Some time back I posted about the joys of playing the Borg Defense (1...g5) in Blitz games on the Internet. I like it because it often leaves opponents bewildered.
In the following game at move 11, thanks to some weak play by my opponent, I had a winning game. That's when I decided that just for fun I'd sacrifice my Queen and end up with a B+N+2Ps vs a Q and a position that Stockfish says is losing by about three Ps. That was OK though because I wasn't playing Stockfish and I had what looked to me like a position that white would find difficult to crack.
The whole idea of giving up the Queen was to complicate, confuse, muddle, jumble, garble, blur, obscure, make unclear, cloud and obfuscate...all that stuff just to make the game more interesting.
For some reason on Chess Hotel where opponents are anonymous, when some players get a lost game they leave the site. I don't understand this. Why not just resign and seek another game?
There's a psychological reason. According to one article I read, a person who exaggerates their chances at anything will often fly into a rage when they do not achieve the results they hoped for. Actually, it's not out of the ordinary to find people so competitive that their behavior upon losing borders on being unhealthy.
According to the article, a bad loser's action can be traced back to childhood. Often they were not corrected when they were kids and reached the point where they were unable to control themselves after they lost a game. This lack of discipline continues into adult life...they are immature.
Bad losers often have low self-esteem and are often highly critical of themselves. They lack confidence and more often than not see themselves as inadequate, underappreciated and undervalued and in turn, they tend to try and overcompensate. This can make them irrational and unapproachable.
They can also be envious and in real life and they will sometimes try to find ways to sabotage your efforts if it means they will lose or look bad.
They don't care about the consequences and ultimately don't care about friendships because they are so self-centered. They may even resort to force if they feel it's necessary.
Bad losers blame everyone but themselves for failure because to them any failure, no matter how small, is a big deal. It might just be a friendly anonymous chess game online, but to them, it is a symbol of asserting their dominance. Their opponent is the object of their rage because their opponent has obtained something that is, in their mind, rightfully theirs...victory.
Bad losers never hide their disgust and disappointment...they don't hesitate to let you know how upset they are. And, in an attempt to alleviate the stress of feeling like a loser they will attempt to demean opponents via insults. Like one of my opponents who when he was losing kept spewing out profanity. When I didn't answer, he kept sending longer and longer vulgar messages.
On Chess Hotel when a player abandons a game you are given the win shortly after they leave so it's not a big deal. More annoying are the losers who don't leave, they just let their time run out. After a few minutes I usually send them a message like, "Take your time; I am watching television while we play." It sometimes infuriates them to the point the leave the game. On to the game...
Volodya–Tartajubow0–1B00Blitz Game, Chess Hotel2022Stockfish 15
Borg Defense 1.e4 g5 2.d4 This is almost always played. g7 Daring
white to take the P. I don't think it's a good idea to do so because black
gets good play. The safe and solid 3.Nc3 may be better. 3.xg5 c5 The
threats black generates against the b- and d-Pawns in this line often seems to
befuddle folks. 4.c3 cxd4 5.c4 Not a bad idea; white develops. 5.cxd4 b6 attacks both the b- and d-Pawns but things should still work out to
white's advantage. 6.e2 xb2 7.bc3 xd4 8.c1 8.xd4 xc3+ 9.e2
and black is at least equal. 8...xc3+ 9.xc3 c6 10.c4 and white has
development that compensates for his two P minus according to both Stockfish
and Komodo 14. 5...b6 5...a5 6.d2 b6 does not look so good as 5...
Qb5 6...dxc3 7.xc3 white is better. 6.e2 But at this point letting
black capture the b-Pawn is not such a good idea. Preserving the P with 6.Qe2
was better. xb2 Black is at least equal after this. White has a reasonable
try here with 7.Qb3 to exchange Qs and drastically reduce black's attacking
chances. 7.d2 This is not really a mistake, but the black P on c3 will
create problems for white. dxc3 8.b1 This is a serious
tactical oversight. 8.b3 c2 9.d3 c6 10.c1 e5 11.xc2 xc2 12.xc2 xc4 13.xc4 and black can only claim to be slightly better. 8...cxd2+ 8...c2 This packs an even bigger wallop. 9.xb2 cxd1+ 10.xd1 xb2
and being a R and P ahead, black wins. 9.f1 Better, but not by much, was
9.Bxd2 9.xd2 is the only way for White. e5 10.c1 9...e5 10.xd2 xe4 11.b4 The threat is Bxf7+ xc4 The easy way was 11...Qc6,
but this is more challenging. 12.xc4 I have a B+N+2Ps for the Q and
according to Komodo 14 a slightly over two P disadvantage. c6 13.f4 d6 14.h3 d7 15.d5 c8 16.b1 e6 17.e3 Somewhat preferrable would have been 17.
Bc3 inviting the trade of black's active B. d5 18.a4 This places the R out
of play; he should ahve retreated to c1. Now his advantage has shrunk to about
half a P! f6 Interesting. Engines think I should have played 18...b6, but
frown on his next move. At least 18...Nf6 is a developing move. 19.xb7 19.c3 keeps a slight advantage after 0-0 20.g4 e5 21.f5 xf5 22.xg7+ xg7 23.xf5 White is only slightly better. 19...e4 19...b8 was a bit
better. 20.a6 b1+ 21.e1 0-0 Black is actually better here. 20.e1
This feeble move loses at once. 20.xe4 Forceful and good. dxe4 21.g1 b8 22.a6 0-0 23.h2 Getting the R into play. White now has a
Q vs R+B+P and can only claim a very slight advantage and the win would not be
a foregone conclusion. 20...b8 21.a6 21.c7 e5 wins the Q 21...c5 22.e2 xa4 White resigned, but even though the engine evaluation puts him 3.
5 Ps to the bad, he can still make a fight of it. 22...xa4 23.xd5 0-0 24.f4 d4 25.d1 b2 White has a very passive position while black's are very
active, but white isn't playing Stockfish or Komodo either! 0–1
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