Sunday, June 19, 2011
Stalemating your opponent in time pressure (Chess)
The above game was something I played online a few weeks back. Nothing to be proud of but the theme is that I stalemated my opponent when I was in acute time trouble to escape a loss. Read on to see some commentary about the game
* I'm black and as early as move 8...c4 I made a mistake that lost me a pawn, but decided to complicate things as much as possible.
* My opponent should have continue 11.dxe6 instead of giving up his bishop for my kinght. The pawn on c4 is not going anywhere.
* 14. axb5 is an absolute blunder that led me right back into the game
* 19...Rxd5 was probably more accurate but I was scared about the advanced b-pawn. But plug this into a computer and the computer shows no fear of grabbing the d-pawn. Anyways, it's a moot point as I'm clearly winning here. But I think my idea too is clever forcing the exchange of a pair of rooks simplifying to a clearly won game
* 29...Nxa5 was more accurate and wins without any trouble. But the game continuation also is resignable for white. White at this time was still upset that he was losing a won position (as early as move 8) and understandably continued for some kind of blunder from me
* Fast forward to move 52 and you might be wondering what is white still playing on for? Well, time for one. I had about 3o0 seconds left on the clock (no increment)
* At Move 65, I had a mate in 3. 65...Qe7 66.Kg8 Qf8+ 67.Kh7 Ke7 68.Kg6 Qg8#/Qf7#. Try calculating this variation in your head and see how much time it takes. If you have 10 seconds on the clock, will you find this?
* Amazingly I was able to play 10 more moves in this time. By move 73, I had only 2 seconds on the clock. If my time runs out, I lose as white still has mating material on the board (pawns). A mate in 2 is still possible at this time (same pattern as the previous mate in 3), but off course If i could not see it with 10 seconds, how can I in 2?
* This was when I decided to stalemate my opponent and get 1/2 point instead of 0.
So, how many of you have stalemated your opponent to get away with a draw in time trouble when you were clearly winnin?
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