1447?!
That's my new rating (unofficial until 4/1, but official then because tomorrow is the cutoff for the April ratings list) after going 3/4 in the MCC Groundhog Day Swiss that just ended. In my final game I had white against Fred Harvey. Another closed sicilian, and another win, bringing me to 80% with that opening. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would make 1450 this year. I think I need to set some new goals for myself. One short year ago I played in the Eastern Class Championships, scored 2/5, and dropped my rating to 870. 600 points in 300 days isn't bad, but it's clear to me that I was never really an 800 player: I just didn't know how to handle tournament games. Soon I'll be hitting that wall I keep talking about where further improvement will take real work.
The game against Mr. Harvey wasn't without its exciting moments, however. It was pretty tight until my opponent made a series of tactical blunders between moves 29 and 35 that resulted in my being a rook up. He had a pair of passed pawns, though, and I didn't show them enough respect and it almost cost me. Here's the position after black's 44th move (I'm now up two rooks after he sacrificed one to advance his pawns further):
Wollkind - Harvey
White to play
Sure, white is up two rooks, but I had a hard time finding the win. I think the fact that he was so close to queening started to get into my head, and I became really worried about blowing what should have been an easily won game. The game continued with 45. Rh7+ Kb6 46. Rhxa7 b2 47. R2a6+ Kb5.
Wollkind - Harvey
White to play
Now, here I missed the winning 48. Ra1! I couldn't see a clear way to prevent him from queening, and I really didn't want to play Q vs RR, so I played 48 Ra2? offering to repeat moves. I thought for sure that he'd play his king back to b6, but instead he played Kc4 giving me an easy win after Rxb2 cxb2 and Rb7. If the king goes to save the pawn, he can't catch my d pawn.
All in all, a fun tournament, and a five way tie for second place, to boot. I look forward to next month.
The game against Mr. Harvey wasn't without its exciting moments, however. It was pretty tight until my opponent made a series of tactical blunders between moves 29 and 35 that resulted in my being a rook up. He had a pair of passed pawns, though, and I didn't show them enough respect and it almost cost me. Here's the position after black's 44th move (I'm now up two rooks after he sacrificed one to advance his pawns further):
Wollkind - Harvey
White to play
Sure, white is up two rooks, but I had a hard time finding the win. I think the fact that he was so close to queening started to get into my head, and I became really worried about blowing what should have been an easily won game. The game continued with 45. Rh7+ Kb6 46. Rhxa7 b2 47. R2a6+ Kb5.
Wollkind - Harvey
White to play
Now, here I missed the winning 48. Ra1! I couldn't see a clear way to prevent him from queening, and I really didn't want to play Q vs RR, so I played 48 Ra2? offering to repeat moves. I thought for sure that he'd play his king back to b6, but instead he played Kc4 giving me an easy win after Rxb2 cxb2 and Rb7. If the king goes to save the pawn, he can't catch my d pawn.
All in all, a fun tournament, and a five way tie for second place, to boot. I look forward to next month.
posted by Zweiblumen @ 7:19 PM
3 Comments:
At 12:27 PM,
Patrick said…
"theory" says 2 connected passed pawns at the 6th rank are worth a rook. and this example seems to confirm that. so "sacking" a rook to destroy 2 such pawns is basically an equal trade.
congrats on the new rating. to some extent you will play up to your internal expectations, so it's okay to have a quiet confidence that you are truly 1600 strength. (but be realistic, of course!) if your rating were a stock i would invest, b/c you actually analyze and annotate your games. and you point out your errors and give yourself question marks when appropriate. great job, keep it up. keep playing tourn. games and keep annotating them. you will be 1700+ before you know it.
At 8:35 AM,
Globular said…
Steve,
Don't fear anyone by rating! I've learned in my travels in 1600-1700 land that anyone up to 2000+ is beatable for me. Tactical errors abound at even the expert level.
-Matt
At 11:05 AM,
Tom Chivers said…
Very tricky and interesting endgame. I did see 48.Ra1 but it's a hard move to have confidence in without really checking and checking.
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