Motorcycles, Chess, and Life
Yesterday I played my first G/30 over the board in many years. And then I played three more. G/30 means that each player has 30 minutes on their clock. It used to be my favorite time control back when I played lots of 30 minute games on the internet. In recent years, however, I mostly play blitz on the net, and so have lost my 30 minute think.
I now understand why when I was still a really horrible player (not that I'm good now, I'm just better than I was) I'd sometimes chalk up wins against much stronger opponents at this time control. It's too long for quick blitz-type moves and it's too short for really thinking about what's going on. If you're not used to it, it's very easy to screw up on time management.
The tournament in question was held at a Jesuit high school cafeteria. Oddly, it's one of the nicer venues I've played in.
I chalked up two expected wins against much lower rated players and fought like a cornered wolverine against two much higher rated opponents. Both games against the higher rated players I had good chances until my clock started getting low on time. In the first, I blundered away a nice even (perhaps even slightly superior) game when my clock hit around 5 minutes. In my second loss, I had a won endgame, but no time in which to execute it. While thinking about how to finish it, my flag fell and my opponent won.
This is the position right before I started blundering under time pressure against an opponent rated 500 points higher than me. It's black to move on move 22. After 22. ... e6 and then 23. g4 Ra5? things got ugly quickly. Ra3 was the move I should have made pinning the dark square bishop so that I could lunch upon white's d-pawn. I saw that move a little too late.
One thing that is clear from my performance recently is that I am getting a lot better and that if I can stick with it this time, I'll probably achieve a class or two higher in a few months. Heavy tactics training and learning openings by osmosis through blitz over the last 6 months has done more for my game than all the theory books combined over the last 10 years. Now if I can just play consistently, I'll have a much better time of things.
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