It’s hard to think of an appropriate title for today’s post, because most of the titles I can think of are not appropriate for family viewing! I lost my sixth-round game in the Santa Cruz Cup in the most annoying possible way. Playing the White pieces against Ilan Benjamin, who was tied for first place with me, I reached the following position after 26 moves:
On the previous move I had actually thought of offering a draw, because there’s not much to play for here. The natural move would be 27. Rd4. But here I had a sudden “inspiration” — let’s try a kingside pawn storm! And so without even checking it, I played 27. g3?? Qxf3+.
Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s check. Oops.
Of course, time was a huge factor here. I had 11 minutes left for 14 moves, and Ilan had about 50.
I absolutely hate losing a game this way, because there is nothing chess-wise that I can learn from it. What’s the moral here? Don’t blunder away pawns in a dead even position? Thanks, but I already know that.
The only lessons are the same old lessons of psychology and time trouble, which I have learned a million times already. Don’t get in time trouble. And when you are low on time, don’t get so nervous that you start making ridiculous mistakes. I know these things. But try as I might, I can’t seem to make the lessons stick.
For example, take my time management strategy for this game. My goal was to make the first 10 moves in 10 minutes, the next 10 moves in 20 minutes, and the next 10 moves in 30 minutes. So how did I do? Let’s see…
First 10 moves: 4 minutes. (Yeah!!)
Second 10 moves: 90 minutes. (Uh… Do you see something wrong with this picture?)
Third 10 moves: 20 minutes and one losing blunder.
Need I say anything more? The seeds of my defeat were already sown in the second 10 moves.
