This morning I played an opponent rated over 200 points below me whom I’ve beaten a couple of times in the past. In the first game I met his 1.d4 with the Budapest Gambit which I play occasionally just for fun. It’s not bad as gambits go for Black and you can usually get decent play. GM Arthur Bisguier used to play it on occasion. Anyway, the guy played it pretty solid and threaded his way through some complications quite well to the point that he had a better ending but allowed me to trade Q’s then R’s leaving him with a N, g-Pawn and h-Pawn against my f,g and h-Pawns which he couldn’t win, so I had a lucky escape.
Game 2 was, well, I don’t know. I was White and played a Vienna Game and at move 8, well, I kind of dropped my Q so resigned. Very embarrassing. Game three was better. I was on the Black side of a Ponziani and was mopping the floor with him, having a Q,R and N vs. his Q. That’s when the mouse slip occurred and I lost my Q. I guess he figured his luck wasn’t going to hold for another game, so he disappeared.
After a few more games that were nothing more than bunny bashing I got a 1600 rated opponent. Again it was a player I’ve beaten a couple of times in the past. He was White and played the Scotch Opening. I hate playing against it! In CC play I’ve played against it a couple of times against masters and the games have always been boring and the fact that they outplayed me positionally leading to my defeat hasn’t helped me enjoy seeing it. Against lower rated players sometimes the positions have looked so barren I’ve been afraid of drawing.
That’s what happened in this game. In the position, thanks to White’s careful play, things are about as equal as they can get and it’s hard to find any ideas; it looks like a draw is in order in a few moves. Fortunately for me, White made a couple of small errors. I was lucky he missed the (temporary) R sac on move 28. You have to be alert right to the end.
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