2001-02-18 - 23:59:05

The U.S. Chess Teams, Day Two

As I mentioned before, Lily came to the tournament with me. She knows how the pieces move, but she really doesn’t play chess. I thought that she'd be horribly bored, but she seemed perfectly content to hang out in the room, watch TV and catch up on her sleep. It was wonderful to have her there and I think that her presence there really did help me play better.

I was delighted to have a point and a half after two rounds. It had been so long since I'd played at all I was wondering if I'd even score one point. I was sure that I'd get my comeuppance today.

Round 3: Uberhamster (1,870) vs. Dennis (1,923)

In spite of the fact that our team only had half a point, we got paired against a team far stronger than us. My opponent was only rated a little higher than me, but the guys on the lower boards had bigger rating differences.

I was playing white this game, and while it is usually an advantage there were so many openings that I had forgotten I was certain that something bad was going to happen. I was relieved that my opponent played the French Defense as white, but the line he played was one that I hadn't done well with in the past. I ate up a lot of thinking time trying to remember what to do.

The line we played was a gambit variation. This meant that I gave up a pawn for some attacking chances. The chances really didn’t materialize, but I did get my pawn back in a cute maneuver where I left my queen hanging but he didn't dare take it.

However a few moves later I was not smiling because it looked like my opponent had a dangerous attack against my king. It looked like the only way out was to sacrifice a piece to get some activity, but at the last minute I decided to retreat and just hang tough. As it turns out that was the right decision: the sacrifice would have lead to a certain loss.

A couple of moves later it was my opponent that did the sacrificing: he gave up a piece to open up my king. He had lots of threats, but I didn't think he got enough for the piece. I began to consolidate and counterattack, but like in my previous games I was running out of time. With only a few minutes left and still 17 moves to go I dropped a knight. Mentally thrashing myself, I played on. As it turned out my opponent thought my "drop" was a brilliant sacrifice!

I managed to trade down to a winning ending and as soon as I made the time control my opponent resigned. When we looked at the game later it turned out that what I thought had been a blunder was a very good attacking move. Again, a lucky break for me.

The rest of the team was not doing so well. On board 2 Harvey just got slaughtered. However Ken on board three and Richard on board 4 both managed to draw, so we split the match 2-2.

Scores: Uberhamster 2 1/2 (out of 3), Team 1 out of 3

Round 4: Uberhamster (1,870) vs. Michael (1,370)

This round there was good news and bad news. The good news is that we were finally paired against a weaker team. The bad news is that they were all kids. We were playing on of the "Collins Kids" teams. Jack Collins is probably the premiere chess teacher in the United States - for instance Bobby Fischer was one of his students. At every USATE for the last 25 years there have been "Collins Kids" teams - some current students, other made up of alumni.

And what's worse than playing a kid? Playing a Russian kid. My little boy had a Russian last name and a slight accent. In spite of all its troubles, Russia is still the #1 chessplaying country, and many of the top players in countries all over the world are former Russian players. Their kids seem to be BORN playing chess!

My opponent looked about eight years old. He played an opening that I remembered vaguely and after a few moves I wasn't terribly happy with my position. As soon as we castled, he started attacking. This was a little premature, and he wound up losing a piece. I started consolidating and building up an attack on his king, but I was eating up a lot of clock time. At a critical juncture, I missed a winning move. I traded down to an ending where I was better, but not winning. Immediately after that my opponent made a "fingerfehler." That's a German word that means he put his hand on the wrong piece. I was attacking one of his rooks, and all he had to do was move it out of the way, but he put his hand on the other rook and by the rules of chess, he had to move it. I felt sorry for him, but the rules are the rules and I'm sure that if the positions were reversed he would have snapped of the rook without hesitation. A rook ahead, I then won easily.

The rest of my teammates managed to win their games as well.

Scores: Uberhamster: 3 1/2 out of 4, Team 2 out of 4