lose quickly on occasion. [here, Najdorf, one of the greatest chess players never to have become world champion goes down in under 20 moves...] Which gives me some hope, as I lose quickly rather often, particularly in drawish positions against Charles. Here's the latest loss...
Wouldn't it be nice if I was clever enough to put this in .pgn and have a little board on the blog?
Charles v. Me (corr. Aug-Sept 08)
1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 c5
[I meant to play ...e5, so quite early we see the lack of grey matter taking its toll]
3. d5 b5
4. cxb5 e6
5. Nc3 Bb7
6. e4 Qa5
7. Bd2 Qc7
[Black's Queen dance makes it harder for White to hold onto the pawn, but it does cost time]
8. Be2 exd5
9. exd5 Nxd5
10. Nf3 Be7
11. 0-0 Nf6
[at this point I originally tried to play ...axb5, forgetting that the pawn was on a7 not a6. D'uh]
12. Re1 d5
13. Rc1 0-0
14. Bg5 Nbd7
15. b4 Rfe8
[White's pressure means that Black is unable to keep his passed pawn connected. More care might have averted that...]
16. bxc5 Qxc5
17. Nd4 Rac8
18. Na4 Qa3
19. Rxc8 Rxc8
20. Bg4 Bb4
21. Re3
[at this point I resigned until Charles pointed out that my rook could get to e1 after a few moves... Poor J, his brain is really not happy at the moment!]
21. ... Qc1
22. Re8+ Rxe8
23. Bxc1 Re1+
24. Qxe1 Bxe1
25. Bxd7 Nxd7
26. Be3 a6?!
[the endgame goes downhill from here with increasing speed...]
27. b6 Bb4
28. Nb3 Kf8??
29. Bc5+ 1-0
White ends up with a knight on c5 and thus wins a piece for the passed b-pawn. What a shambles!
