To help myself, I went though my round 6 game and annotated it to try and pound my bad thinking habits out of my head. I'm tired of losing games (in this case drawing) in which I had definite advantage at some point. Anyway, as I went though the trouble, I might as well share. Here is my game complete with my comments. Enjoy or ignore as is your wont.
[Event "SWCC Championship"]
[Date "2009.08.13"]
[Round "6"]
[White "D. Sagunsky"]
[Black "J. Hildeman"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1619"]
[BlackElo "1485"]
[ECO "C55"]
[Annotator "J. Hildeman"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4
{I was seriously considering 7...Bd6 here, and odd move blocking the d pawn with the bishop, but it would have been just a temp outpost to protect the pawn on e5and to allow the possibility of Na5. I did it in a game against Robin in our Indepenence Day Tournament with good results (that was a Ruy Lopez game, but the same general idea). For reasons that I'm sure made sense at the time I decided against that move. Pity. }
4...exd4 5.Nxd4 Bc5 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.O-O Nxe4
{This was a bad move, but lucky for me David was seeing the position in the same way I was. I wasn't worried about the getting pinned by the rook as 8.Re1 Bxf2!+, voila. There is a supurb move for white here, however, one I saw after I got home and couldn't sleep thinking about the game: 8.Qg4! leaving me with nothing to do but 8...d5 9.Qxg7 Qf6 and making a mess that while not decisive for white as far as I can tell, certainly not a position that would appear in my dreams.}
8.Be3 O-O 9.Bxc5 Nxc5 10.Re1 d5 11.Bf1 Bb7
{A very passive move by me. My thoughts were to strenthen the center and eventually advance the pawns on the c and d files. In retrospect I should have made a more active move like an immediate 11...Qf6 or if I needed to develop the bishop get it out where it can breathe, 11...Bf5. Still not a bad move by me though and I still feel secure with my extra pawn in exchange for a very weakened queenside.}
12.Nc3 Qf6
{I had my eye on white's b pawn here (not poisoned until I move my knight) as well as the f2 pawn, keeping white from moving his knight until I moved mine.}
13.Qd2 Rfe8 14.a3 Rad8
{Not sure why I did this. With my weak queenside that rook should have stayed guarding the isolated a pawn. If I hadn't moved my bishop to b7 this rook would look great on b8, threatening to make white's queenside as full of holes as my own. I was commited to my plan, however; giving support to my d pawn certainly was not a bad idea--just not the best.}
15.Rad1 Ne6 16.Ne2 c5 17.Ng3 Rd7
{Man, did I waste a lot of clock before making this move. The plusses aren't bad at all--preparing to double my rooks and possibly adding my queen to the battery with Qd8. The move opens up a huge can of worms, though, and I got caught up thinking about the multiple threats white could bring against this structure. I did miss one, but luckily David missed it as well. His chosen attack was actually the first one that I examined as my time dwindled away, so it actually surprised me at first because I had decided it was safe so many thoughts ago!}
18.Qa5 a6 19.Qxc5
{Looks good for white--he gets his pawn back. Or does he? This was why I had dismissed 18.Qa5 as safe, as I trade my doubled pawn for a nice hole in white's queenside. However, here is the line that both David and I missed--the rook on e8 is not the only one left unguarded! 19.Ne4! and my advantage flies out the window.}
19...Qxb2 20.Bd3 Qb6 21.Qc3 Red8 22.Rb1 Qa7 23.Bf5 d4 24.Qb4 c5
{I liked this as he was forcing me to execute the moves I wanted to make for a long time!}
25.Qb6 Bd5 26.Qxa7 Rxa7 27.Rb6 g6 28.Be4 Nc7
{This was a tough choice for me, but my clock was really running low so I had to go with my gut feeling. The very quickly devised plan was to get my rooks behind my pawns with my knight leading the charge, sacrificing the isolated a pawn in the process. In retrospect, I believe I made this more complicated than it needed to be, but it still worked out well.}
29.Bxd5 Nxd5 30.Rc6 Rc7 31.Rxa6 Nc3 32.Re5 Rdd7
{Possibly a waste of tempo, but I wanted the ability to wrench any open file I needed away from white, and if push came to shove, I could threaten his a pawn with Ra7.}
33.Kf1 c4 34.Ne2 Nxe2 35.Kxe2
{Bad choice by white. Retaking the knight with his King gives me the game. Well, it would have if I only had a brain.}35...d3+ 36.Kd1 c3 37.Re1 dxc2+
{Giving back equality to white, or at least throwing away my obvious win with 37...d2!! leaving white no escape. I could blame my clock (I was well under 5 min by this point) but that was my own fault. For some reason my brain turns to mush whenever I have a serious advantage.}
38.Kc1 Rb7
{Really giving away the whole town. No idea what I was thinking. 38...Re2! would have been much better.}
39.Kxc2 Rdc7 40.Rb1 Rxb1 41.Kxb1 f5 42.a4 Kg7 43.a5 Kh6 44.Ra8 Kg5 45.a6 Kf4 46.Kc2 Ke4 47.Rd8 Ra7 48.Rd3 Rxa6 49.Rxc3 Kd4 50.Rd3+ Kc4 51.Kd2
{Here I was hoping for a draw, but David hands me another chance by giving me his rook!}
51...Ra2+ 52.Ke3 f4+ 53.Ke4 Re2+ 54.Re3 fxe3 55.fxe3
{So, the game is won for me here if I just stopped for a few moments and solidified my plan. 55...Rxg2 or even 55...Kc5 gives me a devestating advantage. Instead I start making basically random moves without the least bit of thought behind them. I was worried about my clock, but really I had plenty of time as the situation is quite simple. Hopefully I learned my lesson: time is never wasted if used to actually look at the position! I don't have the rest of the moves as I stopped keeping score at this point, but rest assured that most of them were bad. All material eventually was exchanged including my rook for a very disappointing draw for me.}
1/2-1/2
Friday, August 14, 2009
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