C 2½-1½ K and a blindfold win too

Sadler_C - Sadler_K
December Match Internet Chess Club (4), 29.12.2005
B90 - Najdorf : Kasparov Variation

We had just previously played a blindfold game, so I felt more focused. In reality this is probably the worst game (more double question marks) that we have played since we started doing this weekly thing. 1.e4 [The blindfold game K - C went 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Bxd2+ (The paradoxical 4...Be7 is the main move in this line. The benefit being that the d-pawn is unguarded because the bishop blocks everything.) 5.Nxd2 (5.Qxd2 the knight's best square is c3) 5...0-0 6.e4! d6 7.Bg2 e5 8.Ngf3 Bg4 9.Qb3 Bxf3 10.Nxf3 exd4 11.Nxd4 Nc6 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.0-0 Rb8 14.Qc2 c5 15.Rfd1 Qe7 16.Re1 Nd7 17.f4 Rbd8 18.Re3 h5 19.Rae1 h4 20.e5 hxg3 21.Bd5 gxh2+ 22.Qxh2 Kirk actually played 18.Re2 but announced 22.Qxh2 on this move, and i agreed with it, so to make it work we listed 18.Re3 22...dxe5 23.Rxe5 Nxe5 24.Rxe5 Qf6 25.f5 Rde8 0-1 Not the greatest game but it got us both thinking] 1...c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 [I half expected 5...g6 , but instead of trying to blow him off the board with the Yugoslav attack I was going to try and punish him instead with Korchnoi's 6.Bb5+] 6.Be3 Ng4!? [This was a big surprise! I had planned on going for a Keres attack with 6...e6 7.g4 etc.] 7.Bg5 [The alternative is 7.Bc1 Nf6 but I wanted to try this line and see if he had something planned] 7...h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 h5? [A dubious novelty. Developing with 9...Bg7! was much stronger. Kirk said it was a "grandmasterly" move, and if by grandmasterly he means "ugly" then yes, yes it was a grandmasterly move] 10.h3 Nf6 11.Qd2 Bh6N [I apologize to Kirk. This line was actually played between two grandmasters Kachian-Shneider EUCup 1997 where it continued 11...h4 12.Bh2 e5 13.Nf3 g4 with an eventual draw. Kirk's idea was to try to pressure me into not castling queenside.] 12.f4? [Dubious. 12.f3 was much better.] 12...Rg8 13.fxg5 [13.f5 was the move. I was thinking about doing this (this move was my longest think) but then i thought why don't i just exchange his one active piece (bishop) and get on with it? look at his queenside pieces.] 13...Bxg5 14.Bf4?? [Of course 14.Qe2 was necessary and he has a good position] 14...Bh4+?? [14...Bxf4! 15.Qxf4 e5 and it's curtains] 15.g3 [15.Kd1 may have been better] 15...Bxg3+ 16.Bxg3 Rxg3 17.0-0-0 Rxc3?! Dubious but interesting sac. It is unplayable here because of his lack of development. 18.Qxc3 Nxe4 This is worth a diagram.



Morphy would eat this position alive 19.Qf3 [19.Qe3 is a better diagonal for White. I won't be able to get an attack on f7] 19...e5?? 20.Qxe4 Qg5+ 21.Kb1 f5 22.Nxf5?? [absolutely idiotic. I was wondering why Kirk didn't resign and he would have if i would've played the correct 22.Qe2 ] 22...Qxf5 23.Qxf5 Bxf5 24.Rxd6 Ke7 25.Rb6 [25.Rh6 was obviously better] 25...Be4! 26.Rg1 Nd7 27.Rb4? [27.Rg7+! Kd8 28.Rd6 Bf5 29.Rg8+! wins;
Even 27.Rh6 was better as well, giving me a second chance. But if I missed it the first time I will miss it the second time too] 27...Nc5 28.Rg5 [The way the game went, I missed his threat of Bf3. 28.Be2 was a much better move. Guarding the back rank and freeing up my bishop] 28...Kf6 29.Rxh5 Rd8 30.Kc1 Bf3! Threatening something for the first time. I thought that I was busted. Luckily I saw a move 31.Rb6+ Kg7 32.Rg5+ Kh7 33.Bd3+! Clearance sacrifice 33...e4 [33...Nxd3+ may have been better but I'm still winning] 34.Rxc5 exd3 35.cxd3 Rxd3 36.Rc7+ Kg8 37.Re6 Rd8 38.Ree7 Rb8 [38...Bd5 i would've tried 39.Rxb7 Bxb7 40.Rxb7 and won the rook endgame since his king is stuck on the 8th rank] 39.Rg7+ Kf8 [39...Kh8 40.h4 -- 41.h5 -- 42.h6 etc.] 40.Rgf7+ Kirk said that he wanted to do two weekly games (Saturday and Sunday). i think it's a good idea. we'll play one more game tomorrow to finish off 2005. 1-0

merry christmas

i made out well chess-book wise for christmas.

kirk got me The System by former World Correspondence Champion Hans Berliner. It's an interesting idea for White, mostly based on 1.d4, 2.c4, 3.Nc3, 4.f3, 5.e4, 6.Nge2 etc. there's some interesting criticism on Silman's website, but like the original My System it makes you think.

he also got me a used Karpov book on his games from 1979-1984 called Chess at the Top : 1979-1984. It's a great find! 49 annotated games from Karpov in that period (when he was on the top) including all of the 1981 Merano match with Korchnoi. it was a fabulous gift.

chuck got me the algebraic version of Art of Attack so i have no excuse not to go through it because it's algebraic. also he got me and kirk The Chess Players' Battle Manual which will be helpful because it gives good ideas for practical play and plans v. the colle and the tromp and the f4 sicilian which are literally my three worst chess enemies ;) he also got us reshevsky's Art of Positional Play which i've already read and annotated and kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster which is a must have for any chess library. so we made out pretty good

also jane got me a $20 gift certificate which i'm pretty sure i'll put towards Soviet Chess

merry christmas y'all

2nd annual Game of the Year

well folks it's coming up on Christmas, and i doubt i'll play any more CFC games, so here's the nicest game i played all year, even though it ended up a draw, i was happy with it artistically

Olheiser,G (2080) - Sadler,C (1557) [B12]
KW Team Challenge Kitchener, ON (1), 11.06.2005

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Ne2 e6 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.h5 Bh7 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.cxd3 Nd7 10.Qg4 c5 11.0-0 Ne7 12.Nc3 cxd4 13.Nb5 Nxe5 14.Qe2 N7c6 15.f4 Qb6 16.a4 a6 17.Na3 Bxa3 18.bxa3 Nd7 19.Bd2 0-0 20.f5 Nce5 21.Bf4 Nxd3 22.Qxd3 e5 23.Rab1 Qa7 24.Bd2 e4 25.Qb3 Nf6 26.Qxb7 Qc5 27.Bb4 Qc2 28.Bxf8 Rxf8 29.Qb3 Qc7 30.Ne2 Ng4 31.Qg3 Qxg3 32.Nxg3 Ne3 33.Rf2 Rc8 34.Nf1 Ng4 35.Rf4 Nf6 36.g4 d3 37.Rd1 Rc3 38.Kf2 Rxa3 39.Ne3 Rxa4 40.Kg3 Ra2 41.Rf2 ½-½

i stopped recording at move 41 but the final position was



i'm not going to do a worst game of the year because this year was blunderific (refer to any tournament in KW for more details)

merry christmas y'all

K 1½ - 1½ C

K - C
December Match Internet Chess Club (3), 17.12.2005
D45 - Semi-Slav : Stoltz Variation

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 [I woke up about 10 minutes before 8 o'clock and didn't really feel like another QGA 3...dxc4 . I decided on the Semi-Slav last night actually because I'm sure it will be something we both will face v. the 1.d4, 2.Nf3 setup] 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 [I know Kirk has no class as a chess player but I still thought he might try 5.Bg5 the Botwinnik system. I was flipping through an old TWIC and from 2000 i found a couple of games by Senff that went 5...dxc4 (5...dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 b4?! 8.Ne4 Qd5 9.Ned2 c3 10.exf6 cxd2+ 11.Qxd2 gxf6 12.Bxf6 Rg8 13.Qc2 Nd7 14.Bh4 b3 15.axb3 Bb4+ 16.Kd1 c5 17.Bc4 Qh5 18.Qe4 Nb6 19.Qc6+ Bd7 20.Qxb6 Rg4 21.Rxa7 1-0 Gershon - Senff W Jun 2000) 6.e4 b5 7.e5 b4?! An inspired try! He scored ½/2 with it, but that's v. 2400 competition. I might give it a punt in blitz sometime. 8.exf6 gxf6 9.Bh4 bxc3 10.bxc3 Ba6 11.Nd2 Qd5 12.Bxf6 Rg8 13.Be5 Bh6 14.Bg3 Nd7 15.Be2 Bxd2+ 16.Qxd2 Qxg2 17.0-0-0 Qd5 18.Rhe1 Nb6 19.Qc2 Qa5 20.Bf3 Nd5 21.Bxd5 cxd5 22.Bd6 Bb5 23.Bb4 Qc7 24.Qxh7 Qf4+ 25.Rd2 0-0-0 26.Bc5 Rg2 27.Qh3 Rxh2 28.Qe3 Qxe3 29.fxe3 Rxd2 30.Kxd2 a6 31.Rf1 f5 32.Rg1 Rh8 33.Bd6 Kd7 34.Bf4 Rh7 35.Kc2 Kc6 36.Kb2 Kb6 37.Ka3 Rb7 38.Bd6 Bd7 39.Rg8 Kc6 40.Bc5 Rb1 41.Ra8 Re1 42.Rxa6+ Kb7 43.Ra7+ Kc6 44.Kb4 Rxe3 45.a4 f4 46.Ra6+ Kb7 47.Rb6+ Kc7 48.a5 Bc6 49.Ra6 Re1 50.Bb6+ Kd6 51.Ra7 Rb1+ 52.Ka3 Bd7 53.Bc7+ Kc6 54.Bxf4 Rb7 55.Ra6+ Kb5 56.Ra8 Bc6 57.Rc8 Bd7 58.Ra8 Bc6 59.Bg5 Rg7 60.Rb8+ Rb7 61.Rc8 Ra7 62.Bd8 Ra8 63.Rxa8 Bxa8 ½-½ Lopez Martinez - Senff W Jun 2000.

It may not be sound but it might be a switch from the usual Botwinnik stuff.] 5...Nbd7 6.Qc2 dxc4?! [Played because 6...Bd6 7.g4 is the Shirov-Shabalov Gambit which I have never liked from the Black side (or the White side particularly). I've never analyzed it. One of my Semi-Slav books gives 7...Bb4 as played by Kramnik against Gelfand with a nice game. The text was played back in the 1940s which is funny because after the game I commented that I was playing like a 1930s grandmaster.] 7.Bxc4 Be7 [Now I'm out of book. They have played 7...Bd6 ;
and the natural 7...b5 before. I had resigned myself to a quiet opening and wanted to see if Kirk could breach the defenses] 8.0-0 [8.g4 was maybe playable here if he had his heart set on a Shirov-Shabalov type position, but i think g4 is weaker with the pawn on e7 v. d6] 8...0-0 9.e4 c5!? I played this because in similar positions in the Meran proper e4 can be answered by c5. Unfortunately it wasn't an exact tranposition so i missed something 10.e5 Nd5 11.Bxd5 exd5 [11...cxd4 was okay here] 12.Nxd5 cxd4 13.Nxd4?! [The preparatory 13.Bf4 (holding on to the pawn AND developing) was required here] 13...Nb6 [I was worried about the position after 13...Nxe5 14.Nxe7+ Qxe7 15.Re1 but missed that after 15...Re8 16.f4 Qd7 His knight was hanging as well. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going down material and didn't look hard enough. honestly though i was happy enough with my position. with the e-pawn gone i can actually get my pieces into play 17.Be3 Ng4] 14.Nxb6 [14.Nxe7+ the time here? 14...Qxe7 15.Nf3 looks pretty solid to me] 14...Qxb6 15.Be3 Bc5 16.Ne6! [I almost resigned on the spot, seeing that the rook was attacked by the bishop on the other end of the exchanges. I expected the pressure to build with 16.Rad1 . Then i collected myself and realized that it was just an exchange of pieces.] 16...Qxe6 [16...Bxe6 17.Bxc5 Rfc8 worked just as well. I knew he was gaining initiative and just wanted to hang on 18.Bxb6 Rxc2] 17.Bxc5 Re8 18.f4?! [I thought I was busted after 18.Bd6 ] 18...Qd5 19.Rfd1 Qc6 20.Rac1 Be6 Necessary because there was always an eventual threat of ...Rc8, ...b6 21.Rd6 [If 21.f5 Bxa2 22.b3 Rxe5! I missed that. I thought that I couldn't grab the pawn] 21...Qb5 22.f5 Bxa2 23.e6? [We both missed that 23.b4! was strong 23...b6 24.Qxa2 (24.Bd4 Bd5) 24...bxc5 25.e6 caused some troubles.] 23...fxe6 24.fxe6 [Fritz said that 24.f6 was better opening up the king] 24...Rxe6 25.Rxe6 [25.b4 was tricky again 25...Re2 26.Rd2 Rxd2 27.Qxd2 Be6] 25...Bxe6 26.Qe4 Qc6 27.Qf4 [I, of course, was hoping for 27.Qxc6 bxc6 and trying to ground him down on the sunny side of a (probably drawn) endgame. He, of course, wanted to keep as much material on the board] 27...Rc8 28.Be3 Qe8? Throwing away any slight advantage I had 29.Rxc8 Qxc8 30.Bxa7 I totally missed, like Kirk 10 moves earlier, that this pawn was hanging. 30...Qd7= Game drawn by mutual agreement That was a quick draw in the big picture, but it seemed like more than 30 moves to me. Opposite colored bishops, symmetrical pawn structures...it's a draw. And I think it's the first half point I've nicked off Kirk as Black since we started. ½-½

here's one from the dubious novelty department...

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 f5?!

it's so horrifying that i absolutely have to try it once at blitz

December Match (2)

Sadler_C - Sadler_K (1672)
December Match Internet Chess Club (2), 11.12.2005
B97 - Sicilian : Najdorf, Poisoned Pawn variation

Before the game Kirk mentioned that he wanted me to play the Poisoned Pawn v. him. I had already decided to play 1.e4 but i was thinking more of the English attack lines, but if he wanted it... 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 [Again my pregame plans included stuff like 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 -- 8.Qd2 -- 9.g4 -- 10.0-0-0] 6...e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Nb3 is something I will try in the future. It definitely gives a different game, as is played by GMs including Bluvshtein and more recently in the FIDE World Cup Kamsky. 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.Bxf6?! [I got the move order screwed up 10.f5 Nc6 11.fxe6 fxe6 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.e5! Vallejo-Pons - Kasparov, Armenia - ROW 2004] 10...gxf6 11.f5 [Thinking I was following theory. 11.Be2 probably was better at this point] 11...Nc6



[I was hoping he'd play something like ...e5, that way i can attack f7 with Bc4 and he'd really have to fight to get d5 in. An interesting line in this variation is 11...e5 12.Nd5 (Another interesting idea in this line (and others) is 12.Rb3 with the idea of comign over to the kingside on the 3rd rank.) 12...Kd8 13.Nb3 with lots of play for White.] 12.Bc4?? dropping a piece. [12.Nxc6 bxc6 was better, but i can't easily get the bishop to c4 with the pawn on e6.] 12...d5? [12...Bh6! 13.Qd3 Ne5 and I'm sunk. That Ne5 idea (in general in this line) is a good one and impotant to remember.] 13.exd5 I was moving too quickly around here. [13.Bb3 as ugly as it was, had to be played.] 13...Nxd4? [Again 13...Bh6 was playable.] 14.Qxd4 Bc5 15.Qd3 [I totally missed 14. ...Bc5 in my calculations, but again I was moving too quickly. For whatever reason I was blind to that bishop, between here and the Bh6 idea a couple moves previous. 15.Qxf6! was much better. Sure I can't castle, but he has to spend a tempo saving the rook.] 15...exd5 [15...Bb4 was better.] 16.Nxd5! Know he's in trouble. The knight is easily the best piece on the board. and causes a lot of threats. 16...0-0 17.Qxa3 Black resigns[I have a much better position, even with the queens off, but I think he should have played on. One of the lines we were looking at after the game was 17.Qxa3 Bxa3 18.Nxf6+ (18.Nb6) 18...Kg7 19.Nh5+ Kh6 (19...Kh8 was another idea. THe trick is that he has to stay on the dark squares.) 20.g4 b5 (20...Bxf5 21.gxf5 Kxh5 22.Rxb7) 21.Be2 and I'm better but it's tough.

I thought Kirk would want to give up the Poisoned Pawn after this game because i know he hates positions like this with wild play and no king safety. Surprisingly he said right after the game that he wants me to book up with White in this line and we'd play it again in two weeks. I mentioned that we could always play the Alekhine :) It should be an interesting run up to the Canadian Open.] 1-0

December Match (1)

K - C
December match Internet Chess Club (1), 03.12.2005
D28 - Queen's Gambit Accepted

Me and Kirk have decided to play the same things and have the same repetoire, which includes 1.Nf3 as White. Najdorf v. 1.e4 and QGA v. 1.d4. 1.d4 [I believe he avoided 1.Nf3 today because we agreed to play 1...c5 v. it] 1...d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Qe2 b5 8.Bb3 cxd4 THe immediate 8. ...Bb7 was better. I was hoping to give him an IQP though 9.Rd1 Be7 10.a4 Qb6 [10...bxa4 was Reshevsky-Fine I think I'm in good company. His move was definitely stronger.] 11.axb5 0-0 12.Nxd4 Bb7 13.Nc3 axb5 14.Rxa8 Bxa8 15.Qxb5 Qc7 16.Bxe6 Bc6? [16...Bd6 17.f4 fxe6 18.Nxe6 Qe7 19.Nxf8 Qxf8;
16...fxe6 17.Nxe6 Qc8 18.Nxf8 Kxf8 19.f3] 17.Nxc6 Nxc6 18.Nd5 Nxd5 19.Bxd5 Nb4 20.Qb7 Nxd5 [20...Qc2] 21.Qxd5 Rd8 22.Qb3 Rb8 23.Qc3 Qb7 24.Qd4 Bf6 25.Qd7 Qb6 26.Rd6 Qb3 27.Rd3 Qc2 28.Rd1 h6 29.Qd2 Qc7 30.g3 Qb6 31.Qe2 Bxb2 32.Bxb2 Qxb2 33.Rd8+ Black resigns[33.Rd8+ Of course I could've played 33...Kh7 but i was shocked when he found that and i went braindead. I guess I should've played on. Oh well. Despite my tactical oversights, I think the QGA held up pretty well and i was pretty happy with it.; 1-0

3½/5 for Kirk

Sadler,K (1507) - Lachapelle,C
OS Winter Active Owen Sound, Ontario (1), 27.11.2005
B38 : Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind, 6.Be3

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.c4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Be2 e5 9.Ndb5 a6 10.Nd6 Ne8 11.0-0 b6 12.c5 Nd4 13.Nd5 bxc5 14.Nxc8 Nxe2+ 15.Qxe2 Qxc8 16.Ne7+ Kh8 17.Nxc8 1-0

Sadler,C (1547) - Sadler,K (1507)
OS Winter Active Owen Sound, Ontario (2), 27.11.2005
D14 : Slav Exchange, 6.Bf4 Bf5

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Bf5 6.Bf4 e6 7.e3 a6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Nc6 10.0-0 Be7 11.h3 0-0 12.Rac1 Rc8 13.a3 Na5 14.Nd2 Nc4 15.Nxc4 dxc4 16.Qd1 Nd5 17.Bg3 b5 18.e4 Nf6 19.Be5 Nd7 20.Bg3 Nf6 21.Bh4 Re8 22.Bxf6 Bxf6 23.e5 Be7 24.f4 Qb6 25.Kh1 Red8 26.d5 exd5 27.Nxd5 Qc5 28.Nxe7+ Qxe7 29.Qf3 Rd3 30.Qg4 Rcd8 31.Rcd1 g6 32.Rxd3 Rxd3 33.Qc8+ Kg7 34.Qxa6 Qh4 35.Kh2 Qg3+ 36.Kh1 Qh4 37.Qxb5 1/2-1/2

Van Aalst,K (1235) - Sadler,K (1507)
OS Winter Active Owen Sound, Ontario (3), 27.11.2005
A40 - Queen's Pawn

1.d4 e6 2.e3 c5 3.c3 cxd4 4.cxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Be7 6.Nc3 b6 7.Nf3 Bb7 8.0-0 d6 9.h3 Nbd7 10.Re1 0-0 11.e4 e5 12.Bc4 Rc8 13.Bb3 exd4 14.Nxd4 Nc5 15.Bc2 a6 16.Qf3 b5 17.a3 Qb6 18.Nf5 Rfe8 19.Qg3 Nh5 20.Nxe7+ Rxe7 21.Qh4 Nf6 22.Bg5 Re6 23.Bxf6 Rxf6 24.e5 Rh6 25.Qg4 Re8 26.exd6 Rhe6 27.Rxe6 Rxe6 28.Bf5 Rxd6 29.Re1 Ne6 30.Qh4 g6 31.Be4 Kg7 32.Bxb7 Qxb7 33.Ne4 g5?? 34.Nxg5 Nxg5 35.Qxg5+ Rg6 36.Qe5+ f6 37.Qe7+ Qxe7 38.Rxe7+ Kh6 39.Ra7 f5 40.b4 Re6 41.Rd7 Kg6 42.Rd8 Re5 0-1

Sadler,K (1507) - Both,A (1618)
OS Winter Active Owen Sound, Ontario (4), 27.11.2005
B42 - Sicilian : Kan

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 Qc7 7.c4 Bc5 8.Nb3 Be7 9.Be3 d6 10.N1d2 b6 11.f4 Nbd7 12.Rc1 Bb7 13.Nd4 Nc5 14.Be2 Ncxe4 15.Bf3 0-0 16.Qc2 Nc5 17.b4 Ncd7 18.f5 e5 19.Ne2 Rac8 20.Qb2 e4 0-1

Sadler,K (1507) - Cook,E (1256)
OS Winter Active Owen Sound, Ontario (5), 27.11.2005
C79 - Ruy Lopez : Steinitz Defense Deferred

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nc6 4.Bb5 Bd7 5.0-0 a6 6.Ba4 Nf6 7.Re1 h6 8.c3 Bg4 9.Nbd2 exd4 10.cxd4 b5 11.Qc2 Nb4 12.Qc3 bxa4 13.Qxb4 Bd7 14.e5 dxe5 15.Rxe5+ Be6 16.Qxa4+ Nd7 17.d5 Bd6 18.dxe6 fxe6 19.Rxe6+ Kf7 20.Nd4 Ne5 21.Ne4 Qh4 22.Nf5 Nf3+ 23.gxf3 Qxh2+ 24.Kf1 Qh3+ 25.Ke2 Kxe6 26.Nxg7+ Kf7 27.Qc4+ Kxg7 28.Qd4+ Kg6 29.Qf6+ Kh7 30.Qf7# 1-0

4½/5 ain't bad

I just got back from the Owen Sound Winter Active. I scored 4½/5 securing first place...the opposition wasn't top notch, only gained approximately 20 points, but still. my only draw was v. kirk. here are the games.



Drimmie,J - Sadler,C (1547)
Winter Active Owen Sound, ON(1), 27.11.2005
B40 - Sicilian Defense

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.Bc4 b5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.0-0 Qc7 7.d3 Nf6 8.Bg5 Be7 9.Qd2 0-0 10.Rfe1 Bb7 11.d4 b4 12.e5 bxc3 13.Qxc3 Nd5 14.Qd3 Nxd4 15.Bxe7 Nxf3+ 16.Bxf3 Nxe7 17.Bxb7 Qxb7 18.Red1 Rfd8 19.Re1 Qd5 20.Qa3 Nf5 21.Rad1 Qc6 22.Qd3 Nh4 23.Qg3 Nf5 24.Re3 Nxg3 25.Rxg3 d5 26.Re3 d4 27.Ree1 c4 28.Kf1 Rab8 29.b3 cxb3 30.axb3 Qxc2 31.Rc1 Qxc1 32.Rxc1 Rxb3 33.Rc4 h6 34.Ke2 a5 35.Kd2 Ra8 36.Kc2 Rc3+ 37.Kb2 Rxc4 38.h3 d3 39.Kb3 Rac8 40.h4 d2 41.Ka3 d1Q 42.g4 Rb8 0-1

Sadler,C (1547) - Sadler,K (1507)
Winter Active Owen Sound, ON (2), 27.11.2005
D14 - Slav : Exchange 6.Bf4 Bf5

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Bf5 6.Bf4 e6 7.e3 a6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Nc6 10.0-0 Be7 11.h3 0-0 12.Rac1 Rc8 13.a3 Na5 14.Nd2 Nc4 15.Nxc4 dxc4 16.Qd1 Nd5 17.Bg3 b5 18.e4 Nf6 19.Be5 Nd7 20.Bg3= Nf6 21.Bh4 Re8 22.Bxf6 Bxf6 23.e5 Be7 24.f4 Qb6 25.Kh1 Red8 26.d5 exd5 27.Nxd5 Qc5 28.Nxe7+ Qxe7 29.Qf3 Rd3 30.Qg4 Rcd8 31.Rcd1 g6 32.Rxd3 Rxd3 33.Qc8+ Kg7 34.Qxa6 Qh4 35.Kh2 Qg3+ 36.Kh1 Qh4 37.Qxb5= ½-½

yes i know i missed 30.Qxd3

Cook,E (1256) - Sadler,C (1547)
Winter Active Owen Sound, ON (3), 27.11.2005
B34 - Sicilian : Accelerated Dragon

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Qd2 0-0 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.Bd3 Ng4 10.0-0 Nxe3 11.Qxe3 Bd4 12.Qc1 Qa5 13.Ne2 Bb6 14.Bc4 Qe5 15.Ng3 Be6 16.Bd3 Rad8 17.Kh1 Qc5 18.a3 Bc4 19.b4 Qb5 20.Bxc4 Qxc4 21.Rb1 h5 22.f3 Rd7 23.Rd1 Rxd1+ 24.Qxd1 Rd8 25.Qc1 h4 26.Nf1 Qe2 27.h3 Qf2 28.Nh2 Rd2 29.Qg1 Qxg1+ 30.Rxg1 Bxg1 31.Kxg1 Rxc2 32.Nf1 Rc3 33.a4 Rc4 34.b5 cxb5 35.axb5 Rb4 0-1

Sadler,C (1547) - Pucak,S (1011)
Winter Active Owen Sound, ON (4), 27.11.2005
D13 - Slav : Exchange Variation

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bf4 h6 6.e3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nh5 8.Ne2 Nxf4 9.Nxf4 Bg4 10.Be2 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 e5 12.dxe5 Bb4+ 13.Ke2 Nxe5 14.Qa4+ Nc6 15.Bxd5 0-0 16.Bxc6 Qd2+ 17.Kf3 bxc6 18.Rhd1 c5 19.Rxd2 Bxd2 20.Rd1 Bb4 21.Nd5 a5 22.a3 Rfc8 23.Ne7+ Kh7 24.Nxc8 1-0

Both,A (1618) - Sadler,C (1547) [B21]
Winter Active Owen Sound, ON (5), 27.11.2005
B21 : Sicilian : Grand Prix attack

1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Qd8 6.Bc4 e6 7.b3 Bd6 8.0-0 Bxf4 9.Bb2 0-0 10.Nh4 Qxd2 11.Qf3 Qe3+ 12.Kh1 Qxf3 13.Rxf3 Be5 14.Re1 Nc6 15.Bb5 Bd4 16.Rd3 Ng4 17.Rd2 Nf2+ 18.Rxf2 Bxf2 19.Re4 Bxh4 20.Rxh4 Nd4 21.Bd3 h6 22.Ne4 e5 23.g4 Nf3 24.Rh3 Bxg4 25.Rxh6 gxh6 26.Nf6+ Kg7 27.Nxg4 f6 28.Bc1 Rh8 29.Be4 Nd4 30.Ne3 Rab8 31.c3 Ne6 32.Nf5+ Kf7 33.b4 cxb4 34.cxb4 Nf4 35.b5 Rhd8 36.Bf3 Rd3 37.Nh4 Rg8 38.Bxf4 exf4 0-1

for the record...

the most annoying things to play against as black are the ruy lopez exchange and the slav exchange. i decided today i was gonna try 1.d4 c6 to try and avoid the tromp and stuff and maybe backdoor into a caro or two. i got it twice today and twice they played 2.c4 which was grand and then twice they played the slav exchange. man i hate playing it as black. same goes for the lopez exchange. and also the Fantasy variation of the Caro. shudder...

White wins again

K-C
Training G/30 Internet Chess Club (6), 19.11.2005
B00 - Owen Defense

Before the game, I told Kirk that I was gonna beat him because I was like Korchnoi and eating oatmeal everyday. He said I was probably right because he was like Botwinnik and out drinking in the woods for two weeks. 1.d4 I wanted to play the Owens all along, since I am from Owen Sound and also the other stuff hadn't gotten me much. So I was frustrated that he played this. 1...e6 I figured that Kirk would play 2.e4 here. My best chance to actually transpose into an Owens2.e4 [If 2.c4 I probably would've gone to a Nimzo] 2...b6 My plan 3.g3?! [Kirk said he played this because he thought I was pissed off that he transposed into a French. If I wanted to avoid the position of 1.e4 e6 2.d4 altogether I wouldn't have played ...e6 in the first place. More regular is 3.Nc3 ;
or 3.Bd3 . This position had actually already been played by Amos Burn v. John Owen in their Liverpool match in 1874;
In a previous game this year OTB actually, Kirk got this position and played 3.c4 Qh4 similar to the Steinitz defense to the Scotch. (I wonder if 3...Bb7 was better) 4.Bd3 Bb7 5.Nf3 Qg4 6.0-0 h5? 7.Ne5 Qxe4?? 1-0 Sadler_K-Page,S/Barrie, ON 2005 (28) and White eventually won. ] 3...Bb7 4.Bg2 f5 Inspired by Miles! [Owen continued in a more controlled style with 4...Nf6 5.Nd2 c5 6.c3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb4 8.f3 The position is much better for Black. Look at his light squared bishop. If Black can ever force White (or vice versa) to play f3 and g3 within the first 8 moves, they've done something right. 8...Nc6 9.Ne2 0-0 10.0-0 Ba6 11.Nb3 e5 12.d5 Nd4 13.Nexd4 Bxf1 14.Bxf1 exd4 15.Qxd4 a5 16.a3 Bd6 17.Bb5 Qe7 18.Kh1 a4 19.Bxa4 Be5 20.Qc4 Ne8 21.f4 Nd6 22.Qb4 Qf6 23.Kg1 Nxe4 24.Qxe4 Bxb2 25.Bxb2 Qxb2 26.Rb1 Rxa4 0-1 Burn,A-Owen,J/Liverpool 1874 (26)] 5.Qd3? At this point I'm just better [Fritz likes 5.f3 but I'm not a big fan.;
I looked at 5.Qh5+ g6 6.Qe2 but i don't think White's position is anything special] 5...Bxe4 [I didn't want to play 5...Nf6 because of 6.Bg5 but after 6...fxe4 7.Bxe4 Bxe4 8.Bxf6 (8.Qxe4? Nxe4 9.Bxd8 Kxd8 I'm up a piece) 8...Bxd3 9.Bxd8 Nc6 10.cxd3 Nxd4! 11.Kd1 Rxd8 I stand better. Note that I saw none of the following sidelines during the game. My tactical vision is weak.] 6.Bxe4 fxe4 7.Qxe4 Nc6 A forced developing move, but in all honestly, until he made the move, I didn't even see that the a-rook was hanging. With all the open lines, I just wanted to continue with the attack. Even so I'm better developed, have the f-pawn for the e-pawn and his queen is in the middle of the board. 8.Bf4 [freeing the queen from the defense of the d-pawn may have been better. 8.Be3 ] 8...Nf6 9.Qe2? [He said this was a mouseslip, but where was he aiming? 9.Qe3 is not much better with 9...Nd5] 9...Nxd4 10.Qc4 Bc5 11.Nd2 0-0 12.b4 d5 Now this is where the position gets hairy. 13.Qc3? [Best is 13.Qd3 Nxc2+ 14.Qxc2 Bxb4 and I have three pawns for the piece. If 15.Bxc7? Rc8 16.Bxd8 Rxc2 17.Bxf6 Rxd2 and I'm better or 15.Qxc7 Qxc7 16.Bxc7 Ne4 17.Rd1 (17.Bf4 Bxd2+ 18.Bxd2 Nxf2) 17...Nxf2!;So he's forced to play something like 15.Ngf3 and I can free my c-pawn with something like 15...c5 and it's an interesting game.; ] 13...Nb5? [13...Ne4! 14.Nxe4 (14.Qb2 Bxb4 15.Qxd4 Bxd2+ 16.Bxd2 c5 17.Qe5) 14...Bxb4] 14.Qd3 Bxf2+? [<14...Bd4 15.0-0-0 a6 would've done. I admit I never even saw that and that was simple. This game was far from pretty or well-played.] 15.Kxf2 Ng4+? [Maybe 15...e5 now instead 16.Bxe5 (16.Qxb5 exf4 17.gxf4) 16...Ng4+ 17.Ke1 and I'm in the game in both lines] 16.Kg2 e5 17.Bxe5?? [17.h3 Nf2 18.Kxf2 exf4 was better for White] 17...Nxe5? [17...Rf2+! 18.Kh3 Nxe5 and he has to give up his queen else 19.Qxb5 Qc8+ 20.Kh4 Qg4#] 18.Qxb5 Qf6? [18...Ng4 threatening 19.-- Rf2+ was much better.] 19.Qxd5+ Kh8 20.Ngf3? Ng4? [20...Rad8! 21.Qe4 Nxf3 22.Nxf3 Qxf3+ 23.Qxf3 Rd2+ 24.Kh3 Rxf3 and we're even] 21.Qd4? [21.Qe4 was much better] 21...Qg6? [21...Qxd4 22.Nxd4 Rf2+ 23.Kh3 Rxd2 I overlooked the threat of Rf2+ the whole game.] 22.Raf1 Rad8 23.Qe4 Qxe4? [23...Rxd2+ 24.Nxd2 Qxe4+ 25.Nxe4 Ne3+ was better] 24.Nxe4 Ne3+ The fork was not as good here without getting all the pieces off (see previous note) 25.Kh3 Nxf1 26.Rxf1 h6 27.Rf2 g5 28.Kg4 Rd4 29.Re2 Black resigns What a terrible effort by both sides. Neither one of us paid attention and lots was missed. I like the fact that I can get an interesting middlegame with this opening, but I wonder if an interesting, painfully tactical middlegame is what i'm looking for vs. these ham and eggers at the tournament. Should I just play the Caro? 1-0

Game 5 - C 1-0 K

both of us really need to play better with black. the series is at 2½-2½ and white is scoring 4½-½ (the only blemish, my QID the first game)

C.Sadler-K.Sadler
E25 - Nimzo-Indian : Samisch Variation

This game wasn't really fair. It was supposed to start at 8 a.m. and Kirk basically slept in, woke up at 9 and started making coffee and stuff. My plan was to slowly build up a position rather than do the usual 20-30 game finish that happens in our games. God forbid me and Kirk ever get an endgame! 1.d4 e6 I had a bad premonition of him going into a Slav and me having to decide whether to play the Slav Exchange or go into the Botwinnik. 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 I'm gonna keep on playing this until he finds an antidote. 4...d5 [I seriously thought he was going to benoni me 4...c5. After the game he said that he didn't even remember the line and thought that he beat me last time I played 4.f3 ] 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.cxd5 exd5 White has to be better here on general principles alone. He has traded his b-pawn for White's glorious e-pawn and has the bishop pair. In annotating the game Junge-Bogoljubov, Alekhine gave this move an exclam and thought Black was better after 8.e3 Bf5! [7...Nxd5 is the main main line. 8.dxc5 (but I likely would've went for 8.c4 and gotten on with it) 8...Qa5 and this is butt ugly]



after 8.e4 Alekhine commented that White has an "excellent game". 8.Bg5 [8.e3 was theory, but i was confused on how i would get any of my pieces developed. Seriously, how many moves is it gonna take to get my dark squared bishop developed? plus he's gonna castle and then my lack of development is gonna screw me. One of these games my lack of development is gonna get me regardless.] 8...0-0 [8...h6 was played in Botwinnik-Kotov 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.e3 0-0 11.Ne2 Re8 12.Kf2 Qe7 13.Qd2 Nd7 14.Nf4 Nf6 15.Bd3 Bd7 16.h3 Qd6 17.Rhb1 b6 18.Bf1 Re7 19.a4 Rae8 20.Re1 c4 21.g4 g5 22.Ne2 Rxe3 23.Ng3 Qxg3+ 24.Kxg3 Ne4+ 0-1 Nice finish by Kotov.] 9.e3 Qa5?! [A little too ambitious by Kirk, but I think he had the right idea. I am a few moves from castling so why not try to put the screws to me. 9...c4 immediately may be better. 10.e4 dxe4 11.fxe4 looks pretty good though 11...Re8 12.e5 Qa5 and there's lots of messy play. I was hoping to keep the position relatively closed, that's why i hung back and avoided e4.] 10.Qc2 [I was thinking about 10.Bxf6 Qxc3+ 11.Kf2 gxf6 with play similar to the game, but i think this line is better as after 12.Ne2 I get a tempo on the queen 12...Qa5 13.dxc5 Qxc5 14.Qd4 and i'm good i think] 10...Re8 11.Bd3? [The immediate 11.Bxf6 was better but i was worried about 11...Rxe3+ although after 12.Kd2! I'm solid gold] (Best for Kirk would be 11...gxf6 12.Kf2 that square again 12...c4 13.Ne2 with play similar to the game.) 11...h6? [11...cxd4! was much better. Look at all the pins!] 12.Bxf6 gxf6 13.Kf2! I was happy with this move. WIth all the Bc4 King's Gambit's I've been playing I'm happy enough with the uncastled king, and it's necessary in this position. Notice how in most of the sidelines, and this line, how the king was safest on f2 of all places. 13...c4 14.Bf5? [I had perpetual with 14.Bg6 fxg6 (14...f5 15.Bxf5 Bxf5 16.Qxf5 Qxc3 17.Re1) 15.Qxg6+ Kf8 16.Qxf6+ Kg8 17.Qg6+;
Fritz liked 14.Bf1 but i'm a bit clausterphobic.] 14...Bxf5 15.Qxf5 Qxc3 16.Re1 Qxa3 17.Qxf6? [17.Qxd5 was stronger. That passer is gonna be strong. My idea was that I would always have the draw in hand by perpetual with that f-pawn gone.] 17...Qb2+ 18.Re2 [18.Ne2 may have been better] 18...c3?? Going for the glory without calculating anything. A terrible blunder. [18...Qb6 was likely better and he's got a lot of queenside pawns after 19.Qxb6 axb6] 19.Rxb2 cxb2 20.Nh3 Black resigns Not the best game by Kirk but I did my little part and won. 1-0

maybe next week we'll get an endgame!

Oh my God I'm so happy for them. Amanda sent me an email today. I tried to get them to call the baby "Craig" if it's a boy but she wasn't so sure. that's fabulous, happy news.

i love katamari

Katamari

i rented it and it's really cool

also i was thinking about taking up the Owen's Defense for the next tournament, seeing i live in owen sound and all, but considering i can't justify playing 1.b3 i can't see how 1.e4 b6 is playable ;)

K 2½ - 1½ C

K.Sadler - C.Sadler
B41 - Sicilian : Kan

Week four. Who thought we'd get this far? I really hadn't put much thought into prepping for this game. 1.e4 c5 I didn't decide what I was going to play until I walked and picked up a coffee before the game. Kirk has a pretty tight repetoire and normally plays a Be2/Be3/f4 system v. the Sicilian. With the Taimanov, ...b5, ...Bb7 I can take advantage of that. Better than getting into a relatively theoretical duel in the Dragon where he obviously would be more comfortable. 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Be3 [This was unexpected. I figured on something like 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Be2 b5 and a decent position. Now I was left to my own devices] 5...Nc6 [Theory says that 5...Nf6 is better, putting the question to the e-pawn.] 6.c4!



Going into a Maroczy bind position. i should've thought more here. Ironically, I didn't play the Accelerated Dragon because I didn't want to face the Maroczy Bind. As an aside, in the Kan/Taimanov/whatever it's not as easy to stop ...d5 with the Maroczy Bind because of ...e6, whereas in the Accelerated Dragon, Black rarely is able to support the d5 push with ...e6 because of the weakness of the dark squares. Even the "Dragon" bishop usually isn't enough to defend those squares, especially if White gets in Bh6 or something. 6...Nf6 7.Bd3 Qc7 [7...Ne5! is much stronger.; 7...d5 was played by Miguel Quinteros in a game v. Ljubojevic which was similar to our game 8.exd5 exd5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.0–0 d4 11.Bg5 Be7 12.Nd2 c5 except I think that Black's position was stronger without the inclusion of ...Qc7. I think I should've went with ...d5 right away. White eventually won the Ljubojevic-Quinteros game btw] 8.0–0 d5 9.Nxc6 [9.exd5 exd5 10.Re1 was stronger] 9...bxc6? [9...dxe4! was much stronger, winning a pawn for me. I didn't even pay attention] 10.exd5 cxd5 11.Nd2! I didn't see how strong this was at the time. Not only developing, but gaining a tempo on the queen. Not that we're grandmasters, but Quinteros' idea was much better playing d5 with my queen still on d8 (to support d5) and not allowing the rook move. 11...Be7 12.Rc1 Qd8 [Fritz said that the developing gambit of 12...Bb7 13.cxd5 Qd7 was okay because it doesn't give up a pawn 14.Nf3 (14.dxe6? Qxd3) 14...Qxd5 etc.] 13.f4?! This may have been okay but I didnt like it because it opened up just as many lines on his king as at my king 13...0–0 [I was gonna try 13...d4 right away, but decided against it.] 14.f5 d4?! [I picked the wrong pawn. 14...e5! makes everything better for me. Now I am threatening to push both e4 and d4 and if 15.cxd5 Nxd5 I'm great.] 15.Bf4 Bd6 [15...exf5 may have been stronger but i was all horny over the d4, e5 pawn duo] 16.Bxd6 Qxd6 17.Ne4 [I was worried about 17.c5 because I was having a tough time finding a good place for my pieces] 17...Nxe4 18.Bxe4 Rb8 19.fxe6 fxe6? [Obviously 19...Bxe6 was better. After 19. ...fxe6+ I saw the Qf3+ but i thought that there was no mate, so my connected passers would be worth the h-pawn that dropped or whatever.] 20.Rxf8+ Kxf8 21.Qf3+ [21.Qh5! was even stronger. Once the queen gets to h7 I'm screwed and if 21...h6 22.Rf1+ Ke7 23.c5! I didn't see that OTB though] 21...Kg8 22.Rf1 Bd7 [Maybe 22...Qe7 was stronger but i'm still screwed after 23.Qh5] 23.Qf7+ Kh8 24.Bxh7 [24.Qh5 again was terribly strong. If 24...h6 (24...g6 25.Bxg6) 25.Qg6] 24...Kxh7?? [I should've continued with my "idea" of 24...e5 . This stops the rook from coming to f4 anyways.] 25.Qh5+ Kg8 26.Qf7+ Kh7 27.Rf4 and it's over 27...Qxf4 28.Qxf4 Rxb2 29.Qxd4 Rb1+ 30.Kf2 Bc6? 31.Qd3+ Black resigns Nicely played by Kirk. Overly optimistic by me. I have some stuff to think about as Black before the next time we play again. 1–0

I learned a couple of things from this game

1) i'm lazy tactically...i totally trusted kirk and didn't try and look for anything, especially in the early middlegame/opening
2) i didn't look hard enough at his threats
3) i had one idea (...d4, ...e5) and assumed it was fabulous and didn't look at anything else

we'll see how it goes next week.

my first win

so i went to http://www.chesslive.de and entered my name and low and behold they had games for me. from all over the place. this is my first email game i won back in 1999

[Event "TG.1999.0.13363"]
[Site "IECG email"]
[Date "1999.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Wood,Mike"]
[Black "refutor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "E11"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.e3 Qe7 6.Be2 Nc6 7.0-0 0-0 8.a3 Bxd2 9.Nbxd2 d5 10.Qc2 b6 11.Bd3 Ba6 12.b4 axb4 13.axb4 Qxb4 14.Ra4 Qd6 15.Ng5 Nb4 16.Bxh7+ Kh8 17.Qb1 c5 18.Bg8 Kxg8 19.cxd5 Nbxd5 20.Nc4 Qc6 21.Ne5 Qxa4 22.Re1 Nc3 23.Qxb6 Ne2+ 24.Kh1 cxd4 25.Nc6 d3 26.Ne7+ Kh8 27.Nxf7+ Rxf7 28.Qxe6 Bc4 29.Ng6+ Kh7 30.Qg4 Qa1 31.Qh3+ Kxg6 32.g4 Qxe1+ 0-1

Week Three - Victory for C.

i finally won this week...kirk had just been working at his school so that is a bit of an excuse...i did win though.

C.Sadler - K.Sadler
E27 - Nimzo-Indian : Samisch variation

Game three. I had a new idea to play for the tournament coming up in four weeks now. 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 In all fairness, I did ask him to play the Nimzo against me this week over a few beers at the bar. 4.f3 and this is it. The Kmoch variation, transposing to the Samisch in most cases (like this case). I had been doing a little bit of studying, but I figured with the positional idiocy of the people at the club this is the way to go. Surprisingly a lot of them play the Nimzo 4...d5 This is basically the only move. Over the board though I was worried about Kirk playing [ 4...c5 for a couple reasons. For starters, he plays ...c5 v. every Nimzo. Secondly, I wasn't sure how to continue. 5.dxc5 is obviously bad.( 5.d5 I guess is the main line, but i'm not sure if that's any good or not. Theory gives 5...Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 d6 7.e4 e5 with a mutated Benoni Wall. i don't thikn my bishops would like this. This may be better for Black. Who knows.) ( or the Benko-esque 5...b5 ; but Kirk likes his Benoni so he probably would've tried 5...exd5 and after 6.cxd5 d6 7.e4 I have a pretty good Benoni. Maybe I have nothing to fear after all ;)) Over the board on Wednesday I got 4...0-0 5.e4 Ne8 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 and I duly punished my opponent with a kingside attack.]



5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 0-0 [ I expected 6...c5 after which there is an ugly line including 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.dxc5 Qa5 9.e4 Ne7 10.Be3 ( 10.Bd2 0-0 has never been played at the GM level, but feels easier to play than the mainline AFAIC) 10...Qxc3+ 11.Kf2] 7.Bg5 [ 7.cxd5 is the mainline 7...exd5 ( 7...Nxd5? 8.e4 Ne7 ( 8...Nxc3 9.Qb3 Qxd4 10.Bb2 Qe3+ 11.Be2 Nd5 12.Qxe3 Nxe3 13.Kf2 Nd5 14.exd5 with a better position for White. Komarov-Panchenko 1994) ) ] 7...Nbd7 [ I wasn't too concerned about 7...h6 because I was aiming to go to f2 with this bishop eventually anyways. The main idea of the Bg5 was to get him on a different diagonal because I am going to have to work to get e4 in, play e3 first etc.] 8.cxd5 exd5 Now I am happy with the position as if he plays ...c5 in one move he will isolate his pawn and i'm gonna have a huge center...once I get castled. 9.e3 Re8! A strong move. Now I have to fight to survive. 10.Qd2 [ Fritz liked 10.Qd3 equal to 10.Qd2, but I wanted to keep my options open for my bishop] 10...h6 11.Bh4 b6 12.Bb5! I actually was able to put some pressure on him this way. I was gonna play something like [ 12.Bd3 and 12...-- 13.Nh3 and get on with it, but I have to force myself to look a little deeper.] 12...c6? [ 12...Re6 was the only way to hang on to things, but then i can keep on developing, but at least this doesn't lose. The key is the pin on the queen and the hanging d-pawn.] 13.Bxc6 Rb8 [ I was worried about saccing the exchange 13...Ba6 but i mean i'm better in all variations 14.Bxf6 ( 14.Bxa8 Qxa8 15.Ne2) 14...Nxf6 15.Bxe8 Qxe8] 14.Bxd5? [ Pathetic. I didn't even look at 14.Bg3 winning the exchange. I thought a pawn was enough] A comedy of errors. 14...Ne4? [ I totally overlooked 14...g5 15.Bg3 Nxd5 16.Bxb8 Nxb8 but even still I'm pretty good after 17.e4] 15.Bxf7+ Kxf7 [ 15...Kh8 16.Bxd8 Nxd2 17.Bxe8 and i'm winning easily.] 16.Qa2+ Black resigns Not the greatest game by either side. We both need to work on tactics. I definitely needed to look deeper after 13. ...Rb8 The opening wasn't necessarily a success, but I got some interesting tactical patterns with the Bg5. I'll give er a go some other time. 1-0

week two

actually the way that our chess history has gone, i'm rather surprised that there is a week two. we decided to do our analysis on here. here's the moves with my notes

K.Sadler - C.Sadler

1.e4 e5 Okay i got black this time. I wanted to play an open game so I decided on this 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 But I didn't expect this! At all! I thought he played the Scotch. But I'm sure I would've complained if I got that as well :) 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 b5 I took a lot of time around here because I wasn't sure whether to play the Tchigorin, the Open Lopez or the Marshall. I decided on the Tchigorin 6.Bb3 Be7 7.Re1 d6 [I was thinking about playing 7...0–0 and then transposing to the Tchigorin but I didn't] 8.h3?! 0–0 [I should've move ordered him and played 8...Na5! with advantage] 9.c3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Nc6 [All theory. Usually I play 13...Bb7 . I was trying to induce d5] 14.a4 Now I started thinking for real. It's a little joke between me and Kirk that once you're "out of theory" in the Ruy Lopez, just play a4, because it's normally good. [The main line is 14.Nb3 overprotecting d4] 14...b4?! [14...Bd7 was likely better; Spassky continued 14...Nxd4 15.Nxd4 exd4 16.Nf3 Bb7 17.Bg5 (17.Nxd4! looks better) 17...Rfe8 18.Rc1 Qb6 19.Qxd4 Qxd4 20.Nxd4 ½–½ Ljuboejvic-Spassky but I imagine this was a prearranged draw because White looks better to me.] 15.d5 Nb8 I was happy enough with this position. I wanted to keep the c8-h3 diagonal open for some unknown reason, actually to stop Nf1–g3-f5, as the dark squared bishop is the most important piece for me at this point. 16.Nf1 Nbd7 17.Bg5 [I was a little worried about 17.a5 for him, as he'll get to my b-pawn faster than I'll get to his a-pawn.] 17...a5 [Fritz preferred 17...Nc5 ] 18.Rc1 Nc5 19.Be3 [I kinda liked 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 but I guess the weakness at d6 is hard to get at.] 19...Ba6?! [19...Bd7 may have been better. I thought that the space on the a6-f1 diagonal was better, but controlling the diagonal that the light squared bishop was originally on was a better idea. Poor judgement by me] 20.Bxc5 [I wonder if 20.Bb1 was better. Of course! 20...Nfd7 doesn't immediately lose material, but where are my kingside defenders?] 20...Qxc5 [Fritz thought that 20...dxc5 was better, but i was worried about pushing the d-pawn, and my weak e-pawn.] 21.Ng3 g6 [Admitting my mistake and coming back over to this diagonal was better. 21...Bc8 ] 22.Bb3 Qb6 23.Rc6 Qb7 [23...Qd8 brings more pieces over to the kingside] 24.Qd2 Rfc8 [The way things worked out 24...Rac8 was likely better as this way the f-pawn is protected] 25.Ng5 Rxc6? [25...Nd7! with the idea of 26.-- Nc5 was better as then the c-file is closed. I wasn't worried enough, I thought my position was solid. I should've looked a little deeper because this was the only tactical point of the game. The game falls apart from here] 26.dxc6 Qxc6 27.Nxf7 Kg7?? [27...Kf8 28.Qh6+ Ke8 and White is still better] 28.Qh6+ Black resigns. A nicely played attack by Kirk. He built up the pressure slowly and I crumbled. My sense of danger let me down, I absolutely missed that he could even check at Qh6 1–0

the training has actually started

me and kirk are going to have weekly G/30s and actually analyze and send the analysis back and forth. i think it's pretty cool. here is the first game (a draw) with light notes by me

C.Sadler - K.Sadler
Training G/30 Internet Chess Club, 16.10.2005

We have decided to have weekly G/30s which I think is a good thing. I had only thought about playing 1.e4 e5 v. him and not even what to play as White. 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 I could've played the Nimzo, but I wanted to see what he played v. Nf3. I had a feeling it was the Queen's Indian, that's why I played this. I went through some of my blitz games from 2003 and I realized how much I had played the QID... 3...b6 4.a3 ...particularly the Petrosian variation 4...Ba6! [The usual move is 4...Bb7 , in fact I had never seen the text. The idea is to hinder White from pushing his e-pawn, and putting pressure on the c-pawn.] 5.e3 [The main line is 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 and Black seems better. Interesting] 5...d5 6.Qc2? [Positionally a terrible move. My position is passive because my queen is stuck on c4 eventually. 6.Nbd2 is theory and stronger because if 6...-- 7.cxd5 (for instance). White can still play 7...Bxf1 8.Nxf1 -- 9.Ng3 and eventually castle. (Theory is 6...Be7 7.b4 0–0 8.Bb2 . I'd be comfortable enough with this.) ] 6...Bb7 7.Be2 dxc4 8.Qxc4 [I was gonna try and gambit here with 8.Nc3 knowing that Kirk wouldn't try and hold on to the pawn regardless. The trouble is that I can never recapture with the bishop because of; 8.Bxc4 Bxf3 and my king is exposed. LIke I said, my position became passive because of the queen on c4.] 8...Bd6 9.0–0 0–0 10.h3? [Too slow. I could have played 10.Nc3 immediately. I was worried about something along the lines of 10...Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Bxh2+ 12.Kxh2 Ng4+ forgetting of course, that in order for that sack to work properly, the pawn has to be on e5 (or in this case e4) to keep a piece from being on f6. The text was a waste of time with two queenside pieces undeveloped.; Maybe I could've even tried 10.b4 ] 10...c5 Stopping b4 and taking up space. I prefer his position. Kirk gave me lots of opportunity to both give up the bishop pair and choices for releasing tension in the center this game. I told him those were two things I was working on. I was kinda hoping he'd play ...cxd4 because after exd4, Be3, Rd1, i can protect the isolated pawn and be fully developed. 11.Nc3 Nbd7 [11...cxd4 12.exd4 Nbd7 13.Be3] 12.Rd1 Rc8 13.dxc5 I finally threaten something 13...Bxc5 [Fritz liked 13...Nxc5 14.Nb5 of course 14...Bd5 makes Black better] 14.Qa4 [Was there an alternative? My priority at this point was to get my queen to a safer square. I could never actually grab the a-pawn safely I don't think. 14.Qh4 ; 14.Qf4] 14...Bc6 15.Bb5 Qc7 16.b4 Bd6 In my calculations I missed that this was even possible (thinking it hung to the rook). 17.Bxc6 Qxc6 18.Qxc6 Rxc6 19.Nb5?! [Instead of sending the bishop to a better square, Fritz recommended 19.Bb2 +/- and I'm better.] 19...Bb8 20.Bb2 Rc2 21.Rd2 [21.Bxf6 Nxf6 22.Nbd4 and my position is slightly better.] 21...Rfc8 22.Nbd4 [22.Rxc2 Rxc2 23.Bxf6 Nxf6 24.Rd1 Is this better? At least I get a file. The a-pawn looks weak though. I guess the bishop hangs. 24...Rc8 Forced 25.Nbd4] 22...Rxd2 23.Nxd2 Be5? [I think his bishop was fine there. Progressing with his pawns either by 23...a6 ; or 23...e5 may have been slightly better. 24.N4f3 (24.Nf5 Kf8 25.Rc1 and if the rooks come off it looks drawish) 24...Rc2 25.Bc1] 24.N2f3 Bxd4 25.Nxd4 [Fritz says that this 25.Bxd4 was just as good, but I'm old fashioned, I like a centralized knight. ] 25...Ne4 26.Rc1= and this was an implicit draw offer, as with the rooks off and the symmetrical pawn structure it's quite even [Maybe almost threaten something with 26.Rd1 was better?] 26...Rxc1+= Game drawn by mutual agreement In any case a decent start. I should play more aggressively next game. I defended an inferior position as White. That's unacceptable. ½–½

maybe i'll get us to post on here with comments. the media isn't as good as sending the pgn back and forth but we'll see how it goes

kansas city

so i just finished my open port course from Cerner and got 96% woo-hoo! the $3000+ US they spent sending me here, feeding me, etc. was allegedly worth it ;)

last night i went to a great japanese place. they had one of those grills where they cooked the food right on your table. there were 7 of us at this table. me, this girl from my class, two older people and three girls. man those three girls were like sex in the city. they were talking about having sex with all these guys and how some basketball player emailed her with a picture of herself and he was "well hung". i laughed. anyways the food was really good. i had salmon, which was a bit of a stretch. the girl i went with she had calamari. if i ever come back to KC and go there (which is a possibility, i'm going back in november) i'll try the calamari. afterwards he flicked shrimp at us and we had to try and catch it like trained seals. me and the girl i was with (she was chinese i don't even know her name, Yung maybe?) were the only two not to catch. i don't know if that means i have class, or i just have bad coordination ;)

i have decided to try the Adorjan gambit



i think the gambit's sound...look at the development advantage i have. in any case, i'm gonna try it.

i started up a refutor code on ICC the other day and i whupped up kirk good last night ;)

The season premiere of Smallville is on tonight and i am decidedly excited. me and Anderson are going to watch them once i get my Starchoice set up. i'm fired up. tomorrow i'm going back home, get there 1:30AM and then i move in with the jane that day. should be an interesting couple of months ;)

lata

one of my life goals is complete

well more like one of my chess goals. a number of years ago i read a quote from korchnoi that said something like this (paraphrasing) "Playing the Sicilian is like attacking your tag team partner with a chair". today, in Kansas City, Missoura, i found the book that came from and actually own it. i did paraphrase

Geller v. Korchnoi 1960

1.e4 Nf6

It is generally thought that the sharpest and most active defense to 1.e4 is the Sicilian. However, is there not a resemblence between the Sicilian defender and the wrestler who begins the fight before he has climbed into the ring?

That fabulous quote from Korchnoi has rekindled my spirit to play chess, and more correctly, the Sicilian. I'm as big a fan of wrassling as anyone I know, and if i was a wrassler i would attack my opponent before he climbed into the ring. so hence i will play the Sicilian until i die.

thank you Viktor Lvovich

another book down the drain...

i should really go to a town with a decent library. i just finished Tony Miles' "It's Only Me". Good book, interesting. I have a couple of choices for what to complete now...the Polgar book, the Kramnik book, Fire on Board, there's a Kasparov book. I have a couple of PDFs from Eric Schiller that I should look at. Maybe I'll just pack

last week i was in baltimore and i had a chance to go play a simul (and meet) Pascal Charbonneau but unfortunately, the cab was $40 and the training was a little more involved than i would have liked. oh well, allegedly the canadian open will be in kitchener this year so maybe i'll meet him there ;)

i played inthe kitchener active two weekends ago and my spirit was broke by an 8 year old in the first round who beat me in 15 moves. grr..

me and jane are moving in together in a couple of weeks...

i have a new favorite song

Stage Door

i know i can't hide
this fear inside
still my friends understand
things have
worked out
much as you have said
ain't no mystery
what i need
understanding and you're sweet sympathy
a steel string guitar and a little weed
and someone to keep me company
someone to keep me company

down the alley through the stage door
sometimes i wonder
just what i
what i do it for

down the alley through the stage door
sometimes i wonder
just what i
what i do it for

ain't no mystery
what i need
some understanding
and your sweet sympathy
a steel string guitar and a little weed
and someone to keep me company
someone to keep me company

it's a go for November 27th...

i'll post a link when it's available

5 rounds, $5

jane and kirk both did really well today...jane was surprised i think :) i'm glad for her...i felt nervous for her, i can't imagine how *she* felt ;)

nerves

man am i nervous for Kirk and Jane. they're both starting teaching today. jane said she couldn't sleep and honestly i wasn't much better ;)

this is too good not to post

Magnus Ver Magnusson



i love this guy

Active Tournament - November 27th

I think I'm gonna organize an Active tournament in Owen Sound, November 27th. i'm gonna go down sunday probably and confirm, but the idea is $5 EF, $3 going to rating fees, the other two going to buying a book for the Owen Sound Public Library. Should be fun.

wait a tick...

so i may have just figured something out...i like 1.Nf3 but i don't necessarily like the QGD, so why not 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.Bg5. i've always had a tough time playing against it...although 3. ...Ne4 is stronger than in tromp proper i believe because the bishop is already guarded by the knight. i'll consider it

the funk of 40,000 years

so i've been playing through Tony Miles' "It's Only Me" and I'm starting to become a fan of the "English Defense" 1.c4 b6 particularly in his game v. Olafsson which started 1.c4 b6 2.Nc3 e6 3.d4 Bb4 4.e3 Bb7 5.Nge2 f5 which is an improvement over the nimzo i think. i may give it a go...i'm influenced by the books i'm reading (i'm the highly suggestable type) and i think Miles is a good person to get influenced by...he's so strong inthe middlegame and endgame. i'm at all all-time high at ICC while i'm reading this, i'm not sure that's a coincedence. the last time i read a good middlegame book, it was Zurich 1953 by Bronstein and my play improved, if not my rating. i'm not sure whether i'm gonna do Kramnik : LIfe and Games or My System next...i've been holding off on My System, but I think i'm gonna do it.

This is a picture from my parent's 30th anniversary party a couple of weeks ago...it was good times. I got some books from a guy over the Internet today "Kramnik : My Life and Games" and some theoretical book on the Nimzo. The Nimzo book isn't very interesting (theory and game fragments v. full games) but the Kramnik book looks good, if a little light on analysis. But it should be good.

concert

i went with jane to go see Blue Rodeo and El Torpedo. El Torpedo put on a good show, lots of energy and Blue Rodeo was more rocking than i thought they'd be. They were at the Molson Ampitheatre at the Ontario Place. I had never been there, but it was a great venue. i'm hoping to go back next summer.

in a chess-related issue, jane mentioned that she may take me and kirk up to kitchener on september 10th for the active tournament, so now i've got to decide what to play ;)

debugging

i love debugging...for real

got to debug for the first time at my new job

transposition

after 1.e4 e5 2.nf3 Nf6 3.d4 i could always play 3. ...d6 and go into the philidor (or just play the philidor in the first place). interesting, maybe i can play 1.e4 e5 after all ;)

"why'd i have to come to a shithole like this?"

well it's been a while since i've said anything so here it is

on saturday night, the superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment came to Owen Sound, and me and Kirk went, as his graduation gift. i really enjoyed myself. we were in the third row where the real retards were ;) i wish i would've brought a camera...could've got some good shots.

somebody crappy v. simon dean

it was a terrible match, looked fake, the crowd got on simon dean pretty hard. the crappy guy won

super crazy and psychosis v. hardcore holly and some ham and egger

super crazy and psychosis won by cheating...the crowd got behind bob holly it was alright

mr. anderson v. scotty too hotty

best match of the night, in my opinion. scotty too hotty flipped the other guy the bird and mr. anderson yelled out "it's a family show". quite funny. scotty did the worm but still got punked in the end. i cheered, everyone else booed it was a good match.

juventud guerraro v. funaki v. nunzio*CRUISERWEIGHT BELT*

not as high-flying as i would have liked. juvy went over the top rope, but nunzio eventually won with outside interference.

MNM v. Animal and Heidenreich *TAG BELT*

first of all it was cool. MNM came out with a second diva with even bigger boobs than the normal one. very nice. heidenreich came out with a mohawk just like animal...it was kinda cool. they beat up heidenreich, tagged in animal, he did like one move, held him up for the LOD finish and heidenreich came off the top rope. i think they've performed that match 100 times ;)

Orlando Jordon v. Booker T (dq) *US CHAMPIONSHIP* which turned into Orlando Jordon and Christian v. Booker T and Rey Mysterio

they were fighting, orlando was being a pussy, booker was beating on him. he was just about to do a spinneroonie when christian came in and intefered, then rey came in and saved him, and rey grabs the mic and is like "i'm not stevie ray (his partner from WCW) but do you want to tag and beat up these guys?" it was a normal mysterio match where he 619ed and then did the west coast pop. those springboard moves look *really* dangerous when you're 3 rows away, i'll tell you. good match. i stood up when rey rey was walking around slapping fives and he is not even as tall as my shoulder.

Randy Orton v. Batista

Orton comes out and he says he's in a bad mood. mostly because he's in a shithole like owen sound. crowd gets all over him. batista isn't as big as i expected him to be actually. the crowd wasn't really into it. spinebuster, one, two, three.

i don't think they'll be back for another ten years or so, the arena was *maybe* 2/3rds full. this was the second year in a row they came to owen sound, i'm guessing there was a better turnout the first time. there were a bunch of retards in our section. the one guy almost got into a fight with randy orton, the security had to give him the boot. it was a good time all around.

me and jane are going to move in together. we're going to look at a house tonight possibly. wish me luck.

Diablo reset so me and kirk have been playing quite a bit...he's developing a nice case of the "Diablo claw" from clicking the mouse so much...quite exciting.

i have a new job!

"On behalf of ..., we are pleased to offer you one year temporary employment as an Interface System Analyst at the Owen Sound site. This position will be effective August 7, 2005 to August 5, 2006.

Your salary in this position will be $53,843 which represents Grade 6 - Step 1. Your vacation and benefits will remain the same"

I am SOOOOOO happy. it is programming their database. there's a lot of training, so i won't actually be able to touch a keyboard until november or so. i finished my first set of training last week, mid september i have to go to Baltimore then two trips to Kansas City. i'll have to get more comfy flying.

anyways i'm almost off to work...oh yeah, i'm gonna play in the September Active in Kitchener as well.

one night in ... budapest?

i'm thinking about trying the budapest gambit as black...mostly to see how to play v. it as white. i want to play 1.d4 but want to allow the Nimzo. i have no problem playing 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3. we'll see how it goes...i haven't played anything dodgy in quite a while ;)

3½-1½

i played a quick 6 game match today with kirk and beat him 3½-1½

game 1 - white - Nimzo-Indian 1.d4 nf6 2.c4 e6 3.nc3 bb4 4.qc2 c5 5.a3? cxd4 and it got ugly and i lost
game 2 - black - Queen's Indian - Petrosian System and i won
game 3 - white - Slav Exchange - draw
game 4 - black - Sicilian miniature 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be2 Nc6 7.Be3 Nge7 8.O-O Nxd4 9.Bxd4 Nc6 10.f4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Bc5 0-1
game 5 - white - White - Benoni 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e5 etc. and i won

didn't even try the bird once. i have this sick fascination that i am good on both sides of the nimzo, but in reality i am not that good. it's interesting how people are like that...i feel the same way about the dragon and the king's gambit as well ;)

will the match ever finish?

me and chris were supposed to play games 3 and 4 tomorrow, but that's not gonna happen. i'm going to ottawa next weekend so it won't happen then either...grrr

i was reading through Winning with the Sicilian by Mark Taimanov and trying to play the Kan/Paulsen/Taimanov Sicilian. It's very interesting, i like the opening and i'm learning alot. There's also a new tabiya for me



it's interesting, i'm gonna play a bunch of games v. kirk with both sides. the idea is that with 1.e4 c5 2.nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Qc7 7.O-O Nf6 8.Be3 Bb4 there is a hole on b6, so the move 9.Na4?! tries to take advantage of that. It's an interesting line and an idea I can use as White.

the cure

i've been on a rule "the cure" kick lately, and i'm curious why no right wing band has done a cover of killing an arab lately. probably not in the original intention of the song, but in the post 9/11 united states, it would almost be a folk song.

Note : in no way am i anti-arab, nor right wing, but i was just thinking that this mornign

another one bites the dust...

this time is was Purdy's Fine Art of Chess Annotation by Cecil Purdy the first world correspondence chess champion. It is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. one funny thing, out of the 120 games listed, there is a repeat

[Event "AUS-FRA m"]
[Site "Australia"]
[Date "1946.06.29"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Renaud, Georges"]
[Black "Green, Martin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E62"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "1946.06.29"]
[SourceDate "2005.01.01"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5. g3 d6 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. O-O e5 8. d5
Ne7 9. e4 Nh5 10. h3 Bd7 11. Kh2 f5 12. exf5 gxf5 13. Ng5 Nf6 14. Bd2 a6 15.
Rb1 Ng6 16. b4 Qe7 17. Qe2 Rae8 18. Nf3 h5 19. Ng1 h4 20. Rbc1 e4 21. Qe3 Ne5
22. Qe2 Nd3 23. Rb1 Qe5 24. f4 hxg3+ 25. Kxg3 Qd4 26. Nd1 Qxc4 0-1

he must have liked it ;)

the curse

i love the new audioslave album...here's the last song off it

"the curse"

help me i don't know what i'm doing
help me before i fall to ruin
and if i'm blind
i will lead you on
come follow me now
before our time is gone

and as your laughing at this fool tonight
let me rid myself of any line that i might use to trip you up
and as i'm howling at the moonlight
don't you kid yourself i will be luck
never be your curse
never be your curse

help me i don't know what i'm saying
sometimes this tongue can be betraying
and if i'm wrong
is that such a crime
and if you want
you can set my words to right

as you're laughing at this fool tonight
let me rid myself of any line that i might use to trip you up
as i'm howling at the moonlight
don't you kid yourself i will be luck

and if your eyes forget to well
and if your lies forget to tell
and if our paths forget to cross
it doesn't mean you're lost

so if you're laughing at this fool tonight
let me rid myself of any line that i might use to trip you up
as i'm howling at the moonlight
don't you kid yourself even at my worst
i won't be your curse

i learned something this morning...

my alarm clock's "drop height" is less than 4 feet

can i play the semi-slav again?

i was always afraid of the meran variation, but while going through Purdy's "Fine Art of Chess Annotation" I saw this move order

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 c5!

turning it into a QGA (Black took 2 moves to play ...c5, but White took two moves to play Bxc4) maybe Nbd7 isn't the greatest move in the QGA, but Lasker tried it against Capa Capablanca-Lasker. it may be worth a look, eventually ;)

1-1 after the first set of games

the first game i won neatly and the second i lost in a terrible blunder. my excuse is that a bunch of people came into the restaurant and was noisy. the proper response would be to get ragozin to turn up the radio and blow smoke in my face ;) here are the games, mostly proper, from memory...i haven't annofritzed it yet...maybe two sets of moves are out of order...

CS - CO
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 Bg4 4. Nc3 Bxf3 5. exf3 e6 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Be2 Nbd7 8.
O-O O-O 9. Qb3 Nb6 10. c5 Nc4 11. Bxc4 dxc4 12. Qxc4 b6 13. b4 Qd7 14. c6 Qd6
15. b5 Rad8 16. Rad1 h6 17. Be3 Nd5 18. Ne4 Qb4 19. Qxb4 Bxb4 20. a4 a5 21. Bd2
Be7 22. Nc3 Bf6 23. Nxd5 Rxd5 24. Bf4 Rc8 25. Rd3 Rxd4 26. Rxd4 Bxd4 27. Rd1 e5
28. Be3 Rd8 29. Bxd4 exd4 30. Kf1 Kf8 31. Ke2 Ke7 32. Kd3 Ke6 33. Kc4 Ke5 34.
Rd3 g5 35. g3 f5 36. Rd1 f4 37. Kd3 Kd5 38. Re1 Kc5 39. Re7 Rc8 40. Rd7 1-0

CO - CS
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 e6 6. Bd3 Be7 7. c3 Nbd7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nbd2 b6 10. Qc2 h6 11. Bf4 Re8 12. Ne5 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Nd7 14. f4 Nxe5 15. fxe5 f5 16. exf6 Bxf6 17. Bh7+ Kh8 18. Nf3 e5 19. dxe5 Bxe5 20. Rae1 Qd6?? 21. Nxe5 1-0

there are a couple adjustments i will make for the next two games...apparently he likes to pin the knight on f3/f6 ;) off to search for some pepsi

bleeding edge of the caro-kann

(for the uninitiated, the bleeding edge is even newer than the cutting edge)

so i've been pretty much set in my ways regarding caro-kann theory since i began...karpov system v. the advanced (...Ne7, ...Nd7, ...c5, ...Nc6) ...Bf5 with ...Qc7 in the main line, ...e6, ...Bb4 in the Panov, etc. i got my new NIC and they had some analysis on a different line in the main line after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3



now i always played 10. ...Qc7 here because i was always afraid of 10.Bf4 if i didn't. and with practice it was difficult. it screwed up my development because i liked things like ...Bd6 and going at the king. of course the theoretical books said things along the lines of "...Qc7 is unnecessary because Bf4 isn't that strong anyways" not for me! but in my new NIC they gave a couple of lines with 10. ...e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 and i decided maybe it was time to take a look at this. the lines they showed featured 13.c3 Be7 14.c4 with the idea that the c-pawn push made his king less safe if he castled queenside. they showed a bunch of games, but the one that got everyone horny about this was Leko-Bareev it looks like a typical Caro to me, but i think it's stronger for Black. it was first played in 1994 at the World Open or something, revived in the Leko-Bareev game and played a bunch of times at the Olympiad, IECC, etc. so it's bleeding edge theory. if i get 3.Nc3 v. the Caro this weekend, i'll give 'er a go

also, i've decided to stop playing on auto-pilot in the advanced Caro and look to play ...c5 earlier, since i've gotten move ordered since i've been playing correspondence by playing the Karpov line.

maybe tomorrow i'll wanna settle down...

maybe tomorrow i'll just keep moving on

in any case tomorrow i'm starting up my "match"...wish me luck...i thikn i'm gonna play the grunny v. 1.c4 (1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5!?) a la Botwinnik and Smyslov. I was gonna try the Dutch but i decided against it...and really the grunny isn't that bad ;)

NIC

i just got my first New In Chess magazine. i love NIC. it has grischuk on the cover, the first ever article by kasparov (as a retiree) and a bunch of stuff on the Russian Team Championships.

bronstein is fabulous

Bronstein is fabulous. Kirk said he may take Clin-ton on in a match. Clin-ton plays the Nimzo, so i may recommend the Samisch variation. Bishop pair, big center, what's not to like if you don't go overboard with f3, e4 etc. it's better to play e3, Bd3 then e4, rather than give Black time to adjust with f3.

match with o'shea²

so apparently it's on for real this time...next weekend at 2pm on sunday we're gonna have a game. and then game 2 sometime eventually.

C.Sadler		O'Shea
1489	0-2	1633
1502	½-1½	1600
1515	1-1	1567
1528	1½-½	1533
1541	2-0	1500

correspondence

after getting royally pissed off last night becasue i lost (another) game in blitz because of stupidity i have decided to go back to my original ways and play a million correspondence games instead. i enjoy it. so i'm at QUeen Alice

we'll see how long this lasts ;)

club night

i played the same guy at the club about 8 times and beat him all 8 times. i played the dragon as black, the bird lopez, the tchigorin proper and a caro exchange. as white i got a crazy nimzo (1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.c4 Nc6 4.Nc3 Bb4), bird lopez (he copied me), and cozio lopez. kirk inspired me to try 1.e4 e5 tonight by his terrible usage of the tchigorin lopez on ICC today. shah advised me that if i have to play blitz, i should play with at least a 2 second increment, so there are no wins on time.

analysis

well it only took three days (but i worked 13 hours of overtime in between) but i finally analyzed my games. it kinda confirmed what i had suspected all along. the queen's gambit accepted will be good for me, i need to shore up my white repetoire (what to do v. QGD for instance) and i need to work on tactics. i didn't miss much, but there was only one game where it would've mattered. anyways...

A novelty from my recent tournament in Kitchener. In round 3, I decided (against my better judgement) to play the Botwinnik system as White. the line went 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 c5 13.d5 Qb6 14.Bg2 O-O-O 15.O-O which is all theory that has been played millions of times. My opponent uncorks the novelty 15. ...Ne5!? (above) and i play the meek 16.b3 and the pin on the d-file kills me. I was talking to FM Hans Jung and local master Albert Runstedler after the game and they recommended a line along the lines of 16.Qe2 Nd3 17.dxe6 and work on the e-file. Good sense. I finished with 1�/4 and gained some points. I really enjoyed myself and would go back

it's hotter than a motherf***er

man it's hot...

just got back from jane's graduation...yay...never going to north bay again. i'll post pics once they're available. anyways for tomorrow i decided on 1.Nf3 because that way i can avoid the King's Indian Defense. sure, i basically avoid the Grünfeld proper and the Nimzo-Indian but you've gotta give some to take some. i bought the new audioslave cd today...it's pretty rockin...i also got a best of the who which i haven't heard yet. as black i'm playing the Caro and the QGA. i decided on the QGA as opposed to the Nimzo because i figure if i'm consistently outmatched by 500 points or so, they may try to get me out of books as quickly as possible and i figure the colle is easier to play against than the tromp. we'll see. it should be interesting to see how the team dynamic will work. i think i may run a team tournament later on in the year. it's a cool idea. also, anderson and amy are going on a date tonight. we'll see how that turns out. i was much more excited about that than jane was...i'm excited about the idea of going on a double date.

woo-hoo! team tournament

KW Team Challenge 2005
Contact: ***@***.com
Date: June 11, 2005
Place: Concordia Club, 429 Ottawa St.S, ON
Rds: 4
Type: Swiss
Times: Rd 1 - 9:15. Rd 2-10:30
TC: SD 30 min
EF: $40 for team of four
Prizes: Trophies and $BEN
Reg: Send entries to xxxx
At site between 8:30 - 9:10
Misc: Site information www.concordiaclub.ca

i'm pumped up. i have my team Kees, Clinton and Aaron Both yay! i'm on board two so i'm going to score poorly, but i've accepted that. what to play? what to play? i'm still not sure about against 1.d4, the choices are the nimzo and the QGA. the caro v. 1.e4. and not sure about as White. i've already decided i'm gonna score terribly as White. i want to talk to kirk but he's in buffalo. stupid buffalo. i was really sick the past two days...puking and in the hospital. i should do some tactics.

happy birthday to me

maybe i didn't love you quite as often as i could
maybe i didn't treat you quite as good as i should
if i made you feel second best girl i'm sorry i was blind

you were always on my mind
you were always on my mind

maybe i didn't hold you all those lonely, lonely times
i guess i never told you i'm so happy that you're mine
little things i should have said and done i just never took the time

you were always on my mind
you were always on my mind

tell me tell me that you sweet love hasn't died
give me give me one more chance to keep you satisfied
keep you satisfied

little things i should have said and done i just never took the time
you were always on my mind
you were always on my mind
you were always on my mind
you were always on my mind

fetishes

i was talking to my friend K. (not my brother) on messenger the other night, and she said she liked pain "but not in a weird way". which got me thinking about fetishes and where they come from. i like women dressed up whory (for lack of a better word) and big boobs and i think they come respectively from two girls from my childhood, Rénee and Michelle. interesting...now if only i could figure out where the midget fetish came from ;)

weren't the suns supposed to save basketball?

i like the suns, i really do. i watched them play the spurs last night and they got beaten bad. i like run and gun basketball but they really need a big man in there, or at least to move Amare to the power forward. they got physically destroyed. which is fine if you're making shots, but the spurs got every shot they wanted. their style is good to beat 95% of the teams in the league, the problem is that once you get down to the final 4, you're playing that other 5%. even the run and gun sonics or the showtime lakers played defense. they gave up a ton of layups. and they didn't even go through duncan hardly. they just busted phoenix off the dribble...not a good showing by the suns. i hope miami wins. i wanna see the shaq v. duncan ;)

if i ever play 1.e4 again...

i've got a new line


Three Pawns Gambit

it's perfect for blitz..not sure how good it is OTB ;)

i must have been more patient in the 20th century...

i was surfing yesterday and i stumbled back upon IECG the first correspondence place i played. man i was patient...i was looking to get a record of my "first win" or something...in the 2 years i played there (not counting forfeits) i lost 48 games and drew 2. here are the two draws

[Event "QN.1999.0.00086"]
[Site "IECG"]
[Date "1999.10.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sadler, Craig"]
[Black "Bisplinghoff, Steffen"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E88"]
[WhiteElo "538"]
[BlackElo "684"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "1999.10.28"]
[Source "IECG"]
[SourceDate "2004.12.16"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 c6 8. Bd3 Nfd7
9. Qd2 Nc5 10. b4 Nxd3+ 11. Qxd3 c5 12. bxc5 dxc5 13. Bxc5 Re8 14. Nge2 Nd7 15.
Be3 Qa5 16. O-O Nc5 17. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 18. Kh1 f5 19. f4 b6 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Ne4
Bxe4 22. Qxe4 exf4 23. Qxf4 Bxa1 24. Qf7+ Kh8 25. Rxa1 Rxe2 26. Rf1 Rae8
1/2-1/2

[Event "TE.1999.P.00101"]
[Site "IECG"]
[Date "1999.11.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Perez, Giorgio"]
[Black "Sadler, Craig"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E84"]
[WhiteElo "1903"]
[BlackElo "547"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[EventDate "1999.11.01"]
[Source "IECG"]
[SourceDate "2004.12.16"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Nge2 a6 8. Qd2
Rb8 9. Bh6 b5 10. h4 e5 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. cxb5 axb5 13. h5 b4 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15.
exd5 Nxd4 16. hxg6 hxg6 17. Qh6+ Kf6 18. Qh4+ Kg7 19. Qh6+ 1/2-1/2

it was terrible how weak i was in most of the games...part of it was the way i "kept score". back in those days, i would keep sticky notes with the pieces written on in pencil basically in FEN. you can imagine how that would suck. i had no idea what a dark square was or a light square. some things you keep on playing somethings you don't. for instance, i played the RL back then and also the caro-irregularly, but i had some sort of fascination with the King's Indian which thankfully i gave up. in any case it was interesting...too bad i couldn't find my "first" win ;)

aaron clinton

so i was thinking about playing a match v. clinton since the o'shea match doesn't seem to be happening...i think it may be worth a go

C.Sadler		Clinton
1581	4-0	1340
1549	3½-½	1365
1525	3-1	1390
1509	2½-1½	1415
1493	2-2	1440
1477	1½-2½	1465
1461	1-3	1490
1445	½-3½	1515
1429	0-4	1540

so basically i need to score 2½-1½ which is very doable...i may give him a call, particularly since jane isn't around much on the weekends anymore..

subway stamps no more

this isn't chess related but i went to Subway for lunch today and apparently they aren't giving away stamps anymore. apparently employees were selling them on E-bay.

Here is an Article and all over the blog world

it's brutal. i grew up on that shit and i'm upset. all this insanity has caused me to think about playing 1.d4 e5...maybe not but there's some neat traps

1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2 6.Bc3? Bb4! 7.Qd2? Bxc3 8.Qxc3 Qc1# 0-1

i dunno if i go to chess on wednesday maybe i'll give er a go ;)

luck favors the aggressor

i was thinking back to some of my more brilliant games (draw v. hugh morrison for example) and i recalled that luck favors the aggressor. i think i may go back to 1.e4. But C, i can hear you asking, aren't you afraid of the French, particularly the Winawer? not anymore

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qg4

luck favors the aggressor...there's an article on this line (or a line like it) in the NIC yearbook i have...also i bought a subscription to New In Chess...i'm a sucker...they sent me a pamphlet and ig ot it. jane got a job today at Sauble Beach and i hope she likes it...may gimme some more time for chess. which reminds me...there's a tournament in hamilton coming up soon....i'm thinking about unassing the king's gambit and 1.e4. we'll see

problems

so against 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 i've bene playing 3.c3


Geller's system

it's worked pretty good. i'm worried there's a strong line against it, but it stunts the dark squared bishop and builds up a big center...now that i'm unofficially a 1.d4 player, it's the closest thing to a 1.e4 opening i get ;)

now here's the problem i have...it's with


Fischer's defense

to the Nimzo-Indian. The traditional 5.Bd3, 6.Nf3, 7.a3, 8.O-O etc. isn't very strong and i've been gettng my butt kicked. the strongest move is 5.Ne2 similar to the Reshevsky variation which I have played semi-successfully in the past. I may try the old Nge2, f3, e4 variation and who knows I may even try this as black, because i subscribe to the whole, if you can't beat em, join em theory of chess ;)

also i have convinced myself that after 1.d4 d5 2.e3 c5 an exchange is either a weak CK Exchange or a weak Slav Exchange depending on which pawn he takes back with (assuming 3.c3). armed with this knowledge, i may be able to go back and play 1.d4 d5 once again. stay tuned ;)

This is a picture of me at Pizza Hutt with Jane a couple of months ago...check out the crazy eyes ;)

chess

i may have talked kirk into playing the Alekhine again, considering he likes open and familiar positions. i think it would be a good temporary choice. i am back in the 1670 range on ICC and happy enough with the way i'm playing. i emailed chris o'shea about a match...i think i may be getting the itch...or i'm horny, i can't tell the difference lol. i think i may be going to the active tournament in may in hamilton (we'll see) and kirk talked to me this morning about running an active tournament in august. i put a message up on chesstalk to the kitchener, london, barrie players about whether it would be too far.

chess

i've got a couple of ideas...one is playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 * 3.f4 v. the Sicilian. there's only two main ideas for black...either play ...e6 and ...d5 or play a dragon basically. it looks interesting. the idea v. the dragon is basically Bb5, Bxc6 and slowly make your way towards the king. haven't looked into the ...e6, ...d5 move order yet.

i did get an interesting idea from "http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=14587">Kotronias' book "Winning with the Caro-Kann"

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nc3 e6 5.g4 Bg6 6.Nge2 c5 7.h4 Nc6?!



8.h5 Bxc2?!

it's interesting....it's been played in two games by Djuric in the early 1990s and forgotten, but i'm gonna revive it in blitz and potentially v. kirk

here's the games

[Event "Corfu op"]
[Site "Corfu"]
[Date "1993.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kotronias, Vasilios"]
[Black "Djuric, Stefan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2590"]
[BlackElo "2495"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "1993.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2005.01.01"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 c5 7. h4 Nc6 8. h5 Bxc2
9. Qxc2 cxd4 10. Nb1 Rc8 11. Qa4 Qb6 12. Nf4 Qb4+ 13. Qxb4 Bxb4+ 14. Kd1 Nxe5
15. Nd3 Nxd3 16. Bxd3 Nf6 17. f3 h6 18. Bf4 Nd7 19. Nd2 Ke7 20. Nb3 e5 21. a3
Bd6 22. Re1 Kd8 23. Bg3 Rc6 24. Na5 Rc7 25. Kd2 Re8 26. Rac1 Nf6 27. Bf5 Ree7
28. Nxb7+ 1-0

[Event "Saint Afrique op"]
[Site "Saint Afrique"]
[Date "1993.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sax, Gyula"]
[Black "Djuric, Stefan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2570"]
[BlackElo "2485"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "1993.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2005.01.01"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 c5 7. h4 Nc6 8. h5 Bxc2
9. Qxc2 cxd4 10. Nb1 Rc8 11. Qa4 Qd7 12. Na3 Nxe5 13. Qxd7+ Kxd7 14. Nxd4 Bc5
15. Nac2 Nxg4 16. Rg1 N8f6 17. Be2 Nxf2 18. Kxf2 e5 19. Rxg7 exd4 20. Rxf7+ Ke6
21. Rxf6+ Kxf6 22. Bd3 Rhg8 23. Bh6 Bb6 24. Nb4 Rc5 25. Rf1 a5 26. Bxh7 Rh8 27.
Kg3+ Ke7 28. Bg5+ Kd6 29. Rf6+ Kc7 30. Bf4+ Kd8 31. Rd6+ 1-0




i also had an idea in the sicilian...can you play a QID? 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 (let's say) 5.Nc3 b6 i don't see why you can't. or even 4. ...b6 and then ...Nge7 if you want to stop the threat of e5 after Ngf6. threw it into fritz and Ndb5 looked strong...it may be a 3 minute thing ;)

kirk played a nice KG

i was watching kirk play on ICC tonight

[Event "ICC 5 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.04.19"]
[Round "-"]
[White "kirksadler"]
[Black "Shaohua"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black forfeits on time"]
[WhiteElo "1352"]
[BlackElo "1325"]
[Opening "King's knight's gambit"]
[ECO "C38"]
[NIC "KG.03"]
[Time "22:43:21"]
[TimeControl "300+0"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 g5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. c3 Nc6 6. O-O h5 7. d4 f6 8. Qb3
Na5 9. Bf7+ Kf8 10. Qd5 c6 11. Qc5+ Kxf7 12. e5 fxe5 13. dxe5 Bf8 14. Qd4
Qb6 15. g3 Qxd4+ 16. Nxd4 Bc5 17. gxf4 g4 18. f5 Bxd4+ 19. cxd4 Nc4 20. Nc3
Ne7 21. b3 Nb6 22. Ne4 Nbd5 23. Ng5+ Ke8 24. f6 Ng6 25. f7+ Ke7 26. Ne4 d6
27. Bg5+ Kf8 28. Nxd6 Bd7 29. Nxb7 Rb8 30. Nd6 Nde7 31. Rae1 Be6 32. Rf6 Bd5
33. e6 a5 34. Nf5 a4 35. Nxe7 Nxe7 36. Bh6+ Rxh6 37. Rxh6 Kg7 38. Rxh5 axb3
39. Rg5+ Kf6 40. Rg8 Nxg8 41. fxg8=Q Rxg8 42. Rf1+ {Black forfeits on time}
1-0

it was a nice aggressive win...the king's gambit is great...the only problem is that there's many other better things to play v. 1.e4 e5. what's comparable v. the sicilian? smith-morra? likely not, but i think i/we may be able to get some mileage out of the grand prix 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 whatever 3.f4

refutor - the rock band

LOL my lifelong dream almost happened Click here

one week away

we're on for 1pm next week...i'm not really prepared but i'm good to go.

too bad i don't trust him enough to play 1.e4 e5 (trust = him playing the ruy lopez). i would love to get into a theoretical discussion of the open lopez. probably won't happen though...grr..

what to play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 probably go for a Queen's Indian.

Billy is coming out with an album. i'm a little worried...here is a quote from the article

"Many people assume when I do more progressive work that I am trying to move away from something, when honestly what I am trying to do is get closer to who I really am," Corgan says of the upcoming album. "I tried to sum up all my feelings about my life and the world around me in the most beautiful ways I could dream up. It is easy to be negative, and much harder to find that silver lining behind the clouds of modern society."

so i have a feeling that it won't be hard rocking.

the pope died yesterday...don't have much to say about that, just put it in for historical purposes.

match with o'shea

so the first two games are set for April 10th here in Owen Sound, so i get the home board advantage lol. I'm soooooooooooo not prepared for this it's not even funny...i'm not even sure what i'm playing. it looks like i might try the Sicilian, but we'll see. i'm not sure between 1.e4, 1.d4 and 1.Nf3 it will likely be a game time decision. my biggest concern now is focus and clock management. kirk has been working with me but we'll see.

i was going over my match with Clinton today, and man i need to pick up my play if i'm going to compete with this guy. not that he's fabulous by any stretch of the imagination but my play was decidedly weak. if i'm going to bring up complex positions i need to play more accurately.

sadler-sadler

so me and kirk are going to have an active match, 30 moves in 40 minutes, then G/15 afterwards. i'm probably going to play the caro v. him as black, or the najdorf. the problem is i don't want to throw away a game. i can get an excellent position in the caro and maybe he'll switch to 1.d4 or something ;) i think he may try and switch to the grünfeld so if he does i may try 1.c4 c6. as white i was going to play 1.e4 but i think he may either play the ...e6 sicilian or the french or something else. so i'm gonna play 1.d4. but he made some comment about playing the black side of the slav exchange, because he "didn't want to play the semi-slav or the nimzo against" me. you think he would allow the botwinnik?