Canadian Chess, Eh

Final round game

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For the first time I ran into some time trouble and while I was worse in the ending perhaps with more time (or if I was more comfortable playing fast) I may have held the game.

My performance rating for the event was 1865 which was not quite as high as I wanted to see (I want to be seeing 1900+ performances). However according to the ratings calculator it should be enough to bump me over 1800, which is one step closer to my short-term goal of being a Class-A player by my next birthday. I'll have a couple of club events and a couple of weekend events to either get the 3 1900+ performance norms or to get my rating over 1900, either of which will earn me the Class A title.

[Event "KW Fall Fast Regular"][Site "Kitchener City Hall"]
[Date "2014.10.14"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Mallon, Christopher"]
[Black "Aniunoh, Jude"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1767"]
[BlackElo "2080"]
[Annotator "C Mallon"]
[PlyCount "112"]


1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Be2 cxd4 7. cxd4 Bb5 8. O-O
Bxe2 9. Qxe2 Nc6 10. Rd1 Nge7 11. b3 Nf5 12. Bb2 Be7 13. Qd2 O-O 14. Ba3 Rfc8
15. Bxe7 Nfxe7 16. Nc3 {Later I will wish that I had played Na3-c2 instead.}
Rc7 17. Ne2 Rac8 18. Rac1 Nf5 19. Kh1 (19. Rc2 $1 Qb4 20. Qxb4 Nxb4 21. Rxc7
Rxc7 22. Rc1 Rxc1+ 23. Nxc1 Nc2 24. Ne2 {This variation would have reached
almost the same situation as the game but takes one less tempo, my King is one
space closer to the center. I was scared of Rc2 for some reason, I'm not
really sure why at this point but I couldn't bring myself to play that or Kf1.}
) 19... Qb4 20. Qxb4 Nxb4 21. Rxc7 Rxc7 22. Rc1 Rxc1+ 23. Nxc1 Nc2 24. Ne2 Kf8
25. Kg1 $6 {I really needed to play g4 here, or on the next move when he
doesn't get h5 in right away. I fell into the trap of "hoping" that he'd
accidentally play Kd7 and then g4 puts his knight out of the game temporarily.}
Ke8 26. Kf1 h5 27. h3 Kd7 28. Nf4 $1 {Okay, perhaps this move doesn't really
deserve a !, but without offering to give Black a protected passer, my
position was completely passive and just waiting for Black to run his King
down and eat the a-b pawns. Really the most surprising part was that Black
*didn't* eat the d-pawn.} g6 29. Ne2 Kc6 30. Ng5 Nh6 $6 {Black is trying hard
to make sure White gets no counterplay via pawn trades, however in doing so
he's actually going to allow me to get my King out of its box and make a game
out of it.} 31. f3 Kb5 32. g4 hxg4 33. fxg4 Kb4 34. Nf3 Ka3 35. Nc3 a6 36. Ke2
Kb2 37. Kd2 Nb4 38. Na4+ $6 {My knight was not as effective at penetrating the
Black position as I hoped when giving up the pawn this way. 38.Ng5 was also
possible, allowing one pair of them to be traded away on a2.} Kxa2 39. Kc3 a5
40. Nc5 b6 41. Nd7 b5 42. Nc5 Nc6 43. Ng5 (43. Kc2 {This may have been worth a
try. Black could respond .. Nb4+ but that leads to a 3-fold if he keeps doing
it. .. b4 allows 44.Nb7 with pressure.}) 43... Kb1 44. Nb7 a4 45. bxa4 bxa4 46.
Nf3 {By this time I am in a lot of time pressure. 6 minutes left, which would
be a lot if I had more recent clock experience but lacking that experience I
was pressured.} a3 47. Nd2+ Kc1 48. Nb3+ Kd1 49. Nd6 Nd8 50. Kb4 $6 (50. Kd3
Ng8 51. h4 Ke1 52. Ke3 f6 53. exf6 Nxf6 54. g5 Nh5 $19 55. Nb5 a2 56. Nc3 a1=Q
57. Nxa1 {This would have been far preferable to what happened in the game at
least.}) 50... a2 51. Ka3 Ke2 52. Kxa2 Kf3 53. Nc5 Kg3 54. Nd7 Kxh3 55. g5 Nf5
56. Nxf5 $4 {Loses instantly but the game was almost done anyway. Still, I
need to play a little blitz to get more used to endgame time pressure.} gxf5
0-1
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