Sunday in the dungeon...

Or is that dudgeon?

Anyway, Galina and I went crazy chasing paper today. I think we printed out the better part of a year's worth of spreadsheets. Right now, she's upstairs watching the Academy Awards, while I'm down here LJing.

But not for long.

I've seen just about all I want to see of this place for the day.

* * *Every once in a while, you find yourself playing a game of chess in which the light of understanding begins to shine through the "fog of struggle," and you put in a winning performance that is crowned with the knowledge that you won the game via the judicious use of one or another (or a combination) of classic chess ideas, such as doubling rooks on a file, attacking along a half-open file, maintaining a knight on an outpost square, or placing a rook on the "seventh" rank.

A game I played the other day, played at the relatively leisurely pace of 20 minutes per side, combined all of these ideas, culminating in an error on my opponent's part that allowed me to deliver mate in two moves.

However, a review of the game shows one striking weakness: a blunder of mine that should have cost me the game.

Let me tell you, something like that sure does take much of the satisfaction out of the win. On the other hand, I'm not about to send the guy an e-mail and offer a draw after having won the game; nor am I crass enough to even think about pointing this out to him. (I know I earnestly dislike opponents who gleefully point out how they could have been beaten, if only I'd been more on-the-bounce.) It's part of the game (and is probably applicable to more than just chess).

Here's the game:

[Date "2003.03.21"]
[Time "22:56:14"]
[White "LloydD"]
[Black "AlexPGP"]
[TimeControl "1200+0"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Bb5 d6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.c4 a6 7.Bxc6 Bxc6 8.d3 Be7 9.Qe2 O-O 10.O-O Qd7 11.Nbd2 Rae8

{Black has a solid position, here.}

12.d4 exd4

{A somewhat offbeat idea, which did not occur to me during the game, is 12...e4 13.d5 Nxd5 14.Nd4 f5?! 15.Ng3 Nf6}

13.Nxd4 Bd8 14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Qf3 Qxf3 16.Nxf3 Ne4

{A nice outpost for the knight, though tenuous.}

17.Rad1 f5 18.Nd2 Bf6 19.Bxf6 Nxf6 20.Nf3 Ne4

{Reasserting the outpost.}

21.Nd2 Nc3

{Forking rook and pawn, although the pawn can be defended by the rook, at the cost of moving the rook away from the center and the half-open d file.}

22.Ra1 Rf6

{Giving Black the ability to double rooks on the e or f files.}

23.Nb1?

{I dislike this move on principle. Now it looks as if White has reverted to an incompletely developed queenside.}

23...Ne4

{Back to the outpost.}

24.f3

{This weakens e3 at a time when Black threatens to put doubled rooks on that file.}

24...Nc5

{

Another outpost square, albeit not as advanced and more easily attacked. Yes, I know White is supposed to be at the bottom of the diagram. So sue me. This is what it looked like from my side of the board.}

25.Re1?

{I believe 24.Nc3 defends the pawn, as 24...Rxe3 is answered by 25.Nd5, forking the rooks, and 24...Re6 is also answered by 25.Nd5, which defends the pawn and threatens to fork the rooks on c7.}

25...Rfe6 26.Nd2

{26.Nc3 gets the pawn back, since after 26...Rxe3 27.Rxe3 Rxe3, 28.Nd5 forks the rook and the pawn on c7. The text allows Black to win a solid pawn.}

26...Rxe3 27.Rxe3 Rxe3 28.Rd1 Nd3??

{A blunder that should have cost me the game, in light of 29.Nf1!, and the best Black can do is play 29...Re2 and 30...Rxa2. Black should have played 28...Re2, putting a "rook on the seventh."}

29.Nb1? Nb2 30.Rf1 Nd3 31.Na3

{A bad move. 31.Rd1 was indicated.}

31...Re2

{Putting a rook "on the seventh" follows conventional wisdom. The White king is restricted to the back rank, and the knight makes ready to help with the attack from f4 or e5. The fact that the a pawn is hanging is nice, too.}

32.Ra1 Nf4 33.g3

{Opens a hole on h3. Then again, there really aren't any good moves for White, here.}

33...Nh3+ 34.Kh1

{Pretty much forced. If 34.Kf1, then 34...Rxh2 threatens to skewer the rook on a1.}

34...Ng5

{Threatens 35...Nxf3 and mate on the next move.}

35.f4

{Loses outright. Mate is now inevitable once the knight moves to f6.}

35...Nf3 (0-1)

I guess I should not be so hard on myself.

Cheers...