Game of the Week

Game was played on FICS at 18:06 Saturday Jun 24th. I have black.

1.d4 d5
2.c4 e6
3.cxd5 exd5
4.Nc3 c5
5.dxc5 d4

In the Tarrasch, by black pushing to d4 gives him all the attacking possibilities. I must add though, that Tim our local master roasts me with this line every time.


6.Ne4 Bf5
7.Ng3 Bg6
8.b4 Nc6
9.Nf3 Nxb4
10.Nxd4
I don't know about you, but I love a good Queen Sack, especially when it is sound. Here my opponent has given me a perfect opportunity. Apparently, I saw it nearly immediatly. Since according to my game report from FICS, I only thought about the move for 4 seconds. It must have surprised my opponent, because he thought about his next move for 54 seconds (a long time in speed chess.)

10. ... Qxd4
11.Qxd4 Nc2+


Now I have won the Queen back and profited a whole Knight. I also have removed his castling privileges.

12.Kd1 Nxd4
13.e3


I totally missed the move here. Fritz pointed out that
13. ... Nc2
14. Rb1 Nxe3+
exchanges a knight for a rook and a pawn. That would probably have ended the game right there.

13. ... Nc6
14.Bb5 0-0-0+
15.Ke2 Bxc5
16.Bxc6 bxc6
17.Bb2 Bd3+
18.Kf3 Ne7
19.Rhd1 Bb5


Bb3 was better, but at least I am still winning.

20.Rdc1 Bb4
21.a3 Bd2
22.Rc2 Ba4
23.Rc4 Bb5
24.Rc2 Ba5
25.Bxg7 Rhg8
26.Bf6 Rd7
27.Ne4 Ng6
28.g3 Re8
29.Nc5 Rd6
30.Bd4 Ne5+
31.Bxe5 Rxe5
32.Ne4



I now have a plan as to how to finish my opponent off. I am going to move the Rook to h6, so that he will think that I am attacking his h2 pawn. Then after he defends that pawn, my bishop will drop to d3 forking his Rook and knight. Of course Fritz pointed out that all I had to do was:
32. ... Rxe4
33. Kxe4 Bd3+
Winning another knight.

32. ... Rh6
33.h4 Bd3




34.Rc5?

He thought he could save himself by exchanging the rooks. But the problem was when my bishop takes the knight, white is put in check while un-defending his rook at the same time. White loses a whole rook!

34. ... Bxe4+
White Resigns.

Image of the week

Its a tie.

What can I say, both images are good.

An Embarrassment of Riches

I am sorry I haven't gotten much posted for the last couple of weeks. There has been an illmess in the family and priorities had to be shifted.

So lets start with last week, I noticed this little flower growing in the prarie part of my walk. I don't know what it is, but I thought it was pretty.



The same walk, I noticed this duck, don't be fooled at how small it appears here. He was a good 50 meters away when I took this image. I would say that he was the size of a goose, they can get large. Unfortunatly I have lost contact with the mating pair of ducks I saw this spring.


Last week I was noticing a lot of these little dragon flies all along the bike trail (especially near the creek.)
I assume they are feeding on something that is on the trail.

A few minutes after the above image was taken, I noticed this baby. He is a considerbly larger species. Take note, his wings are barely noticable.
This little feller isn't much to look at, but he sure sings a pretty song. That is all he seems to do. He is a very small little bird, maybe 5 cm long (2 inches.)

This is a Redwinged Blackbird doing what they like to do. Which is clinging to tiny branches. The branch was blowing quite a bit in the wind and I was afraid they would all turn out blurry.

And this cute little guy is a Killdeer, I found him at the end of my walk in my employer's front lawn.

I found this big old frog in a muddy rise in the creek. Yes I am shooting straight down at him. I am on a bridge about 20 feet above him.



And all around him were these tiny little fish.

Thats it for last week, now for this week.


Monday, I saw this cute little squirrel poking his head around the tree at me. Now there are squirrels all over the bike trail and I usually don't mess with them, but in this guy was cute.


Shortly thereafter I started seeing deer. Now I haven't seen deer on the trail in weeks, occasionally I hear them though. And when I do see them it is often very hard to get a clear sharp picture because they are in the trees and the camera focuses on the trees. The manual overide usually takes too long and then the deer are gone. The following four pictures were all taken Tuesday (in about a 5 minute time frame.)







This is the last image from Tuesday, it just a cardinal. But I usually will take what I can get.



Wednesday I saw more deer, the images arn't quite as nice. But I enjoyed taking them. They were from a diffrent section of the park. And to finish everything off, I saw a Great Blue Heron. Unfortunatly, He saw me before I saw him and he was gone. Last year it took me weeks to get a picture of one, they are shy.

Image of the week

Monday, I went out for my usual walk. There hadn't been many birds to take a picture of, but on my last leg of my walk, I spotted this beauty. He was maybe 50 yards off into the prairie, but I snapped a few pictures. Then he took off and landed closer, allowing me to get this shot.

I have identified him as a Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus.)

Game of the Week

Played Fri May 26, 21:14 PDT 2006 on FICS

I have black again. I have also noticed my opponent has a 1400 rating, I was thinking to myself this could be a tough game, I hadn't been playing that hot lately.

1.Nf3

Looks like a Kings Indian defense. I don't know it very well, I usually try to develop and play to the best of my ability and see what happens.

1. ... d5 Yes, I am going to play the Tarrasch.
2.c4 e6

No I am not afraid of the pawn exchange, its not that bad for me. Because after the exchange it releases my light square bishop.

3.b3 c5

I think b3 is questionable, he is wanting to fianchetto his dark square Bishop.
4.Bb2 d4

I push d4 limiting the usefulness of the dark square Bishop and creating the powerful Tarrasch d pawn.

5.d3 Nc6
6.g3 e5





e5 not only supports my strong d4 pawn, but releases my light square Bishop. My d pawn is now firmly entrenched into his territory, it should be a feature for most of the game now. Notice how he is becoming constricted.

7.Bg2 Nf6
8.Nbd2 Be7
9.0-0 0-0
10.Re1 Bg4
11.e3

He wants to get rid of my d4 pawn real bad. So bad that he has pinned his Knight against his Queen. But if he exchanges pawns, I will just retake with my e pawn and still won't be rid of it.

11. ... Qc8
12.exd4 exd4
13.a3

I suspect a totally wasted move.

13. ... Re8
14.Qe2 Bd6
15.Qf1

A cute series of moves to get his Queen over to defend the King side and unpins the Knight.

15. ... Qf5
16.Nh4 Qd7
17.Nhf3 Ne5
18.Nxe5 Bxe5
19.Nf3 Bd6
20.Nd2 Rab8
21.h3

He finally kicks my Bishop. With his Queen down there I can't take the pawn.

21. ... Be6
22.Nf3 Nh5

I want him to kick my knight (pawn to g4), then I can place it on f4.
23.Re2 ???



Oh he tempts me. A rook is worth 5 points, but a Bishop and Knight are worth 6.5 points. But I am going to win at 2 pawns. The idea is B x g3 followed by fg. Then the Knight retakes the pawn forking the Queen and Rook. But wait, after the Queen retakes the Knight, she un-defends the h3 pawn. I will win a total of 3 pawns, ripping apart his King Cage!

23, ... Bxg3
24.fxg3 Nxg3
25.Qf2 Nxe2+
26.Qxe2 Bxh3
27.Ne5 ???




A really questionable move, purpousely pinning his Knight against his Queen; just to get an attack on my Queen which can just move away. He is just digging a deeper hole for himself.

27. ... Qe6
28.Bxh3 Qxh3
29.Re1 Qg3+
30.Kf1 f6
31.Qh5 Rxe5
32.Rxe5 fxe5
33.Bc1 Rf8+
34.Ke2 Qg1
35.Qxe5 Rf2

Check mate!!!