He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the July Panera Thursday night tournament.  I have been playing in these events the past three months to make sure I had recorded games to publish for this newsletter.  The bonus was that I have placed in all three events and earned back my entry fees plus some.

The problem was that I couldn't seem to play well consistently enough to go unbeaten, which I probably should have at least once.  In May, I won 3 out of 4 losing to Jason Loving.  In June, I won 4 out of 5 losing to James Powers.  This month I again went 3 out of 4, but I lost to the youngest of the victors.  This time it was Kurt Kondracki who kept me from going unbeaten.

It is always tough losing to kids when playing chess, and when I say kids, I mean someone who can't legally drive yet.  However, there are different coping strategies an adult chess player can employ to make the loss less painful.

1. Check the Top 100 list - Colorado doesn't get many players in the top 100, so if your opponent is named:

• Mulyar (#69 Overall)
• Baffo (#28 Correspondence)
• Barber (#58 Correspondence)
• Wise (#84 Women's Quick, #85 Women, #43 Girls Under 21)
• Buchanan (#74 Over 65 Quick, #100 Over 65)
• Yu (#87 Under 13 Quick, #49 12 yr old)
• Loving (#99 16yr old)
• Kondracki (#42 14yr old)
• Martinez (#75 14 yr old)
• Zhou (#98 14 yr old)
• Chen (#52 13 yr old)
• Alter (#34 9 yr old)
• Narayanan (#38 9 yr old)
• Lasley (#91 Girls Under 21)
• Alter (#84 Girls Under 13)

Then you just lost to one of the top players in their category.

2. Check the current rating of other kids you lost to in the past - I remember losing to youngsters Josh Bloomer and Tyler Hughes.  Josh earned his National Master Certificate in 2004 and is rated 2225.  Tyler not only earned his National Master Certificate (2007) but also went on to earn the norms for the Life Master Title (USCF) and FIDE Master Title and is rated 2326.

So, when you lose to a kid, you can deal with the loss by using the John The Baptist philosophy:

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

John 3:30 KJV

Just think to yourself, "I didn't lose to a kid, I lost to the next master."  The longer you play chess without becoming a master yourself, the more you appreciate the difficulty of the task.

Then you realize the times you lost to someone, who later became a master, are not so much a defeat as a badge of honor.  Perhaps what they learned from beating you helped them climb to the pinnacle.  At least, some of your rating points certainly helped.  And while you may not reach the summit yourself, you were a part of the journey when someone reached the peak.

So, while I fought to win this game, Kurt came up with the better plan.  I thought I could just defend and hold off his attack, but the "defense first" mode was too passive and gave me no winning chances.  By the time I reached this position, I was out of good moves.

White to move

I asked Kurt, "What do you think I should do?"

He just replied, "Resign."

Sometimes that is your best move.

He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease.

[Event "July Panera"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2011.07.21"]
[Round "3.1"]
[White "Kondracki, Kurt"]
[Black "Anderson, Paul"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A42"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[EventDate "2011.07.07"]
[TimeControl "5400"]

1. d4 c6 2. c4 g6 3. e4 d6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. Be3 Nf6 6. f3 Na6 7. Qd2 c5 8. d5 O-O 9. Bh6 Nb4 10. O-O-O Kh8 11. Nge2 Nd3+ 12. Qxd3 Bxh6+ 13. Kb1 Bd7 14. g4 Ne8 15. h4 Nc7 16. g5 Bg7 17. h5 Kg8 18. f4 Bg4 19. hxg6 fxg6 20. Rh4 Bh5 21. f5 Be5 22. Qh3 Rf7 23. Rd2 Qf8 24. Nf4 Bxf4 25. Rxf4 Qg7 26. Be2 Bxe2 27. Rxe2 Raf8 28. Rh2 a6 29. Rh4 b5 30. Rh6 b4 31. Ne2 Qe5 32. Ng3 Qd4 33. Rh1 Qd3+ 34. Ka1 Rg7 35. Rxh7 Ne8 36. Rxg7+ Nxg7 37. Qh7+ Kf7 38. Qxg6+ Kg8 39. Nh5 Qd4 40. f6 Rf7 41. Nxg7 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=66936

This Week In Chess

On July 26th, the CSCC had 5 members in attendance.  The participants played Risers blitz (G5), where winners move up and loser move down.  NM Josh Bloomer played on the top board most of the night while Alex Torres struggled on the bottom board.  However, I finally won (draw and 2 wins, actually) on the top board and quit.