A Heartbreaking Game of Staggering Genius
is precisely what this game was not. However, I am going to annotate it anyhow for the twelve people who follow my posts.
Arcata Chess Club August Tournament: Doug vs. John (aka GargleBlaster)
This is a weird opening I play to confuse people into thinking I want a French. They then play c4, thinking they have frustrated my plans. Truth be told, I don't know anything about the French Defense and would resign immediately after 2. e4.
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So far, so normal, though White was perhaps being excessively polite with 3.e3 instead of 3. e4. Now, however, White decides he'd rather develop his KB on g2 and thus
plays the odd looking 6. g3, causing me to spend roughly an hour trying to find a forced win that is, in retrospect, probably not there.
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As you can see, Black has somehow managed to encourage White to not only fiancetto his KB but his KR as well. On the other hand, it's debatable that in spite of White's novel deployment that Black can claim any major advantage and is now down to roughly ten minutes for the remainder of the game.
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Ruhoh. White threatens Qxf5 and Qa4+. Black is officially concerned about many things now, not least of which being that he's under five minutes.
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White is apparently intentent on either promoting his horse or completing a Knights Tour of the entire Black queenside.
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A careful examination of the past few moves will reveal that White has achieved three important things: 1) He has placed his Knight on a fantastic square, 2) He has won a pawn, and 3) He has a totally lost position.
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White's weakening of the light squares (6.g3) comes back to haunt him like some old embarrasing friend from High School reconnecting with you on Facebook.
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Quite possibly the most awesome rook in the recorded annals of chess or any other game with rooks.