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Subject: Re: My Star Diamond game that someone wanted to see.

Author: Gigi Aragon

Date: 07:51:05 03/21/04

Go up one level in this thread


Thanks for posting your game! I rarely see games played by human against a
dedicated chess computer.

Nice commentaries too.

Greg


On March 19, 2004 at 18:44:19, J. C. Boco wrote:

>This is a game I should have won but managed to lose.  I searched the archives
>but couldn't find the message of the guy who wanted to see it.  Sorry I don't
>remember your name.

>
>Star Diamond (White)
>40 moves in 57 seconds
>Estimated to be 1502, given that 40 moves in 2 hours equals 2200.
>
>Me (Black)
>40 moves in 2 hours
>
>1. f4  Nf6
>2. b3 d6  I actually spent 4 minutes on this move, just trying to figure out
>what the bird opening was.  You know, remembering all that deep theory to move
>36.
>3. Nc3  Nc6
>4. d3  e5  I think e5 is not book, but anything goes at my level.
>5. Nf3  PxP
>6. BxP  d5
>7.e3?  This is an error because I now can win material.  Although I almost
>missed it.  Here I spent about 10 minutes looking around and demanding that I
>make use of the fact that S.D played b3 but then his bishop ends up on f4.  So I
>was very proud of myself when I found...
>
>7. ...  Bb4
>8. Qd2   d4!  I spent another 10 minutes on this to make sure it worked.  I give
>myself the exclam because I don't often make good moves.
>
>9. NxP  NxN
>10. a3  BxN
>11. QxB  Nc6  Looking good!  I'm up 2 pawns.  Anyone can win with 2 pawns,
>right?  Anyway, I spent about 5 minutes on this move trying to figure out the
>best place for the knight.  I probably didn't find it, but at least it looks
>good.  I've spent a total of 27 minutes so far.
>
>12. Be2  OO
>13. Bg5  Nd5!  Another exclam for myself, for a move which took about 9 minutes
>to make.  I could keep my 2 pawn plus, although I'd get doubled pawns.  But I
>wanted to play more dynamically, I wanted to play like just a little bit of
>Kasparov.  So I asked myself what would Kasparov's little toe do, and I decided
>it would give up a pawn to both prevent doubled pawns, but also to gain an open
>file.
>
>14. BxQ  NxQ
>15. BxP  Re8
>16. e4  Be6?  Now my peculiar thought processes give me the boot.  Nd4 was
>better.  I've found that when I give myself a "?" I have almost always spent a
>lot of time on the move.  This one took about 8 minutes.  Why is Nd4 better?  I
>forgot, actually.  I just have that written on my scoresheet and circled.  I put
>this game in REBEL and that's what it liked.
>
>17. Bh5  QRc8.  7 minutes
>18. Bf4  Nd4  5 minutes
>19. Rc1  Rc5?   The computers all like Na2.  Of course they do!  I should too!
>Anyway, I'm proud of my advanced knight and wanted to keep it on that square.
>It does look very nice, doesn't it?  It's eyes burn red with rage against the
>white pieces.  But what I should have done is realize that the knight would have
>to go sometime to allow the rook to blast through.  Thus I don't move the
>knight.  Bad decision.  The knight is ready for battle but so long as it doesn't
>have to expend the effort to actually go anywhere.  This reminds me of some
>people I know. Interesting.....  Since it's a ? move I didn't spend much time on
>this move.
>
>20. Be3  Rd8 about 18 minutes on this move.  It's hard to know where to place
>your rooks you know.  When I use the salt and pepper at dinner, I often will
>hold onto them because I can't decide where to put them down.  Sometimes I don't
>season my food because it requires too much thought.
>
>21. Bd1  f5  12 minutes on this move.  You may now understand why I often find
>myself in time trouble in my games.  I guess I like the spinning red discs in my
>Saitek analog chess clock.
>22. Bg5  Rd7
>23. b4  Rc8
>24 PxP  BxP  OK, I now have 12 minutes left for my next 16 moves.
>25. Be3  Re7?  It took 2 minutes to make this bad move.  It's bad because Na2 is
>still good.
>
>26. Kd2  QNb5.  I spent 5 minutes on this move.  Plenty of time left...
>27.  Bh5  Nd5?  One minute  spent on this one, when looking at my notes I see
>that I should have played b6.  I can't remember the board position right now
>typing away, but if you are playing through this game perhaps you can remind me
>why it's good.
>
>28.  Bc5  R7c7
>29. QRf1  g6
>30. c4  b6!  I'm not sure why I gave myself an exclam.  Perhaps it was because
>of my wise use of time.  I spent 2.5 minutes on it.  Now I have 1.5 minutes
>remaining.  But hey, I'll keep a cool head.  Oh, for that guy playing through
>this, please tell me if b6 rates an exclam.
>31. Bf3 b6xc5???  Ugh.  First of all, I was now using dashes to mark my moves.
>When this game was over I had to take the moves back on the computer and fill in
>the scoresheet.  For some reason I did this as I took each move back, and
>instead of writing down PxP I wrote down what the computer said, namely b6xc5.
>I only relate this exciting event in case you are wondering why I change to full
>algebraic now.
>
>32.  Wait, back to 31.  I don't remember why b6xc5 (or, PxP if you prefer) is
>bad.  I'd play through the game to find out, but memory repression is sometimes
>a good thing.
>
>32. f3d5  g8g7
>33. c4b5  c5b4
>34. a3b4  c7c2+ ?  I don't remember why the ?.  I think pure defensive moves
>would have kept an even game or something.  I probably don't really want to
>remember.
>
>35. d2e3 c8e8?  Bad moves come in pairs.
>36. e3d4  c2b2
>37. f1e1  e8e1
>38. h1e1  b2b4+
>39. d5c4  b4b2
>40. e1e7  g7h6  Here we come to a mighty controversial move.  I had been ticking
>off the moves and counting on my fingers, as all strong men are known to do in
>times of great hardship.  In counting my fingers, I made the mistake on
>remembering something about Kasparov's little toe and I guess I counted that as
>a move that I didn't really make.  The upshot is that I thought the move b4b2
>was actually move 40.  The result would be a loss on time  (I have the computer
>set at 40 moves in 2.5 hours for me, but I use a chess clock as the official
>timepiece for me).  So that extra time on my Star Diamond clock didn't flag me
>even though I overstepped on the analog chess clock.  I think the computer was
>thinking "If this moron can actaully lose after having a 2 pawns plus, I  don't
>need to flag him.  I also probably only need to use 2 AA batteries to beat him
>rather than all four.  2 AA heavy duty batteries, not the alkaline ones, and
>possible ones that had been in the smoke detector for awhile first, or that
>flashlight in the back of the drawer.
>
>41.e7a7  b2g2
>42. -----------------
>43.  b6 RxP  In fixing my scoresheet and discovering the error, I left 42 blank.
> So 43 is actually 42, you get the drift.
>44.  Bg8  g5  Speaking of drift, isn't this game an effortless demonstration on
>how to drift from a win to a loss?
>45. Kc3  Rh3
>46. b7   Resigns
>
>"Maybe I'll rub some salt in the would and flash my Low Batt signal".



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