Well today since I am on vacation, I got up early and played a couple of test games in the morning. Then I went upstairs and heated up a left over Curry from last night for lunch.
After lunch I went back down into my den and sat there wondering what to start next. Well anyway the TM Vancouver was staring me in the face so I thought OK why not just play a game myself and to heck if I get beat or not. So since TM Vancouver was already set up at 30 seconds per move, I started to play a game. Just me and Vancouver and no other computers running in the background and no cheating!
[Event "Computer Chess Match - 60/30"]
[Site "Pelham, Alabama, USA"]
[Date "2013.07.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nick"]
[Black "Mephisto TM 36 Mhz Vancouver"]
[Result "1-0"]
[BlackElo "2341"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "2013.07.08"]
[EventType "game"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6
[fen]rnbqk2r/ppp2ppp/3b4/3p4/3Pn3/3B1N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 0 7[/fen]
I think it was here that I started to get the familiar panic feeling because this is normally about as far my book knowledge goes before I start getting nervous. After all it really is very seldom that I actually play a game myself.
7. O-O O-O 8.
Re1 f5 9. c4 c6 10. Nc3 Bb4 11. Qb3
[fen]rnbq1rk1/pp4pp/2p5/3p1p2/1bPPn3/1QNB1N2/PP3PPP/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 11[/fen]
Here I was tempted to play Qc2 but then thought that the diagonal b3 to g8 looked more promising. I felt a little panicked because of Black's Knight sitting on e4, but I felt I needed to open up some counter play instead of worrying too much about the Knight. When Vancouver decided to exchange his Bishop for my Knight in the next move I was actually quite pleased because I now felt that I had a chance of controlling all the diagonals
Bxc3 12. bxc3 Kh8 13. cxd5 cxd5 14. Ne5 Nc6
[fen]r1bq1r1k/pp4pp/2n5/3pNp2/3Pn3/1QPB4/P4PPP/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 15[/fen]
In the above position I was happy to exchange Knights because I just felt that my Bishops had control of all the key diagonals. So getting rid of the Knights just seemed to make sense.
15. Nxc6 bxc6 16. Bf4 Qh4
[fen]r1b2r1k/p5pp/2p5/3p1p2/3PnB1q/1QPB4/P4PPP/R3R1K1 w - - 0 17[/fen]
When I played Bf4, I just knew that Vancouver would be tempted to play Qh4. I guess in some ways knowing your dedicated computers gives you an advantage.
17. g3 Qh5 18. Kg2 a5 19. f3 Ng5 20. Bxg5 Qxg5 21. f4
Qd8 22. Re5 Bd7 23. Rae1
[fen]r2q1r1k/3b2pp/2p5/p2pRp2/3P1P2/1QPB2P1/P5KP/4R3 w - - 0 23[/fen]
OK now from this position onwards I was absolutely sure that I could not mess up and lose. My rooks control the open file and my Bishop stands good and my Queen has a lot of choices.
Rb8 24. Qa3 Kg8 25. R1e2
[fen]1r1q1rk1/3b2pp/2p5/p2pRp2/3P1P2/Q1PB2P1/P3R1KP/8 w - - 0 25[/fen]
Here I actually played patiently (which is unusual for me) with the R1e2 that covers the b2 square from any counterattack before getting started with my Queen.
Qb6 26. Qd6 Rbd8 27. Re7 Rf6
28. Qe5 Rf7
[fen]3r2k1/3bRrpp/1qp5/p2pQp2/3P1P2/2PB2P1/P3R1KP/8 w - - 0 29[/fen]
Here TM Vancouver I guess finally decided to give up after Rf7?
29. Rxf7 Kxf7 30. Qd6 Kg8 31. Re7 Be8 32. Qe5 Qb2+ 33. Kh3 Bf7 34.
Qxf5 Bg6 35. Qe6+ Kh8 36. Bxg6 Qe2 1-0
Anyway I have to say that I am really pleased with this game because everything just played out so smoothly and I have honestly not played a game myself in absolute ages.
So that's it the one and only game that I will likely ever post played by yours truly about an hour ago.
Best regards,
