Like a roller coaster. The graph on ChessTempo looks like the Rocky Mountains. I'm either hot or cold. Today I was both. But I got in about 50 problems tonight finishing with a streak of 15 correct.
Logical Chess
Read through game 20. More Queen's Gambit stuff. Black actually put up a pretty good defense for a while, but through the course of the game, White placed a Knight, a Bishop, a Rook and a Queen on c5. Do ya think that was a critical square?
Play
I played two blitz games tonight. It didn't start off well. I was mated in nine freaking moves!! It was utterly humiliating.
I played the same person again and won in 54 moves. I guess that is some consolation.
The triumph of the night was my big comeback. Because I suck at chess, I typically blunder openings, let my pieces get trapped and then try to play catchup the rest of the game. After I lost the exchange (my rook for his bishop), I somehow managed to control the c-file and interestingly enough, my putting the knight on c5 made all the difference in the game.
After Black played 26 ... b6, I played 27. Na6+ Kb7 28. Rxc6 Rxc6 29. Qxd5 Qd6 30. Qf7+ Kxa6 31. b5+ Ka5 32. bxc6.
I still wasn't out of the clear, but it was roughly equal. I gobbled up pawns while I could. Eventually I forced him to exchange queens and my e-pawn broke free and it was a race between my e-pawn and his b-pawn. After we both queened our pawns, I again forced the exchange of queens and my king and two pawns had the whole board to ourselves and Black resigned! (67 moves) It really felt good to win!
