{"id":43,"date":"2007-11-19T09:59:10","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T17:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2007-11-19T09:59:10","modified_gmt":"2007-11-19T17:59:10","slug":"round-robin-bliss-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=43","title":{"rendered":"Round robin bliss, part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know why it is, but somehow I lead a charmed life in these Santa Cruz Cup tournaments. I do not consider myself a particularly lucky player most of the time, but in my local\u00c2\u00a0championship I somehow keep pulling off these\u00c2\u00a0amazing escapes.<\/p>\n

Here’s my latest Houdini trick, which happened in round three yesterday against Jim Parker, who is the lowest-rated player in the field. I’m always a little\u00c2\u00a0apprehensive about games where I am paired against someone whose rating is a lot lower than mine\u00c2\u00a0(here the difference was 600 points). Jim and I have played many times and we know each other’s openings and\u00c2\u00a0styles, which makes him even harder to beat.<\/p>\n

I played a King’s Gambit but didn’t get a lot out of it, and eventually (after a few mistakes for both sides, which I don’t particularly want to discuss \ud83d\ude0e )\u00c2\u00a0we reached the following completely drawn endgame:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I played 48. Ne7 and seriously considered offering a draw, but there was one more trap in the position, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to wait and see Jim’s reply. Sure enough, Jim was too focused on winning my queenside pawns and played 48. … Kb4??, allowing 49. Nc6+! with an easy win for White. All he had to do was play one bishop move, say 48. …. Bf6, and I have no way to stop his king incursion.<\/p>\n

Jim saw his mistake right away, even before he pressed his clock. I saw him flinch visibly. It’s a strange psychological phenomenon — you look at\u00c2\u00a0a move for 5 minutes and don’t see anything wrong with it, but the instant you actually move the piece, it becomes totally obvious. In Think Like a Grandmaster<\/a><\/em>, Alexander Kotov recommends writing down your move first before playing it, in order to overcome this exact problem. I tried that system\u00c2\u00a0for one game and hated it. Nevertheless, I do sometimes (if time permits) visualize having made the move<\/em>. If I were Black I would say, “Okay, I’ve just moved my king to b4. Is there anything different about the position? Anything I will immediately regret?”<\/p>\n

Some lessons:<\/p>\n