I Didn't Realize This Was a Blitz Tournament!

I haven't made any blog posts for more than six weeks. I was already way behind, posting games from December when it was already March, and now my "time pressure" has intensified and I find myself with 21 games to post. Not good!

I will try to post two or three per week until I am caught up, although already this weekend is out because I will be playing in the Western Pacific Open in Irvine. Anyway, here goes nothing...

On December 15 I played the third round of the Richard Morris Open in Arcadia. My opponent was Tony Grauso (rated 1511), a very nice man who used to have the curious habit of referring to me by both my first and last names. He did it so often that I started doing the same to him, e.g. "Hello, Matthew Hayes!" followed by "Hello, Tony Grauso!" Tony also has some of the worst clock management I have ever seen. I get into time pressure all the time so, believe me, I know when someone else is really bad with it too. Sure enough, this was yet another game where Tony flagged and we had only reached move 24! I had the black pieces in this game.

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 d5!? 

I knew Tony would play the English but I hadn't played this line against him before. It's very interesting and is not a true pawn sac because white can get into all sorts of trouble if he tries to hang on to it. I first saw this line in an excellent video on ChessLecture.com. Unfortunately, I can't remember which lecturer posted it but I think it was IM Bill Paschall. Had white played 5. d3, then black should play 5. ... Bb4  intending to double white's pawns.

6. cxd5 Nb4 7. d3 c6 

This is a slight inaccuracy. I remembered some c6 line from the video but it's better to just recapture the pawn right away. After 7. ... c6 8. e4 cxd5, black is still doing okay but the computer gives white about a 0.7 pawn advantage. Fortunately, Tony did not find the right move.

8. a3 Nbxd5 

I was tempted by 8. ... Qa5, again because I recalled a line like this from the ChessLecture.com video, but it felt artificial here. Indeed, Fritz doesn't like it one bit and thinks the text move is by far the best and leads to an equal position.

9. Nge2 Bd6 10. O-O O-O 11. b4 Be6 12. Bb2 f4 

12. ... a5  was also possible.

13. e4 Nxc3 14. Bxc3 Ng4 

Threatening to push to f3. Tony deals with the threat but not in a convincing way.

15. Bf3? 

Fritz doesn't like this at all and I didn't like it during the game for white either. The problem is that, after black plays 15. ... fxg3, there is no good way to recapture. 16. fxg3 Ne3  drops the exchange, 16. hxg3  loses the bishop on f3, which leaves the text move of 16. Nxg3  but this creates horrible weaknesses around white's king.

15. ... fxg3 16. Nxg3 Qh4 17. Bxg4 Bxg4 18. f3 Bh3 19. Rf2 Bc7! 

Threatening to skewer the rook and king. The rook lift to f6 was also quite interesting.

20. Nf5?

Tony now only had two minutes left on his clock and he has a meltdown. I already knew I was going to win. Even if he somehow made the 20 moves to reach the time control, there is no way he would play accurately. Besides, the position on the board was already crushing (Fritz has it as +3.4 in black's favor). It's a cliche I dislike, but the remaining few moves really were a matter of technique.

20. ... Bxf5 21. exf5 Bb6 22. Raa2 Rxf5 23. Qb3+ Kh8 24. Be1 Rxf3 0-1

I believe this was the third time I have played Tony and he has lost on time in every game. That's something he really should try to rectify. He once told me he would prefer to lose on time and not spoil a nice game by having to blitz out moves. I suppose I can understand what he was saying but the competitive part of me finds that unacceptable. There is no point in playing well and then losing on time. Managing the clock is as important as managing one's pieces. I admit, it's still something I struggle with but I very rarely get into the kind of time pressure that Tony did in this game.

Here is the full PGN:

[Event "Richard Morris Open"]
[Site "Arcadia"]
[Date "2014.12.15"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Grauso, Tony"]
[Black "Hayes, Matthew"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A25"]
[WhiteElo "1511"]
[BlackElo "2133"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "2014.12.15"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 d5 6. cxd5 Nb4 7. d3 c6 8. a3
Nbxd5 9. Nge2 Bd6 10. O-O O-O 11. b4 Be6 12. Bb2 f4 13. e4 Nxc3 14. Bxc3 Ng4
15. Bf3 fxg3 16. Nxg3 Qh4 17. Bxg4 Bxg4 18. f3 Bh3 19. Rf2 Bc7 20. Nf5 Bxf5 21.
exf5 Bb6 22. Raa2 Rxf5 23. Qb3+ Kh8 24. Be1 Rxf3 0-1