Crushing disappointment? No, a ray of sunshine!

Last Saturday, November 19, 2016, Paul Leggett and I trekked over to Daytona for the November Chess Challenge, put on by Stephen Lampkin. It was a good tournament for both Paul and me, as we both picked up about 70 rating points on our regular ratings. Additionally, I finished second, and beat my first master in a rated game. Woo hoo!

But I'm not here to write about any of the good stuff. I'm here to write about my sole loss from the tournament, against FM Jorge Leon Oquendo, USCF 2473, FIDE 2380. The game started kind of strangely, as you will see, and became very complicated. Mikhail Tal once wrote, "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one." This I did! And though the balance swung a little this way and that, it was my opponent who eventually stumbled and fell! But two moves later, in a fit a utter carelessness, I missed the winning move and lost in turn. Yes, I lost a game I should have won against a player rated almost 2500.

But rather than feeling crushing disappointment at this missed opportunity (this is only the second time I have even played a senior master in a rated game), I feel quite good. After all, I did play mostly well enough to win against such a good opponent, and it gives me hope that I am once again starting to get better at the game. It has been many years since that was true, but circumstances have given me the means and opportunity to improve my game even at the advanced age of 48.

I've placed the game, with my hand-written notes, below the fold. I have partly supplemented them with a few computer suggestions. I'm not going to put it in the ChessBase viewer this time, so this post will be long. I will include plenty of diagrams so that the game can be followed. (The time control was Game in 45 minutes, with a five second delay. Numbers in parentheses after the moves show time remaining in minutes, and later in minutes & seconds.)

1900

My blitz rating on Chess.com hit 1900 Friday night - and then it cratered. I lost 106 ELO at one point in time, about 20 minutes ago. Then I managed to win a game when an opponent walked into this:

Truly, chess is a cruel game.

1996 March 1

That is all.

Done!

I played chess against people on all six inhabited continents this evening, plus games against people in Tuvalu & Indonesia. That beats my old personal best of five continents in one day back in the 1990s. (I think I was missing Australia that time.)

Yeah, it's a little thing, but it's a cool thing, too.

ADDED: So now for the butcher's bill. It took about four and a half hours, 31 lost Elo on Chess.com, and 31 games. (The dual 31s are mere coincidence.) My overall record was 16+ 12- 3=. Results that are complete enough below the fold. (Yes, this post is entirely for my own amusement, and so I can find the record some day in the future should I so desire.)