After the season finished I took a break from any serious chess for about 7-8 weeks. A couple of weeks ago I attended the end of season social for our team, which ended up being 5 of us playing and kibitzing at a dimly lit table in a pub, using a very small travel chess set. It was really quite fun, and I finally got to play Jody. Hopefully the team will meet up again off season, this time with reasonable sized boards (we went to the club initially but it had been closed for refurbishment).
The last couple of days I've played and won several games on ICC and I'm starting to get my interest back. It seems to me that when I come back after a break I can always play a bit differently, experimenting and trying to unlearn bad habits. I think my bad habits are mainly playing too passively, with a somewhat inflexible approach to pawn structure. I need to play more principalled moves, and that's what I managed in two of my first three games (in the other it was very even for a long time... and then my opponent hung their queen).
I'm not going to analyse any of these final games in any great depth right now, but here is a summary.
Sam vs 135
In this game I ended up doing a lot of knight manouvers. My position was reasonable throughout, though I missed a trivial pawn winning tactic for several turns in a row (my thoughts were on the other side of the board!).
Sam vs 80
I'm very unhappy with how I played this game. I approached it with a poor attitude, making a bee line for a 2 bishops vs 2 knights position at the expense of any development. By the time I had 'achieved' these trades my opponent was castled and had both knights developed, vs me having no pieces developed at all and hovering on the edge of disaster. After using up quite a lot of time to find some moves, and rather fearful of the centre opening up, I finally managed to complete my development. Thankfully for me my opponent had trouble finding a plan and the win came fairly smoothly from this point.
137 vs Sam
In this game I played the black side of a caro-kann. We ended up opposite castled and my opponents attack seemed quite threatening for a time, but by move 20 it had locked up in my favour on the queenside (where I was castled). It then also locked up on the kingside, and the game looked headed for a draw. Indeed over the course of this game there were three draw offers - one each, which the other declined (I offered mine after my opponent missed a tactic that would have given him an advantage...prior to that I had felt I could play on in safety). When he gave his 2nd draw offer I was inclined to accept it but asked him to play his move first (per protocal). He played a losing move which I managed to take advantage of, and he resigned just two turns later.
Sam vs 133
This game was quite a surprise. As white I came out of the opening in a bit of a mess with what looked like the beginnings of a very awkward middlegame due to his light square bishop being about to take a very strong diagonal. Then he missed a pin tactic and I should have won the exchange. However due to his frustation he misplayed this and ended up a rook down, resigning soon after.
145 vs Sam
Another caro-kann with me as black. In the early middlegame I missed a discovered attack tactic, meaning that he could disrupt my pawns horribly. By move 20 it was all looking pretty miserable. I played on as best I could, but finally resigned on move 39 as he was about to force a trade into a clearly lost (for me) two pawns down knight endgame.
Sam vs 133
I'm pretty happy with this game as I played with a plan in mind, and one way or another made it happen. After getting a pawn to a7 on move 40 I thought it should just be a matter of wrapping it up, but my opponent defended well and by move 50 the computer actually thinks it's even (although a human would say that it is much harder for black to defend even that position). Anyway, my opponent had used most of their clock holding everything together, and I finally found a way to simplify things (giving up that a7 pawn, sadly) into a material up easily won pawn endgame.
116 vs Sam
I played the black side of a caro. During the opening I missed an early chance to fork my opponents B and Q with a N and so trade it off, which would have favoured me. In future I resolve to try to keep my eyes open in the opening more! My opponent pushed for a kingside attack which I had to be quite careful in defending. By move 30 however a great deal of simplification had occured and we were in a same colour bishop endgame where I had a slight advantage due to his central isolated pawn. Unfortunately I couldn't make anything of it, and looking at the game as a whole I still think (beyond overlooking that fork very early on) that I didn't miss much - so I decided to try using the Scandanavian for a bit more punch in future.
161 vs Sam
Again the black side of a caro (I hadn't looked into the Scandanavian yet), and my opponent outplayed me from the opening and had built what seemed like a very powerful attack by move 12. I spent a long time over my moves from there, and hung in until a gamble at counterplay came up. Due to a slight mistake by my opponent this paid off for me, and after we got to a repeating moves position he offered a draw which I accepted. When we analysed after the game it was clear he was a lot better than me, so I was quite lucky, though I'm happy with how I defended ('like a machine' as he put it).
Sam vs 136
My first time against the Benoni and I think it showed. 5.Bg5 ...Be7 6.Bc1. Yes, I really just gave away two free tempi in the opening. Bg5 had been a very poor choice, although it's possible it partly helped in that the black dark square bishop normally develops to g7 where it can be slightly more effective. I felt my opponent misplaced one of his knights (on b6) which meant that after he sacrificed a piece for two pawns and 'an attack' he didn't have the firepower on hand to follow through. By move 52 I had 3 pawns, a rook and 2xB vs his 3 pawns and a rook, but he played on until move 69 at which point a team mate told him to resign (he then gave a final pointless check before leaving the board).
135 vs Sam
I played a Scandanavian for the first time but instead of exciting tactics (as my recent ICC attempt at it had led me to believe was the norm!) I ended up in a rather passive position with less space. I played ...c5 prematurely and was on the backfoot for quite a while. Later I managed to get a great centralised knight that I thought might give me some advantage but we got to a double edged endgame. My opponent had a lot less time but I felt my position was slightly worse and so agreed to a draw.
Sam vs 132
Now this game was a bitter loss! I dictated the play for a lot of it, building up a wonderful queenside attack... anyway this all got into a mess after he found a strong tactic that I had missed. Things started to go in his favour a little, and I chose a simplifying line that I thought won me a pawn at the end. It did, but only if I let one of his pawns queen, so I had to resign. Definately an interesting game though, and I think I learned a lot - especially that I need to avoid rushing my play when the position will retain advantage even if I take it slower and consolidate more.
Sam vs 137
This was my first time playing against the Grunfeld, though I was familiar with some of the themes from watching some GM games. I managed to retain my centre, and my opponent had trouble finding a plan. He followed a line that gave him a passed pawn, but it was too weak to defend, and the endgame went quite smoothly. I was especially happy with winning this as I thought that if I didn't my seasons grade would be <140!
Clifton D finished a respectable fourth. Not far off the top, but slightly disappointing considering we were in the lead at the half way point around the turn of the year. Here's hoping I can contribute some stronger results next season.
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