LEP Round 5 and "Thanks!"

Again, no big suprise or upset. Polly ate me like a cracker. It was more of a blitz than a rapid game.

I also wanted to thank DK and Chess Teacher for the helpful suggestions. I've increased the number of posts displayed on the main page and I fixed the height of the chesspublisher so that you don't have the scroll bar to the right.

Not much chess for me this past week or this week ... the kids are on Spring Break and I'm working the night shift, so I'm spending lots of time at Chess Tempo.

LEPers Round 4: Another Loss

No suprise here. Kevin TCB and trashed me. I personally was impressed I lasted as long as I did. The game wasn't really special, so I won't bother posting it.

Three Rounds, Three Loses

OK. The bright side of this predicament is that things can only go up from here. If I lose, then my streak continues (which is fine ... I like streaks). If I win, then it will be the biggest upset of the tournament. I mean if you can't beat me, then you must really suck! :-)

I played really fast in the last two games. In the last game against LEP, I think I had over 21 minutes on my clock when he check-mated me. I should probably work on time management a bit. But what's even more frustrating is taking all that time, thinking deliberately, being careful and having my clock drip down to a minute, and then I make a mistake ... it floors me every time. But if I treat it like a blitz game, then I can always fall back to the excuse, "well, I was playing fast. No big deal." And if I take that approach, the frustration of losing is much, much less.

Bottom line: I'm a slow thinker and learner. I have to take my time every move or else I will foul it up. And even if I take lots of time, I'm still known to make critical mistakes ... all the more reason for me to play longer games (and why I like correspondance chess so much).

But to all the LEPers ... don't take this the wrong way. If this tourny were a 45 45 or G90, chances are I'd still be 0-3.

Round 2 LEPers - RR v RLP

I really think I'm over-rated for this tournament. I knew I was going into it and now at 0-2, I've got proof.

This game was a quick game. Going into it, I had to battle an inferiority complex against the famous Wahrheit. I played him in my very first correspondance game at RedHotPawn. He pwned me big time. Since that loss, I've won every single CC game. Plus, he is a very, very smart and intelligent human being ... just read his blog.

So I tried to play aggressive. It obviously didn't work. He sliced and diced me like a chef making a salad. I was a head of lettuce going into the game and came out stuffed in a bag ready to be made into cole slaw.

Here is where it all came unraveled.

Oh well. There's always next week.

Round 1: LEPers - TheDarkKnightTwo v. RockyRook

The first round of the tournament of LEPers is on. TheDarkKnightTwo and I played. Both our clocks dripped down to a minute. For a few moves towards the end, at least one of our clocks dipped below a minute. I tend to get nervous as it is, but to add time pressure was worse.


In the end, TheDarkKnightTwo won when he pretty much guaranteed either a pawn promotion or by capturing my hanging rook. After Na6, I resigned.

I had my chance when I missed a hanging pawn. Last night was so long ago, but I seem to recall seeing this move. But I didn't realize I missed it until Herr Fritz subtly pointed it out this morning. I exchanged queens, but missed the hanging knight. Of course had I seen the proper move, I was still fighting a formidable opponent who would not go down easy.