Please please please comment this game !

This is my game against my 11 year old cousin. He won on some junior tournament a week ago and he is rated more than 1800 OTB. We played before but since he trains chess he progressed a lot.

I think it is nice OTB game, we played slow game with a little bit of distractions by other non chess people in the room (family meeting).

Can some strong player comment this games and mistakes a bit? Especially higher rated! Thank you very much in advance !


Is my level of OTB enough to join the club without embarassment?
Because I lack of self respect when it comes to chess.


[Event "?"]
[Site "Happi"]
[Date "2008.01.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Ivan"]
[Black "Vihor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D06"]
[Annotator "Ivan,Happi"]
[PlyCount "107"]
[TimeControl "?"]

{56MB, Fritz10.ctg, 123-59AF4CA6934} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Bf5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5.
Nc3 Be7 6. Bd2 O-O 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Rc1 Nc6 9. a3 Bg6 10. Bc4 Nxc3 11. Bxc3 Bf6
12. O-O a6 13. Bd3 Qe7 14. Bxg6 fxg6 15. d5 exd5 16. Qxd5+ Qf7 17. Rfd1 Rad8
18. Qxf7+ Kxf7 19. Nd4 Nxd4 20. Bxd4 c6 21. Bxf6 gxf6 22. f4 Rfe8 23. Kf2 f5
24. g3 h6 25. h4 Kf6 26. b4 g5 27. hxg5+ hxg5 28. a4 g4 29. Ke2 Ke6 30. Rc5
Rxd1 31. Re5+ Kf6 32. Rxe8 Rb1 33. Rf8+ Kg6 34. b5 axb5 35. axb5 Rxb5 36. Kd3
Rc5 37. Kd4 Rc1 38. Ke5 Rc5+ 39. Ke6 b5 40. Rg8+ Kh7 41. Kf7 Rd5 42. Rg7+ Kh6
43. Rg6+ Kh7 44. Rg7+ Kh6 45. Rg6+ Kh5 46. Rxc6 Rd7+ 47. Kf6 Rd5 48. Rc8 Rd6+
49. Kxf5 Rb6 50. Rh8+ Rh6 51. Rxh6+ Kxh6 52. Ke4 Kg6 53. Kd4 b4 54. e4 1-0

Originally posted by ivan2908
...
Is my level of OTB enough to join the club without embarassment?
Because I lack of self respect when it comes to chess.

...

I may not have time to really annotate this, but the short answer to your question is "No - I don't think you'll embarass yourself at a club". There are usually plenty of lower rated players at clubs and I'm sure you'll be up to taking them on.

Its hard to annotate games like because there are tons of subtle mistakes and not many obvious ones. However, this is really the reason why I say you wouldn't be embarassed at your typical club - no really awful mistakes. If you play like this most of the time, the better players will grind you down, but people won't dislike playing you.

One comment - how fast do you play? In general, most club players aren't looking for really long games. Not everyone likes blitz, but most people are usually looking for relatively fast games (An hour or less maybe - it does vary though).

Yes, this game was played within that time controls I think (we didn't have clock)

We have players at our club graded about 800 up to 2350. In our A team we usually field 6 players graded about 1700 upwards, the B team from about 1400 to 1750 then there are loads of "weaker" players who don't like to play competitively, who prefer a "slow" game (i.e. about 1 - 2 hours play) without a clock who are graded 800 to about 1600. Most players above 1600 like to play in the league but are not obliged to do so - of course unless they do play in the league they don't actually get ratings.

So I guess if I can beat an 1800 who just won junior turnament (32 players) then I should give a try. I do not know why but I feel that I would just play by far worse in a club than in friendly home envieroment 🙁

Originally posted by ivan2908
So I guess if I can beat an 1800 who just won junior turnament (32 players) then I should give a try. I do not know why but I feel that I would just play by far worse in a club than in friendly home envieroment 🙁

You probably will...at first. The key is to just play chess and not to worry about where it is. Remember that chess is still chess no matter who or where you play.

Plus you get an opportunity to maybe play some very strong players that you might not get otherwise.

You can't learn to swim without getting in the water. It may be uncomfortable at first and might even cause you to make more mistakes...but within a very short time you'll become accustomed to environment and start to enjoy it more.

So long as you are respectful to the other members, follow the club rules and turn off your mobile phone then they should welcome you. When you play - just play the board - and try not to be distracted by the stature or demeanor of your opponent. Accept that some opponents will become annoyed if you are winning and may start banging the pieces down etc - ignore this - it happens just keep calm and play on.

Some tricks to calm nerves include;

- run your eyes around the edge of the whole board clockwise and anticlockwise a two or three times at critical moments (some have said that this improves your view of the whole board),

- taking a few deep slow breathes

- have or a drink of water

-stand up and walk round for a minute or two.

- visualize your opponent and imagine them being quite small, sitting on the end of your thumb and talking with a squeaky voice...use this trick against anyone you find intimidating.

Chess clubs usually have members from many different backgrounds and will no doubt have some quirky and odd characters too. At my chess club for example at the age of 45 I enjoy being one of the younger members!