Thursday, August 25, 2022

An Unsound Q-Sac and a Psychology Lesson

 
     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... 

A game that I liked (Komodo 14)

[Event "Blitz Game, Chess Hotel"] [Site "?"] [Date "2022.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Volodya"] [Black "Tartajubow"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "44"] {Borg Defense} 1. e4 g5 2. d4 {This is almost always played.} Bg7 {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. Bxg5 c5 {The threats black generates against the b- and d-Pawns in this line often seems to befuddle folks.} 4. c3 cxd4 5. Bc4 {Not a bad idea; white develops.} (5. cxd4 Qb6 {attacks both the b- and d-Pawns but things should still work out to white's advantage.} 6. Ne2 Qxb2 7. Nbc3 Bxd4 8. Rc1 (8. Nxd4 Qxc3+ 9. Ke2 { and black is at least equal.}) 8... Bxc3+ 9. Nxc3 Nc6 10. Bc4 {and white has development that compensates for his two P minus according to both Stockfish and Komodo 14.}) 5... Qb6 (5... Qa5 6. Bd2 Qb6 {does not look so good as 5... Qb5} (6... dxc3 7. Nxc3 {white is better.})) 6. Ne2 {But at this point letting black capture the b-Pawn is not such a good idea. Preserving the P with 6.Qe2 was better.} Qxb2 {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. Nd2 {This is not really a mistake, but the black P on c3 will create problems for white.} dxc3 8. Rb1 {[%mdl 8192] This is a serious tactical oversight.} (8. Nb3 c2 9. Qd3 Nc6 10. Rc1 Ne5 11. Qxc2 Qxc2 12. Rxc2 Nxc4 13. Rxc4 {and black can only claim to be slightly better.}) 8... cxd2+ ( 8... c2 {This packs an even bigger wallop.} 9. Rxb2 cxd1=R+ 10. Kxd1 Bxb2 { and being a R and P ahead, black wins.}) 9. Kf1 {Better, but not by much, was 9.Bxd2} (9. Bxd2 {is the only way for White.} Qe5 10. Qc1) 9... Qe5 10. Bxd2 Qxe4 11. Rb4 {The threat is Bxf7+} Qxc4 {[%mdl 8192] The easy way was 11...Qc6, but this is more challenging.} 12. Rxc4 {I have a B+N+2Ps for the Q and according to Komodo 14 a slightly over two P disadvantage.} Nc6 13. Nf4 d6 14. h3 Bd7 15. Nd5 Rc8 16. Qb1 e6 17. Ne3 {Somewhat preferrable would have been 17. Bc3 inviting the trade of black's active B.} d5 18. Ra4 {This places the R out of play; he should ahve retreated to c1. Now his advantage has shrunk to about half a P!} Nf6 {Interesting. Engines think I should have played 18...b6, but frown on his next move. At least 18...Nf6 is a developing move.} 19. Qxb7 (19. Bc3 {keeps a slight advantage after} O-O 20. Rg4 e5 21. Nf5 Bxf5 22. Rxg7+ Kxg7 23. Qxf5 {White is only slightly better.}) 19... Ne4 (19... Rb8 {was a bit better.} 20. Qa6 Rb1+ 21. Be1 O-O {Black is actually better here.}) 20. Be1 { [%mdl 8192] This feeble move loses at once.} (20. Rxe4 {Forceful and good.} dxe4 21. Kg1 Rb8 22. Qa6 O-O 23. Kh2 {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... Rb8 21. Qa6 (21. Qc7 Be5 {wins the Q}) 21... Nc5 22. Qe2 Nxa4 {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... Nxa4 23. Nxd5 O-O 24. Nf4 Nd4 25. Qd1 Rb2 {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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