The Usual Stuff

I've corrected last Tuesday's postings and consigned them to the blogosphere. Besides recovering from Wednesday's hangover I've been playing a lot of C-III, old chess games, and watching tv - the usual stuff. I do a little reading now and then, on the potty. In my younger days it was Playboy or the Sears Catalog, but nowadays it is philosophy. The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant is a great book, a classic. It was the first book I replaced when my stuff was stolen in Orlando.

Here is a tournament game from late '94. It is a very typical game from round one. The only remarkable thing about it is that on the last move I captured my opponent's king. Round one pairings are fairly predictable: the top half of the field is paired against the bottom half of the field (ratingwise). My opponent had a 1572 rating, so I expected an easy win. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 (Very fishy. I thought, 'Gonna be a short night.') 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qc2 d6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bf4 O-O 8.a3 Bc3+ 9.Qc3 Qe8 10.h3 Nd7 11.e3 e5 12.de5 de5 13.Bg3 f5 14.O-O-O Nc5 15.Nd2 f4 16.Bh2 a5 17.Bd3 Nd3 18.Qd3 Bf5 19.e4 Rd8 20.Qc3 Nd4 21.Rhe1 Bg6 (Each player has used 45 minutes.) 22.Qa5 Ra8 23.Qc3 Qa4 24.f3 b5 25.Bg1 b4 26.ab4 Qa1+ 27.Nb1 Nc6 28.Bc5 Rfb8 29.Rd7 (29.b5 looks better)...Bf7 30.Rc7 Nd4 31.Bd4 ed4 32.Qd4 Rb4 33.Re2 Qa2 (Both players have 20 minutes each to finish the game.) 34.Qd7 Rc4+ 35.R2c2 Rc2+ 36.Rc2 Qa6 37.Rc3 Qf1+ 38.Kc2 Qg2+ 39.Nd2 Qg6 40.Rc8+ Rc8 41.Qc8+ Kh7 42.b4 Be6 43.Qc5 Qe8 44.b5 Qc8 45.Qc8 Bc8 46.b6 Kg6 47.Nc4 Kf6 (white has an easy win but both players are in time trouble.) 48.Nd6 Ba6 49.b7 Bb7 50.Nb7 Ke5 51.Kd3 g5 52.Nd8 h5 53.Nf7+ g4?? 54.Ne5! 1-0

My opponent was outraged that I'd had the indecency to capture his king. He lodged a protest but was overruled. That decision was overturned the next week but the game result was allowed to stand. Back to C-III. I'm starting a new game.