From: Alastair Scott <amscott@poboxes.com.NOSPAM>
To: d.regis@exeter.ac.uk.NORMETHANKS

Subject: The proof of the pudding ...


About my thesis on the low quality of play on FICS (etc): two excellent
examples from this weekend.

The first is the worst blunder I have ever seen. White is a reasonably
strong player - Qc2! caused convolutions - but throwing the Queen away
with 4+ minutes on the clock by putting it en prise (it would have
been slightly more understandable if I'd attacked it and he missed
the attack) is plain bizarre. I'm not so wonderful myself - look at
the way the pawn on d2 was lost - but I had only 1+ minutes after
move 25. 

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
[Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
[Date "1997.07.05"]
[Time "15:27:56"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Moondog"]
[Black "thebrix"]
[WhiteElo "1818"]
[BlackElo "1777"]
[TimeControl "600+0"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h5 5. c4 e6 6. Nc3 Qb6 7. cxd5 exd5
8. Nf3 Bg4 9. Be2 Na6 10. Ng5 Bxe2 11. Nxe2 Nc7 12. Nc3 Ne6 13. Nxe6
fxe6 14. Bg5 Qa6 15. Qc2 Ne7 16. Bxe7 Kxe7 17. Qg6 Rh6 18. Qg5+ Kd7 19.
Qf4 Ke7 20. O-O-O Re8 21. Rh3 Kd8 22. Rg3 Kc8 23. Qf7 Rd8 24. Rg6 Rxg6
25. Qxg6 c5 26. Qxe6+ Qxe6 27. dxc5 Bxc5 28. f4 d4 29. Ne4 Qxa2 30. Nxc5
Qc4+ 31. Kb1 Qxc5 32. Rc1 Qxc1+ 33. Kxc1 d3 34. Kd2 Kd7 35. Kxd3 Ke6+ 36.
Ke3 Kf5 37. g3 b5 38. b4 Rd1 39. Ke2 Rb1 40. Kd3 Rxb4 41. Kc3 Rb1 42. Kc2
Rg1 43. Kc3 a5 {White resigned} 0-1

The second shows the other side of the coin - play goes to move 30
fairly sensibly, then collapses into idiocy when time gets short. The
Rook sacrifice on f8 was because of a strange 'self-zugzwang' - Black
had played pretty well to confuse things, I ran out of ideas and was
trying to swindle him by playing the Queen to e6 and hoping that he
would accidentally remove the defence of f7. This, and the other
sacrifice on f7, had the desired effect in causing confusion: before
the first sacrifice I had 34 seconds left, he had 2+ minutes, and he
lost on time! Chess it was not. 

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
[Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
[Date "1997.07.06"]
[Time "13:34:48"]
[Round "-"]
[White "thebrix"]
[Black "paoli"]
[WhiteElo "1805"]
[BlackElo "1816"]
[TimeControl "600+0"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 d6 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O Nc6 7. b3
e5 8. Bb2 Bf5 9. d3 Nd7 10. Nd5 Nb6 11. e4 Bg4 12. Qd2 Nd7 13. Ne1 Nc5
14. b4 Na4 15. Ba3 Be6 16. Rc1 Nd4 17. Nc2 c5 18. Nxd4 exd4 19. bxc5 dxc5
20. f4 Rc8 21. f5 Bxd5 22. exd5 b6 23. Qf2 Nc3 24. Kh1 Rc7 25. Rce1 Re8
26. Bc1 Re5 27. Bf4 Rxf5 28. Bxc7 Qxc7 29. Qd2 Rh5 30. Re8+ Bf8 31. Qf2
Rf5 32. Qe1 Rh5 33. Kg1 Kg7 34. Rxf8 Kxf8 35. Qe6 Qe7 36. Qc8+ Kg7 37. d6
Qe3+ 38. Kh1 Qxg3 39. Rxf7+ Kxf7 40. Qd7+ Kf6 41. Qe7+ Kf5 42. Bh3+ Kf4
43. Qf6+ Ke3 {Black ran out of time} 1-0

Alastair Scott    
  London SW2      
United Kingdom    

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~amscott