Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 20:08:48 03/11/02
This sunday, around 9:30 in the night, IM Pablo Toloza did a good show of his acute tactical awareness coming to my home five minutes before the dinner was served. Yes, in Chile as in the rest of Latin America, the custom is going to dinne very late, some times not before eleven. Pablo was welcome; he is a mundane and nice kind of guy that likes, as he say, "to weep his lips" with a couple of wine glasses and even somewhat more if the brand is of his taste and the talk is good. And although his real work is as a computer expert consultor in an electric engineering company, he likes to perform as well as my personal "computer guru" when the neccesary fixes surpass my modest knowledge. This time the iron to fix was an Iomega Zip unit, something that was a marvel only two years ago, but it is by now, with plenty CD burning devices available, a piece of museum. But I need it as much I have some preciate software and docs in half a dozen zip disks. Sooner Pablo discovered my Palm unit and asked if I had some chess progam into it. "Of course" I said, "I have Tiger". He winkled and said he knew Genius and that he thought well of it. "Just low expert level at most, but good enough for such a tiny device". I responded that perhaps Tiger could do better than that. He smiled. "You always consider your programs as the very best... well, put your Palm where the board is..." So I did and for giving to the ocasion an extra clout I put on the desk my very best board, a wonderful crafted piece of wood bought to Steven in the ocassion of one of his sales-out. And so the following game was played. The time accorded was five minutes, to the finish. For a program running in a normal PC, that's is equal to suicide for the human side, but Pablo knew well that Tiger, performing in the very slow processor of Palm, could not search more than 250 moves per second in the ending and a lot less in middlegame. So, for an IM with long experience in the killing blitz played in the main Chess Club of Santiago, - a somewhat bohemian place similar to a room for playing billiards, full of cigar smoke and agressive people crowding over every board to make despective comments in loud voice, a real nightmaret- it was a chance to crush the beast to the utmost. And the game begun. Tiger was favoured with an overclocked processor running at 32 Mhz and Pablo was overclocked with a new ration of one of my best cabernets. [Site: my home in Santiago [Date "2002.03.11"] [Round 1 [White IM Pablo Toloza [Black "Chess Tiger"] 5 minutes the full game. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3 Be7 8. O-O O-O "...well, until now at least this thing knows something of opennings" said Pablo. 9. Re1 cxd4 10. exd4 Ncb4 11. Bb1 Bd7 12. Ne5 Rc8 13. Bd2 Qc7 At this stage Pablo was very confident. "Not a very imaginative playing" commented. "And yours?" I asked. "Oh" he answered, "I am just just toying with him..." 14. a3 Nxc3 15. bxc3 Nd5 16. c4 Nf6 17. Bf4 b6??? An horrible move, but there it was in the screen. In the screen, also, appeared the following data: Tiger was looking only 3 plys deep. He was also taking only some seconds to decide a move. I thought, for a moment, to declare the game already lost and give the full point to Pablo, but I resisted. I had some hopes. Pablo just laughed. He asked another ration of you know what. I served also one for myself. 18. Ng6 Of course. Qd8 19. Nxf8 Kxf8 20. Bd3 Bc6 21. Be5 Bd6 22. Qe2 h6 23. Red1 Bb7 24. a4 Bc6 25. a5 bxa5 26. Qa2 "Why that?" I asked Pablo. He said nothing. I guess, now, that he was so confident that indulged himself playing rococo moves instead of making sure his advantage. a4 27. Bc2 Ng4 28. h3 Nxe5 29. dxe5 Qg5 30. g3 Bxe5 31. Qa3+ Kg8 32. Rab1 a5 33. Re1 Bd4 34. Be4 Bxe4 35. Rxe4 Qf5 At this moment Pablo was not smiling anymore. He was already in troubles. Some threats glooming in the horizon. Those bishops... And What's more: he has already lost on time. He had got the edge, but at a cost: consumming lot more time that Tiger. But Tiger - still with two full mnutes to finish the game- was generous and gave him an extra time. 36. Qd3 Bxf2+ 37. Kg2 Bc5 38. Rf1 Qg6 39. Qf3 a3 40. h4 Rc7 41. Rg4 Qc2+ 42. Kh3 Qb2 43. Qa8+ ... Ok, said Pablo, after declaring that move, lets try the last shot... ...Bf8 44. Rd1 h5 45. Rg5 Qf2 "Oh well, he is comning for the draw, the little bastard" 46. Rd8 Qf1+ 47. Kh2 Qe2+ 48. Kh3 Qf1+ 49. Kh2 Qf2+ 50. Kh3 Qf1+ 1/2-1/2 Last comment: "Hmmm, he deserved the draw. He defended well. You just cannot be confident with these toys. You slip for a second and the son of bitches cut your bowels or escape from a lose. Now, what about another glass of that Cabernet....?" "Hey", I said, "it was you the loser. You lost on time,. The rest was only an exercize of futility, an extra dessert for consolate your ego..." Pablo: "So you mean you are not going to give me another shot of that..." Fernando
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