Last week, I played 4-5 games in a bar with my friend who has an expert rating (he peaked at about 2200). I've never won a fair game against him (I won once, but he'd given me a takeback and some advise).
Each time I was white, I played e4. He met it with the French twice (his specialty), and won quite soundly. In another, he played the Sicilian - an opening I don't understand and get frequently lost. In fact, I lost in each and every game I played him, as usual. HOWEVER, I almost won one. He blundered, and I was up a piece. I tried to trade down too quickly, while his Queen was mopping up loose pawns. The endgame saw my Bishop and 4 pawns versus his 7 pawns. With shoulder-to-shoulder passed pawns, and his King on that side to support it, he managed to clear them down to the bottom to promote a Queen and it was game over. It was an exciting game, but a real heartbreaker to lose.
In future, I'll try to write these matches down to show you how I did (good or bad). Be aware though, that these games are casual - played without a clock, usually over a drink or two. So even my "near win" should be put in persective as we're not playing in tournament conditions here.
No comments:
Post a Comment