The Ego Has Indeed Landed

Immediately after finishing first in the recently concluded Bilbao tournament, Veselin Topalov gave an interview and proceeded to rubbish the upcoming WCC match:

"I will watch the forthcoming match between Anand and Kramnik but I should confess that I am not that interested in the match between number five and number six in the rankings."

"Kramnik is not the strongest chess player even in Russia. Morozevits, who outplayed him on Tal Memorial, stands higher. And Anand in Bilbao has only been a “pale shadow” of the previously great player....."

Isn't it amazing what winning one tournament can do to a player's ego?

Last week in the end, I did drop by to play in the traditional Lightning competition for Grade Match Presentation at Ryde-Eastwood RSL.

And surprisingly, I came in joint runners-up in the U-1600 category, getting a score of +4-4=1 and got $9 for my effort. A nice tidy sum of cash - which I proceeded to use it on my way home with Steven who needed to buy milk at the petrol kiosk. The highlight of the lightning competition has to be my game against top board Jason Hu (2200++) who showed me the art of crushing your opponent (me!). :)

Last Saturday was spent at home fixing up a handrail and installing a security sensor light at my backyard with my neighbour's help. I was working on Sunday so I couldn't get much training in and although last night was a scheduled day for postponed matches for the Ford Memorial, I didn't have any games on. So I spent the time..... sleeping.

I admit I have not been doing any form of serious chess training lately. Sure, I looked up a couple of lines in the Sicilian (out of boredom) but that was just about it.

I would really like to get back to chess training in preparation for next week's Ford Memorial game but I'm just not in the mood for it. If I can kick myself in the ass if it means getting myself invigorated, I'd do it (aka. laziness).

Hmm.... I just realised that I will again be working this Sunday.

Tonight, the Ryde-Eastwood Bobby Fischer Cup soldiers on.... and I'm quite tempted to play a new opening I just came to know about 2 weeks ago.

In the meantime, it appears the US markets decided to take a plunge because of the sub-prime loans fiasco, taking with it many Oz investors' superannuation savings (similar to 401ks for the US) and thankfully, for now, I am not affected. However, I dread to be the one who is nearing retirement only to find out that my lifelong savings has gone down the drain.

Now That Presentation Is Over...

I just would like to comment on the Lightning competition that took place on the night of the prize giving presentation.

IM Xie, father and son Smirnov, Kovacs, Wright, Mandla, Kordahi, Mandla, Greenwood, Norman as well as Steven (my brother-in-law), Theresa, and other fellow members of Ryde Eastwood chess club took part as well.

The competition had a minor incident in which Morelias got into an argument (yet again - yes, he got involved with Gletsos the last time a similar Lightning competition was held last month). He promptly upped and left the tournament hall without telling anyone and it was only after the next pairing was announced that Gletsos noticed he went AWOL. Sigh.

The competition consisted of a 9 round-robin 10 min Lightning game (5 min per player). I got wins over Greenwood (time), Gu (my 8 year old opponent blundered unfortunately under time pressure..... errr, 'nuff said) and also got a bye. So that means I got trampled to dust by...... hmmm... now that I think of it, by virtually everyone else...... nice. Have you ever seen pictures of a whale eating krill? Think of my opponents as the whales and me as plankton about to become food for the krill and you get the picture.

The biggest shock of my last round when unrated old me, got paired with Big Vladimir Smirnov (did I forget to mention he has an ELO of 2,260?) and I've got the Black pieces (I am sure if I was White, my chances of winning would've tripled to 0.00000001%) . When the pairing was announced, I accidentally let out a very loud "WHATT!!!" much to the amusement of quite a few players who were present.

I wouldn't discuss much of the game except that in those 5 minutes, I got taken apart methodically by Vlad (who didn't bat an eyelid). Come to think of it, never was there a greater mismatch between 2 players in the history of our club (> 1,000 ELO point rating difference).

During the game, I think I kept Vlad deep in concentration (or was he sleepy from the lousy moves I keep making?) Maybe he was thinking,"Keep dreaming, mister, this is about as close to 2,000 ELO points as you'll ever get." or "Should I sac my Rook for his Queen and win? Or even better, sac my Queen for his Pawn and win?" *grin*

The game ended when I got trapped in a potential mating net and resigned. We briefly shook hands and he left. Not a single word uttered. I am not sure in the end, if it was because I felt embarassed by losing or he felt embarassed by winning, but I'm more inclined to believe in the former. Or maybe I accidentally angered him because I once interrupted him over a discussion of a game he had with his opponent a few months ago. :)

Incidentally, what do you do when you meet opponents OTB who has such a huge difference in ELO points between yourself and your opponent?

In the end, IM George Xie took top honours for the competition with Vlad coming in second.

The Ugly Side Of Chess

Chess is a gentleman's game, yeah right.

Tonight, I witnessed a rather unpleasant incident at the Ryde Eastwood League Lightning Chess tournament. A player claimed loudly that his opponent had made an illegal move order. Very heated and prolonged accusations and arguments subsequently flew from both sides of the board, I might add. The shoutings continued for a good 10 minutes or so and in the end, the player refused to play in the return game and forfeited his game.

Come on..... people, it's a Lightning game, no ratings are affected, heck, there's not even a prize even if you finished first. This reminds me of an ugly incident in one of my games. While playing in the lightning competition, I accidentally knocked over my king and it fell to the floor. When I bent down and hurriedly put the king on the chessboard first, my opponent claimed,"I win! You put your king in the wrong place." And I calmly replied,"No, I was just picking up and adjust my pieces." So I adjusted my king and proceeded to hit the chess timer. Why are these people such sore winners? Do they lack the ability that they have to claim dubious wins over a patzer like me? Sometimes, the pressure of winning overrides their reason. I've got news for people like that. Form is temporary and class is permanent. If you had to resort to something like that to win a game over me in a competition (that has no effect on your ratings nor garner any prizes), your behaviour speaks volumes about yourself as a person.

*sigh*.

On the bright side, Steven finished 3rd in the competition and then proceeded to pound me to the ground in all our social 25 min games with me. Ouch!

The last game we played was horribly complicated. I was White (and desperately trying to fend off the attack) when we arrived in this position:

I tried to complicate matters by playing 1. Rd1 (which loses instantly). Turning on Fritz, I should have instead played 1. Qf6+ g6 2. Qf8! (if 1... Kg8 2. Rc1! this was the line I missed. Drats!) (the fear of losing my Rook with Qxb1 threw me into unnecessary fear). Steven subsequently converted this to a win. I am very impressed. I must absolve to calculate much better in the future and not be afraid.

Oh well, live and learn.

Lightning Blunder

Last night, I went to my local Ryde Eastwood League chess club and participated in the lightning chess tournament.

Horrible, against opponent after opponent, I blundered under 5 minute time controls (this means that both players must finish the game within their own 5 minute allotment. The game thus can only last to a maximum of 10 minutes).

In one game, I managed to obtain the following position (see inset). I was White. White is doing alright. His pieces on the queen-side is very active and Black has been denied counter-play of any sorts.

I was thinking.... what should I play? Maybe Ra7 and put more pressure on Black's b-pawn? Or maybe Qd2 then g5 to attack on the kingside, thereby creating 2 weaknesses in Black's camp? Or Qa3 solidifying White's position on the a-file?

No, I chose Nxd6, which loses the game instantly as my opponent replied Qc1+ and I lost to a mate in 2. Nice one, Sherlock!

Afterwards, Steven showed up and we played 3 to 4 games at longer time controls. Naturally, I lost all my games. Do you see a trend here? Hehe.