Just so everyone knows

I have not totally vanished. I am in the middle of some busy times, and am going to be moving from this weekend until the 6th of August. I am hoping to get back into this shortly after I get settled into the new apartment.

Also, one of my friends is going to begin posting here as well, so be prepared for non-kyle posts =P.

World Open FINAL

I ended up winning in round eight pushing my score to 7-1, and I was facing the only 7.5 in round number nine. If I lost I would get at least $500, a draw at least $1300-$1500, and a win at least $7500, or even $10000. Suffice it to say I won a pawn early, and was better, but it was tough. It came down to me having a knight against a bishop, with us each having two roks on the board, and me having an extra queenside pawn. It would have been very tough to win, but I had real chances. Then I decided to trade the knight off for the bishop, and make my extra pawn isolated, and as soon as I did that the game was a draw. I should have left the minors on and tried to trade rooks, but even that would have been tough. I didn't realize how very drawn the double rook ending was until I got there, but that is ok. It may have cost me $6000, but I am still happy with how I played, and I learned so much by being there (for example my last round game was the first double rook ending I have ever been in in a classical time control game). Anytime you play nine games in a row like that you are bound to learn a lot, and I did. My rating is approaching 1800, and I think that very very soon I am going to officially be an A player.

I may or may not annotate some of my games from the World Open, we shall see. This was mainly set up to lead up to the World Open, but I want to continue to improve from here. Let me know what you guys think (the very few of you who still read this).

World Open

I went 2-0 yesterday, making me 6-1 for the tournament. This is a huge day, which could mean the difference between like $7500 (or even $10000) or $100. I hope I play well. That is all I can ask.

World Open

I just want to report that I lost the worst game of my life in round two, so I decided to re-enter into the five day.

I went 4-1 in that today, which I am pleased with, so now I have two classical games tomorrow, and two on Monday. Hopefully I do well.

I have no desire to analyze and post my five G/45's; at least not at the moment. I have had enough chess for one day. Perhaps sometime in the future.

World Open Round One

I got demolished last night. I was just worse and defending the whole game. The problem when you are defending is you have to work all the tactics out correctly, and find the right ideas, or you get crushed. I did that for a while, but it took its toll on the time front. When I got to the critical moves I was down to about a minute a move, which is not good. As a result, I blundered, and lost badly. But I have to say that he conducted the game on his side very very well. The crushing tactic that he missed no human could have ever worked everything out, it took Fritz about 5 minutes to.

I thought I had gotten over this playing too slowly nonsense, but when you are in a defensive position there is just a lot more to think about and a lot more time needs to be taken. The fact that I was defending all game both wore on me a lot and wore on my time.

Oh well, maybe the swiss gambit will work out in my favor.

NN 1530 (who, btw, has played no games in the United States since 1999) - Askine 1597

If I go 2-0 today I will be happy. If I don't, I am seriously going to consider re-entering.

Chessninja G/30

Here is the final game I am going to present before going to Philadelphia tomorrow. It was a G/30 I played against a opponent online (real rating unknown, but his blitz rating was about 200 points higher than mine, not that that means anything) for a message board tournament. It was a Marshall where I feel he didn't really know what to do. As a result I got a dominating position out of the opening (20 moves deep), and won without too much trouble. I blundered near the end, but he didn't take advantage of it.

Anyways, wish me luck this weekend!

Askine - NN

DC Chess League

I played a really interesting game last Friday, until my opponent made on of the worst blunders I have ever seen. But that is how these things go. I played like Smyslov, letting my opponent ruin the pawns infront of my king so I could attack!

Askine 1597 - NN 1541

This may be my last post before the World Open, or I may have one more coming. I don't know. Wish me luck!