Ettalong chess games - instructive

Illustrative games of various themes that typically occur.
All the games in .pgn format
All the games in .pgn format zipped

Taking things too lightly

We've all done it, falling into a pattern; this pattern develops over time of course by our not being punished, or not recognising that punishment for what it is when it happens, for lax play/attitude. Of course I'm not advocating playing for blood all the time; but perhaps a modicum of clarity - well if that's what you are playing for anyway.

[Event "Social game"]
[Site "Ettalong Australia"]
[Date "1998.??.??"]
[White "Farrell, Keith"]
[Black "Porter, Les"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C42"]
[Annotator "Keith Farrell"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. Be2 ?! { the first signs of being slack} 5... Nxe4 6. Nd4 ?! 6... Qf6 ! 7. f3 ? { absolutely preposterous, clearly I thought somehow I could do anything no matter how much of a 'start' I gave Les. Perhaps thinking that I could later get back in the game with aggressive combinations and force of personality, Les had recently shown much improvement however and this time just kept his cool.} 7... Qh4+ 8. g3 Nxg3 9. fxg4 (9. hxg3 Qxh1+ 10. Bf1 Bh3 (10... Bd7 11. Nc3 Qh2 12. Qe2+ Qxe2+ 13. Ndxe2 Nc6 14. Bg2 ) (10... Nc6 11. Qe2+ Kd7 12. Nxc6 Bxf3 13. Ne5+ dxe5 14. Qxe5 ) 11. Qe2+ Be7 12. Nc3 ... Bxf1 ) 9... Nxh1+ 10. Kf1 Qf2# 0-1

Being misled by glittering objects & Getting frustrated

A little background - this was round three; I had been pretty much smashed up in the previous two: Round 1 was a loss against a previous Ladies Australian Champ so maybe not so bad but I crashed & burned in quite poor play, round 2 was also a poor effort so along comes round 3! Nine O'clock on a winter's morning, I could barely feel my fingers. So I wasn't exactly in the mood to resign after I had done so poorly in the opening - too embarassed to get up after having travelling so far to be *in* the tournament (800 kilometres or so; though I was travelling in a group of about 4 "chessnuts").

[Event "Albury Open"]
[Site "Albury, Australia"]
[Date "1984.06.10"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Warren, A."]
[Black "Farrell, Keith"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D10"]
[WhiteElo "1150"]
[BlackElo "1300"]
[Annotator "Keith Farrell"]
[PlyCount "86"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bd7 5. Nf3 5... e6 { the whole idea of 2..c6 is to avoid blocking the white Bishop} 6. a3 Be7 7. Qc2 O-O 8. cxd5 cxd5 9. Bd3 Nc6 10. e4 Rc8 11. e5 Ne8 12. Bxh7+ Kh8 13. Bd3 13... f6 ?! 14. Be3 fxe5 15. Nxe5 Bf6 16. Ng6+ Kg8 17. Qe2 {getting ready to make the kill rather than the rather mundane affair of winning the Rook - it doesn't look as if black can escape since Qh4 sets up discovered check} 17... Nxd4 18. Qh5 Kf7 19. Ne5+ Ke7 20. Bxd4 {And now I concluded I had truly blown any chance in the game; and the only interest I had left was to just 'see' how far my King could wander onto the Queenside, THEN I'd resign} 20... Kd6 21. f4 Kc7 22. Bxa7 ? 22... b6 23. Ba6 23... Ra8 {Even though this is pretty much the ONLY move, you can see my only ambition to get King on a8} 24. Nb5+ Bxb5 25. Bxb5 Rxa7 26. Nc6 Qd6 27. Nxa7 Bxb2 28. Rb1 28... Bc3+ {Round about here it dawned on me that I was still in the game, I also became aware of my opponents growing frustration at not finding 'the quick kill', or perhaps I was giving him emotions *I* would suppose *I* would be feeling} 29. Kd1 Qxf4 30. Qe2 Nd6 31. Bd3 Qa4+ 32. Qc2 Qg4+ 33. Be2 Qd4+ 34. Qd3 Qa4+ 35. Qc2 Qd4+ 36. Bd3 36... Qg4+ {I offered a draw, Allan (who had certainly not been rushing his moves, not like me but then I had had a game that was pretty much shot) said thoughtfully 'I think I can find a way out'. The way out was *not* good for white.} 37. Qe2 Qa4+ 38. Kc1 Qxa3+ 39. Kc2 Bd4 40. Rhc1 40... Qa4+ { The text is not the strongest line by any means but played for 'psychological' reasons - also to 'rush' the last few moves up to the time limit (which is faulty reasoning anyway).} (40... Rf2 41. Kd1+ Kb7 42. Nb5 Nxb5 43. Qxf2 Bxf2 44. Bxb5) 41. Kd2+ Kb7 42. Qxe6 Rf2+ 43. Ke1 Qa5+ { White had used 107 mins; Black 32 mins} 0-1

The Chicken draw

We all strive to play as objectively as possible, but mostly get caught up in emotional byways which is sometimes necessary when we face an objectively lost position for example or one where we are faced with a lot of work for (at most) a point. Sometimes you find yourself afraid to lose, conversely if your opponent is rated far below you (or you're the lower one) and a draw offer comes your way do you accept it gladly or be objective ?

I am lucky in that I haven't had many real chicken draws, the previous one was over 15 years before where my opponent and I had got into a particularly wild and silly position and had been doing embarrassingly poorly that we both gladly jumped at the idea of a draw - with much mutual relief. Such is the embarrassment that you probablly won't ever get to see that one, nor would you want to, yet the following is a strange example too.

My opponent had made an early error and blown a piece, thus I was motoring on when I found myself in a bad patch, whether it was because tiredness was overcoming me(I had been going shortish of sleeps for the last few nights), or whatever but I would make certain moves and find myself dismayed that I had missed so&so as refutation - even so far as letting Les back into the game (though I knew I had a powerful endgame even if I 'lost' the piece I was ahead. After a few seconds or so dismay & disappointment I would realize that of course I was wrong - there was no easy refutation; that yes I was playing poorly but not fatally; that I was seeing things, after going thru this process 3 or 4 times (and being very secure about my position in the tournament), I quickly offered a draw hoping to end the travesty. Les was quite happy to accept.

[Event "Ettalong Winter B"]
[Site "Ettalong NSW"]
[Date "1998.09.22"]
[Round "2.2"]
[White "Farrell, Keith"]
[Black "Porter, Les"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "1313"]
[BlackElo "1066"]
[Annotator "Keith Farrell"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "1998.??.??"]

{I had won the first game of the double round} 1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nc6 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bb5 {I've alway had this weakness for pinning pieces just for the sake of the pin alone, I've mostly recovered from that habit though sometimes I have a relapse} 4... Bd7 5. d4 Nf6 6. e5 Ne4 7. O-O Na5 8. Bxd7+ Qxd7 9. Re1 d5 10. e6 $6 10... Qxe6 11. dxc5 Rc8 12. b4 Nc4 13. Qd4 f6 14. Nfd2 Ncxd2 15. Nxd2 Qf5 16. Nxe4 dxe4 17. Qxe4 {I thought I'd get it all out of the way early on, already (in hindsight) you can see evidence of my rushed play (not so much in time though by the tebnth move I had used 8 mins and by the 16th 11 mins only). Certainly shallow play, missing the most accurate in trying to force the issue. } 17... Qd7 18. Be3 e5 19. Rad1 Qc7 20. f4 $1 20... b6 21. fxe5 fxe5 22. Bf4 ( 22. Rd5 Be7 (22... bxc5 23. Rxe5+ Be7 24. Bxc5 $18) 23. Rxe5 Kf7 24. Qd5+ Kf8 25. c4 25... Bf6 $18) 22... Be7 23. Bxe5 Qc6 24. Qxc6+ Rxc6 25. Bd6 bxc5 26. Bxe7 {missing the following line, though I didn't see what I had missed until long after, this is probably the starting point of indecisive and unsure play - perhaps through a greatly reduced tension over the board} (26. Rxe7+ Kd8 27. Rxa7 Rxd6 (27... cxb4 28. Bxb4+ Kc8 29. Ra8+ Kc7 30. Rxh8 h6 31. Rhd8 $18) 28. Rxd6+ 28... Kc8 $18) 26... cxb4 27. Bxb4+ {the second best move - almost immediately after playing this I saw that Rd8 was much more powerful. After using 19 mins on the 1st 25 moves I raced thru the following 10 moves in something like 2 mins} 27... Kf7 28. Rd7+ Kg6 29. Rd6+ $6 29... Rxd6 30. Bxd6 Rd8 31. Bb4 h5 32. a3 {I thought at the time this was simply a conservative preparation to unleashing my own rook on the while ensuring black's rook could not snatch my queenside pawns. Muddy thinking though since it restrics the Bishop so.} 32... Kh6 33. Kf2 g5 34. Ke3 {*inviting* the exchange, which I certainly wouldn't mind, not exactly positive play though and really a sign of sloppy, lazy thinking.} 34... Rd5 35. Re2 a5 36. Be7 {Ke4 simpler} 36... Rd1 37. Rd2 {I thought, wrongly, that this move and the previous both allowed a check that would win the Bishop, a panic set in and I actually thought I might play worse with each new move. Thus I offered a draw, Les didn't take long before accepting.} 1/2-1/2