suprisingly my opponent didnt seem to comfortable with the transposition into the smith morra which led to him following natural moves before losing the queen to a common trap..
hope u enjoy this as much as I did.
simple stuff!!!

Bad Bishop....

I have begun playing the sicilian as my main weapon to counter 1.e4.
This was a game where I forgot one of the mantras of chess.....
its about the pesky little issue of seeking the initiative, keeping it and developing the pieces..
My opponent properly set on exposing my weakness (very bad bishop) which "encouraged" me to tactically try to solve the problem upon which I got properly thumped!!!!

Random posting

How to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory....

I feel some background information about the following game is justified....

• I was recovering from the flu at the time and so had a raging headache after 45 mins on my clock....
• I had hoped to play white and indulge my opponent in aggressive chess....
  please see kings gambits,Evans ,or B.D.G ,which I was prepared for..
• finding myself facing 1.e4 , the most logical response was the shveshnikov Sicilian which according to G.M. John Nunn is living on the knife-edge for Sicilian fans... (sir.. I agree)

The game itself started slowly before it opened up and I was suddenly an exchange up heading into the endgame...



typical of sods law, the brain stopped engaging and I allowed my opponent a chance to salvage a draw......
cue me slapping the taste out of my mouth and my opponent surely relieved that I managed to swindle myself out of a win....
oh well enjoy and let me know.
thanks.