Game Of The Week
This week's game comes from my database of 1,030 standard-rated, USCF games. The database came to an abrupt halt on March 10, 2020 after my 42nd win over Mark "The Money-Man" McGough. Then the club was shut down.
Mark is the Treasurer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club and my most frequent opponent since 2010. We have been working to get the Acacia Ballroom back open, but the Housing Authority controls the space and does not seem to be in any hurry to re-open. I guess they don't need our pittance of rent. So, we are looking into going back to off-site venues like the club did in the past.
One site where we played was Dean Brown's events on the Air Force Academy. Mark and I first faced each other at those events (USAFA NoEF Quads #2 2010). He got the first win and jumped out to a +3-2 game lead. However, I have caught up since then.
1 Anderson,Paul (1934) 43.5/58
0110011011111½1011111111111½1011111½1101001101001110111111
2 McGough,Mark (1821) 14.5/58
1001100100000½0100000000000½0100000½0010110010110001000000
Anyway, the reason I was looking at my database was to see if I had ever played the Polish (1. b4).
I am doing another season of my take on LM Brian Wall's 40 Move Challenge. The idea is to win with every legal opening move. Initially, I thought I could get it done in a couple of months. However, it was much harder than I thought. You don't always get 4 rounds each week if turnout is light. Also, the Renaissance Festival re-opened this year, and I missed a bunch of events to play chess as a Monk.
The last move I had to complete was 1. b4 since I had drawn it against Vedant Margle in March. Finally, this week, I won my first-round game with the Polish and finished my second season of the #40MC!
Now, I could look at the numbers and see how I did. A perfect score would be 40 attempts and 100%. However, I have a lot more room for improvement on Openings to hit that milestone. I am just glad to see I improved over last year by finishing in 10 less attempts. My Achilles heel was with the Black King Pawns this year.
One of the nice things about these Irregular Openings is that they can throw your opponent off his habitual pattern recognition and create early mistakes, especially in Rapid time control. My game this week went that way:
1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 Bxb4 3. Bxe5 Nc6 4. Bxg7
Of course, I knew I was playing something unfamiliar to myself and had drawn it the last time. Also, I wanted to get this year's challenge completed. So, I was taking my time and posted a 98.5% accuracy score and the game was never in question, which is nice for getting past the challenge but not nice for having a tactic for the blog.
However, the database revealed that I had played one game that started 1. b4. Jerry Maier used to direct tournaments for the club and threw the Polish at me. I avoided any early blunders from the shock factor but missed a tactic in this position.
 |
| Black to move |
40 Move Challenge, Part II
[Event "June Mating Game"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2007.06.19"]
[Round "3.1"]
[White "Maier, Jerry"]
[Black "Anderson, Paul"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1254"]
[BlackElo "1861"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2007.06.12"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
1. b4 d5 2. Bb2 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nbd7 4. d4 e6 5. b5 a6 6.
e3 axb5 7. a4 bxa4 8. Bb5 c6 9. Rxa4 Rxa4 10. Bxa4 Qa5+ 11. c3 Bd6 12. O-O O-O
13. Bc2 h6 14. Qd3 Qa6 15. Qd1 b6 16. Bd3 Qa2 17. Qc2 Ba6 18. Ne5 Bxe5 19. Bxa6
Bxh2+ 20. Kxh2 Qxa6 21. Rh1 Ra8 22. f3 Qa4 23. Qc1 Qc4 24. Qc2 Ra2 25. Na3 Qa6
26. Qb3 Rxa3 27. Bxa3 Qd3 28. Bc1 b5 29. Qb2 Nb6 30. Qa3 Na4 31. Qd6 Qxc3 32.
Qd8+ Kh7 33. Qf8 Kg6 34. e4 dxe4 35. Bxh6 gxh6 36. Kg3 h5 37. Qh8 Qxd4 38. Rh4
Qe5+ 39. Rf4 Qg5+ 40. Kf2 Qxf4 41. Qe8 Ng4+ 42. Ke2 Qe3+ 43. Kd1 Nf2+ 44. Kc2
Qc3+ 45. Kb1 Qb2# 0-1
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