LaughingVulcan's Chess Blog » Blunders http://laughingvulcan.org/blog A Club Player and TD's Observations on Chess Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:02:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 New Video – “I hope you relish it as much as I!” http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/2010/03/16/new-video-i-hope-you-relish-it-as-much-as-i/ http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/2010/03/16/new-video-i-hope-you-relish-it-as-much-as-i/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:03:14 +0000 LaughingVulcan http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/?p=592 Since I don’t have to worry about my Blog problems immediately, and I didn’t get over to the club tonight for play, I decided to record a video and upload it to chessvideos.tv.

So here’s the link over to it. ( http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6609&p=50084#p50084 for the link-impaired out there.) Like Tranya in the Star Trek episode The Corbomite Maneuver, it’s just for entertainment and not a “serious chess video.” But making these videos are one way I enjoy my chess, and I hope that watching it will help you to

Enjoy Your Chess!

]]> http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/2010/03/16/new-video-i-hope-you-relish-it-as-much-as-i/feed/ 0 Sometimes it’s not as bad as I think…. http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/2009/12/01/sometimes-its-not-as-bad-as-i-think/ http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/2009/12/01/sometimes-its-not-as-bad-as-i-think/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:00:48 +0000 LaughingVulcan http://laughingvulcan.org/blog/?p=125 I played two games on Saturday, and lost both of them rather quickly. In both I thought I was completely and totally lost early on. I did make a first-class blunder in one of them. Prior to my blunder move the position was:
Bad but not Dead

Bad but not Dead


I couldn’t find a move that worked at all, and I thought I was utterly lost here on move 20. I made it that way by giving away my Bishop for nothing.

The position is certainly grim, but oddly Fritz6 shows my position being rated at only -2.22. This is despite being a whole minor piece behind and with a very isolated center pawn.

I’m certainly not winning, and I would be very hard pressed to work out a draw here. This is wildly different, though, from being “completely and totally lost.” In fact, when I washed the next ten moves through Fritz, the absolute best line is only up to -3.00. The fantasy position for move 30 is:

Still down badly but not completely dead, and it is playable.

Still down badly but not completely dead.


I wonder if I wasn’t feeling the pressured to move *something* at that moment, would I have seen the move I should have made instead of the losing blunder I chose. (Plus I play at a level and against opponents who do blunder and choose less than optimal lines, also.)

All of this is meant to say that “objective assessment of the position” also implies not panicking just because one is behind.

Enjoy your chess!

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