2003-02-08 - 11:56 p.m.

The Last Stand

Today was a busy day. First off I had my last game in the preliminaries of the city chess club championship. This was a game I had to win, in order to have any hope of staying in contention for the finals. In point of fact, it may already be too late, as I pointed out here.

There seemed to be some sort of psychic static surrounding the game as well. I tried to do a little studying to prepare myself, but this guy was new to the area so I had no idea what he played. I even called one of the other people he'd already played in the event to scope out his openings, something I've never done before. The laugh was on me though - they'd played the game with the wrong colors! At that point I decided that the fates didn't want me to knew what openings he played, so I should just relax and try to play my best.

Recently my opponent started a new job that requires him to play during club nights, and he's having a hard time making up the games he hasn't played yet. There are two important games for him that are still unplayed, and I've talked to both of his opponents, and they just cannot seem to connect with him. I don't know how this is going to play out, but since I'm not running this tournament, it's not my problem.

Since my opponent couldn't make it to the club Thursdays, we decided to play the game on Saturday afternoon at my place. I could figure out why he didn't want to play at his house - every time I've called him there it sounded like World War Three. I get the impression that the place is rather small and he has a lot of young children - not too good for the kind of peace and quiet chess requires.

We started the game. I was white and he played the French Defense. This is an opening that I know well, but he played a line I wasn't familiar with. I made what I thought were "book" moves, then he made a reply that made me realize that I must have gone wrong somewhere. Oopsie! I settled in for a think to see if I could get myself out of the pickle I was in.

Then, the phone rings! What the hell! It was the Manager, and I have to admit that I was barely civil to him. However, he mainly called to give me a heads-up that Choad-guy looking for his deposit back. What a flake! In retrospect I should have guessed he'd try that, but right then I had other things on my mind. I hung up the phone, sat down again, and it rang again.

What the hell!? At this point I should have just unplugged it without answering it, but instead I picked it up. It was Choad-guy, wanting to talk with me about getting his deposit back. I really, really don't like people calling me at home with business stuff, especially bullshit like that and this was an awkward time, to say the least. I told him that I was busy, and we'd discuss it later. I then hung up the phone, and unplugged it. The sequel to this will be dealt with in another entry.

All the while, my clock was running. It took me another twenty minutes to push my irritation at this bullshit into the background and fully concentrate on the game again. This put me about a half hour behind on the clock.

I made what I felt was the best move in a bad situation. My opponent then astonished me by making a move that didn't take advantage of my uncomfortable position. Not being an idiot, I made sure he couldn't do anything about it next move. I then got a clear advantage, and he began taking longer on the clock. I made him move his king so he couldn't castle, and my pieces started taking over the center of the board.

Pieces kept getting traded off, but I managed to win a pawn. It was starting to look like the game might still be a draw, but time was getting short for both of us. We were both down to about two minutes and I was maybe 20 seconds ahead when he unexpectedly put his rook where one of my pawns could take it. I snatched it off the board, and he just stared at the empty square, shaking his head. He resigned - he just missed that the rook could be taken. He explained that he'd gotten very little sleep the night before, and was having trouble concentrating. That actually made sense - he didn't seem to be playing like himself.

His loss is my gain, quite literally. However in spite of losing to me, he may still beat me out for the last berth in the finals - all he needs is to get one point out of his last two games, and that's it for me. So it goes! Nothing I can do about it now!

With that Lily and I ran off to the second big activity of the day - an Aimee Mann concert in Albany, which I will talk about next entry.