Chess related all I have done the past days is messing around a bit. Making a couple off moves on chess.com, blitzing some games without really paying attention on FICS and watching some short youtube videos here and there.
Come to think of it, I also tried my hand on video editing. I'm certainly no star in that area, but I wanted to see if I could create a decent picture in picture chessclip. Perhaps I'll use it to create some footage of next years club blitz championship. For this purpose I needed some footage, so I challenged a friend (psv21) to some blitzgames. In OTB he is rated a small 500-600 points below me, so to make it more interesting I got a time-handicap. 01:00 vs 05:00
And interesting it was. Not only the (horrible) games itself, but also the speed at which moves can be made.
In this position
White would clearly be winning, if he did have more then the 2 seconds on the clock. Now the fact that black still has material seems to be his undoing. However white manages to complete the following line before flagging. 50... hxg3 51.Kxg3 Kg6 52.f4 Kf5 53.Kf3 Kf6 54.Ke3 Kf7 (black knocks over his own king) 55.Kd4 Kf6 56.Kc5 Kf5 57.Kxb5 (securing the draw) 57...Kxf4 58.Kc6 Kf3 59.b5 game drawn 1/2-1/2
Yes, you read it correct. White manages to squeeze in 9 more moves with 2 seconds on the clock. True you can not read the time left behind a seperator so it will be a little more then 2 seconds. But even if it is 2.9 seconds that would still give less then 1/3 of a second on average to complete each move, including 2 captures. The moves white made are made by the book, only the last move 59.b5 was in a tiny bit early, but the draw was allready secure and also the flag fell after that move. If 59.b5 would have been a move delivering mate or stalemate it would stand. You can see for yourself in this video
In the second game an irregularity occured that hit my curiousity. It seemed material for the column off international arbiter Geurt Gijssen on chesscafe. You can read his interesting column here
The following mail was send to him
___________________________
Dear Geurt,
Recently I played some 1 minute vs 5 minutes handicapped blitzgames against a friend. In one of those games we get the following position.
White plays 1.a5 and has only 2 seconds left on his clock. The game continues 1...Bc5 2. Kh1 h4 3.g4 white clearly still has one second left. Now black plays the legal move 3...Kg6 but in the process knocks over his g5 pawn which lands on g3, then presses his clock and white flags.
You can view this incident in the last 15 seconds of this less then 1 minute youtube video
Now imagine this occured during an official blitz tournament, what would your ruling as an arbiter be? Q1: Would white be able to claim a win due to the illegal position, would black win because white flagged or would you reïnstate the position.
Q2: If you would re-instate the position, how much time should white get? If he gets 1 second he will lose on time, if he gets 10 seconds or more he would win easily. Seems like a though decision for an arbiter.
Q3: What would your ruling be if this happened during a normal (slow) game with no increment and white had to get 5 more moves in to make the timecontrol?
Thx for your effords and great column.
___________________________
When/If he replies to this mail I'll let you all know.
The third game I uploaded entirely to my Youtubechannel, I know it's not a very good game, but he! it is blitz so go easy on us will you :-)
This is the first time I ever annotated a game in which I had 1 minute, but here it is
Artsew vs. psv21
Handicapped blitz | The Netherlands | 4 Aug 2012 | ECO: C45
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nge7 5. Bc4 d5 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bb3 Be6 ( 7... dxe4 8. Bxf7+ Kxf7 9. Qxd8 ) 8. exd5 cxd5 9. O-O Nf5 10. Bf4 Bd6 11. Bg3 Bxg3 12. hxg3 Qd6 13. Nc3 Qb6 14. Nxd5 Bxd5 15. Qxd5 O-O 16. Qxf5 Rae8 17. Rae1 Rd8 ( 17... h6 18. Rxe8 Rxe8 19. Qxf7+ Kh7 20. Qxe8 ) 18. Re7 g6 19. Qf3 ( 19. Bxf7+ Kg7 ( 19... Kh8 20. Qe5+ Qf6 21. Qxf6# ) 20. Be6+ Kh6 21. Qh3+ Kg5 22. Qh4# ) 19... Rd6 20. Bxf7+ ( 20. Rxf7 Rf6 ( 20... Rxf7 21. Qxf7+ Kh8 22. Qg8# ) 21. Rxf6+ Kg7 22. Rxf8 ) 20... Kh8 21. Qc3+ Rd4 22. Rd1 Rfd8 23. Re8+ Rxe8 24. Bxe8 Qd6 ( 24... c5 25. Rxd4 cxd4 ) 25. Rxd4 Qf6 26. Rd8 Qxc3 27. bxc3 Kg7 28. Rc8 c6 29. Rc7+ Kf8 30. Bxc6 a5 31. Ra7
The resulting (test)video can be viewed here
Now, I still have something for you a chessproblem that a titled player (wgm) could not solve, so far that is.. because she refuses to receive the solution.
Here it is a mate in 3. You are warned it is a though one.
The solution will be in my next blogpost. Good luck.
