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Thanks for the Narz! I am having fun losing has never really bothered my cause I tend to learn from where I messed up :)
 
I'm down to my king now vs. a king and that rook for urithon now. I think it will be near impossible for him to pin me for the checkmate.
 
I'm down to my king now vs. a king and that rook for urithon now. I think it will be near impossible for him to pin me for the checkmate.

It's quite easy, though time consuming, for someone who knows the technique. If you're up against someone who doesn't know the technique, go for draws by repeated positions (3x the same position with the same player to move) or by too many moves (50 moves since last capture and no mate).

Though I don't know if chess.com automates the draw claim mechanics. :confused:

It would feel a little too much like cheating to give specific advice for a specific game, but a clinic on the technique wouldn't be a problem. Anyone else who doesn't know it and wants to learn? :)
 
Thanks for the Narz! I am having fun losing has never really bothered my cause I tend to learn from where I messed up :)
Cool, well keep up the good work. I see you're playing Tenna now, you gotta watch out for that guy, he's tricky. ;)
 
Just got axed by Tenna (Tomoyo) here.

I had a totally dominating game until 21. Nxf8?? Qxf8 would have led to an easily winning endgame but I just had to go and try and get fancy and paid a heavy price. Tenna played well (though he could have finished me off even faster) and didn't fall for any traps. I managed to trade off queens but was totally dead in the water by that point and resigned a few moves later.

gg Tenna, nice comeback. :goodjob:

BTW Panzar, feel free to slice & dice the game if you get the time :). I feel like it was one of my sloppiest games in awhile (we played rather fast) & I got a bit demoralized after Nxf8 instead of Qxf8 even though I still probably had winning chances after that point. The whole feeling of the game changed & was emotionally kind of defeated already.

A chance to use my favourite saying? Roughly translated; "I don't have any scissors but I have a sharp tongue" (also works with a knife). Sounds better in Swedish but I don't get to use it very often so there it was.

Anyhow, you seemed to play some weird looking main line for most of the opening. First move completely out of my database was 16...Nxa2. Before that move my computer thought white was much better with about +1.80 but afterwards it jumped to 3.20 which is usually enough to win if you can find the right plan. I'll confess I didn't first exactly see what it was so excited about but it seems there is an exchange in there to be won (after Qh6 and Nh7).

18. Bxf5 (this, I'm sure, is why the only move in the databse was 16. Nxd3) d3+ (+4.00) clearly better according to Chessmaster was exf5 (+2.65).

21. Nxf8 (+2.40) is where you wish you could calculate like a computer and see Rfc1 (+8.00). The plan seems to be Rxc2 to distract the queen from defending f8.

21...b4 loses a piece and subsequently about three pawns worth of points at +5.50. Perhaps b4 gives some practical chances in an otherwise lost game.

23. Qg8+ (+5.00) is a good move. Not an obvious looking move is Bb4 (+10.00). But it wins the Queen after 23...Qxb4 24. Nf6+ Kd8 25. Qg8+ Kc7 26. Nxd5+

25. Nf6 loses much of the advantage. As fun as it might be to attack one must also watch out for the opponent's counterchances. Bc1 for example, was pretty good.

After 25...b3 the position is critical. Black is threatning to restore the material balance and it's not clear if white will have any advantage at all. If there is nothing here black could even get the upper hand. The best white can do is 26. Ne8 bxa1=Q 27. Qc7+ Kb5 28. Rxa1 still with good wining chances. After Qe8+ though, there is no advantage at all left.

29. Qe7 is the game losing mistake. Something like 29. Rf1 Bxe6 (29...Qxf6 30. e7 is winning for white, 30...Qd6 31. Qf8 Bd7 32. Qxa8 Qxe7 33. Qxa2) 30. Qe7+ is about equal.

The moral of this story is that you must strike while the iron is hot. There were some decisive moves around 20-25 where you could have clinched the point. If you don't use your advantage it might disappear.
 
This is my game from the Swedish division 3 last Sunday. I played a pretty good player that has been rated over 2100 not that long ago but is currently at 1954. I am thinking about dropping the King's Indian attack as I never seem to get any fun games or winning chances from it. I may have to actually learn some main line against the French one of these days.

I didn't include any comments as I didn't really know what to say about this game. Felt like a non-event really. No particular chances or big tactics for either player.

Spoiler :

[Event "Swedish Division 3"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2009.01.18"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Jan Persson"]
[Black "Per Sundelius"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1592"]
[BlackElo "1954"]
[TimeControl "40/7200:3600"]

1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. Ngf3 Nc6 5. g3 Bd6 6. Bg2 Nge7 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1 Qc7 9. b3 Bd7 10. Bb2 f6 11. exd5 exd5 12. d4 b6 13. c4 Rad8 14. cxd5 Nb4 15. Ne4 Bf5 16. Nh4 Bxe4 17. Bxe4 f5 18. Bg2 Nbxd5 19. Qe2 Kh8 20. f4 cxd4 21. Bxd4 Bc5 22. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 23. Qf2 Qxf2+ 24. Kxf2 Ng6 25. Nxg6+ hxg6 26. Bxd5 Rxd5 27. Rad1 Rfd8 28. Re8+ Rxe8 29. Rxd5 Rc8 30. Rd2 Kg8 31. Re2 Kf7 32. h4 Rc3 33. Kg2 Rc7 {draw by agreement}
 
Thanks Panzar, I will go over that shortly.

21. Nxf8 (+2.40) is where you wish you could calculate like a computer and see Rfc1 (+8.00). The plan seems to be Rxc2 to distract the queen from defending f8.
Yeah, nice!

21...b4 loses a piece and subsequently about three pawns worth of points at +5.50. Perhaps b4 gives some practical chances in an otherwise lost game.

23. Qg8+ (+5.00) is a good move. Not an obvious looking move is Bb4 (+10.00). But it wins the Queen after 23...Qxb4 24. Nf6+ Kd8 25. Qg8+ Kc7 26. Nxd5+
That's a nice one, I wish I saw it. I figured I might be able to stir up some tactics with Bb4 but I didn't see that line. :(

21...b4 loses a piece and subsequently about three pawns worth of points at +5.50. Perhaps b4 gives some practical chances in an otherwise lost game.
Can you go over that line? Bxb4 I assume? But then if knight takes & RxR black will get two queens, do I have a mate?
 
I've played 12 games on chess.com now, and I've noticed that the longest of them is only 33 moves long.

Is this normal?
 
Losing to col in under 33 moves is normal and beating Under 1800's in under 33 moves is normal, so yes. :D
 
Thanks. Also, how "good" do various ratings correspond to? I'm looking for more of a qualitative feel than a numerical conversion to other grading systems.
 
I'd say coorespondence ratings level out to around 200-300 points higher than USCF/FIDE.

It really depends though, coorespondence is a completely different game. Ideally you should be able to play a much better game (tons of time to think, you can actually move the pieces & analyze, etc.) but often players actually don't play better, too many games going, other distractions & players may actually make more mistakes. It really depends on the individual. I'm play a (US National) Master who's rating is only 19something but he's got 100 games (on the button) going at once. :eek: I've got 12 (last I checked) and I'm overloaded. There's something about the intensity of the tournament hall that seems to bring out the best in me (and often the worst in my opponents whereas there's something about laying on my back with the laptop on my chest & eight other windows open that... um, doesn't :D). No excuses of course, I'm played some good games & I love to play & learn a lot from coorespondence. Sometimes I think using analysis board is undermining my ability to calculate in my head though.

Kind of got off on a tangent there but hopefully answered your question (at least gave you my subjective experience of the matter).
 
What I meant was, you stated that under 1800 corresponds to "likely to beat in under 33 moves".
I was hoping you (or someone) could expand on this a bit, for a wider range of ratings.
The system we use in the UK is very different, so these numbers don't mean much to me.
 
Simple formula to convert BCF to US/ELO is x8 and add 600

Beginner 100 BCF -> 1400 - but look out for starting grades of good players who have only played 1 or 2 games online
Club player :150 BCF -> 1800
Good club player 175 BCF -> 2000
County player 200BCF -> 2200
National level player 225 -> 2400
GM 250 BCF -> 2600

I played to around 200 BCF over the board at my best.
 
What I meant was, you stated that under 1800 corresponds to "likely to beat in under 33 moves".
Was just being a bit snarky with that comment, hope I didn't offend anyone. :D

I was hoping you (or someone) could expand on this a bit, for a wider range of ratings.
The system we use in the UK is very different, so these numbers don't mean much to me.
Hopefully col hit the nail on the head.
 
There is a formula for the odds of winning based on ratings difference. It doesn't mean anything for a specific pairing of course, but does predict average results fairly well. Unfortunately I don't remember the formula. :crazyeye:

Despite not remembering the actual formula, I'll forge ahead and throw a rule of thumb out there. 100 points of rating difference is probably between 10% and 25% gap in winning chances. So maybe between 55%-45% and 62%-38% in favor of higher rated. And a 400 point difference would perhaps be in the 90%-10% range.

But all these percentages are over 1000's of games between random opponents. In any given game, any player could beat any other player. That's why we play. :D
 
If you want a very rough rule of thumb for USCF ratings then a 200 point difference means that the higher rated player will win about 75% of the time. The same rating means each player has a 50% chance. For the first few hundred points of difference it is roughly 1% added for each 8 points of difference (think of the scoring at Civ II deity level). As the difference gets larger the it slows down a little, so a 400 point difference is not a 100% chance for the higher rated. This is just an average and does not take into account the expectation difference due to colors.
 
Can you go over that line? Bxb4 I assume? But then if knight takes & RxR black will get two queens, do I have a mate?

Your Nh7 (+5.50) was the best move, no need to complicate things with Bxb4 (+2.20) . In fact, if you play 22. Bxb4 and black play 22...Qxb4 the best continuation is to save the knight with 23. Nh7. So why give away a piece before doing so? If black instead answers with 22...Nxb4 you have nothing but heartache after 23. Rxa8 (-4.70). The reason is that after 23...c1=Q black threatens mate and the only move to avoid it is 24. Ra1 but then Nd3 threatens the same mate as we had in our first vote chess match. (Rfxc1, Nf2+, Kg1, Nh3+, Kh1, Qg1+, Rxg1, Nf2#) How to stop it then... 25. h3 Nf2+ 26. Kh2 Qxf4+ 27. Qg3 Qxg3 28. Kxg3 Kxf8 and white cannot even play 29. Rxf2 because Qc3+ loses another rook. So the only move left to avoid immediate disaster is 25. Qg3 but after 25...Qxa1 26. Qxd3 (26. Rxa1 Nf2+ 27. Kg1 Ne4+) the material inbalance is pretty big. Best play is 26...Qcc1 (how often do you get to specify which queen you are moving?) 27. Kg1 Qa7+ 28. Kh1 Qc4 and it's pretty obvious black will win, approximately -8.00 in evaluation. If you find 23. Qh8 (+1.80) you are still better threatning things like Ne6+ but why go into that when you are better off with 22. Nh7.
 
I played Fegatello again, and it seems I might just be able to get away with it! :lol: Game's unfinished yet though.

There was a craze for this opening at my school - long time ago now.

It normally involved sacrificing for the f7 pawn, and chasing the king round the board.
We kept analysing it as unsound, but it usually rattled the opposition enough in real time.
Once everyone in school knew it, it was time to move on.

I'll see if I can dare again....
 
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