Norths Reserves A - Final Result

I lost my final game against Rex Simmonds at Norths. Rex to his credit played well and I blundered in the most crucial moment - well, that's what you get for playing sharp lines, one misstep and down you go.

So I ended up with +4-3=4 .... a very very average mid-table performance and nothing worth shouting about.

I'm still kicking myself over this week's loss. It's one thing to play badly but quite another when you know you have a winning advantage and throw it all away in 1 move.

Puzzles With Imbalances

These are actual games I've played (don't scroll past the diagrams if you don't want to look at the solutions).

Game 1 - Winning Attack

Black (Me) has a winning attack, time to bring home the bacon....

(Black to play)


Game 2 - Find The Best Move

White had traded a Knight+Bishop for a Rook+Pawn to pry open my King position. I knew that Black has a slight advantage but I was thinking of how to best activate my pieces here. I sank into a deep long think.... and came up with a move. What move was it?
(Black to play) :


Game 3 - I Didn't See It Coming

My opponent thought that he could defend with Black and played 1.... Qd6. What did he miss?

(White to play)



Answers:

Game 1

1... Bf1+ 2. Rxf1 Rh2#

Game 2:


The move I played was 1.... Nh4! Suddenly the dawn of realisation came when my opponent realised that the Knight on h4 is untouchable. White tried 2. Qb3+ Bd5 and resigned a few moves later.

Added Question: Can you figure out why White cannot play 2. gxh4? Because it ends in mate!

1... Nh4
2. gxh4 Qxh2+
3. Kg1 Qh1+
4. Ke2 Qf3+
5. Kg1 e3!! and mate cannot be prevented

Game 3 -


The winning move was 1. f4! And mate cannot be stopped as the the next move is Qh7#. If
1. f4 Nxf4 (else 1.... Rh8 2. f7=Q+ Bxf8 3. Qg5#)
2. Rxf4 also results in mate after Qh7+ and Qh4#

The Final Stretch For North Sydney

Just a short blurb, with my final game for the North Sydney Reserves A due next week, I'm up against Rex Simmonds as Black.

This week, my game against 2nd placed Chris Sparks ended peacefully. That leaves me on 3rd place with John Pepping (winning his game against Peter Brennan). With 1st placed Clive Allen still having to play 2 more games, he is almost 100% certainty to win 1st place in our group.

My current score is +4-2=4 or 6 pts out of 10 pts so far. Not a great performance so far but as this was my first competition for over a year, I guess it can be considered a decent performance given the rustiness that has set in.

Rex was kind enough to invite me to a weekly training session that him together with a few other players (around my strength) but unfortunately, it takes place every Wednesday afternoon and I am working.

Thanks for the gracious invitation, Rex!

Congratulations, Anand

In case, anyone is wondering whatever happened to Aruna (Vishy's wife) and why she has been conspicuously absent for the last few months, well, the current World Champion just had a son to add to his list of achievements!

Congratulations to the new parents!

More details at Chessvibes.

Quiet Times

I've gotten a day off from work today so I finally have time to catch some breath.

I thought this would be a good time for some down time to continue my chess studies. I could not help but feel that my chess skills have regressed. I used to be able to do my tactics puzzle with relative ease and today, I found to my horror, that out of 7 chess puzzles, I only got 1 correct and even then, I stopped my calculation short by 4 ply moves!

Of course, being out of shape made me realise I need to put in more effort in my chess studies.

Tomorrow evening for the North Sydney Club Reserves A Club Championships, I'm facing young Thomas Zhou with the White pieces. Last week, I finally got over my fear of my opponent, Horst Bleicher who has beaten me nearly every time we met and managed to defeat him in an Open Sicilian (I was Black). So I'm now on +3-2=2 .... still an average performance so far.

Last week, my brother-in-law Steven asked me what my target was for this competition. I still have another 4 games to go till the finish line and I've not actually taken time to think of what I should aim for, maybe 5.5/11 points? Or maybe aim higher? It's interesting, because before the start of the competition, I try not to think about results and to focus on each game with as much energy as possible.

So far, I've not had that bad a result but to progress further, I really need to put in some serious study.