Nf6++

[packbat]

Man, I hadn't played chess in a long time. That game was darn crazy.

Anyway, around four or so I left work to go down and steal food from the chem. department's "Welcome New Grad Students" BBQ, and met up there with my brother and a friend of his (I want to say Vasily was his name, but I've already forgotten), and my brother sent me up to his office to go get his chess set. After he ate, he played and lost to V. (let's call his friend that), and was about to start another game when I asked if I could play.

I wish I'd written it down. It was pretty nuts. All I can remember is that it started off with 1. e4 d5 2. Nc3 d4, and every turn I was just sweating bullets. I think it continued with 3. Nd5?! e5 (I have no confidence in the ratings of these moves - checking online, 3. Nd5 seems dubious, but it might merely be interesting), but somehow, slowly, I managed to dodge fork, gambit, and trap to end up pinning his knight against his king with my queen and, after threating with my bishop, bringing my knight up to mate:



Honestly, I don't even know whether Black threw the game or whether I had a forced win. I was just glad it ended.

Anyway, I went afterwards to the campus arcade for pool, and around 7:30, took the Metro home with my brother's friend after my brother left for his new digs up north.

And that was my day. Good night!

Comments

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

I have come to the conclusion that you are rather a lot smarter than I am.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - I've been schooled at chess by thirteen-year-olds regularly. I'm just glad I won once. :D

(Also, I looked up the openings on Wikipedia after the game - hence my dubious continuation.)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I've even lost to kids using what you might call the Ware Opening (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ware_Opening) Reversed, which is an idiotic variation on possibly the worst opening conceivable.

(Actually, I'm kinda surprised the opening even has a name, it's that bad.)

[roaminrob.livejournal.com]

The Ware Opening can be played into a powerfully defensive game on King's side, making it costly for you to mount a useful attack. It's still really contrived, though.

For what it's worth, I usually open e4, d4, c3 (opponent rarely makes an opening move which forces me to change this, even when I'm playing black). There's probably a name for that opening. Anyway, it does a pretty nice job of developing strength in the center of the board, forcing the opponent to divide her forces on either side. A little bit of time spent on developing the rear pieces, and it pretty quickly becomes possible to tie the opponent up in a horrible game of pins, forks, and ten-consecutive-move checks.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Bah. I say it ain't good.

Well, I'm no master, but it looks a little like the Danish Gambit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Gambit) on Wikipedia. Does the pawn at d4 get captured often?

[roaminrob.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It's close to the Danish Gambit, but not quite. Thing is, if I make e4, and you threaten with d5, then I reverse the direction of the opening and back up with f3, followed by d4 (unless you d5xe4, in which case I f3xd4, and now you're starting at more of a disadvantage).

If you don't make the d5 threat, then I continue with the preferred variation, d4 and c3.

If you bring a knight out to threaten the structure at some point in a different way, then it's trivial for me to counter with a knight of my own. Any attempt you make to capture the center pawns with a knight usually results in one of my pawns and one of my knights sitting in the center of the board, which is a fairly strong position.

Generally speaking, I lose with this opening to players that accept the initial gambit with some losses, and then continue a very aggressive game, preventing me from continuing the rear development that I need to make the opening useful. But, if the opponent hesitates in the first few moves ... then they are MINE!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I see - that would explain why the Wikipedia people expect the other player to capture in the middle.

Fascinating game. Fascinating.

[roaminrob.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, the threat from your bishop really only prevented black from making Qd6 to force a trade, so black should have seen your Nf6 coming, and preemptively played Bg7.

Looks like it was a heck of a fun game. :-)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

His bishop was already on g7 - he moved it right before I mated him. That's why I suspected he threw it. :)

K x Q! Woot!

[thatbajoranguy.livejournal.com]

OK my question is this:

Why are everyone's pawns all over the place?? :P Did he do things that required you to mess up your pawn structure? His is not too bad by comparison, though clearly his moving his pawns up to give your knight & queen a space to slide into wasn't so good.

BTW, Wikipedia for the win. I knew I'd seen this opening before, but it does indeed have a name: the Scandinavian defense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Defense

Primarily, it is usually a bad idea for black, in my experience. When people use it against me, I simply run their queen around the board while developing my pieces, and that usually leaves me a lot better off. The Marshall Gambit is an interesting variation, though. My dad used to like to use this against me, and he'd pull it off.

Re: K x Q! Woot!

[thatbajoranguy.livejournal.com]

2 Things:

1) Uh duh ... I didn't click on your link. Heh. ;) You did indeed know the name ... I had forgotten tho!

2) I should clarify, I usually run Black's queen around the board because 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 is the response I almost always encounter, myself. From there, 3. Nc3 is a nice tempo gain as the Wiki article points out, and in my experience people usually run around somwhere chaseable. Against people with less confidence in their playing skill, 3 ... Qa5 4 a3 and 5. b4 can be very fun, though 3 ... Qa5 4 d3 and later 5. Bd2 is not bad as a threat against the Queen (which has likely still not moved).

I also run into people who try to be savvy with the attack at 3 ... Qe5+ or 3 ... Qe6+. Again, given the general average level of players I face (average being the level I am at too!), I usually respond with 4. Qe2, which freaks them out and they rarely accept the exchange so early in the game. So that works. I highly recommend learning how to get along without your queen (and how to mate without her), because many players can't.

Re: K x Q! Woot!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

1) Actually, I looked it up on Wikipedia too. :P

2) Yeah, that looks like the common line. That's a good point about a lot people being hesitant to exchange queens - I bet I can use that. I think at the present moment, though, I need to play more chess rather than study ending and opening theory.

Re: K x Q! Woot!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

It was tactical, actually - we'd be pushing pawns to prevent or facilitate various plays. I think a4 was protecting against some tomfoolery with his white bishop, and a6 preventing mine from checking on the diagonal - I think he had moved d3 to set up an attack, and that's why I moved c3 - block the d4 space. Also, I had my white bishop on c4 for a while - the pawn there now was defending it when Black captured with a knight.

I mean, stuff happens to pawns. I wasn't going to worry about it while I had the initiative.

Re: K x Q! Woot!

[thatbajoranguy.livejournal.com]

That is true. You did win, so a horrible pawn structure is acceptable for that purpose. ;) Some of the openings actually lead to a really ugly looking pawn structure for one color or another, but that color is actually doing quite well.

Re: K x Q! Woot!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I think the open and semi-open games tend to be messy in that respect. I imagine the pawns usually get disrupted to a fair extent by normal play, though.

That said, I do recall reading a fascinating chess book in which a hasty pushed pawn gave a master the opening for the final combination on the kingside, so ... :)