the Dragonslayer returns

The knight smelt the burning aroma from a good deal away from the scene of battle.The dragon had been spotted several days prior by several townsfolk.The knight was sent with the specific mission of bringing back the corpse of the great beast.

He wasn't by any means a veteran but then again this wasn't the first dragon to meet his blade.He knew absolutely nothing else about this beast.Sizes and color varied in the different accounts but the general feeling was a mid-sized monster with decent skill at destroying the men that had come to challenge it.

The smell of the smoke eminating from the beast's nostrils allowed the knight to prepare himself mentally for battle.As he stepped out into the clearing he saw the beast lumbering out of the entrance of a large cavern.The knight drew his sword and charged the dragon.The dragon was immediately in the air and they circled each other as the beast swooped and eventually touched down in the clearing.The kinght saw the glistening purple scales and the large talons and became focused on the struggle that was taking place.It was him or the beast.This wasn't going to end in anything but death.

The knight began swinging his sabre very skillfully at the dragon.The dragon began backing up and trying desperately to dodge the sharp, cold metal.He was knocked back and began tumbling back and the knight took up a very aggressive stance.

The dragon then unexpectantly charged the knight.The knight was suprised, from this distance it wasn't so difficult to avoid any attack from the dragon and continue his assault.In fact the knight allowed a blow to glance off his armoured shoulder to allow himself to get closer to the dragon's underbelly.

The knight took the chance he was given and delivered punishing blows to the dragon.The beast was taking great punishment and soon vanquished in a manner unspeakable for this vernacular.

Chris Harrington 1600 vs. Ryan Van Reken 1738

Round 5 of the western States Open-French fight!

This was the only game I won in the B-Section of the Western States Open. It went back and forth and I got to work a bit on my French defense.

Richard Martin 1658 vs. Chris Harrington 1600

Fertile battle grounds in the French Tarrasch or my sixth round game of the Western States Open

I know I said that I would post my third round game next but I actually was pretty interested to go over this game. That's one of the most important part of looking over your game is to actually be motivated and this one intrigued me by what i might find. The distinguished gentleman in the above picture is Tarrasch himself. Old school chess master whom this line of the French gets its name.

One of the things that was interesting in the opening of this game is that we both knew the ideas pretty well. I think both of us were in book theory for 12 moves, I was sublimely aware of the book moves for 15 moves. Which brings me to a point I wanted to make. There is an interesting dogma in chess that I hear alot, "they" say you shouldn't study opening play/lines. As i've looked over more and more chess games i've found that this is simply bad advice. The only thing you shouldn't do in regard to openings is rote memorization, other than that openings have really enhanced my game in several ways.

First, I can choose openings based on style of play, pawn structure, piece strength, etc. The games might not always follow and allow for this but in general you can have some say in dictating what type of game you get into.

Secondly, by going over the opening you get a feel for different ideas in similar positions from the game you have studied, which is the same thing you are trying to do when going over middlegame and tactics, endgame, etc.

Thridly, you will get into the same or near to the same position in many of your games. This helps you develop a sense for taking an advantage when an opponent makes a subpar move.

Fourthly, you don't have to waste so much thinking time/clock time on the first few moves of the game.Therefore extending the time you can spend on the moves from the point of unknown position to the next time control.

Here is the game = )

Chris Harrington 1600 vs. John Locke 1729

Western States Open Round 1

My first game of the western States Open. This was also my first time playing in a class B tournament. Even though my score was so poor (+1 -4), I enjoyed several of the games this weekend.

Greg Sarafian 1723 vs. Chris Harrington 1600
Nimzo-Indian 4.f3 variation

After the game I wasn't upset by the loss. I had taken my time and played hard. I just couldn't quite come up with many good moves in the middle game.

My second game was a disaster based on moving fast like I was playing blitz or something.I threw away a good advantage with white and got mated quickly. I wont be analyzing it because my in-game effort was so lazy. Round three will be coming next!

Western States Open

Strongly considering playing in the Western States Open this weekend...

Chess on the road...

I was recently out of town and on a lazy day of sipping on lemonade and enjoying the end of summer I was able to travel to the Orange County chess club and picked up a sidegame outside on their outside patio. It was a nice afternoon game with a player named Javier Bolognia. He was an older gentleman whom also was in town visiting from somewhere in Europe, I think Portugal.

Anyway I was very eager to get a game against someone new, he said he didn't have a chess rating but played people of FIDE 2000 and could hold his own. This immediately got my attention and I was eager to play! I told him I wasn't very good and that I would try to give him a good game.

I had the white pieces and I had a fantastic performance...well I'll let you see for yourself!

One of my better games. I was excited for a new opponent, I believe he played a bit passive in the opening and underestimated my attack. Still I was able to find lots of good moves without a big blunder.

GM Games

Recently I've been looking over some GM level games, in fact quite a few of them and trying absorb a bit from the moves. I've been going over Fischer's games as well as Botvinnik from Kasparov's "My Great Predessors" series.

In that vein I have been trying to create a disipline and with any luck, a love of deeper analysis. For now I only have the patientce to look at several games in a short period of time. I'm hoping that I begin to enjoy looking at the sub-lines and other ideas presented in the annontation. For now I don't look at many of them. Reason being that as I look at the long tangent line I don't really understand what is going on enough to get a whole lot out of it.

I am especially interested in looking at games that are played in similar openings to my own repertoire since they tend to have ideas that may come up in my own contests, as well as leading to similar middle and endgames.

One thing that has stood out in Bobby Fischer's games seems to be his sublime understanding of the position in comparison to all of his competition. It seems that even when his opponent gets a good initiative or advantage on him he is able to flip the game around and take control.

Well just a few quick thoughts, and I am really considering playing in the Far West Open!