Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Streak Continues...

...despite mounting opposition. I am still unbeaten in rated games in Florida. Today I beat a strong A-player rated 1956. I think this is the biggest upset of my short chess career. I played well with only a few major errors. Here's the game:

1956-TR.pgn


So I still haven't lost in Florida. This can't go on, and since I will play players stronger than me in the next round of both club tournaments I don't think it will unless I've made some quantum leap in strength (this is unlikely since I am still inhabiting only my own body. Hah.). Did I mention my opponent tonight was the 1st seed in the tournament? A good victory, though winning on time is not as satisfying as mate or a resignation (though I suppose time wins often are the equivalent of a long, drawn out resignation like tonight's game was). I hope this train keeps on rolling.

2 comments:

es_trick said...

Hey,

First time visitor to your blog. I'm a former resident of IN, now living in the Northeast. Am also a Class B player.

Read a few of your posts, and it seemed like you wanted some comments.

I agree with your post re: studying the old masters --you were looking at Gligorich's (sp?) games. Contemporary GM play is very difficult to understand.

I've been picking up game collections recently at a 2nd hand bookstore (many of the books are brand new but going for 50 - 70% off). Was working on Neil McDonald's book covering Spielman this week, but am planning to lend it to someone in my club who needs to work on revving up his attack mode.

Want to get back to the games of Emmanuel Lasker, which I started about a month ago. Also picked up collections of Capablanca and Alekhine's games. May not study them; don't like their style, but thought I'd have them on my shelf since they were so cheap. Also found a new copy of the Tal Botvinnik match of 1960. Am finding the book called "500 Master Games" to be a useful reference.

Regards,

Eric
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Caeruleum Canis said...

Hey, thanks for commenting. I have found that Amazon is a great place to get cheap games collections too. I like Lasker a lot too, he was way ahead of his time in terms of positional understanding and defensive technique. 500 master games is good, also '200 Open Games' or 'Zurich 1953' by Bronstein are good collections that are usually really cheap (Dover editions).