Your games (was CC game of the month thread)

[aransandraseg]

Had a shocker scots college junior invitational. 4/7, on board 3. Really stuffed up. For some reason I am getting worse at lightning and blitz. Any advice.

Keep posting games.

[Kevin Bonham]

I will be judging Aug-Sept entries tonight hopefully. If anyone wants to sneak a game played in September into the judging they'd better be fast, otherwise it can go into October's list.

[Kevin Bonham]

Having considered the current entries in detail I have decided to leave entries for August-September open until Sunday 9 pm in case anyone has anything that they played in September they want to throw into the mix. A couple of the entries have fairly similar pluses and minuses and I just want to see if anyone wants to nominate a game with fewer minuses or bigger pluses.

aran, do you want me to take ratings and time control into account or not? (eg if a player is weaker do I cut them more slack for errors in their game?)

[Kevin Bonham]

No further entries so Rincewind is the winner for this month.

Sarah's game is definitely the best played by the winner but a key stated criterion was "Remember the award is not for the best game from one players side but a good game from both players" and black's play in that game from the point Sarah leaves the book is dreadful. 7...a6 - waste of time, 8...h6 - obviously asking to be smashed by a sac whether the bishop can be left on g5 or not, 10...gxh6 - missing ...f5 which at least stays in the game. Really nice attack by Sarah, but does not qualify under the terms of the comp because black hardly did anything right after six book moves, except resign.

Kaitlin's game has some good passages, especially black's play from moves 29 through 34 that turns the tables (and then draws a massive blunder from white that loses a rook and the game which black wraps up with ease). However there are many tactical mistakes early in the game, especially around moves 12-14 in which the two sides take turns failing to recover the piece, failing to stay a piece up, failing to recover the piece (etc).

This leaves Rincewind's and Zwischenzug's games. Both of these are similar in that they are positionally interesting and instructive, and in both cases the opponent gets on top at some stages but eventually self-destructs. There's not a lot in it but I prefer Rincewind's game because his position at its worst is only struggling, and that shows the benefit of hanging in there, whereas I think if Black finds ...f4 earlier in Zwischenzug's game then Black has a very big advantage. Also while having a bad piece is part of Zwischenzug's opponent's demise, a bigger part is twice throwing material away to one-move threats. The manner of Barry's opponent's demise is subtler, albeit not by much (Black goes for a halfbaked attack in desperation but get cleaned up before it can connect.)

Pretty close though and if the rules said that the games should be judged handicap-style based on ratings and time limit I would have gone with Zwischenzug's, however they didn't.

[.]

I've got my game for the next period. I'll post soon.

[Rincewind]

No further entries so Rincewind is the winner for this month.

What is the prize?

[Kevin Bonham]

What is the prize?

The punishment is being the judge for the next month. See post 1.

[Rincewind]

The punishment is being the judge for the next month. See post 1.

Yeah, I could have guessed that! I guess I won't be submitting Cox-Kerr then.

[Davidflude]

I finished two games on ICCF this morning. Alas neither is a contender. One opponent blundered a pawn before move 10. The other lost on time when I was better but nothing was clear.

Both players have to play well for a game to be a contendor.

[Kevin Bonham]

Yeah, I could have guessed that! I guess I won't be submitting Cox-Kerr then.

Perhaps there should be a rule that if someone is disqualified from submitting a game in the month it was played by being a judge, they can submit that game in the next month.

[Adamski]

Perhaps there should be a rule that if someone is disqualified from submitting a game in the month it was played by being a judge, they can submit that game in the next month.

Yeah, that sounds a good rule. I'll see if I can play a game that's worth entering!

[Capablanca-Fan]

Currently my favourite game. 15 min game played on FICS. I'm white. The lesson in this game is, when the opponent has a bad piece, trade everything else off and they will struggle in the endgame.

Another lesson: when up, why trade Ps when you can win them all for nothing (45.e3 instead of 45. Ke4 and even an eventual Rxe4. Also, try to play moves with more than one meaning, e.g. 35. Qc1 does everything that the game move 35. Qc2 does, but also leaves an option of swinging over to the g-file in some lines.

[Capablanca-Fan]

Yeah, I could have guessed that! I guess I won't be submitting Cox-Kerr then.

Kasparov was a judge of the best game prize at the Manila Olympiad, 1992, but that didn't stop him entering a game.

[Zwischenzug]

Another lesson: when up, why trade Ps when you can win them all for nothing (45.e3 instead of 45. Ke4 and even an eventual Rxe4. Also, try to play moves with more than one meaning, e.g. 35. Qc1 does everything that the game move 35. Qc2 does, but also leaves an option of swinging over to the g-file in some lines.

Ah, thanks for the advice Jono.

[Rincewind]

Kasparov was a judge of the best game prize at the Manila Olympiad, 1992, but that didn't stop him entering a game.

At the present rate of entries I may have to stoop to Kasparov's tactics.