Playoffs

With a nice win in round 5 my Dreadful Knights are clear first in their Team4545 division and we can enjoy the last round. The game was very tactical and after an early blunder we finally reached the following position:

After 29. Kf4 Black could capture the rook on f1 but endless hours on ChessTempo have prepared me for such situations. Queen and rook work together in a terrific way even when other pieces are around so I looked and found a quick mate.

I hope that I can spend some time on chess study after christmas. Two long games per week are enough to satisfy my appetite at the moment and I don’t look at anything else.

There would have been some time but I rather tried to “summon a disaster on the unbelievers” on the Shaman table in ZEN pinball on the PS3. It took me more than 3 hours until I finally managed to win this trophy. With the upcoming release of Vengeance and Virtue I am afraid I will spend even more time playing pinball. The trailer looks gorgeous:

When it comes to virtual pinball though, nothing beats the Williams Hall of Fame collection. Great ball physics makes the game a unique experience and Medieval Madness is a blast:

Let’s hope that my interest will slow down in the next weeks so that I can focus on chess again.

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The TeamLeague is kind to me

The Team4545League has been very kind to me lately. I would be very happy to report that I am sooo good but this is not the case although I obviously made some progress. Look at what happened in round 2:

 

11.Qa7 was already not the best but now the queen is trapped! 13…Nc8 and Black gets the queen for a rook.

In round 3 I managed to bamboozle my opponent in the opening. He tried to avoid the Benko Gambit that I usually play and we reached a dangerous position where he accepted the offered pawns anyway. It was already difficult but the next move doesn’t work:

A nice try to force an exchange of queens but Black replied 20…Qxd2 and White resigned.

 

Yesterday I played against a very aggressive opening similar to the Schliemann. The computer identified it as the Latvian: Fraser defense but I must confess I have never heard this name before. For a good reason! Black is down a pawn if White plays precisely – or more if he goes wrong in this position:

10…Rxe2? and White will be up the exchange + one or two pawns. It still took time to convert the advantage into a win but it’s definitely easier if you have the better material and pawn structure. The best move was 10…Qe7 but even then it’s not easy.

This was long game #54 this year and there will be at least 3 more. First goal achieved. 🙂

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