14+ Reasons why I make bad moves: Seafair Open Rounds 2

There's a lot more than 14 reasons why I play bad moves, but I'll reveal some of them to you. Maybe you can take advantage of them when you play me.

Both me and my opponent were NM's, but for different reasons. He was a National Master, while I was a Not Master... (A very interesting hook? It reminds me of the horrible days and all of the sleepless nights due to having to find a hook. Going fishing didn't help.)

It was a normal Saturday when I played the guy who tied for first in the Seattle Seafair Open. Going into the game, I considered what attitude I should have. Should I be kind of rar-ish, aggressive (essentially the same thing), or passive? I thought about what opening I would play. But not for long. Since I was tired of the normal openings, and had decided to try wierd openings, I figured that I didn't need to think about what opening I would play. So I ran back in the skittles room and got chased by a kid that acted like an 6 year old. The fun didn't last too long though. Before long, I was expected to act mature and play a real game of chess, something quite hard to do after I had been talking and running around the venue. Unfortunately, too many players had come to the event. The main room was packed with players, and after every move I decided I couldn't put up with it, so I would leave and try to talk to somebuddy. Or get tackled. Chess is a lot like football I guess. Of course, many of the wise chess players tried to avoid talking to me, because they have realized that when they talk to me during rounds they have too much fun, and that's not the purpose of chess. The purpose of chess, while still unclear to me, is to engage in a battle with some pieces and pawns. That didn't seem too intriguing to me, but after a few moves I was concentrating on my game, at least when I was sitting at my board. One problem I expierenced is that when I get up and talk to other people that I forget a few plans and calculations at the board. That was what led to my time pressure. Oh, and I have a lot of other reasons that I made a lot of bad moves! I never take blame for any of my actions. In order to keep the blame from me about my bad moves, I will blame:

1. The TD for holding the event. This was the main reason that I made such bad moves. If the Seattle Seafair didn't exist, it would be quite hard to make bad moves in that event, because it didn't exist. But I'm still such a bad player I would have made bad moves anyways.

2. My opponent for playing such challenging moves: This is another person that I need to blame. If he had let me checkmate him early in the game I wouldn't have made so many bad moves. Bad opponent! 

3. The rules: If the rules of chess didn't exist, then it would be unclear whether any move was good or bad.

4. You: That's right! I blame you, the reader. You put so much pressure on me during my game and I felt like I would have to play a good game to appease you guys when I right my blogs. Your'e terrible! (I'm expecting my # of reads to go down after this blog)

5. Not being allowed to use an engine: If I did, I would have gone 5-0, and would have had so many brilliant games to share.

6. Um, who else can I blame?

7. Virus!: Oh yeah, the tournament was really hot, so I wasn't able to concentrate since I thought I would get a virus from all of the coughs. Indeed, I was right, and I ended up getting the RAR virus.

Now for the paragraph describing all of my opponent's accomplishments so that I feel better about myself.

To my surprise, when I checked the US Chess website, it states that he moved to Mercer Island not too long ago! RARRRR! I can't let someone take my title of "the board one". Then again, he is 18, so he probably won't go to the high school. If he does, then not only will we be a winning team, but I will be board too. No!!! I was proud to lead Mercer Island anywhere except state. And when he comes, oh no! 

Sorry that I wasn't able to actually name his accomplishemnts. It's just that when I see something that I didn't expect, that I go crazy and start typing very fast. 

Anyways, my opponent, the TALENTED Cale Micheal McCormick, became a master last year, and has many numerous accomplishents. If I had performances like he has had in the last 2 years, I would be quite happy with myself. Then again, I'm always happy with my perfomances, so that doesn't carry much weight. I mean, simply having such a high rating makes him great! And by being a National Master instead of a Not Master, everyone was sure that I would lose. And probably some people were hoping that too, quite possibly even my opponent. 

But I had a different goal in mind, win the game by playing the best moves. In the end, neither of our goals came true, neither of us managed to win. And I just gave you a bunch of reasons why I played badly, so don't go asking for more. I have enough fan mail (none) as it is.

Here is a True (lson) game of chess, with both sides playing to win, and I put more effort in this game than I ever had in any game up to this date. I was on full concentration move, calculating lots of stuff that didn't matter, and trying to make flawed positional assumptions. I'm very good at that.

Opening

I'll use chessbase database to determine the opening, as usual. 

Middlegame and Endgame

It's pretty clear in this point that this game is going with him trying to attack me! Ahhh! But luckily the attack didn't work and he messed up.

"This was a really good game. But it was also the last good game" (RookSacrifice). That accurately describes this game. I mean, it wasn't great, but when I try my hardest, I can put up good fighters with the so-called "masters" of chess. (I'm the only one who deserves that in my opinion!)

So what were the reasons that I made bad moves this game? In addition to the above 7 reasons, here are some more. 

8. Time pressure. This was the first time I've gotten in time pressure in a G/2 hours time control. I wasn't adjusted to this, and therefore didn't use my time well. I tried an organized thought process, but still wasted too much time. Indeed, with 26 minutes on the clock after 29.Rh5, I was REALLY stupid to spend 20 minutes on that decision. I should have thought about using my time better, not trying to calculate everything.

9. Openings: Knowing your opponenings is so important. I spent half an hour... on the first 10 moves! My opponent only took 5. That is really important because I could have used that time later and won the game at some points. 

10. Talking too much: Of course it led to my time pressure problems, leaving the board after every move is bad, but I did it because it was too hot. 

11. When I played 20...Bf8??, in addition to many other moves, I didn't check to see if it was safe. I didn't try to find critical responses, and that should have cost the game. I missed some moves, like 19.d6 also. That needs to be improved. 

12. Defensive: A lot of the time in this game, I tried to hold onto my pawn, when the only good way to do so was to be really active. By playing very passively, I wasn't able to get a good position and allowed him to activate all of his pieces! 

13. Blame: I have all of these excuses, and they prevent me from realizing that I am terrible, and it's my fault that I'm so bad! 

Well, the play in this game wasn't that great, but that didn't matter, I could still have fun! Lower rated players are a lot easier to have fun with, since they aren't obsessed about chess anyways. Maybe I shouldn't try to get better! One creative idea was invented by RevantH Potukuchi. I found out that him and his coach went over my last game with him (Knight Shift if you're looking for it) and they didn't notice the illegal move that he made! Surprising! But I wasn't mad at him. We had fun with the game Four Kings. Both sides had 4 kings and would try to take the other sides kings. The kings were on d1,d2,e1,e2 for White and reversed for Black. There were no queens, and the e and d pawns were in the center. 

I can't believe how funny and creative the game was! I learned early on that a rook was better than a king and beat him with that knowledge. It seemed to be even more fun than playing bughouse, which sometimes is annoying to play because everyone starts teasing each other (and you can guess who gets teased the most! That person teases people the most also). 

So, it was another boring game as usual, and yet it let me realize my many flaws in my chess playing. Do you want to know the real reason that I play so badly?

14. I'd rather have good luck than good skill.