nygren.ca

Agreed.

Your main advantage in this game was that with all my pawns so spread apart my unmobilized pieces were extremely vulnerable. If you had pushed the issue early, you probably could have crushed me, but you let me get my queenside activated, and once I had the extra pieces in play, especially considering that I was more able to use my rooks than you were... the end result was you being forced to make that gamble, because it was a matter of time until I won otherwise.

I sort of figured you would concede at this point. It was a desperation move by you, and it WAS very nice. I had to be very, very careful not to get wrecked by it. But failing the desperation bid ended the game pretty solidly. I have a two rook advantage in the lategame and that's pretty insurmountable.

yeah I pretty much worked all those things out as well. oh well, it was worth a try, as the only advantage that I held on you was that your king was in the open. It was starting to get hard avoiding exchanges, so I went for it. Would you mind if I conceded so we can start a new one? or would you prefer to try to mate me?

Note: By "secondary checkmate" I mean Ke1 Re2#. At first I didn't see that. I had originally only considered Kg3 Ne2#. Fortunately when I initially took your queen I had this option (what I did) setup as a backup plan, lol.

I saw all the stuff but I didn't see the secondary checkmate. I also saw a checkmate option for you if I took one of your rooks with my queen first, so I didn't go that route because I knew I could get out of it going this way, lol.

yeah, i thought i could finish you without my queen, but as usual ii overlooked 1 thing.

Too many checkmate options for you in that series. I'm glad I thought long and hard before taking your queen.

Ya know, the two players I'm learning the most from about chess are you and surprisingly Justin. Moreso Justin, lately. With you I'm slowly learning about piece placement and structural concerns, whereas with Justin I'm learning the subtleties of positioning, trading down for advantage, and jockeying for subtle positional advantage rather than material. He's playing so consistently lately that I've been getting into a lot of trouble.

I paid that price to Clark... Fortunately I had already pinned his queen, getting it for a bishop, and sold mine for a knight and a rook so came out ahead.

yeah, I usually pay special attention to that when my queen is in that spot.

I was wondering if you were going to pay enough attention to not get your queen pinned, lol.

Yeah. Though I seriously screwed up taking that pawn, lol. I realized it JUST after clicking accept. I actually lost 30 minutes of sleep over it, ahahahaha.

ahh, I was looking at the other rook. Just goes to show how valuable pawns can be.

Actually I meant taking my knight with your queen. I couldn't have taken your knight with my pawn without giving you my rook in exchange, so it was a free knight.

ahh yes queen to h3...oh well, I'm trying to write a take home final, so I've just been going with whatever comes to mind first.

You had me dead to rights before you made your last move, lol. You might still have me, but you gave me some serious breathing space with that.

I'm not sure whats going on here, but I think I like my chances.

I realized as soon as I took the pawn that this would end badly for me, lol. I almost gave you the free checkmate. ^^;

Iwas wondering that too.

Now here's the interesting question... is it worth blowing up my queenside pawn structure to have taken your bishop? :D