0-1, 1-0, 3.2ghz, 0-1

I've now played another couple of league games. In the first I played the white side of a Grunfeld. From the opening I kept my centre, but due to the pressure on it couldn't see a way to make progress particularly. It seemed equal to me up until after the heavy pieces had come off the board, at which point I became aware that if the minor pieces came off then the K&P endgame would be totally lost. Trading off the bishops was a mistake, and in the end his outside passed pawn was a strength and I lost. He played well. I may update the game viewer with some annotation at a later date, but I am basically now looking at anti-grunfeld set ups - I don't like playing against it.

Play chess online

I left Bristol for a few days to visit my parents, which was nice. I'm finding not running a bit annoying however, and am unsure whether the foot has improved any with the resting. Perhaps a little. While away I took part in a simul against IM Jack Rudd. I played the Albin Counter-Gambit, and actually had some advantage for a time (up the exchange and a pawn, but a somewhat weakened king), but lost in the end. At least I made him think for longer than some of his other games.

Returning to Bristol, I had a go at overclocking my computer, getting my Q6600 from stock 2.4ghz to 3.2ghz and giving a great performance boost. However I found that it runs hot even at stock, so I need to look at improving ventillation (leaving a desk fan on full blast into the side of an open case is not a long term solution).

My second league game I again played the Albin. It was a close game where the advantage went back and forth, with blunders from both sides. Going into the endgame it all got a bit crazy, with us both also under time pressure. It should probably have been a draw right up until he lost his queenside pawns, after which it was clearly won for black. We did play some more moves, but due to time pressure I stopped recording them towards the end, and can't accurately recall them now (though I remember the end position was my 2xP & B against his 1xP, with his K getting pushed back). We analysed after the game. During it I had thought that he was quite nervous and anxious, but after the game he was very confident and fluent with his analysis, so I guess he was just giving it his all. I have added annotations to the game viewer.

Play chess online

I didn't realise it at the time, but it turns out I had played this opponent last year. I won that game in an unexpected 17 moves due to a pin tactic with his knight - see Sam vs 133.

With 2x win and 2x loss my performance rating so far this season is pretty comparable to last season, but it's very early days. I've started analysing Capablanca and Lasker games more, including with friends on ICC. Good fun, and hopefully it will help my play!