Sunday, November 07, 2004

Two games

My wife and I have been playing a lot of speed chess. It occurred to me that it was a simple matter to call out our moves into a tape recorder, so now I have some games of my own to post here.

RMD-ALD, Atlanta 11/7/2004 [C45]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 [Now this was a surprise! In all the games we've played over the years, my wife had not once played the Scotch Game.] exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Bc4 [7. Bd3 is more common.] Nf6 8. Bg5 [8. O-O, Tartakower-Kostic, Ljuljana 1938] Bxf2+? [I tried to get fancy, but this is incorrect.] 9. Kxf2 Ng4+ 10. Qxg4! Bxg4 11. Bxd8 Rxd8 [+-] 12. Rhe1 O-O 13. Bb3 Rfe8 14. Ba4 Bd7 15. Re3 Re5 16. h3 Rde8 17. Rae1 f5 18. Kf3 [18. exf5] fxe4+ 19. Rxe4 Rf8+ 20. Kg3 [20. Ke3] Rg5+ 21. Kh2 Rf2 22. R1e2? [This lets slip the win. Correct is 22. Rg1.] Rgxg2+! ½-½ [23. Kh1 Rh2+ 24. Kg1 Rhg2+]

RMD-ALD, Atlanta 11/7/2004 [B56]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 d6 4. Bb5 Bd7 5. O-O Nf6 6. d4 [6. Re1] cxd4 7. Nxd4 g6 [An unusual move order to arrive at a standard Sicilian position.] 8. Nxc6 [Book is 8. Re1 or 8. Be3. 8. Bxc6 is also sometimes played in this position.] bxc6 9. Ba4 [9. Bc4, Solovjov-Dubinka, Saint Petersburg 1999] Bg7 10. Bf4 O-O 11. e5? [This loses a pawn to the correct response.] dxe5? [11. ... Nh5!] 12. Bxe5 Rc8 13. Qd4 [13. Bb3] Nh5? [13. ... Qa5 14. Bxf6 Bxf6 15. Qxd7 Bxc3 16. bxc3 Qxa4 =] 14. Bxg7 Nxg7 15. Qxa7 [+-] Ra8 16. Qc5 Ne6 17. Qc4 Qb6 18. Rad1 Bc8? [18. ... Ra7] 19. Bxc6 Ba6 20. Qe4 Bxf1 [Trading when down two pawns is usually not good, but in this position 20. ... Rad8 isn't any better for Black.] 21. Bxa8 Qxb2 22. Kxf1? [22. Na4] Qxc3 23. Bd5 Rd8 24. Re1 Rd6 25. g3 [25. Bb3] Qa5 [25. ... Ng5] 26. Bb3 Qh5 27. h4 Rd4? [27. ... Qb5+] 28. Qa8+ [28. Qc6] Kg7 29. Qe8? [29. Bxe6 fxe6 30. Rxe6] Rd1? [29. ... Qf3!] 30. Qxe7? Qb5+? [30. ... Qf3! 31. Rxd1 Qh1+ 32. Ke2 Qe4+ 33. Kf1 Qh1+ ½-½] 31. c4 Rxe1+ 32. Kxe1 Qe5+ 33. Kf1 Qa1+ 34. Kg2 Qe5 35. c5?? Qxc5?? [35. ... Nf4+! wins] 36. Qxc5 Nxc5 37. f4 Kf6 38. Kf3 Ke7 39. Kg4 f6 40. h5 Kd6? [40. ... f5+ 41. Kh4 Kf6 puts up a tougher defense.] 41. Bg8 f5+ 42. Kg5 Ne4+ 43. Kh4 gxh5 44. Bxh7 Ke6 [44. ... Nc3] 45. a4 Nc5 46. a5 Kf6 47. Kxh5 Ke6 48. Kg5 Ne4+ 49. Kh4 Nc5 50. g4 [50. Bg6] fxg4 51. Kxg4 1-0 [White's two pawns can not be stopped.]

2 comments:

ALD said...

"Does she play as often as you do?"

Absolutely. She loves the game. In fact, sometimes she wants to play and *I* turn *her* down because I'm too tired after work.

"My wife stopped playing with me because 'I take it too seriously' (ie I read books and review my games, etc...)."

My wife says I take it too seriously too. She *never* reads books, and she seldom analyzes games. But she's a very talented player.

The only e4 openings she ever studied were Giuoco Piano, Two Knights Defense and Ruy Lopez. She was forced to study the Sicilian and French a little bit when I stopped playing 1...e5 against her altogether.

Recently she's started expanding her repertoire purely by experimentation. She pretty much taught herself the Petroff over the board. And now apparently she's looking to add the Scotch to her repertoire.

I really think she could be a competitive player (say 2000+) if she studied just a little bit. But she has no interest in that.

ALD said...

Kinda disappointing how many question marks were in these two games once we looked at them. Especially the second game with the sad sad sequence 29. Qe8? Rd1? 30. Qxe7? Qb5+? and the overlooked queen drop on move 35.