I was thrilled to play chess over break and even played in a G/10 Blitz tournament. The purpose of tournaments is to challenge, compete, and educate oneself and I certainly did that. I primarily used the
Colle-Zukertort system with fair success, however in my first game against
Fred Bartell, I stepped out of the system unknowingly and he was able to zap my knight on f3 and removed one of my pawn guards on g2. My whole king side then opened up and he scooped up my rook with his other bishop. Game over!
Game 2 vs.
Barry Eacker: egads! This was my swiftest loss in years. It is good to play friends that don't embarrass you too much over such a poor performance. Never play a new opening you haven't had time to explore in detail. I will put
the Dutch on the shelf until I know what the hell I'm doing. Barry mated me with something akin to the
Fool's mate. I think I felt like some of my students after playing me! I had plenty of time to upload coffee to regain my equilibrium.
Another notable game was with Barry's son,
David. I don't think sons should be better than their fathers! At least I ran out of time in this game. The best game of the day, and the best chess lesson, came in Round 11. I hung my queen on a knight fork (oh . . . about move 10).
Louise Felice then used his queen to obliterate my pawns and a minor piece,
pinning others while I scrambled for any position of consequence. Greed took over and I offered him another "free" pawn . . .(scoop). . . (wham). . . I slammed my rook down like a WWF superstar and stood up over the board like a prize fighter.
Back-rank mate and 9 seconds left on my clock. Chess is rough and I was not about to be gracious about it.
I ended a very enjoyable round-robin tournament with 6 wins, 4 losses, and a bye - 7.0 pts. and 5th place. Blitz fires up the soul and I soon found myself craving a double-round-robin. I sure could have played chess all day.
A big thank you to
Barry Eacker for another outstanding experience. Results are at at the
Idaho Chess Union webpage.
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