Monday, February 25, 2008

Didn's play in winter open, Will play in Fide tournament

I am following the advice of strong players and decided not to play tournaments back to back weekends. So skipped the winter open. Used this time to analyze the games (read losses) from team tournaments. I was extremely unhappy on me for losing 3 games but now I feel, I played good games except a few misses. All these games were very rich and I could get some important lessons. I'll play in the Fide tournament on 8-9 March in Milwaukee.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Good Knight - Bad Bishop !

Following was the position in Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985. Karpov won the game. Following link has the details.






I had very similar position in team tournament against Gavin Mclanahan. Thought I could win, but just could not make it happen.



In fact the following position was very close to Karpov's game. I wish....


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

My latest loss with Eric

Following is my game with Eric in Team tournament. I saced a piece for 3 pawns (another Allen Becker inspiration), had a winning position and then just played badly to lose !


Following was the position just before Nf7 sac




Following was the position just before the blunder fxg. Ne3+ wins.


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Catastrophe !!

Catastrophe !! By all means !

I have lost 3 games, 2 to lower rated players. All from winning positions ! Drew with another lower rated player. Lost 32 points !!

Never in my life I lost 3 games in a tournament, never in my life I had such a poor outing ! I can't say I played badly as in the opening and middle games, I outplayed my opponents. But in the ending, the technique (calculating long variations consistently ) and lack of stamina let me fall apart.

Don't know what to say.....

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Team Championship - Parker, Fricano, Cardenas & Souvik

In Team Championship, I am playing in the team of Parker, Fricano and Cardenas. This a very good team to be a part of. However, all of us are so entertaining and unpredictable, I am expecting we will surely offer a lot of surprises. Following are our December 2007 rating.

ANTHONY LEE PARKER 1982 (Current 2009)

PAUL ROYAL FRICANO 1960 (Current 1939)

SOUVIK ROYCHOUDHURY 1936 (Current 1976)

DAVID R CARDENAS 1916 (Current 1930)

Thursday, February 7, 2008

IM Mesgen Amanov will be in Milwaukee for chess camp

IM Mesgen Amanov will be in Milwaukee for chess camp this Sunday. Ashish's academy is arranging this. Following link will give you more information.

http://www.vajachess.com/id5.html

Monday, February 4, 2008

Joseph Anthony Kellam (Unrated->1998) - A sensational pereformance

Cardenas won another tournament in SWCC, this time game in 29, Winter Blitzzard III with 3/3. However, there is a joint winner, named Joseph Anthony Kellam who started the tournament as Unrated and finished with 3/3 with sensational 1998 end rating (quick) ! Only time will tell whether this is an exception or the rule. However, I wish him all the best. It seems that all the 6:00 pm training sessions and other initiatives of SWCC folks to draw new people to chess is paying off.

I had a funny tournament - arrived late and missed the first round, then blundered and lost second round and finally won the last round. No regret as this won't affect the main rating and I wanted to play chess for fun which I did.

Click here for the full details SWCC WINTER BLITZZARD III

Cardenas, Kellam 3.0
Geder, Fricano, Munoz, Sagunsky, Bruce 2.0
Souvik, Andrew, Zimmermann 1.5

Friday, February 1, 2008

Souvik vs Fricano (ICICLE Swiss) - A roller coaster game



White is a pawn up but lost after simple d6! by black followed by Bxc4 (missed in the game)




Does the Bxh5 works ? (Actualy played in the game)


Link to Souvik vs Fricano (ICICLE Swiss)