Punching above my weight

I had my first ever outing against a 2000+ player, and while receiving a schooling as white Game 8618180 I managed to get a draw as black in one of the craziest games I've played. I had no idea how to respond to 1.g4!

Game 8618185

if memory serves some 1200 drew tebb a few years ago. not even sure if it was against tebb, but one of the big boys anyway. anybody remember who it was?

skimming through your game I think you should've won easily. white played horribly. you did fine for as long as you were attacking, but started collapsing the second you began to play it safe. should've just sought to activate everything, just like you did before. finish development. get that king up there in the battle instead of LETTING white take the battle to your king. instead you pushed pawns, which lost you time and gave it to white. maybe even not take the f3 pawn but develop instead. now you lost a couple of moves by taking it, allowed white to develop the knight optimally. you had enough material to win already, should've just taken the straightest way to win. don't go complicating it by snatching pawns, they'll drop like flies once they're ripe. the opponent might even waste a move or two on them before they're taken. in the end it was all that dilly-dallying around that cost you the win.

and the K&p ending... I'm kinda speechless about white's play. opposition, hello? that should've been slam dunk even in blitz! 😲 just horrible.

Looking back I think I should have won too, a clear case of giving too much respect to the opposition. I was pretty amazed by the k&p ending as well, especially since I offered a draw which was declined at move 43. Oh well, live and learn...

Originally posted by morgski
Looking back I think I should have won too, a clear case of giving too much respect to the opposition. I was pretty amazed by the k&p ending as well, especially since I offered a draw which was declined at move 43. Oh well, live and learn...

chess is a funny thing. my worse Game 5829646 and best Game 5829645 in the same tournament.

and you should've won that game... like me in Game 5669265, at first i was happy with the draw against someone rated much higher, now i'm just annoyed i didn't win a game i should have.

Nice moves Trev, your preferred opening of f4 seems to get you into some interesting positions.

Originally posted by wormwood
if memory serves some 1200 drew tebb a few years ago. not even sure if it was against tebb, but one of the big boys anyway. anybody remember who it was?

skimming through your game I think you should've won easily. white played horribly. you did fine for as long as you were attacking, but started collapsing the second you began to play it safe. should've ...[text shortened]... lay. opposition, hello? that should've been slam dunk even in blitz! 😲 just horrible.

Originally posted by yosiman
Yeah I can't believe a 2000+ player would screw up that king and pawn endgame like that.

Originally posted by trev33
... like me in Game 5669265, at first i was happy with the draw against someone rated much higher, now i'm just annoyed i didn't win a game i should have.

I had a game a while back against a much higher rated opponent. The opening went bad so I sacced a pawn to try to escape. Things were still bad so I sacced another to get some activity. I then stopped really paying attention to the game and just played the first move that popped into my head when the game came up.
Then my opponent offered a draw. I looked at the final position and was shocked! Where did all the pieces go?
I've been through this game many times and I still don't understand it.
Game 5436808

And how about a comedy of errors, from start to finish, in this game against a 2200 rated player?
Game 5147836
Pay particular attention to my most excellent endgame technique!