Playing on three boards in one round

by Junta

I pass into a medium-sized room accommodating an array of long tables, each with two boards spaced equally along the length of it. The lighting in the room is quite good, and there is a relaxing contrast of colours between the simple light grey tables and the royal blue carpet. I walk over to sit down at one of the boards where an Indian player in his 20's is seated, gazing over the board as Black - he has just played his move, and now it's my turn as White.

 

It had been a hard-fought game, and I was determined to force a draw in this position with perpetual check - I began analysing both 1.Qb6+ and 1.Qe8+, as they both seemed decent.

After 1.Qb6+ I calculated that my queen keeps checking along the 6th rank until the black king reaches h8, when h6 is unavailable because of the queen on d2, but I'll have alternative checks then. Seems alright, I thought, and I proceeded to check how 1.Qe8+ might turn out. I keep checking along the e-file, restricting the king on the queenside - this also looks like it might achieve a draw.

It was difficult to decide between the two moves, and I only had about two and a half minutes left on the clock, with increment - I was leaning more towards 1.Qe8+, but in the next moment I was sitting on the chair adjacent to the one I was just on - I was Black against an Australian IM on the other board on the same table.

This time I was in a complex middlegame, each having queen, both rooks and minor pieces - and although I had an ambitious trio of knight, rook and passed pawn in White's camp, White had an extra piece and the position seemed unclear.

A very vague recollection of the kind of position I had

As I began calculating some lines (again, only having 2-3 minutes on the clock), I had a flashback of what I was doing before walking over and sitting down at the board with the queen endgame. In the adjacent room (or rather the invisible other half of the room, which was divided by a wall running two thirds of the room's width), yes...I had been playing another game in the same round. I was White, and had glanced over at the clock, which showed I had the 1:30 hours to begin with, while my opponent's time was down to a minute and a half - he hadn't arrived yet.

So, it seemed one win was guaranteed (though I had a miniscule suspicion that the third mystery opponent was coming late on purpose, arriving with seconds on the clock to throw me off), in another game I was fighting for a draw, and for the third it was an unclear position but I somehow didn't feel so confident in winning.



N.B. This was a dream I had two nights ago. The first game with the queen endgame is interesting in that I could not comprehend that Qb6+-Qc6+-Qd6+ wouldn't be possible on account of 3...Qxd6, and in fact White's quickest path to a draw is with 1.Qb6+ Kc8 2.Qxb3, which I did not even consider - or maybe its just that the position isn't clearly defined inside the dream. The stress of one game is big enough in a classical tournament, so dealing with simultaneous games felt pretty intense.

A short novelty consultation

by Junta

A friend came up to me and asked if I could have a look at a variation he prepared - he was paired against a certain Australian junior the next round, probably later on that day. Although he was Black, I stood looking down at the White side of a board on a table. He showed me:

1.c4 e5 2.e4 Ke7

I was surprised - this definitely looked like a novelty, and an interesting one at that. If White was unable to punish it straight away, then maybe it would become a playable sideline. Left at the board alone, I started examining White's critical attempts - 3.Qh5, 3.Nc3, 3.d4, 3.f4...

3.Qh5 Nc6 - Black defends e5 easily, and will harass White's queen with tempo next with ...g6 (followed by ...Bg7) or ...Nf6. This attempt would be too crude.

3.Nc3 c6 - Black will follow up with ...d6, ...Nd7, ...g6, ...Bg7 - that looks quite solid. But surely there's a reason the king move has never been seen before. How could the game continue from here?

Pressuring e5 and opening lines up should be White's plan - let's say 4.f4 d6 5.Nf3 Nd7 6.d4 g6

Hmm...what does Black do if White just develops? Be2, O-O, Be3, Qd2... 7.Be2 Bg7 8.O-O Nh6 aha, so if 9.Be3, ...Ng4 with tempo. 9.h3 f6 And here I realised what my friend's plan must be - ...Nf7, ...Re8 and ...Kf8-g8, castling artificially!

After checking over the lines as well as examining other insignificant lines, I called my friend over to deliver my verdict. "It's an interesting novelty, but I'm not totally convinced. Your next opponent loves to have space and attack, so wouldn't this opening be helping him too much? I think you should stick with your normal repertoire this time." But I felt that the novelty was worth something, adding "But trying this line out in a game - it will definitely be a good learning experience for you."





N.B. This was a dream I had last night. Usually things are much more exciting in my occasional chess dreams, often playing in a tense tournament game myself, but usually I can't remember the positions and moves as well as here. Waking up, I wondered how the poor move 2...Ke7 could be considered ok, but in the dream it only felt like a sub-optimal, but playable move.
 

Lost in Limbo

By Moulthun

"I've come back for you... to remind you of something. Something you once knew but chose to forget...To take a leap of faith" (Cobb from the film "Inception")

It is often the case that many chess players will subconsciously think about the
game, or their past experiences. Though none would really admit to doing so on
a regular basis, it becomes almost like a craving for our minds. I, however admit
that it's absolutely normal, especially during tournaments. What i recall is somewhat
of a blur most of the time, in terms of the games played. There's always a lot happening
around the board taking away from my awareness. Or perhaps I'm simply not at a high
enough level to do so; I'm no Fischer or Bronstein...

So why are we talking about dreams if i don't even remember my own?
Actually I was watching an old Japanese animated film called "Paprika". Which is about a new revolutionary psychotherapy treatment, called dream therapy. Where a device allows the therapist to enter into the patients own dreams and subconscious thoughts, using an altar ego. It's quite bizarre to watch, and the writers are quite amazing to have put together such original ideas. Can be difficult though to follow the storyline, as it will take you through unexpected twists and turns. The most useful feature of the device in the film, is being able to capture and view it later on a screen. Should remember though it would be short clips, since hours in the dream state is only minutes in the actual world. :))



Somewhat reminded me of another film (which I've been stealing quotes from). But while writing this I remembered another quite famous game of David Bronstein. Although "consciously" speaking he never actually played it, just the quality of play when i first saw it was quite high for someone fast asleep. Apart from move 13, which looked pretty bad. If i ever remember any of my own games of this quality, I will be sure to post it!