The last two weekends I played in the STC Sunday Swiss tournament at the Internet Chess Club (ICC). The weekly tournament consists of 3 rounds with a time control of 45 minutes and 5 seconds increment. It is fun to have the opportunity to play 3 slow games in a row but it also takes up a 5 hour time slot on a Sunday afternoon.

The position shown here is from my very first game in this tournament series playing Black. White just played 18. Kd2 and it is Black's turn to move. What would you do in this situation? The full annotated game with my less-than-perfect decision can be found here. I actually managed to preserve my 2 pawn material advantage beyond move 50 but ran out of time and lost the game on time after blundering with only seconds left on the clock. Seems that a time control with 5 s increment is simply too fast for me doing even the most simple blunderchecks. Part of the reason for running out of time is that my rudimentary endgame knowledge is still not good enough. It simply took me too much time to figure out a way to use my material advantage.

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written by dwv16, January 30, 2007

Thanks for that link to the STC.

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written by TommyC, February 05, 2007

I would probably try 18... b6 19. Q-moves Bxe5 20. dxe5 R(either)d8+. It seems to keep the white king exposed in the centre.

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written by Sciurus, February 06, 2007

Tom:

driving the white king into the open field is a good idea and exactly what the computer prescribes, see the variation in the annotated game.

However,your analysis does not work out because after 18. ... b6 White HAS to move his queen to c3 and 19. ... Bxe5 leaves the Black queen en prise.

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written by TommyC, February 13, 2007

Good point. I wonder if 19...Qg2 is possible then.

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written by Sciurus, February 14, 2007

That is actually exactly what the computer prescribes:

19. ... Qg2 19. Rg1 Qxf2+ 20. Kd3 c5+ etc.

Too bad I did not see that during the game...

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