Monday, June 08, 2009

BDO 1 result: loss

Last night was the first round of the Blue Devil Open 1 tournament at Duke. It was a fun game despite the loss, partly because I got to play fellow blogger Loomis!

The game actually reached an endgame, which was in Loomis' favor. He dominated my Knight with his Bishop, got the opposition, and proceeded to pass a pawn. We played for almost four hours, so my brain was spinning. The 120 minute time control makes a big difference, as I think it helped me avoid making egregious blunders. Even with the long time controls, I did end up with a bit of a time crunch so I stopped writing my moves at some point. Time management seems qualitatively different with these marathon games.

Frankly, it was nice to have a loss where I wasn't thinking, "Why do I bother" right after. Loomis was probably pissed. All that time and he'll probably gain one rating point from the win (he is rated about 600 points higher than me).

I played 1 d4 for the first time in a tournament. I was off book within move two, which is fine as I'm not focusing much on openings now. Because the game was long, I was able to take time and work some stuff out over the board which was a really nice luxury.

11 Comments:

Blogger From the patzer said...

I guess doing the ICS course is really helping you. Or am i wrong and you have some other secret weapons?

6/08/2009 11:12:00 AM  
Blogger Tommyg said...

1. d4? Does that mean you are ready to play the French now? :)

I hope the rest of the tournament goes well. G/120 is a fun time control. I have only played it in one tournament but I really enjoyed it!

6/08/2009 12:24:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

CT: it is probably a combination of things. The ICS course, playing more (and on real boards), increased exposure to chess, and keeping as the baseline number one priority on every move to not drop pieces. I don't want to jinx it, but I think I have gotten better at not dropping pieces. I'm sure it will still happen sometimes, but my safety vision seems to have improved.

6/08/2009 12:35:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

tommyg: F the french. :)

6/08/2009 12:36:00 PM  
Blogger Loomis said...

A very good game I thought. Fritz disagreed. :-(.

I thought time management was fine in that game. I don't think you made any mistakes that were a result of not taking long enough, and you pretty much used the whole 120.

The rating stuff doesn't really bother me, although at a couple points in the game it did cross my mind how many points I would lose for a draw -- I couldn't bear to think of the rating plunge for a loss. ;-)

I was off book on move 3, so I think we're even. :-)

6/08/2009 01:07:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

Loomis: I haven't Fritzed it yet, I need to go over it once on my own still, at the very least writing down what I was thinking for different moves. Later on that record is very useful. It will be interesting to see where we (or just I) screwed up.

6/08/2009 02:35:00 PM  
Blogger katar said...

why not post the game. the result and opp rating are not so important compared to the actual moves you played. :)

6/08/2009 03:55:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

Katar: I may enter it into a computer once I've gone over it without the silicon.

6/08/2009 03:58:00 PM  
Blogger Tommyg said...

Wilhelm Steinitz is quoted as saying:

"I have never in my life played the French Defence, which is the dullest of all openings."

And to be quite honest, the way I have been playing the French lately is not what one would call "sharp"!

Can't wait to see your analysis of your game!!

6/08/2009 09:36:00 PM  
Blogger Chess? said...

big congratulatios bdk. to last that long with loomis would be no easy task. i cant wait to see the game. cheers

6/08/2009 10:58:00 PM  
Blogger David Rudel said...

Any chance you are going to continue playing d4? Interested in the Colle? I'd make you the same offer I made Blue Devil (I have some review copies of Zuke 'Em I'm looking to give out to chess bloggers.)

6/17/2009 01:14:00 AM  

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